#my spreadsheet is expanding... greatly........

[hua-fei-hua]

at this point i should probably put smth like "amateur fandom data scientist" somewhere on my blog, but the exciting part abt that is i have no idea where it should go

[lexreadsdiversely]

Asian Readathon 2024

[ID: A black cat laying on purple patterned sheets in front of a stack of four books: Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, and The Night Parade: A Speculative Memoir by Jami Nakamura Lin. End ID.]

Even if I wanted to be an aesthetic blogger I couldn't. Not with my baby boy, Lito, taking every opportunity to lay on me.

It's AAPI month and I'm participating in the Asian Readathon! (See withcindy on YouTube for more details). I wanted to share some of the books I'm reading and talk briefly about my thoughts so far.

Sidenote: You should be reading Asian authors year round. If you aren't already, I recommend checking out Cindy's blog, looking at the kickass spreadsheet of books, and expanding your horizons.

Bliss Montage, Ling Ma

Features eight reality-bending stories about relationships with oneself and other people. Character-driven. Less than 250 pages. Check trigger warnings.

I chose this one to fit the prompt of a book that feels timeless based on the vibes of Ling Ma's first book, Severance (a personal favorite). She goes back and forth between past and present often, at times seamlessly between mere paragraphs, and it gives the feeling of time being stretched and almost uncertain. I greatly enjoyed it in Severance and suspected similar vibes in this book, and I'm not disappointed! I'm wondering if this is autobiographical fiction (it isn't advertised as such, but I can spot some of the shared events of Ma's actual life and the MC). This book is deeply intimate and, at times, very heavy. I'm only halfway through, and I already know it's going to be another favorite.

This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Adult Sapphic science fantasy about two rival agents on opposing sides of a war. Less than 200 pages (can you tell I like novellas?)

I've started this twice now, once on audiobook and once on ebook, before realizing neither format worked for me and buying a physical copy. I'm only two chapters in, but wow, if you enjoy competitive flirting, these two are incredible at it! I'll say more when I'm further along, but this is some quality writing.

Light from Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki

Sapphic science fantasy. A woman makes a deal with a demon to sell her soul for fame in the violin world and must convince seven other violin prodigies to sell theirs in order to get hers back. She finds number seven in a trans girl who runs away from home, and unexpected love with an alien woman who comes to Earth to escape a galactic Endplague. Check the trigger warnings!

I'm 300 pages in (out of almost 400) and this book makes me fucking feral. Apart from the main three characters stories, there are so many side characters with their own stories, and every single one weaves together in some way and packs a punch. I was sold on this book the moment I heard Queen of Hell, and it's just sucked me deeper and deeper. There are so many unexpected events in this book, so many moments that make me go "holy fucking shit?" You think you know what kind of book it is, then some off the wall shit happens and you have to reassess. This is such a deeply trans narrative (written by a trans woman), and as soon as I finish it I'm never going to shut up about it. Probably one of the best books I've ever read and I'm not done yet.

Once more, check the trigger warnings! Aoki is very good at making it super clear what's happening, while also not doing too much on-page (usually by either going light with the details, or fading the scene). But of all the talk about this book I've encountered, no one ever mentioned triggers and I foolishly assumed that meant that there weren't any major ones. There very much are. I'll start you off: transphobia, internalized transphobia, racism, sexual assault, self-harm, parental abuse (the book opens with this one, so mentally prepare yourself).

The Night Parade: A Speculative Memoir, Jami Nakamura Lin

A memoir that users the yōkai and various other figures from Japanese, Taiwanese, and Okinawan folktales to talk about grief in the face of the author's father's cancer and her struggles with Bipolar Disorder. Features amazing illustrations by her sister, Cori Nakamura Lin.

This sentence from the blurb took me out at the knees: "...Jami Nakamura Lin shines a light into dark corners, driven by a question: How do we learn to live with the things that haunt us?"

This is just fucking cool. It's a memoir that basically ripped up the rule book and does it so well. You're never certain if what you're reading really happened (and this is intentional). Stories that show the complexity and humanity of people with Bipolar Disorder are few and far between, so this book has a special place in my heart. It challenges the current narrative of mental health recovery in a way I've yet to see.

Other things I'll be reading:

The Garden of Delights by Amal Singh - Doesn't come out until mid-May, so I'll be waiting impatiently to enjoy it.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts. If you've read any of these books, come scream at me!

~ Lex

[eremes]

Dear lovely friend ❤️ 🌿

I hope this message finds you well.

I've been running a fundraiser for the past five months, and I recently expanded my outreach efforts to Tumblr to reach a wider audience. I would be immensely grateful if you could take a moment to reblog my pinned post, which sheds light on the urgent need for my family to evacuate Gaza. My wife and I are desperate to find peace and safety for our innocent son, Yamen, outside of this conflict.

Your support is greatly appreciated in helping us make a difference.

Sincerely,

Ashraf Almughanni 🍉🇵🇸

[vetted, #291 on saif quadri's spreadsheet]

€7,282 / €20,000

[horizon-forbidden-sheesh]

Writing Process: Drafting

Sooooo, I started drafting Part 2 almost immediately after Part 1 concluded—and by now I've abandoned my Scrivener file entirely and am doing everything in Google Docs. (I talk about my switch from Scrivener to Google, here. ⚙️)

This time, I didn't have all the journal entries to work from, either. I was starting entirely from a blank slate. So at first, I just let myself WRITE. All the scenes I was most excited about, in no particular order, just to squeeze all the juice out.

I did that for like a month. And then, when I had about 15-20k words of random bits and bobs, I started to put them in order, and develop a through-line. That's where the draft docs & trackers came in.

✏️ Away from Scrivener, I needed some extra organizational tools to house my more general notes, research, & scraps. So, I built this li'l cutie with easy links to all my Google draft files, and included a brief summary that helped me greatly when plotting out the next set 10 chapters for Part 2:

*The chapter titles were updated as my outline changed, but the summaries did not! The descriptor for Chapter 20 is now, like, Chapter 23.

Keeping the descriptors short really helps me stay on task. If I have so much I need to cover in a chapter that it drops my formatting to the next line, I know I probably won't be able to cover everything in ~3,000-5,000 words.

✏️ Now, that's just the first page of the "Table of Contents." As of today, it's 13 pages long, and it also houses a TON of notes and working drafts and snippets of dialogue that I am saving for future, as-yet-unspecified chapters.

It's really messy—and sometimes when I'm out & about and my service is shit, I whip open my old Notes app, just to get a thought down. Here, have a taste of what's been rattling around in my brain...

Dialogue often starts as just the dialogue. I layer in tags & descriptors later, during the editing process. Most of the conversations I've written started with me talking to myself alone in the car, in the shower, or while washing dishes. (This works for copywriting too. My best ideas almost NEVER come to me while I'm sitting-down-looking-at-a-screen. Of course.)

For instance, that same conversation made it from the Notes app into a Google Doc and has since evolved to:

A li'l somethin-somethin from the upcoming Scorcher Season's Chapter 24 🔥

✏️ Once I've got all the major plot points written, I'll go back and write the "boring" stuff in chronological order. Okay, it's not really boring. It's just the filler information that helps a reader get from point A to point B, and I edit as I go. This ends up being like half of the total word count for the full 10 Chapters.

I'm currently hitting this point in Part 3—and you can see below that just writing my favorite parts here and there gets me pretty far on its own. Over the last 3 weeks, I've nearly exhausted my imagination developing the general story arc. Next up, I'll go back and start fleshing out each chapters one by one.

Wanna know something CRAZY?? Over the last ~year, I've noticed that I tend to write nonstop during Mercury Retrogrades. Like, I don't want to do anything else. I'm learning not to schedule any major projects for these ~3 week periods, so I don't blow my deadlines on account of being too obsessed with my fanfic to bother. 😅

After my decision to expand to 4 Parts total, my original ToC Doc got a bit... top heavy. (Also, I got really tired of manually calculating all the word counts.) So, instead of continuing in Docs, I added a tab to my spreadsheet:

*Hiding my chapter summaries so as not to spoil!! 😈

As you can see, I fill in the links as I create the draft docs... and I've already had to split a chapter in half due to scale, so the untitled <Scorcher 7> dropped to Part 4. I'm hopeful I won't have to split any more, so I can end strong on 'Ten Days.'

I don't usually start the finale until the very end, because I've learned that the wonderful comments I receive will sometimes give me extra ideas that I want to ensure make it into the fic!

✏️ Around the time I've fully completed the first 5 chapters, I'll give myself the green light to start posting. That leaves me just enough runway to finish out the rest of the season, and posting on a timeline helps keeps me motivated & accountable!

This is getting kinda long, so I'll write about Trackers & Timelines I've developed along the way in another post.

Thanks for being here! 🖤

xo, Sheesh.

[artemisia-black]

Hello! I am a huge fan of your writing and WIPs. I've been thinking about writing fanfic for the first time and I just wondered if you had any tips? Do you plan extensively etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much that means so much. I've been writing for less than a year so I'm not sure how correct this is but here goes:

1. Enjoy it. At the end of the day we are all here to have fun and expand canon and explore our own parts of it.

2. I plan quite meticulously (I posted about it here) because that's my personality but do whatever helps you feel creative.

3. I also have playlists and moodboards that help me 'get into the world' when I'm writing. I also light candles and brew some tea to really make it feel like a relaxing activity.

4. I know the conclusions of my WIPs and how each chapter contributes to it but I try and let the creativity flow when I'm writing (I just check my writing against my story plan during the editing process).

Overall, I would say go with what works for your personality and creativity. In my post about planning, I mentioned my world-building doc and character spreadsheets. These actually help me be creative because they organise the noise in my head into something tangible.

Good luck and feel free to ask me more questions (I'm happy to help) xx

[concretingexpertselcajon-blog]

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Most severe of all, the following quarter I would do the same records over once more! I had not been creating a tradition; I was rotating in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I believe that is among the most enticing aspects of concrete is that it has the possible to last for life. For that reason, building with concrete is like leaving a little testament of that you are with the top quality of your workmanship.

I have actually lately added one more job title to my return to: state us senate prospect. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in a lot of means to take part in the political world, however the best lesson is that, if I develop something well, future generations will profit from my work. So I desire to produce legislation like I build structures, with skill and high quality that will certainly benefit generations to come.

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A concrete mason starts out as a worker. Much like a pupil, a laborer has little expertise of the trade and is learning the skills as well as strategies called for to become competent. As soon as a degree of efficiency is reached, that person might pick a specialty, such as kind setup or concrete completing.

A foreman guides or "runs" a team to complete tasks on a task. A supervisor handles the team, products, as well as routine to guarantee their jobs are done promptly. The final promo is to superintendent. On big business, governmental, or industrial jobs there may be several teams going for once.

In a typical day of job, I rise around 5:30 am, have breakfast, pack a lunch, fill up a water container, and also leave on schedule to get to the task website around 7:30 am. A lot of our jobs are about an hour drive where I live, so I have a little windscreen time to catch up on the most recent AoM podcast or obtain my everyday psychological to-do checklist developed.

Examine This Report on Concreting Foundation Tips

Daily jobs can be separated into two pails: slab or put foundation wall. These jobs differ greatly as well as call for different preparation. A piece is concrete such as a garage flooring, driveway, attractive patio, or a house's structure. It is normally soaked the ground with the leading surface area leveled by a screed and also completed with a broom or steel trowel.

A put structure wall surface is just what it seems like; a concrete wall. Structure wall surfaces are normally utilized in homes and also under huge, heavy buildings that require to transfer weight to the strong ground listed below the top dirt. concreting foundation tips. Also, where I live, structure walls are essential since frost can creep under a structure if its structure isn't deep sufficient, as well as it can move the whole framework! Walls require a considerable amount of creating, however little finishing of the concrete's surface area.

However, if various other trades (plumbings, electrical experts, or HEATING AND COOLING) need to put their pipes, cords, or conduit in the concrete, it may take several days prior to the task is prepared to pour. Wall surfaces, on the various other hand, normally can be set one day and also put the next. When we have completed our help the day as well as the tools are cleaned up and also done away with.

AAA Concreting 1130 Broadway, El Cajon CA 92020, United States +16195667095 admin@aaaconcreting.com

[concretingexpertscarmelmoun-blog]

The Ultimate Guide To Concreting Foundation Tips

Yet, greater than anything else, I am interested with the primitive sense of success a concrete mason really feels at the end of every day. When you are tired from a tough day's job, the concrete is ended up, as well as the devices are placed away, you can consider what you produced and also recognize that the important things you constructed is the indication of your effort, a testimony to your ability as well as workmanship.

Consider instance my experience as an economic expert, where every procedure repeated itself on a quarterly basis with little connection to me as analyst. If we had a good quarter, the numbers on the spread sheet expanded bigger. If it was a bad quarter, the numbers on that exact same spreadsheet were smaller.

Worst of all, the next quarter I would certainly do the exact same reports over once more! I had not been developing a legacy; I was spinning in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I believe that is one of one of the most enticing features of concrete is that it has the prospective to last for life. Therefore, developing with concrete resembles leaving a small testament of that you are through the quality of your craftsmanship.

I have lately included one more task title to my return to: state senate candidate. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in a lot of methods to join the political world, yet the biggest lesson is that, if I construct something well, future generations will take advantage of my work. So I want to create legislation like I develop structures, with ability and top quality that will certainly profit generations to find.

All about Concreting Foundation Tips

There are three primary jobs for each concrete job: (1) developing the formwork and taking it down, (2) putting the concrete, and (3) finishing the concrete. If the concrete mason benefits a small company all three jobs are going to be part of the job description. However in larger companies or union shops a mason may be in charge of only one task and even a subset of a task such as connecting rebar, strengthening steel, or running a motorized troweler.

A concrete mason starts out as a laborer. Similar to an apprentice, a laborer has little understanding of the profession as well as is learning the skills and strategies required to become efficient. Once a level of efficiency is reached, that individual may pick a specialty, such as type setup or concrete finishing.

A foreman directs or "runs" a staff to achieve tasks on a work. A foreman takes care of the team, materials, and routine to ensure their jobs are done on schedule. The final promo is to superintendent. On big industrial, governmental, or industrial tasks there may be several teams going for one-time.

In a normal day of work, I stand up around 5:30 am, have breakfast, pack a lunch, load a water jug, and also leave on time to reach the job site around 7:30 am. A lot of our jobs are about an hour drive where I live, so I have a little windscreen time to catch up on the most up to date AoM podcast or get my daily psychological order of business formed.

Concreting Foundation Tips Fundamentals Explained

Daily tasks can be separated right into 2 containers: piece or put foundation wall. These jobs vary greatly and need different prep work. A piece is concrete such as a garage floor, driveway, decorative patio, or a house's structure. It is generally put on the ground with the top surface area leveled by a screed and also do with a mop or steel trowel.

A poured structure wall surface is just what it seems like; a concrete wall surface. Foundation wall surfaces are commonly utilized in residences and also under huge, hefty buildings that need to move weight to the solid ground listed below the top dirt. concreting foundation tips. Likewise, where I live, foundation walls are necessary due to the fact that frost can sneak under a structure if its structure isn't deep enough, and also it can relocate the whole framework! Walls require a considerable amount of creating, however little ending up of the concrete's surface.

AAA Concreting 14145 Brent Wilsey Pl UNIT 3 San Diego, CA 92128, United States +18582669133 admin@aaaconcreting.com 

[fuelcut]

A thought experiment on Silicon Valley’s third era

[ read the tweetstorm if you’re in a rush] 

June 19th marks the end of American slavery, July 4th American Independence and July 14th the storming of the Bastille. It’s also my 40th birthday, and I’m exploring what we can learn from the past to help navigate today’s struggles for racial justice and economic freedom. 

1940-1980: “Atoms” and the military-industrial-labor complex

My dad arrived in the Bay Area in 1970-1971 to get his PhD at Berkeley - just as the area was being rebranded as Silicon Valley.  

Free from the stifling hierarchy of the East, the Bay was America’s center for social, technical and institutional change. Black Panthers policed the police in Oakland, shiny BART trains crossed the Bay to SF where the Gay Rights movement was flourishing. My family tree waited a millennia for India to recognize intercaste marriage. My parents would see radical social change in America across every axis in a single generation. Bold leadership in the 60s expanded civil rights and embraced immigration. They (and I) benefited greatly from an economic and social foundation that had been laid over many decades. 

Caterpillar Tractor - founded in the Bay Area - embodied the spirit of this era. It went from liberating France in WW2 to building a massive middle class, unionized labor force. Cat later moved its headquarters to Peoria, Illinois - because in this era, cities across the country - not just the coasts - had the ability to compete. Since WW2, America pursued an intentional strategy of geographically broad-based economic development - via highways, airline regulation and distributed national labs.  

Caterpillar didn’t just give Peoria a chance, it also gave my dad a chance to put down roots in America by sponsoring his green card. There was no H1B limbo. The nexus of military, industry and labor unions brought immigrants, Women and Blacks into the workforce - with paid apprenticeships (not exorbitant higher education) and technically-focused community colleges paving the way for millions. My mom learned COBOL while her toddlers played in the back of class. Even Hunter’s Point in SF was vibrant during much of this period.  (Of course, it was far from a halcyon era - the war machine had massive human cost globally and civil rights were far from evenly enforced in America.)

And while atoms reigned supreme during this era, the military and government patiently invested risk capital in advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and software/networking to prepare America for its future. 

1980-2020: “Bits” and global capital, jackrocks and polarization

In 1980, Reagan was elected President - and I was born. This would also be the peak of private sector labor employment in the US and the beginning of global capital (and the multinational companies they backed) as the leading force in forging the social contract.

They promised us that countries with McDonald’s would never go to war with each other. Indeed the Berlin Wall fell, Asian laborers got jobs and Americans could buy cheap stuff at WalMart. Global capital (bits) put atoms inside shipping containers and sent them around the world - abstracting consumers from the manufacturing base. 

The writing was on the wall for unions.

As a middle schooler, I saw Cat management and labor (UAW) locked into a multi-year strike over the future. The front line was not in a boardroom or on the picket line. It was neighborhoods, schools and community groups. I remember when a classmate whose dad was in the union talked about how folks in the factory were peeing on effigies of management - including my dad.

Naturally I knew which side I was on. Cat needed wage concessions and freedom to operate to be globally competitive.  I’d read Akio Morita, TPS and Lee Iacocca. I worried about Japan Inc. eating our lunch (yes as a 12 year old!) UAW workers and families were much more grounded. They needed a livelihood and wanted certainty for their future.

---

War continued to wage into high school. We came home one day to find “jackrocks” outside of our driveway - a tool used in feudal Japan to thwart the advancing armies - horses, chariots - etc. of those in power.  In <60 years, Caterpillar had gone from transforming America’s agrarian society to becoming the enemy of American workers. We had the GOP’s Contract with America (stored in my Trapper Keeper) and Clinton signing NAFTA within a couple years. Both parties supported global capital and global capital supported both parties. Maybe jackrocks worked better than voting?

Corporate America soon figured out that if your workers were in China, Mexico or the South, it’s harder for them to stick jack rocks in your driveway. If your kids go to private school or you live in a quasi-private suburb, they’ll be insulated from the wrath of the have-nots in heavily policed, declining urban centers. No peeing on your effigy or having your kid hear about it!

---

After college, I became an analyst at Bain & Company. Once an auto parts company hired us to do a “portfolio review”. I meticulously compared the costs of building mirrors in Eastern Michigan or Malaysia - creating a zero defect Excel model. Guess which location won? The auto parts company - like Cat - had the freedom to choose where to put jobs. 

But what freedom did the workers have? Marie Antoinette once said “let them eat cake”. The elites of our era now say “let them move”. Social capital is critical for folks navigating change. The educated elite take the portability of social capital (embedded in college degrees and iMessage threads) as a given. 

But place and social capital are deeply intertwined especially if you’re poor or a minority. While the deep introspection elites once had during 2016 has now been paved over by new crises, we should never forget that there’s a cost to society of losing its manufacturing base and jobs. How do you model the costs of broken families, drug addiction and a polarized electorate in Excel? 

---

I grew disillusioned with management by spreadsheet. But I saw a bright spot on the horizon: tech. I remember opening my first iPod, getting 1000 songs in my pocket and believing that America had a shot at leading a new generation of consumer electronics when everyone a decade earlier had written us off in favor of the Japanese. Perhaps tech could bring jobs and prosperity back to the country? I wanted to be part of it. 

So I moved to the Valley in 2004 and joined a VC fund. I saw how the VC funding model that Silicon Valley was built on incentivizes high-risk, high-leverage and massive-scale. It encourages companies to cherry-pick top-end talent (immigrants, marquee college grads) to build the differentiated bits. Pick the highest leverage point in the stack, outsource everything else - by building in China and/or pushing the last-mile to an ecosystem that you can control at arms length.

Tech companies could more than pay back the largely fixed costs of software / semiconductor design from the large and homogenous American market. This dynamic attracted massive amounts of private risk capital and enabled aggressive expansion abroad. This model didn’t work for everything (I got burned with cleantech) - but it worked amazingly well for broad swaths of enterprise software, consumer services and marketplaces. I saw how tech could be an incredible lever for wealth creation. But every visit back home to the Rust Belt made me wonder - wealth creation for whom?

---

2020+ - A thought experiment on institutional innovation and putting people first

July 14, 2020 - Q2 Earnings - CEO, MEGA TECH CORP - Hi everyone. These aren’t normal times. We’re not going to talk about our 10Q on this call. We’re here to talk about the next 10 years. So if you’re here for DAUs, ARR or CPC, you can drop off now.


We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the race, health and economic crises our country faces. Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked our exec team to leave their homes, their Zoom calls, their DoorDash deliveries - to join protests and explore our community through new eyes. 

Race & Place: On Juneteenth, we biked from Sheraton Place to Hunters Point to Tanforan. We saw the real life impact of redlining, mass incarceration of Blacks and the lack of jobs from decades ago - and how our headquarters sustain - rather than disrupt - the region’s policies of de facto segregation. We also remembered how political demagogues once imprisoned our neighbors of Japanese descent. We see today how their rhetoric affects our Black neighbors and colleagues. What might it do tomorrow to folks without legal status in ag/service industries that California depends or the H1Bs we depend on? What does diversity & inclusion mean in this context?

Jobs: The next Friday we biked from SRI to PARC to Sunnyvale and Moffett Field. Our industry once dreamed of a bicycle for the mind and embraced technical education and apprenticeship as a path in the door for Women and Blacks. Meanwhile we’ve pushed vast swaths of work to contractors or platform-mediated transactions - making it harder to use up-skilling as a talent lever like manufacturing employers did in the last era. What’s the impact on income mobility? At what point will 40 million unemployed Americans affect our share prices and the stability of society?

Climate: On Independence Day, we biked on the Bay Trail past landfills, superfund sites and the 101 - alongside poor and minority neighborhoods with terrible health outcomes. We talked about the Bay Area weather forecast for 2060 “fire with a chance of flooding”. We passed abandoned railways and dreams of regional transport - the result of which is folks commuting hours each way from the central valley to work service jobs in our campuses.  We wondered about the long run political consequences of isolating our employee base inside the WiFi confines of a private bus network. Where is the voting base to drive institutional change? How many axles or tires will our commuter buses need to keep them safe from jackrocks on the 101?

Health: Last week, we rode from the old Permanente cement quarry to 101 (built by the same cement workers.)  We talked about how Kaiser - a private employer of low-skilled workers - internalized their healthcare needs, pursued disruptive innovation and faced fierce clashes with the medical establishment. We thought about how COVID is exposing the brittleness of our employee’s isolation inside a private insurance bubble. No one can be healthy in a pandemic without competent public health infrastructure. Meanwhile, the growing cost of private healthcare makes it harder for tech - let alone the rest of the country - to employ American workers across the wage spectrum - exacerbating job loss and instability. 

And as we spoke with others, we saw how the issues that Silicon Valley faces are not unique to one metropolitan area or one industry. It just happens to be the ultimate archetype of Global Capitalism and de facto segregated American metros.

What we now see - more clearly than ever - is that our entire company, our entire industry, our entire Valley - is built on a flawed foundation. 

We can no longer just focus on the magical software bits and hope someone else figures out racial equity, employment, climate and health. This is Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions on the ultimate scale. The abstractions are failing - and we’re seeing bugs and unintended consequences all around us. And the more we invest to deal with one-off bugs, the more likely we are to calcify change and imprison ourselves inside a failing stack.

It’s like we decided to build the world’s notification service on Ruby on Rails - or building an iPhone competitor on Windows CE. Fail Whale everywhere. Unfortunately, America’s democratic institutions are in poor condition. They are struggling to deal with inequality let alone looming environmental disaster.  A polarized electorate - particularly at the national level - leads to populism and makes it hard for these institutions to execute meaningful, long-term plans.

We talk a lot about speech, misinformation, fairness of targeted ads etc. But it’s becoming clear that UX, linear algebra/training data and monetization in our products is just the tip of the spear to address polarization. We believe polarization is a product of the underlying conditions of civil rights, education, health and climate debt that affect Americans differentially based on race, wealth, neighborhood and region. e.g. If we care about justice, how far does focusing on the fairness of employment ads get us in a world when many people lack the skills and negotiating power to secure a living wage?

So will today’s peaceful protests for racial justice expand into tomorrow’s revolution(s) for economic freedom? If you don’t think things are bad now, think about what happens when the stimulus checks run out. Take a look at the amount of debt in the public sector, use any imagination about COVID, work out what happens to their tax base / pension returns and consider the impact on public services, public servants and their votes.  MMT better be a real thing. Maybe we didn’t start these fires, but that refrain won’t save us when the flames come our way. 

We’re done debating why we need to act. It’s clear America needs our help. Let’s talk about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Our mantra will be “internalize, innovate, institutionalize”.

First, we’re going to internalize our problems. I’m here to tell you that issues of racial and economic justice are not just moral issues but they’re financial issues. Racial debt, education debt, health debt, climate debt  will hit us harder and harder each year.  (By the way, revolution probably won’t be great for your DCF models.) So we’re going to recognize these off-balance sheet liabilities - which amount to a few hundred billion in the US alone over the next 10 years for a company at our scale. 

Second, we’re going to innovate against these systemic problems - but our only shot at making progress is if we realign the entire company’s mission to address them. This is not about optics. This is not about philanthropy. This is not another bet.  We’re putting all our chips behind one bet - America. It's the country that backed us in the first place, it's where most of our people are and most of our profits.  The job for our existing products, platforms and cash flows will be to advance four areas: place / race, skilling / manufacturing, health / food and climate / mobility - starting in America. The board will measure me based on job creation and diversity.  It should go without saying that we’re pausing dividends and buybacks for the foreseeable future. Every dollar will serve our mission.  Every senior leader will need to sign up for our new mission - and those who choose to stay will receive a new, back-end loaded, 10 year vesting schedule.  We want them focused on the long-term health of society - not the whims of Robinhood day traders or strengthening the moats of existing products. We will need to invent entirely new ways to operate and ship products. As Joel Spolsky said, “when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it’s not good enough to hire a VB programmer, because they will get completely stuck in tar every time the VB abstraction leaks”.  We need engineers, designers and product managers that will look deep into the stack, confront the racial, job access, health and climate debts that our products, our companies and our communities are built on top of. This is not about CYA process to protect cash cows or throwing things over the fence to policy. We will need to innovate across technical, cultural and organizational lines. This requires deep understanding and curiosity. This will bring more scrutiny to our company - not less.  Not everyone’s going to be on board - so for the next 12 months, we’re giving folks a one-time buyout if they want to leave. 

Third, we can’t do any of this by ourselves.  The problems are too big. Our role will be to provide enlightened risk capital (from our balance sheet or by re-vectoring operating spend) alongside R&D, product, platform leverage to help leaders and innovators pursue solutions in these areas.  Of course we will work with our peers and the public sector wherever possible - buying/R&D consortia, public-private partnerships, trusts, etc. But the new era and landscape demands that we explore institutional models beyond global capital/startups, labor unions, NGOs or government. We need models that can more flexibly align people and purpose, that innovate on individualized vs. socialized risk/reward - and that ultimately help build and sustain local, social capital.  It’s difficult to say what these will look like - but increasingly figuring this out will be existential for our core business too. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you’re designing the best cameras in Cupertino or the best way to see their snaps in Santa Monica - we’re all just building layers of an attention stack for global capital. Our Beijing competitors have figured this out. ByteDance is already eating our lunch. They’re using the same tech inputs as us - UX, ML and large-scale systems - which are now a commodity - but with vastly lower consequences for the content they show - creating a superior operating / scaling model. They’re not internalizing social or political cost.

 What we need in this era is the accumulation stack - where each interaction builds social capital.  This is not about global likes. This is about local respect. We’ll create competitive advantage when we build products that reach across race / economic lines to harness America’s amazing melting pot and do so in ways that build livelihoods / property rights for creators and stakeholders.  

With this operating model in place, we’re committing to fundamental change in four areas:

Place & Race - We’re done with de facto segregation. Over the next 10 years, 100% of our jobs will be in diverse communities that embrace inclusive schooling, policing, housing and transit policies. (Starting tomorrow, we’re putting red lines on our maps around towns with exclusionary zoning.) This is not about privatizing cities or an HQ2-style play to extract concessions. This is about investing our risk capital and our reputation to innovate alongside government. How do we bring world-class education to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty? What is the future of digital/hybrid charter schooling? Unbundled, community-driven public safety? We’ll embrace “remote-first” as a means to this end. The Bay will become one physical node alongside others (e.g. Atlanta, DC, LA) creating an Interstate Knowledge System that develops diverse talent across the country. We’re going to coordinate our investment with leading peers - since after all, this isn’t about cost savings or cherry-picking. It’s about broadening our country’s economic base.

Skilling & Manufacturing - We will 10x the tech talent pool in 10 years - by inventing new apprenticeship models that bring women, minorities and the poor into the workforce. We’ll start with our existing contractor base, convert them to new employment models with expanded benefits and paths for upward mobility.  Next, we will invent new productivity tools for all types of workers - from the front office to mobile work to call center - that brings the power of AI and programming to everyone. These will be deeply tied into new platforms for work designed from the bottom-up to build social and financial capital for individual workers and teams.  Last, we’re going to manufacture most of our hardware products - from silicon all the way to systems - entirely in the US within 10 years. This will require massive investment, collaboration and innovation. It may require a revolution in robotics - but we will pursue this in a way that makes the American worker competitive - not a commodity to be automated away. If we’re successful, the dividends of our investment here will have massive spillover benefits to every other sector of manufacturing in the US - autos, etc. - including ones we have yet to dream up. 

Health & Food -  We’re not going to tolerate a two-class system for healthcare anymore. As we convert our contract workforce to new employment models, we’re going to have to innovate on the fundamental quality/cost paradigm across our benefit stack. This may feel like a step down but it will put us (and the rest of society if we’re successful) on a fundamentally better long-term trajectory.  Food is part of Health, and we’re going to innovate there too. Free food for employees is not going to come back post-COVID. Instead, we’ll use our food infrastructure to bootstrap cooperatively-owned cloud kitchens. We’ll provide capital to former contractors - mostly Black and Hispanic - to invest and own these. We’ll build platforms to help them sell food to employees (partly subsidized), participate in new “food for health” programs and eventually disrupt the extractive labor practices we see across food, grocery and delivery. 

Climate & Mobility - Lastly, we’ll be imposing a carbon tax on all aspects of our own operations - which we’ll use to “fund” innovation in this space - with a primary focus on job creation.  This is an area where we’re going to be looking far beyond our four walls from the beginning.  As a first step, we’re teaming up with Elon and Gavin Newsom to buy PG&E out of bankruptcy and restructure it as a 21st century “decentralized” utility.  It will accelerate the electrification of mobility - financing networked batteries for buses, cars and bikes along with charging infrastructure - and leading a massive job creation program focused on energy efficiency.  Speaking of mobility, private buses aren’t coming back after COVID. Instead, we’re teaming up with all of our peers to create a Bay-wide network of electric buses (with bundled e-bikes) that will service folks of all walks of life - including our own employee base.  Oh and one more thing - we’re bringing together the world’s most advanced privacy/identity architecture and computational video/audio to bake public health infrastructure directly into the buses. For COVID and beyond. None of this is a substitute for competent, democratically accountable regional authorities. This is us investing risk capital on behalf of society - with the goal of empowering these authorities. Yes the New York Times will have a field day with this. Maybe in time they’ll leave their bubble, enter the real world, see the sorry state of their institutions - the behavioral health and infrastructure crises on their crumbling streets - and get on board. Until then, our job is to be patient longer than they can be inflammatory. 

Open technology for global progress - While we have to prioritize America given the scale of problems, the intent is not to abandon the rest of the world or hold back it’s progress. We feel the opposite - that over the coming decades each country’s technology sectors will thrive. To get there, we will continue to invest patiently - hiring, training, partnering, investing and innovating - but with a clear north star to help each country develop local leaders in new areas. Long-term, we’ll continue to contribute open technology that others can build upon. 

America should be the proverbial city on a hill for everyone - not a metaverse for the rich with the poor dying in the streets. We don’t have much time so we’re getting to work now. See you next quarter.

----

This call may be imaginary but none of this is sci-fi or requires MMT. What it requires is us to care. To act. Join me on bike rides to explore our past and discuss what tangible actions Silicon Valley’s leading companies can take in the coming quarters and years. Logistics here for rides on June 19, June 26, July 2 and July 10!

[3235017-blog]

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The NGVX digital self tour was a great learning experience for myself and the rest of the team. Being able to see how the profession world operates with creatives was eye opening and challenging. I was happy with our final output considering the amount of time we had and the hurdles we had along the way.

My initial role was to develop motion graphics but as the project progressed this widened the scope of my role. This includes completing research, motion graphics, admin and at times filling the leadership role of the group.

We initially began researching the existing features of the NGV app, as well as other gallery/museum mobile applications. This was an important part of the development process as it gave us insight into the ways galleries facilitate digital self-tours. Completing this research helped us to develop an approach for the brief. One integral feature we wanted was user accessibility (iOS/Android) regardless of manufacturer. We found that other apps were either both or strictly iOS, this lead us to use QR codes (iOS/Android) and NFC (Android). 

Observing an official school group tour was a fantastic way to see the process of an official tour and to meet the people involved. Being able to have a chat with the tour guides also provided insight into the challenges they face and possible solutions we had for them. It was very informative and helped to shape the possible on screen text that we would use. Shortly after we had completed the tour we began to initiate choosing which paintings to use - this included some paintings that were on the school tour. The next step for developing our tour was to choose paintings to use within our motion graphics. We had a list of approximately 20 that we reduced down to the final 15.

I also developed the spreadsheet which was integral for mapping out the tour. The spreadsheet consists of a master page which contains all the paintings, a url link to the NGV, a small thumbnail and an initial to identify who is completing the motion graphic for that specific piece.

Once we had propagated the master page I developed a map to demonstrate the most logical path for the tour to take. The digital tour route was also determined by the existing flow of the NGV and insights from the official tour.

From there we were able to develop individual profiles for each painting. These profiles contained information about clues that could be used to guide the users to the next painting.

Once we had selected the paintings we were going to include in the tour I began developing rough drafts for the intro and painting based motion graphics. These early drafts were also a proof of concept to demonstrate our idea to the NGV. I have previous experience with motion graphics however I had never worked with such limited content (usually only one photo of the painting), this was a struggle at first but after completing tutorials and independent research I was able to generate interesting content without removing the essence and integrity of the original works.

Our initial idea for this project was to include elements of AR that would interact with the artworks. However time constraints and our limited skills set quickly changed our approach. Our team consists of a single coder and four motion graphic artists, which leads us to the simple webpage, motion graphic based digital tour.

The most difficult aspect of working with the NGV on this project was the vague-ness of the brief. I enjoyed having the control of the design and development of the app however a more concise brief would have helped the team. Having a more directional approach from them would have granted us more time to work on the app and develop it further.

Another challenging aspect was the frequency of email replies from the NGV. We would sometimes be waiting days to hear back from them - just to schedule a meeting. I understand that the professionals we were working with are very busy but this greatly affected the pace of our development and the final output. This experience has reinforced the importance of communication especially when working on a project with so many moving parts. If I had known this was going to be such a prominent issue I would ideally set up fortnightly meetings with them on a fixed day and time.

Overall this project was insightful and I’m honoured to have had the opportunity to work with such a prestigious gallery as the NGV. Looking forward I will remember this project and use the experience to expand and develop greater working relationships and content. I also look forward to seeing whether they develop our ideas and create a self guided digital tour that closely resembles the work we were able to achieve.

[clarencenicholsonata]

9 Tips for Audience Segmentation in Ecommerce Email Marketing

Audience segmentation should be a no-brainer, whether you're running another Amazon or shipping colorful bracelets from your garage. Ecommerce audiences are diverse, and knowing how to capitalize on that can pay off big time.

Email segmentation is a technique of splitting your email subscribers into smaller, more focused groups. These can be based on typical demographics (age, gender, education, etc.) and a lot more than that. The result is a more personalized experience and more relevant content delivered to your leads' inboxes.

This, as a result, can bring tangible benefits to your business. According to research, segmented campaigns lead to 14.31% more open and 100.95% higher clickthrough rates than their non-segmented peers. What's more, personalized emails can result in even a 760% increase in revenue.

Audience segmentation isn't a difficult topic. It can often be done with a simple Excel spreadsheet or with the basic functionalities of ecommerce marketing automation tools. The key is doing it in the first place and capitalizing on the knowledge that's already at your fingertips.

Let's talk about how to do it right.

1. Start By Getting the Data You Need

Any interaction with a potential customer can be an opportunity to get to know them a bit better. This can be a simple survey at the end of a welcome email. It can be a few questions that pop up when they browse your site, letting them customize their experience. Opportunities are plenty.

The key thing on your side is to decide what's relevant for your business. Gender and age will play a significant role in nearly any fashion retailer. Will it matter much for those of you selling car accessories?

Probably not much. You're much more interested in the brand of the car they own and their income level.

Try to figure out what's going to be meaningful from the marketing standpoint. At the same time, please don't overdo it with questions. Statistics show that the more questions you ask, likely the lower the conversion. Just because a visitor agreed to click through a few questions doesn't mean they're up for a few dozens.

Try to find a sweet spot that will get you just the right data and won't scare the users off. Barkbox offers a gift (who wouldn’t want that) with its subscription if you agree to share a few details about your dog - its name, size, breed, and others.

It’s a fun thing to click through, personalized (the dog's name you insert on the first page shows up throughout the form), and it’s quick to complete. And best of all, most clients will genuinely want to share all these details so they can receive the right gift for their pet. Win-win for all.

2. Explain Why You Want to Know More

The increasing numbers of internet users are hesitant about sharing anything about them that's not necessary. And with the various privacy scandals unfolding almost regularly, it's certainly not a surprise.

At the same time, you don't have bad intentions. You don't plan to sell this data. You're not making any money off it. If that's the case, it often pays off to be straightforward about what you need the information for. After all, shoppers will care about receiving just about the deals they care about.

For example, I'm an avid cyclist. I will gladly shop at Dick's or Decathlon whenever I have a chance. I will be reasonably happy to receive the deals on cycling outfits or accessories I actively shop for.

But as much as I admire gymnasts, I'm not likely to be shopping for the brand new model of a pommel horse, no matter how discounted it is. And I will gladly share where my interests lie, if only they ask (or figure out in some other way).

I'd avoid the general "improve your experience" or "enhance your shopping" phrases. Try to be honest about why you want to know someone's demographics or interests. Or, take a different approach and offer a small reward for sharing a few details, as HermanMiller does in this email:

For more check out these guides to getting the data you need without being sleazy and using it to help increase your sales: *10 Brilliant Ways to Collect Customer Testimonials with Instagram Marketing *How to Leverage eCommerce Consumer Reviews For Higher Conversions in 2020 *7 Easy & Effective Ways to Drive Customer Reviews

3. Use the Data From Your Emails

Analyzing such basic things as email open rates or link click throughs can give you lots of data about your audience's preferences.

With virtually any ecommerce email automation tool, you can see opens and clicks for each recipient. If you're sending a weekly newsletter with the latest discounted products and they never care even to open it, there's a meager chance they'll open it again.

But if they suddenly get active when a significant seasonal offer lands in their inbox, moving them to a different basket may be worth an effort. You could, for example, halt the regular well-designed newsletter for them but, instead, intensify the campaigns around the big shopping sprees such as Black Friday.

And better yet, ask them about their preferences on the next occasion.

Analyzing clicks can be even more powerful, mainly if you include multiple CTAs in your mailings. This is very straightforward. If specific followers click only on items related to children's toys or clothing but ignore everything else, you can safely assume this is where their interest lies. If a lot more readers show similar patterns, it might be worth moving them together to a basket more focused on this particular segment of your assortment.

If a bunch of readers clicks on any links leading to the latest promo you have in store, it may be worth following up on them a few days later. At the same time, you may not necessarily do the same for those that repeatedly ignored such offers.

Followup email from Forever 21, referencing the products a reader has viewed and those that may be relevant to them.

Maximize your ads for email marketing with Wishpond's all-in-one marketing tools. Click here to get started.

4. Find More Data Points Than Just Emails

Analyzing emails is helpful but won't always give you the full picture. You'll get it if you start analyzing multiple channels and use this data to segment the audience.

The most critical data for an eCommerce store is knowing how users interact with this very store. Whether it's a web portal, a mobile app, or both, you can record thousands of data points related to customers' behavior. You can then use them to segment users.

Here are some patterns that tell a lot about visitors preferences or decisions they're planning to take:

Visits the same category of products on multiple occasions

Adds certain products but abandons the cart

Starts browsing related products to the one they recently bought

Adds items from specific categories to their wish lists or asks to be notified when they're back in stock

When you spot such patterns, it's worth tagging visitors with certain tags and treating them a bit differently than the general public. For example, if a visitor wishlists several popular wedding gifts on Etsy, my inner Sherlock Holmes will immediately tell me they're onto something. Pushing a top10 selection of unique wedding gifts to them right after the weekend will be my top priority.

5. Beware of Loopholes

You notice someone is very interested in a particular topic, so you immediately retarget your campaigns to convert a lead. More often than not, it will benefit you greatly. Keep looking at the data, though, because your assumptions won't always turn out to be accurate.

Suppose someone (a male) is looking for a gift for a female friend. They'll explore your store, checking several categories their friend has a keen interest on. They may end up buying something as well. Unless they're very much into this friend, they're not likely to be buying her gifts anytime soon.

The data, though, would suggest sending them a lot about women apparel and purses. Not only will they probably never open these emails but are likely to unsubscribe rather quickly or report your emails as spam.

Prevent such situations by analyzing the data of newly formed segments with the necessary diligence. If someone doesn't open the first two or three emails with your newly-formed campaign, it may be worth moving them back to a general basket. Again, consider asking them about their preferences in one of the emails or via a popup on a website.

6. Don’t Get Overwhelmed with Segmentations

Because of the above, if you haven't been segmenting your audience before, I highly recommend that you start slowly. Building a few segments, and seeing how they perform first is the way to go.

Sure, you may have lots of data already. You may be anxious to set up 50 custom segments and push to customers precisely what (you think) they need right now. Unless you get the whole team involved, you'll likely have problems tracking each segment's performance.

You may miss a vital detail and send a wrong campaign to the wrong audience. You may miss the loopholes and quickly lose the audience that has zero interest in their new campaigns.

Start with 3-5 segments based on basic demographics. Then, expand them into behavior-based campaigns, adding more and more data points and, at the same time, keeping in check how the existing campaigns perform.

7. Benefit from Refills & Subscriptions

There are certain products that its users need to buy with some, at least, regularity. Think about dog food, contact lenses, medicines, electric toothbrush's heads, or virtually any kitchen or bathroom supplies.

Unless the clients changed their habits, they'd be inclined to buy those again and again. And if they purchased from you before, why not make it easier to re-purchase?

With most products, you'll be able to estimate the lifetime of a product sold. If you're selling a pack of three monthly contact lenses, an email sent 2,5 months after initial purchase will likely be met with a favorable reception.

Rather than sending them a broad selection of contact lenses every month, consider such timely notifications. They're almost guaranteed to give you much better results.

8. Use Past Purchases to Help Drive Sales

Past purchases can give you precise insight into customers' interests. They also can tell a lot about the person's income level or just the amount of money they're willing to spend on certain products.

If you're selling jewelry, you're likely to have a wide range of prices across your products. It makes sense – some will spend $10 or $30 and will be entirely happy with their purchase. Others won't even look at the sub-$1000 items.

If someone only bought the inexpensive, discounted products in the past, sending them a luxury item isn't likely to get them to convert. Same way, sending cheap necklaces to the more (seemingly) affluent customers could even cost you a quick unsubscribe. Use the data wisely.

Oh, a protip – don't name your segment "Poor People" or something similar. Some email sending providers include the list name on emails confirming a subscription or an unsubscribe.

9. Find the Right Time to Send

Much research has been done on the perfect times and days for sending emails. Different times work for typical 9-to-5 office workers and different for the stay-at-home tribe.

Something else will also work for students or teenagers. What works best differs also based on industry and type of product on offer. You'll need to figure it out.

The bottom line is that people are more likely to open emails and interact with them at certain times. If you drop them the latest promotion at 9 am right when they're starting a busy day at work, they likely won't even recall it when they're out of their focus zone. Delivering some fantastic deals right when they set off for a lunch break might do the job, however.

Many email marketing automation services will determine the client's timezone for you with high accuracy. You can also double-check it against their purchase history if there's any.

Needless to say, it's worth checking what works for this particular audience. Sadly, there's no ideal time that will work for all, but the amount of data on this subject is abundant.

Wrapping up

Email segmentation is a vast topic that requires deep thought but can yield some fantastic results. No matter the type of business you run, I believe it's worth your time.

There are many factors you should take into consideration. First of all, figure out the type of data that defines your customers well and explain why you need it in the first place. Then, gather insights from past emails and website behavior. Often, the audience will let you segment itself nicely if only you ask, and this should make the job easier for you.

And when you have what you need, start building segments one by one. Analyze the performance of each before you proceed with more. Beware of loopholes that can derail your segmentation outcome and take advantage of some of the tips I mentioned - individual sending time, financial criteria, or the need to refill certain products.

If you did the homework, you'd soon start seeing the improved engagement, and the boost in sales and retention will shortly follow. Best of luck!

About the Author

Piotr Malek is a Technical Content Writer at Mailtrap, a product that helps people inspect and debug emails before sending them to real users. Piotr is also a traveler, an avid cyclist, and a runner.

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[concretingexpertstorreypine-blog]

Concreting Foundation Tips - Truths

But, greater than anything else, I am amazed with the primal feeling of accomplishment a concrete mason really feels at the end of daily. When you are tired from a difficult day's job, the concrete is completed, and also the devices are placed away, you can take a look at what you developed as well as know that the important things you built is the indication of your effort, a testimony to your skill and also workmanship.

Take for instance my experience as a financial expert, where every procedure duplicated itself on a quarterly basis with little link to me as expert. If we had an excellent quarter, the numbers on the spreadsheet expanded larger. If it was a negative quarter, the numbers on that particular same spreadsheet were smaller.

Worst of all, the following quarter I would certainly do the same reports over once again! I had not been developing a heritage; I was spinning in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I assume that is one of the most enticing things concerning concrete is that it has the possible to last for life. Therefore, developing with concrete is like leaving a tiny statement of who you are through the top quality of your workmanship.

I have lately added another task title to my return to: state senate prospect. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in a lot of ways to take part in the political realm, however the greatest lesson is that, if I develop something well, future generations will take advantage of my work. So I wish to create regulations like I develop structures, with ability and quality that will certainly benefit generations to come.

Little Known Questions About Concreting Foundation Tips.

There are three primary tasks for every single concrete work: (1) building the formwork as well as taking it down, (2) pouring the concrete, and also (3) finishing the concrete. If the concrete mason helps a tiny company all 3 jobs are mosting likely to become part of the work summary. Yet in larger business or union stores a mason might be in charge of just one job or perhaps a part of a job such as linking rebar, reinforcing steel, or running a motorized troweler.

A concrete mason starts as a worker. Just like a pupil, a worker has little expertise of the trade as well as is finding out the abilities and also strategies needed to end up being competent. Once a level of effectiveness is reached, that person may pick a specialty, such as type setup or concrete finishing.

A foreman directs or "runs" a team to complete tasks on a job. A foreman takes care of the staff, products, and also schedule to ensure their jobs are done on time. The final promo is to superintendent. On large business, governmental, or industrial jobs there might be lots of teams running at one-time.

In a typical day of job, I rise around 5:30 am, have morning meal, pack a lunch, fill a water container, as well as leave promptly to reach the work site around 7:30 am. The majority of our work are concerning an hour drive where I live, so I have a little windscreen time to capture up on the most up to date AoM podcast or obtain my day-to-day mental order of business created.

Indicators on Concreting Foundation Tips You Should Know

Daily tasks can be divided into two buckets: slab or poured foundation wall. These tasks differ greatly and call for various preparation. A piece is concrete such as a garage flooring, driveway, decorative outdoor patio, or a home's foundation. It is generally soaked the ground with the leading surface leveled by a screed as well as do with a mop or steel trowel.

A poured foundation wall is just what it seems like; a concrete wall surface. Foundation walls are usually used in houses as well as under big, hefty structures that require to transfer weight to the strong ground listed below the leading soil. concreting foundation tips. Also, where I live, foundation wall surfaces are vital because frost can sneak under a building if its foundation isn't deep sufficient, as well as it can relocate the whole framework! Wall surfaces require a substantial quantity of creating, but little finishing of the concrete's surface.

Nonetheless, if other trades (plumbings, electrical contractors, or HEATING AND COOLING) need to place their pipelines, cords, or conduit in the concrete, it may take numerous days prior to the project is all set to pour. Walls, on the other hand, typically can be established someday as well as put the following. When we have actually finished our benefit the day and also the tools are cleaned up as well as placed away.

AAA Concreting 10578 Science Center Dr #4, San Diego CA 92121, United States +18582642636 admin@aaaconcreting.com

[concretingexpertspoway-blog]

Getting My Concreting Foundation Tips To Work

But, even more than anything else, I am fascinated with the primal feeling of achievement a concrete mason really feels at the end of each day. When you are tired from a tough day's job, the concrete is ended up, and the devices are placed away, you can check out what you developed and also recognize that the point you constructed is the indication of your initiative, a testimony to your skill and craftsmanship.

Consider instance my experience as a financial expert, where every process repeated itself on a quarterly basis with little connection to me as expert. If we had an excellent quarter, the numbers on the spread sheet expanded bigger. If it was a poor quarter, the numbers on that particular same spreadsheet were smaller.

Most severe of all, the next quarter I would certainly do the exact same records over once more! I wasn't producing a tradition; I was spinning in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I think that is one of the most enticing points about concrete is that it has the potential to last permanently. Consequently, building with concrete resembles leaving a tiny statement of that you are via the quality of your craftsmanship.

I have lately included another job title to my resume: state senate candidate. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in a lot of methods to join the political world, yet the best lesson is that, if I construct something well, future generations will certainly gain from my job. So I intend to develop regulation like I construct structures, with skill as well as quality that will certainly profit generations ahead.

The smart Trick of Concreting Foundation Tips That Nobody is Talking About

There are 3 major tasks for every single concrete work: (1) constructing the formwork as well as taking it down, (2) pouring the concrete, and also (3) completing the concrete. If the concrete mason helps a little business all 3 tasks are mosting likely to become part of the task summary. Yet in larger firms or union stores a mason might be accountable for only one job or perhaps a subset of a job such as linking rebar, strengthening steel, or running a mechanized troweler.

A concrete mason begins as a laborer. Just like an apprentice, a worker has little expertise of the trade and also is discovering the skills and techniques called for to become proficient. As soon as a degree of efficiency is gotten to, that person might pick a specialized, such as type setting or concrete ending up.

A foreman directs or "runs" a team to achieve tasks on a job. A supervisor handles the team, products, as well as timetable to ensure their jobs are done on schedule. The last promotion is to superintendent. On big commercial, governmental, or industrial work there may be many teams going for one time.

In a regular day of work, I rise around 5:30 am, have breakfast, pack a lunch, fill a water jug, and leave on schedule to get to the job site around 7:30 am. Most of our jobs are about an hour drive from where I live, so I have a little windshield time to catch up on the latest AoM podcast or get my daily mental to-do list formed.

Rumored Buzz on Concreting Foundation Tips

Daily tasks can be separated right into two buckets: slab or poured foundation wall. These tasks differ greatly as well as need different prep work. A piece is concrete such as a garage flooring, driveway, decorative outdoor patio, or a residence's structure. It is normally soaked the ground with the top surface leveled by a screed and also completed with a broom or steel trowel.

A put foundation wall surface is just what it seems like; a concrete wall. Foundation wall surfaces are generally made use of in homes and also under large, heavy buildings that need to transfer weight to the strong ground below the leading soil. concreting foundation tips. Additionally, where I live, structure wall surfaces are necessary since frost can creep under a structure if its foundation isn't deep sufficient, and it can relocate the entire structure! Walls require a significant quantity of developing, yet little finishing of the concrete's surface area.

Nonetheless, if various other professions (plumbers, electrical contractors, or HVAC) require to position their pipes, cables, or avenue in the concrete, it might take a number of days before the job prepares to pour. Wall surfaces, on the other hand, typically can be established eventually as well as put the following. When we have actually finished our benefit the day and the devices are cleaned up and done away with.

AAA Concreting 15611 Pomerado Rd, Poway CA 92064, United States +18588425361 mailto:admin@aaaconcreting.com 

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What Does Concreting Foundation Tips Do?

Yet, greater than anything else, I am fascinated with the primitive feeling of accomplishment a concrete mason really feels at the end of each day. When you are exhausted from a hard day's work, the concrete is finished, and also the tools are done away with, you can check out what you produced and understand that the point you developed is the manifestation of your initiative, a testament to your skill as well as workmanship.

Consider instance my experience as a monetary analyst, where every process duplicated itself on a quarterly basis with little connection to me as analyst. If we had a great quarter, the numbers on the spread sheet expanded bigger. If it was a bad quarter, the numbers on that same spreadsheet were smaller.

Most severe of all, the next quarter I would certainly do the exact same reports over again! I wasn't developing a legacy; I was rotating in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I assume that is among one of the most attractive things concerning concrete is that it has the potential to last forever. Therefore, developing with concrete is like leaving a little statement of that you are with the high quality of your workmanship.

I have just recently added one more job title to my resume: state us senate candidate. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in numerous methods to take part in the political realm, however the best lesson is that, if I develop something well, future generations will take advantage of my job. So I desire to create legislation like I develop foundations, with skill and high quality that will benefit generations ahead.

The Greatest Guide To Concreting Foundation Tips

There are three main tasks for each concrete job: (1) developing the formwork and taking it down, (2) putting the concrete, and (3) ending up the concrete. If the concrete mason benefits a tiny company all three tasks are going to be component of the job description. However in larger companies or union shops a mason may be in charge of just one task and even a subset of a task such as linking rebar, strengthening steel, or running a mechanized troweler.

A concrete mason starts as a laborer. Similar to an apprentice, a laborer has little expertise of the trade and also is finding out the abilities and techniques needed to become skilled. Once a degree of efficiency is reached, that person may select a specialized, such as type setup or concrete ending up.

A supervisor directs or "runs" a staff to complete tasks on a work. A supervisor manages the team, materials, as well as routine to guarantee their tasks are done promptly. The final promotion is to superintendent. On large commercial, governmental, or commercial work there might be many crews performing at one-time.

In a regular day of job, I stand up around 5:30 am, have morning meal, pack a lunch, load a water container, and leave promptly to obtain to the work website around 7:30 am. Many of our work have to do with a hr drive where I live, so I have a little windscreen time to catch up on the most up to date AoM podcast or obtain my day-to-day psychological to-do checklist created.

Not known Details About Concreting Foundation Tips

Daily jobs can be divided right into two containers: slab or put structure wall surface. These tasks differ greatly and also require different prep work. A piece is concrete such as a garage flooring, driveway, attractive patio area, or a home's structure. It is generally soaked the ground with the leading surface area leveled by a screed and also completed with a mop or steel trowel.

A put structure wall surface is just what it seems like; a concrete wall surface. Structure wall surfaces are normally used in houses as well as under huge, hefty structures that need to move weight to the solid ground listed below the top soil. concreting foundation tips. Additionally, where I live, structure wall surfaces are necessary since frost can slip under a structure if its structure isn't deep enough, as well as it can move the whole framework! Wall surfaces require a considerable amount of creating, but little finishing of the concrete's surface area.

Nonetheless, if various other professions (plumbing professionals, electricians, or COOLING AND HEATING) require to position their pipelines, cords, or avenue in the concrete, it may take several days prior to the job prepares to put. Walls, on the other hand, usually can be established someday and put the next. When we have actually finished our help the day as well as the tools are cleaned as well as done away with.

AAA Concreting 13330 Via Bellarado, San Diego CA 92129, United States +18589476244 admin@aaaconcreting.com

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The Definitive Guide for Concreting Foundation Tips

But, even more than anything else, I am captivated with the primal sense of accomplishment a concrete mason feels at the end of every day. When you are worn down from a tough day's work, the concrete is finished, as well as the tools are placed away, you can take a look at what you produced and know that the point you developed is the symptom of your effort, a testament to your skill and craftsmanship.

Take for instance my experience as a monetary analyst, where every procedure duplicated itself on a quarterly basis with little link to me as analyst. If we had a good quarter, the numbers on the spreadsheet expanded larger. If it was a poor quarter, the numbers on that same spreadsheet were smaller.

Worst of all, the next quarter I would certainly do the exact same reports over once again! I had not been developing a legacy; I was spinning in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I believe that is one of the most appealing aspects of concrete is that it has the prospective to last for life. Therefore, building with concrete resembles leaving a little testament of that you are via the top quality of your craftsmanship.

I have just recently included one more work title to my return to: state senate prospect. Being a concrete mason has prepared me in so numerous means to take part in the political world, but the best lesson is that, if I develop something well, future generations will certainly profit from my work. So I intend to develop regulations like I construct foundations, with skill as well as top quality that will certainly benefit generations to come.

An Unbiased View of Concreting Foundation Tips

There are three major tasks for every concrete task: (1) constructing the formwork and also taking it down, (2) pouring the concrete, and (3) completing the concrete. If the concrete mason functions for a little firm all three tasks are going to become part of the task description. But in larger companies or union stores a mason might be accountable for just one job and even a part of a task such as tying rebar, strengthening steel, or running a motorized troweler.

A concrete mason starts as a worker. Similar to a pupil, a laborer has little knowledge of the trade and is finding out the abilities as well as strategies needed to become competent. When a degree of proficiency is reached, that individual may select a specialty, such as kind setup or concrete completing.

A foreman guides or "runs" a crew to accomplish tasks on a task. A foreman handles the crew, products, and schedule to ensure their tasks are done promptly. The final promotion is to superintendent. On huge industrial, governmental, or commercial work there may be numerous teams running at once.

In a common day of job, I stand up around 5:30 am, have morning meal, pack a lunch, fill up a water jug, as well as leave on schedule to reach the task site around 7:30 am. Many of our jobs have to do with a hr drive from where I live, so I have a little windscreen time to capture up on the most current AoM podcast or get my day-to-day psychological to-do checklist formed.

The Concreting Foundation Tips PDFs

Daily jobs can be divided into two containers: piece or put foundation wall. These jobs vary greatly as well as require various preparation. A piece is concrete such as a garage flooring, driveway, attractive patio area, or a house's structure. It is normally put on the ground with the top surface area leveled by a screed and also ended up with a broom or steel trowel.

A put structure wall is just what it appears like; a concrete wall. Structure wall surfaces are typically utilized in houses and also under big, heavy buildings that require to transfer weight to the solid ground listed below the top dirt. concreting foundation tips. Also, where I live, structure wall surfaces are very important because frost can slip under a building if its foundation isn't deep enough, and it can move the whole structure! Walls call for a significant amount of forming, yet little ending up of the concrete's surface area.

Nonetheless, if various other trades (plumbing technicians, electricians, or COOLING AND HEATING) need to position their pipes, cables, or conduit in the concrete, it may take several days prior to the project is ready to put. Walls, on the other hand, generally can be set someday as well as poured the next. When we have actually finished our help the day and the devices are cleaned and put away.

AAA Concreting

1525 Faraday Ave, Carlsbad

CA 92008, United States

+17604440748

[concretingrossanbernardino-blog]

How Concreting Foundation Tips can Save You Time, Stress, and Money

But, more than anything else, I am captivated with the primitive feeling of achievement a concrete mason feels at the end of daily. When you are tired from a difficult day's job, the concrete is ended up, as well as the devices are put away, you can take a look at what you produced as well as understand that the important things you built is the manifestation of your initiative, a testimony to your ability as well as workmanship.

Take for example my experience as a monetary expert, where every process duplicated itself on a quarterly basis with little connection to me as expert. If we had an excellent quarter, the numbers on the spread sheet expanded larger. If it was a poor quarter, the numbers on that particular very same spreadsheet were smaller.

Worst of all, the next quarter I would do the same reports over once again! I wasn't producing a legacy; I was rotating in a hamster wheel. concreting foundation tips. I think that is among the most attractive features of concrete is that it has the possible to last permanently. Therefore, developing with concrete resembles leaving a little testament of that you are through the high quality of your craftsmanship.

I have actually recently included another work title to my resume: state us senate candidate. Being a concrete mason has actually prepared me in numerous means to take part in the political world, however the best lesson is that, if I develop something well, future generations will take advantage of my job. So I wish to develop regulations like I build foundations, with ability as well as top quality that will certainly benefit generations to find.

Rumored Buzz on Concreting Foundation Tips

There are 3 main tasks for every single concrete task: (1) constructing the formwork as well as taking it down, (2) pouring the concrete, as well as (3) finishing the concrete. If the concrete mason helps a tiny firm all three tasks are going to become part of the work summary. But in larger companies or union stores a mason might be liable for just one job or perhaps a part of a job such as tying rebar, strengthening steel, or running a motorized troweler.

A concrete mason starts as a worker. Just like a pupil, a worker has little knowledge of the trade and is finding out the abilities and strategies required to become skillful. Once a degree of proficiency is gotten to, that person may select a specialized, such as type setup or concrete finishing.

A supervisor guides or "runs" a staff to complete jobs on a job. A foreman handles the crew, products, and also schedule to ensure their tasks are done on schedule. The final promo is to superintendent. On big industrial, governmental, or industrial jobs there might be many staffs running at one-time.

In a typical day of job, I get up around 5:30 am, have morning meal, pack a lunch, fill up a water jug, as well as leave on schedule to get to the work site around 7:30 am. The majority of our jobs have to do with an hour drive where I live, so I have a little windshield time to catch up on the current AoM podcast or get my daily psychological to-do list formed.

AAA Concreting

110 S Arrowhead Ave

San Bernardino CA 92408

(909) 361-3548

admin@aaaconcreting.com

Top Guidelines Of Concreting Foundation Tips

Daily jobs can be divided into 2 containers: piece or poured structure wall surface. These tasks differ greatly and also call for different prep work. A piece is concrete such as a garage floor, driveway, decorative patio, or a house's foundation. It is typically put on the ground with the leading surface area leveled by a screed and do with a mop or steel trowel.

A put structure wall is simply what it appears like; a concrete wall surface. Structure walls are normally utilized in residences and under huge, hefty buildings that require to transfer weight to the strong ground listed below the top dirt. concreting foundation tips. Additionally, where I live, foundation walls are essential due to the fact that frost can slip under a structure if its foundation isn't deep sufficient, as well as it can relocate the entire framework! Wall surfaces require a substantial amount of creating, yet little finishing of the concrete's surface area.

Nonetheless, if other trades (plumbings, electrical contractors, or HVAC) need to put their pipelines, wires, or avenue in the concrete, it might take a number of days prior to the job prepares to put. Wall surfaces, on the various other hand, typically can be established someday and also poured the following. When we have actually finished our benefit the day and also the devices are cleansed and done away with.

[m1d1d00rs]

Week Twelve: Be Kind To Yourself

This was our last week with James, as next week we will have Ethan Hein as a guest lecturer. For this class, we focused on the pros and cons of technology usage, looked at techniques for mindfulness, and were exposed to numerous programs and methods that can help us with organisation. As someone who struggles greatly with procrastination and motivation I wish this lecture had happened earlier in the semester. I sometimes even like to flex (or maybe anti-flex) that I never even had a desk in my room until first year uni which meant my HSC was done from my bed. So in reality, I probably needed this lecture way earlier than this year.

High Alert

We started off by looking at research done by High Alert that showed how harmful email can be in the workplace. From what I remember (so not to be trusted too much), 18 people had email taken away from them. It then took them 5 days after being cut off from email to have normal heart rates, and they claimed to be a lot less stressed without the interruptions. Ever since cleaning my email from 3k unread emails to 0 about two years ago, I have become obsessed with checking it constantly to making sure it remains at 0. Call me the Marie Kondo of emails. 

The Done Wall

I’m a really big fan of this idea James brought up to have a list or ‘wall’ of stuff that you have completed, so that you feel motivated to keep going upon seeing how much you have already done!!! James suggested that you could also use Zapier to transfer your ‘finished’ things to an excel spreadsheet or ‘done sheet’ for safe keeping. At the moment, all I have is an old to do list made with an app I downloaded called SideNotes. Being only a recent MacBook user I much prefer this over their sticky notes which I swore by on PC. It also allows you to create different sections for whatever category you may like. AND the best feature is that it just sits on the side of your screen so you can quickly open it whenever you need, even if your windows are in full screen. I do get attached to the past tasks as they make me feel somewhat relieved that I never have to see them again. Can’t wait to tick off the last few tasks for this term!! Below you can see my two main lists but don’t worry there are plenty more :(

GTD: Getting Things Done

This kind of speaks for itself - a method developed to quicken progress and is a super good technique for avoiding procrastination

Todoist

Just seeing the pure number of things James has in his calendar and Todoist is enough to send anyone into panic. This app is like notes on steroids and seems super helpful and definitely worth checking out.

Basic Calendars

At the moment I just reply on my SideNotes app and my Google Calendar to get through work. My family has calendar sharing on and my mum insists that everything has to be in the calendar so this has been really helpful with aligning schedules and getting work done. I also have the option to view different calendars and create my own private calendar for teaching, uni and other stuff. However, I probably spend more time fixing up other people’s calendars to make sure they are all the same and capitalised for special OCD needs. Special mention to my sisters spelling and times (still doesn't know 12am vs 12pm) which get the most fixing up.

Some Extra Software:

James mentioned a few other programs that might be helpful. These were:

Keyboard Maestro: Can help you create keyboard shortcuts for pretty much anything. Mac only.

Hazel: Organises your files based on what you tell it to do. Also has some other incredible renaming, sorting and uploading functions. Mac only.

TextExpander: Allows you to quickly expand text, as its name, fill out emails and a whole bunch of other stuff and more importantly you can use it on Mac and Windows!

Final Rant

Most of all #be #kind #to #yourself and exercise will help your brain think if you are feeling stuck on anything <3 love to all

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️