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bbq-hawks-wings · 6 years ago

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I want to express an unpopular opinion. I hope for your understanding, because such things don't like to listen. Why does everyone think that Hawks is a bird? I couldn' fit my logical arguments into the askbox :( (about how he sits on a pole "like a bird", supposedly likes jewelry and so on). Even his quirk is called Fierce Wings, not a Hawk, not a Red Bird. Do you remember the names of the quirks of Hound Dog and Tsuyu-chan? We haven't evidence to believe that Hawks is behaves like a bird.

I do believe very much he’s a bird, and if you would let me friend, I would love to try and prove it to you because I think the evidence is overwhelming. I’ll make a TL;DR at the end but I’d really like to take the opportunity to perhaps teach others at least one method for literary analysis since it can be a really dry and boring subject to learn in school but is SO useful not only for getting good grades but getting into colleges as well as interpreting both entertainment and genuinely important information like the news, history, laws, and scientific papers. Using fiction - especially such a rich, engaging one like HeroAca - is a great way to try it out without the pressure of a grade. I don’t have the qualifications to teach in any formal capacity, but as a “peer” tutor I hope I can be helpful.

I’m going to put everything under the cut from here because this is going to get LONG, but I promise the TL;DR at the end will be very easy to read. If you liked this sort of unofficial tutorial please let me know. I’d love to help make “academic” skills like this more accessible for those who might benefit from it and enjoy it, but it doesn’t make sense to put in all that effort moving forward if I’m garbage at it.

Before we get too into things, I want to lay out a few notes to keep in mind as we go.

I will only be using the official translations from Viz’s Shonen Jump website when available. Fan translations are more than close enough to casually enjoy and follow the story, but professional translators are paid to know and get various nuances correct and some of the trickier cultural background behind certain phrases (for example, the phrase “where the rubber meets the road” might make zero sense in a foreign language if translated literally, so an equal cultural phrase should be used instead) that give more exact information. Rarely is this too important, but sometimes it helps, plus it supports the source material.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you might know I’m very fond of doing this kind of thing in my spare time and that I’m a huge fan of YouTube channels like Game/Film Theory, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Extra Credits, and Wisecrack that do this kind of thing with popular media as well. If you like this sort of content, may I encourage you to check them out after this to see how else you can apply these kinds of analytical skills to things that aren’t homework.

My writing style tends to meander, but I do my best to cut out the fat and only include relevant information so even though there’s a lot of information here, please know that I’m trying to be thorough and explain things to the best of my ability. If I seem to go off on a tangent, I’m trying to set up or contextualize information to explain why it’s relevant and then come back to the point. In other words, please be patient and bear with me as I go.

Now, to start, I want to explain at least my method for analyzing a text/piece of media. There is a set order and number of steps to take, and it’s as follows:

Read the material all the way through.

Come up with a hypothesis about something you’ve noticed when reading it. (In this case, it’s “Is Hawks actually supposed to be a bird?”)

Collect as much relevant information as possible and test the evidence to see if it supports the hypothesis we’ve made.

Step back and look at everything again with those points in mind.

Determine if we were right or wrong with the evidence we have.

If we were wrong, go back to step 3 to figure out what fell apart and see if we need to go back to step 2.

If that sequence sounds familiar it’s because it’s the scientific method! Aha, didn’t think we’d be pulling science into all this, did you? Don’t worry, we won’t be putting numbers or formulas anywhere near this discussion - the scientific method is just a way we can observe something and test if what we thought about it is actually true; and it applies to almost everything we as humans can observe - from the laws of the universe, to arts and crafts, to philosophy and religion, and so on! When you think about it that way, whole new possibilities can open up for you when it comes to understanding how the world works.

So with that set let’s (finally) begin!

Steps 1 and 2 are already done. We’ve read the manga and want to prove that Hawks is a bird. (We’re going to try and prove he IS a bird because in the context of the series there’s a lot that *isn’t* a bird and less stuff that *is* which will make our job easier.) So now, we’re onto:

Step 3 - collect data and see what conclusions we can get just from our evidence.

Now, to pause again (I know, bear with me!) there’s a few different kinds of information and considerations we have to keep in mind as we collect. There are four kinds of information that are important to know about in order to determine if it’s good data that will help us with the testing phase in Step 4. The kinds of information to keep in mind are:

Explicit information - this is information that is directly spelled out for us. For example, Hawks says, “I like my coffee sweet.” and his character sheet says “Hawk’s favorite food is chicken.” That’s all there is to it, and it’s pretty hard to argue with. This is the easiest type of info to find.

Implicit information - this is info that isn’t directly spelled out but is noticeable either in the background or as actions, patterns, or behaviors that can be observed. For example, Hawks has mentioned in at least three very different places his concerns over people getting hurt while he tries to get in with the League:

Chapter 191 when confronting Dabi about the Nomu he says, “You said you’d release it in the factory on the coast, not in the middle of the damn city!”

Chapter 191 again in a flashback with the Hero Commission he asks, “What about the people who might be hurt while I’m infiltrating the League?”

Chapter 240 when discovering how much influence and power the League has gained, “If someone had taken down the League sooner, all those good citizens wouldn’t have had to die!”

Hawks never says in so many words, “I never want innocent people to get hurt under any circumstances!” but the pattern of behavior and concern is consistent enough to form a pattern and clue us in that this is a key part of his character to keep in mind.

Peripheral information - this is information that isn’t directly to do with Hawks or maybe even the series as a whole but is still relevant to keep in mind for his character and the questions we’re asking. This may include extra content that isn’t the “series” proper, but is still an official source like interviews with Horikoshi, etc. but it can go even further. For example, while we try to prove that he’s a bird, we should have some knowledge about what makes a bird a bird, some specific and notable birdlike habits/behaviors/features, etc. This is just to show how wide-ranging we need to cast our informational net.

Contextual information - this will be important when we get to Step 4, but it’s good to keep in mind now. This is when we compare evidence against the broader scope of the series and consider the circumstances under which we find the information. For example, if I told you, “Harry kicked a dog.” you might think “What a jerk! What decent person kicks a dog?”; but if I said, “Harry kicked a dog while trying to keep it from biting his kid.” suddenly it re-frames the story. “Is the kid ok? Why was that dog attacking? Harry put himself in danger to keep his kid safe - what a great dad!”

I’ll go chronologically to make it easier to follow my evidence as I gather and give references as to where I found that information. I’ll go through the manga first, and then any peripheral sources that are either direct informational companions to the series (like character books or bonus character information sheets) and interviews with Horikoshi. Please note the categories these details fall into may vary based on opinion/interpretation, but I did my best to list them out for reference.

Chapter 185 - Explicit Type: Feathered wings - regardless of the specifics of his quirk it’s undeniable his wings are made up of feathers which is a distinctly birdlike quality. There are many mythical creatures and even dinosaurs that also have feathered wings, but this is our first big piece of evidence.

Chapter 186 - Peripheral Type: Large appetite - birds have an incredibly fast metabolism because flying takes so much energy. They’re constantly eating. Plenty of young men are big eaters, but it was specifically pointed out and works towards our hypothesis so we’ll keep it in our back pocket for now.

Chapter 186 - Implicit/Peripheral Type: Fantastic vision - Hawks senses the Nomu coming before the audience even is able to make out what’s headed their way. It could be implied his wings caught it first, which might be the case, but he looks directly at the Nomu and brings Endeavor’s attention to it. Birds have fantastic long-range vision, especially birds of prey that mainly swoop in from high in the air to ambush highly perceptive prey. Also good to add to the pile.

Chapter 192 + Volume 20 Cover - Implicit/Peripheral type: Wears jewelry and bright colors - birds are well documented to be drawn to bright colors and are known for decorating their nests with trinkets. Scientists actually have to be careful when tagging birds with tracking bracelets because they can accidentally make him VASTLY more popular with the ladies by giving him a brightly colored band to the point they can’t resist him! Male birds are also known for having bright, colorful displays for attracting and wooing mates. While Hawks isn’t the only male character to wear jewelry in the series, he’s the only one (to my recollection) that wears as MUCH jewelry so often both during and outside of work. It may not be obvious, but the illustration on Volume 20 is actually an advertisement for his line of (presumably) luxury jewelry. In other words, Hawks on some level is synonymous with style and flair to the point he can make money by selling jewelry with his name on it.

Chapter 20 Volume Cover - Explicit Type: Hawk emblem on the watch face - If the name “Hawks” didn’t give it away, he’s very clearly trying to align himself with more avian qualities if his merch has bird motifs. In other words Hawk = “Hero Hawks” and “Hero Hawks” = bird.

Chapter 192, 244, clear file illustration - Peripheral Type: birdlike posture. Chapter 244 isn’t quite released yet on the official site as of writing this, but when Hawks swoops in and beats the kids to the punch apprehending the criminals trying to subdue Endeavor, his hands are clenched in a very talon-like manner similar to a swooping eagle. When walking with Endeavor in 192, he holds his resting hand in a similar fashion. On the clear file illustration he’s not only perched on his tippy toes in a pose that has been famously called “owling” (remember that trend/meme, y’all?) but his wings are slightly outstretched to catch the breeze to keep from falling over which a lot of birds can be seen doing when they don’t have great purchase on a surface in a place that’s a little windy. The fact that he seems to gravitate to high places like birds are often seen doing might also be a noteworthy indication.

Extra sources:

Hawks Shifuku: Horikoshi describes Hawks as a “bird person” and says that his initial design was based off of Takahiro from his old manga.

Takahiro’s design:

Current character design: The banner image on my blog was commissioned from a friend of mine who doesn’t follow the series. When I showed her reference images of Hawks, you know what she said? “Oh! His hair is feathers!” Even his eyebrows have that fluffy/scruffy texture to them that his hair has. The markings on his eyes can also be seen on him as a young child in Chapter 191 which means it isn’t makeup meant to tie in a theme or look. He has those dark, pointed eye markings like many birds do. So on some genetic level he resembles a bird.

Step 4: Testing our hypothesis with the gathered evidence.

There’s already a lot of compelling evidence that already closely aligns him to birds which is promising. However, to really prove our point we should try to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt he is a bird. To do that this time around I’m going to see how the series treats people with animal-based quirks and see if it’s consistent with the way Hawks is portrayed.

You bring up Hound Dog and Tsuyu, and they’re fantastic examples. Let’s start with Hound.

He’s pretty straight forward - he’s like a dog. He has a dog face, has dog-like tendencies, and dog-like abilities. Superpower: dog.

And in Tsuyu’s case - quirk: frog, just frog. She’s stated explicitly to have frog-like features, frog-like tendencies, have frog-like abilities, and even comes from a “froggy family.”

So with these two very explicitly animal-like characters the common theme seems to be “If they’re considered to be like a specific animal, they have to physically resemble that animal, act like that animal at times, and have abilities like that animal.” Let’s see if another animal-quirk character matches up and then put Hawks to the test.

Spinner’s quirk is Gecko. Based on our criteria, is he a gecko?

Does he look like a gecko, even vaguely?

Yes, he’s covered head to toe in scales, and his face is very lizard-like.

Does he occasionally act like a gecko?

Unclear. We haven’t really seen any evidence of this, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t. For the sake of our argument, we’ll just say no and move on.

Does he have gecko-like abilities?

Yes! Though most of his abilities are limited to things like being able to stick to walls, it’s still gecko-like in origin and qualifies.

Spinner hits clearly hits ⅔ criteria and our standards seem pretty consistent, so let’s see how Hawks stands up.

Does he look like a bird?

Not all of his features may explicitly scream “avian” at first, but upon closer observation and with his clear previous inspiration this is a resounding yes.

Does he act like a bird?

Many of the mannerisms and behaviors he displays can just be chalked up to him being a little eccentric, but with the sheer number of them that also parallel birds in some way this is also a pretty convincing yes.

Does he have bird-like abilities?

While most of the emphasis is on his wings and what they can do, it does seem that he not only possesses things like heightened senses which could be attributed to avian abilities but he also very much possess high intelligence and incredibly fast reaction times which birds are also known for.

Even if we only gave Hawks a “maybe/half a point” for those last two, he still meets the 2⁄3 that Spinner did. So we have another question to ask: Does a character have to have an explicitly named “animal” quirk to be considered to be/resemble a specific animal? Let’s look at Ojirou and Tokoyami for reference.

Ojirou’s quirk is just “tail,” but he’s been described by his peers and classmates as a monkey and does seem to share some more monkey-like features. It isn’t lumped in with his quirk because the only notable monkey-like quality he possesses is a tail. He doesn’t have fangs or an opposable toe - he just has a tail. For quirk classification as far as hero work goes, that’s the only important thing to note.

Tokoyami, on the other hand has an entire literal bird head, but nothing else. He has a beak, feathers, and even in illustrations of him as a baby he had fluffier feathers on his head. Even with only those details, he just screams “bird!” However, his quirk is classified as “Dark Shadow” because that’s what sets him apart for hero work.

Back at Hawks we see his quirk classified as “fierce wings” but like Ojirou and especially like Tokoyami, the emphasis on his wings is what sets his abilities as a hero apart. Otherwise, he’s just a guy who looks and acts a LOT like a bird.

But astute observers may have noticed I’ve left out a detail that’s more or less a nail in the coffin on the whole matter, so let me ask a question: Tsuyu in particular has something else of note that solidifies in our minds that she is, indeed, a frog - she explicitly calls herself a frog. Could we say the same about Hawks?

Chapter 199 - Explicit Type

Bingo. Hawks has known himself for as long as he’s been alive. He knows his habits, his impulses, his family/genes, and so on. If he calls himself a bird, are we going to call him a liar? In fact, he calls himself a bird not once, but twice!

That’s pretty much it. With the evidence stacked to that degree, I’d be hard pressed to NOT believe he’s a bird.

That was a long amount of text to get through, so if you’re here at the end thank you for sticking out with me to this point. I really appreciate it. This is more or less the process I use when analyzing anything and everything whether it be HeroAca related or not. Maybe it’ll help you if you’ve struggled with literary analysis, or at the very least I hope you got some enjoyment out of it.

TL;DR If Hawks looks like a bird, walks (acts) like a bird, is based on a bird (character), and calls himself a bird, he’s probably a bird.

#hawks bnha #bnha hawks #hawks #hawks mha #mha hawks #she writes #let's talk hawks #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #manga spoilers

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tiefighter · 5 years ago

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hi! do you have any tips on how to get A star essays? as I always get B's I don't know what I am doing wrong...

While I can’t give you targeted advice about your essays, what I can do is give you general advice! alright so (apologies, this is gonna get long) all essays follow a familiar format. You have your essay subject, which you need to turn into a thesis sentence. However, a thesis sentence doesn’t have to be in the very first line of the essay. Say you were talking about fictional world war two novels influencing the media. You could start with something like “As a subject for fictional depictions, be it in video games, movies or even novels, world war two is not only popular but a proven draw-card (you’ll need to prove this within a paragraph of your essay, probably citing numbers of downloads for battlefield games, box office scores for war movies, that sort of thing. Book sales). Movies like Dunkirk, video games like Battlefield and novels like the English Patient (references, blah blah blah) all depict, using fictional hooks, either real or fabricated events during a well-documented war that involved much of the globe. Discussing this, and by showing evidence, we can separate the fiction from reality, and in doing so come to an understanding of how the media is influenced, and in turn influences, our beliefs about our own history.” So you break it down. You explain what you’re going to do, you make a thesis statement to hinge your essay on, and then you follow through. A basic paragraph structure is like a mini-essay in itself, and the first paragraph sets the tone for your entire essay. Don’t include anything you’re not willing to include or can’t back up in your essay. Structuring your paragraphs, and making sure you can back up EVERYTHING you say with references is going to mean your essay gets a better score. I know you’ll be tempted to include colloquialisms and heresay, but don’t. Don’t use phrases like “Everyone knows” or “as they say” because who the hell is they, and everyone don’t know jack shit. Back all of your shit up. -- okay, so a paragraph. You need a topic sentence, supporting sentences, a conclusion and then, if you’re going to lead onto another paragraph, a linking sentence. Your topic sentence starts at the beginning. “The movie Dunkirk, which made $50, 513, 488 at 3720 theaters on its opening weekend (boxofficemojo.com, 2020), is both a demonstration of the sheer selling power of historical movies and the storytelling abilities of fictional accounts. Movies with a similar budget that were released on the same weekend blah blah blah blah blah” This is what you’re going to talk about during your paragraph. the underlined parts are your topics for this paragraph, You’re gonna want to take all your supporting factors for this, and slam them right in here like peanut butter and jelly between two soggy pieces of bread. next, are supporting sentences. Go to reviews, or go to anything you can get that can support your essay thesis question: that these movies are often what people understand as the truth of world war 2, and the media is both an influencer and influenced by the same accounts. You need at least two, preferably three or four, supporting sentences, each of the sentences with references, each with evidence. This is true of all essays, not this one I just pulled out of my ass. What your professor/teacher is looking for is your understanding of the topic, what you’ve gotten from the subject that you’ve been studying and how you apply it in a contextual manner. Don’t deviate from your topic. If your topic is “jesus christ is a fictional figure and has been used to brainwash the masses for decades via ever shifting goalposts and dictatorial leadership” then fucking stick to it. Find your sources, back your shit up. An ideal essay isn’t documented by pages, but by sheer volume of your research, and your ability to apply it. By bringing in box office numbers, you’re supporting your previous statement about the movies being a drawcard. If you can, you could reference it against other movies that opened that same weekend that made less money, therefore attracting less people to see them. (or opening in less cinemas because, reasonably, cinema executives were willing to bank on a movie by a known director, etc etc) Your concluding statement is going to go over all the evidence you’ve gathered, and you slam it all into the ending of your essay that concludes something like “blah blah blah I’m right and this is why I’m right blah gimme an A” just back everything you have to say up with evidence. That’s all they’re looking for. They want to see how you apply your understandings you’ve learned in class, and the topic question will absolutely tell you what they want, if they don’t tell you directly. There are several essay questions that use similar language Discuss: gather evidence to support your understanding of the topic, and apply it. compare/Contrast: gather evidence of both sides, and compare/pit them against each other in a bloody battle to the finish. Explain: gather context, via evidence, and explain what your conclusion, after reading everything you have on the subject, is. advocate: gather positive evidence, and apply it to your point of view/a particular stance. Each of these has the same basis. Evidence. Back your shit up. Make sure you reference everything. This isn’t to say half your word count is made up by references (references aren’t included in the word count) but any conclusions you draw as a result of your essay must be researched, and thoroughly explained in your own words. That said, if your professor/teacher isn’t being explicit about what they want out of an essay, you are absolutely allowed to ask clarifying questions. If you can, get together with classmates and break down what they want from you together. Examine the language, and make sure you do exactly what the question is asking. The marking rubric they have will definitely have columns regarding your understanding of what you’re writing, and how well you applied various principles. That said, there’s such a thing as a grading curve, and sometimes what separates a B student from an A student is half a fucking point. Grading isn’t fair, I think homework is a waste of time and I’m fully willing to stand by that remark with data, lol. Honestly, good luck. If you have any other questions, or want clarification for anything I’ve said/explained, please feel free to contact me again!

#im so sorry this got long #essay help #this is just a basic breakdown #feel free to contact me lol #shitpost

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kaplooie · 6 years ago

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what you should learn from school

I’m just about to finish the public school that’s seen as the bare minimum needed to contribute to society in America, and after going through all that, I’ve realized the things I’ve learned and the things I haven’t.

People always say that what we learn in school isn’t useful in the “real world” and I don’t completely agree with that statement. School does a lot to help people muddle through society (though it could do more), but it just does a terrible job contextualizing its content outside of testing.

here’s a list of things that are important to learn and would actually be helpful in everyday life

1. rhetoric: this is mostly studying the way language is used to build an argument or prove a point. and it is so useful. a lot of what studying rhetoric is is learning specific ways of writing or speaking that strengthen your argument, and conversely learning what fallacies weaken an argument. this is useful in becoming able to write effectively for things you need like grant money or communicating to a customer or a coworker to make things go your way, but also it helps you better understand the world around you. knowing rhetoric helps you be able to spot stronger and weaker arguments, which is very useful in politics and voting and the like. this intensifies your ability to read and fully understand media you consume

2. statistics, and the math it takes to learn statistics: this is how people analyze data and interpret it to find meaning. it’s important to know the techniques that people took to make the interpretation they’re making so you can figure out the data’s validity, or if they’re just using fancy math words to make something seem more substantial than it is.

3. psychology: this is studying how people work. psychology will teach you why people react to things the way they do. examples of this are how and why people have prejudices and how to overcome them, how people learn and the best ways to learn given how brains work, how the brain develops, and other scientific reasons people see the world the way we do. it also explains why certain mental disorders happen, and this could help lower stigma. This is honestly so helpful because by learning how the brain works, you know how to identify instances like the bystander effect and overcome them.

4. economics: especially microeconomics. this is how money works on a large and small scale. i never took economics so i don’t know how it works, but it teaches you how to handle your money well and how markets evolve over time and that seems like good general knowledge to have

5. history, but just the gist of it: knowing what happened to make the world the way it is is kind of important. but more the main themes of what went down. the important thing with history is to learn what actually happened and not just the glorified version. this tells you what people have done in the past and how well it worked, especially governments and laws. its also important to learn about the history of your country in particular and to know why the current government was made the way it was, and be able to compare the circumstances then to now

6: biology: how life lives. learning how people function as organisms is kinda useful. it also explains how and why diseases happen and the reasoning behind certain treatments and how it works. also knowing enough anatomy to understand what’s going on if something is wrong in your body. also sex ed and how reproduction works

all of these lead to the one thing that school is supposed to teach you, which is critical thinking. how to think for yourself and form opinions based on what’s given to you.

idk if this justifies school or if it advocates for major reform. one of the biggest problems i have with school is that some of the most useful things i learned were from elective classes. they were optional. so many people are released into the world not knowing so much important stuff and it pains me

#education #school #public school #politics #learning #language #reform #math #biology #democrat #republican #idk why i wrote this #long post

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reneeacaseyfl · 6 years ago

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Zappos lead data scientist on the challenges of using semantic search

Online retailer Zappos has never been shy about adopting new technologies to improve its business. And its search bar is no exception: Over the past two years, the company has been overhauling its search algorithms using machine learning.

At VentureBeat’s Transform 2019 conference last week in San Francisco, Zappos lead data scientist Ameen Kazerouni talked about how his team implemented semantic search into the website (you can watch the full session above). Unlike traditional search that matches your results purely based on the words you use, semantic search tries to understand the context and intent behind those terms.

The problem with the former is that it has a chance of returning a bunch of wrong or incorrect items that the customer has to filter through (which also might convince them to just leave the site). Kazerouni brought up the phrase “classic short” as an example. Most search bars, he said, will just show you different pairs of shorts if you typed that in. But in actuality, classic short refers to a certain type of boot.

With semantic search, websites can determine what people are really looking for and avoid those misunderstandings.

“At Zappos, we’ve actually taken it a step further and made the decision that not only is there a contextual meaning behind a search term, [but] that the contextual meaning changes on a per customer basis, as well,” Kazerouni said. “So for the millions of unique search terms — in the millions of unique customers — we actually try our best to serve individually unique search results. And I stress the word individually because it’s been a nightmare engineering problem.

“But we are at a point where it’s not collaborative filtering, it’s not segmentation; it is a one-to-one understanding of the individual and the term that they applied.”

Working around the English language

It hasn’t always been this way, however. According to Kazerouni, Zappos didn’t start using semantic search until 2017. His data science team wasn’t working on search at all. That responsibility fell to the company’s search team, which maintains the database of words in the Zappos.com search index. But the old lexical-based algorithm kept giving customers too many poor results when they searched for specific items like classic shorts or dress shoes.

The search team created manual redirects for these terms as they popped up (like telling the system to point to boots instead of shorts when searching for classic shorts), but it quickly got out of hand.

Above: Zappos had to overhaul its searching algorithm.

Image Credit: Zappos

“I think the search team realized they were playing a game of whack-a-mole. Because when you said, ‘Fix classic short’ to go to these boots,’ what that would do is then change the search index to be weighted more on the product name,” said Kazerouni. “So hiking shorts would not go to shorts; it would go to something else instead. And when dress shirts would go to dresses, we’d be like, ‘Well, dress here is more of an occasion and not a product type. So please fix that.’

“And then someone would type in ‘evening dress’, and it would not go to dresses anymore and go to shirts instead because dress would now be more important than dress shirt. So they realized that they were fixing one problem [while] creating seven other problems.”

Between late 2016 and early 2017, the search team approached Kazerouni and asked his data science crew for help. Part of the issue had to do with the language itself.

“We realized that English is a very funny language in the sense that many, many words are heavily overloaded. They have many different meanings depending on the phrase that they occur in,” said Kazerouni. “So the first thing we set out to do was understanding search terms, taking in search terms, and looking at customer behavior and building machine learning models that could create what are known as word embeddings.”

Word embeddings are mathematical representations of words and phrases, something that the search engine could use to predict the meaning behind customers’ terms. The first tests of Zappos’ new semantic search algorithm were positive, resulting in a significant increase in click-through rates and engagement on the website.

“We were showing ROIs as a machine learning team, which I hear is not very common,” said Kazerouni, laughing. “So it was also fun to prove to our business stakeholders that we weren’t just a research team or PR stunt. We were actually going to provide value to the core business.”

Kazerouni noted that Zappos has since “evolved past” word embeddings and built neural networks to enhance its semantic search engine. It’s been a huge success for Zappos so far, leading to more searches and an increase in revenue. And some tech-savvy consumers are helping them improve it: They’ve been chiming in with their experiences in feedback surveys, with some people specifically mentioning the algorithm.

“But I just love that the consumer is expecting machine learning-driven solutions and demanding an experience that is more intelligent in a way. That’s surprising to me. And I love it,” said Kazerouni.

Credit: Source link

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velmaemyers88 · 6 years ago

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Zappos lead data scientist on the challenges of using semantic search

With semantic search, websites can determine what people are really looking for and avoid those misunderstandings.

“But we are at a point where it’s not collaborative filtering, it’s not segmentation; it is a one-to-one understanding of the individual and the term that they applied.”

Working around the English language

Above: Zappos had to overhaul its searching algorithm.

Image Credit: Zappos

Between late 2016 and early 2017, the search team approached Kazerouni and asked his data science crew for help. Part of the issue had to do with the language itself.

Credit: Source link

The post Zappos lead data scientist on the challenges of using semantic search appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

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weeklyreviewer · 6 years ago

Text

Zappos lead data scientist on the challenges of using semantic search

With semantic search, websites can determine what people are really looking for and avoid those misunderstandings.

“But we are at a point where it’s not collaborative filtering, it’s not segmentation; it is a one-to-one understanding of the individual and the term that they applied.”

Working around the English language

Above: Zappos had to overhaul its searching algorithm.

Image Credit: Zappos

Between late 2016 and early 2017, the search team approached Kazerouni and asked his data science crew for help. Part of the issue had to do with the language itself.

Credit: Source link

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maxksx · 6 years ago

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Will the social sciences ever become hard sciences?

The term “hard science” as opposed to “soft science” has no clear definition. But roughly speaking, the less the predictive power and the smaller the statistical significance, the softer the science. Physics, without doubt, is the hard core of the sciences, followed by the other natural sciences and the life sciences. The higher the complexity of the systems a research area is dealing with, the softer it tends to be. The social sciences are at the soft end of the spectrum.

To me the very purpose of research is making science increasingly harder. If you don’t want to improve on predictive power, what’s the point of science to begin with?

The social sciences are soft mainly because data that quantifies the behavior of social, political, and economic systems is hard to come by: it’s huge amounts, difficult to obtain and even more difficult to handle. Historically, these research areas therefore worked with narratives relating plausible causal relations. Needless to say, as computing power skyrockets, increasingly larger data sets can be handled. So the social sciences are finally on the track to become useful. Or so you’d think if you’re a physicist.

But interestingly, there is a large opposition to this trend of hardening the social sciences, and this opposition is particularly pronounced towards physicists who take their knowledge to work on data about social systems. You can see this opposition in the comment section to every popular science article on the topic. “Social engineering!” they will yell accusingly.

It isn’t so surprising that social scientists themselves are unhappy because the boat of inadequate skills is sinking in the data sea and physics envy won’t keep it afloat. More interesting than the paddling social scientists is the public opposition to the idea that the behavior of social systems can be modeled, understood, and predicted. This opposition is an echo of the desperate belief in free will that ignores all evidence to the contrary. The desperation in both cases is based on unfounded fears, but unfortunately it results in a forward defense.

And so the world is full with people who argue that they must have free will because they believe they have free will, the ultimate confirmation bias. And when it comes to social systems they’ll snort at the physicists “People are not elementary particles”. That worries me, worries me more than their clinging to the belief in free will, because the only way we can solve the problems that mankind faces today – the global problems in highly connected and multi-layered political, social, economic and ecological networks – is to better understand and learn how to improve the systems that govern our lives.

That people are not elementary particles is not a particularly deep insight, but it collects several valid points of criticism:

People are too difficult. You can’t predict them. Humans are made of a many elementary particles and even though you don’t have to know the exact motion of every single one of these particles, a person still has an awful lot of degrees of freedom and needs to be described by a lot of parameters. That’s a complicated way of saying people can do more things than electrons, and it isn’t always clear exactly why they do what they do. That is correct of course, but this objection fails to take into account that not all possible courses of action are always relevant. If it was true that people have too many possible ways to act to gather any useful knowledge about their behavior our world would be entirely dysfunctional. Our societies work only because people are to a large degree predictable. If you go shopping you expect certain behaviors of other people. You expect them to be dressed, you expect them to walk forwards, you expect them to read labels and put things into a cart. There, I’ve made a prediction about human behavior! Yawn, you say, I could have told you that. Sure you could, because making predictions about other people’s behavior is pretty much what we do all day. Modeling social systems is just a scientific version of this. This objection that people are just too complicated is also weak because, as a matter of fact, humans can and have been modeled with quite simple systems. This is particularly effective in situations when intuitive reaction trumps conscious deliberation. Existing examples are traffic flows or the density of crowds when they have to pass through narrow passages. So, yes, people are difficult and they can do strange things, more things than any model can presently capture. But modeling a system is always an oversimplification. The only way to find out whether that simplification works is to actually test it with data.

People have free will. You cannot predict what they will do. To begin with it is highly questionable that people have free will. But leaving this aside for a moment, this objection confuses the predictability of individual behavior with the statistical trend of large numbers of people. Maybe you don’t feel like going to work tomorrow, but most people will go. Maybe you like to take walks in the pouring rain, but most people don’t. The existence of free will is in no conflict with discovering correlations between certain types of behavior or preferences in groups. It’s the same difference that doesn’t allow you to tell when your children will speak the first word or make the first step, but that almost certainly by the age of three they’ll have mastered it.

People can understand the models and this knowledge makes predictions useless. This objection always stuns me. If that was true, why then isn’t obesity cured by telling people it will remain a problem? Why are the highways still clogged at 5pm if I predict they will be clogged? Why will people drink more beer if it’s free even though they know it’s free to make them drink more? Because the fact that a prediction exists in most cases doesn’t constitute any good reason to change behavior. I can predict that you will almost certainly still be alive when you finish reading this blogpost because I know this prediction is exceedingly unlikely to make you want to prove it wrong. Yes, there are cases when people’s knowledge of a prediction changes their behavior – self-fulfilling prophecies are the best-known examples of this. But this is the exception rather than the rule. In an earlier blogpost, I referred to this as societal fixed points. These are configurations in which the backreaction of the model into the system does not change the prediction. The simplest example is a model whose predictions few people know or care about.

Effects don’t scale and don’t transfer. This objection is the most subtle one. It posits that the social sciences aren’t really sciences until you can do and reproduce the outcome of “experiments”, which may be designed or naturally occurring. The typical social experiment that lends itself to analysis will be in relatively small and well-controlled communities (say, testing the implementation of a new policy). But then you have to extrapolate from this how the results will be in larger and potentially very different communities. Increasing the size of the system might bring in entirely new effects that you didn’t even know of (doesn’t scale), and there are a lot of cultural variables that your experimental outcome might have depended on that you didn’t know of and thus cannot adjust for (doesn’t transfer). As a consequence, repeating the experiment elsewhere will not reproduce the outcome. Indeed, this is likely to happen and I think it is the major challenge in this type of research. For complex relations it will take a long time to identify the relevant environmental parameters and to learn how to account for their variation. The more parameters there are and the more relevant they are, the less the predictive value of a model will be. If there are too many parameters that have to be accounted for it basically means doing experiments is the only thing we can ever do. It seems plausible to me, even likely, that there are types of social behavior that fall into this category, and that will leave us with questions that we just cannot answer. However, whether or not a certain trend can or cannot be modeled we will only know by trying. We know that there are cases where it can be done. Geoffry West’s city theory I find a beautiful example where quite simple laws can be found in the midst of all these cultural and contextual differences.

In summary.

The social sciences will never be as “hard” as the natural sciences because there is much more variation among people than among particles and among cities than among molecules. But the social sciences have become harder already and there is no reason why this trend shouldn’t continue. I certainly hope it will continue because we need this knowledge to collectively solve the problems we have collectively created.

#sabine hossenfelder

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marshhare · 6 years ago

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SABBATH

Most people, when asked about when Sabbath became a sacred day, will bring up the Law of Moses and cite the verses that say not to work and whatnot. Let’s consider the origin a little more fully. If we look at the Law, what do we see?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

— Exodus 20:8-11

First, the directive is issued point blank, in-your-face, can’t get it wrong, right?

“Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.” (observe the same practice that YHWH observed [rest] on the seventh day, and keep it separate as a mark of completion).

Let’s break it down

This is the part of the story when YHWH gave the oral law to Yasharael after He brought them out of Mitsraim Egypt. Expanding our view of the context of the Sabbath Law, we can see how important it is to YHWH.

Exo 20:1 And God H430 spake H1696 (H853) all H3605 these H428 words, H1697 saying, H559 Exo 20:2 I H595 am the LORD H3068 thy God, H430 which H834 have brought thee out H3318 of the land H4480 H776 of Egypt, H4714 out of the house H4480 H1004 of bondage. H5650 Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have H1961 no H3808 other H312 gods H430 before H5921 H6440 me. Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not H3808 make H6213 unto thee any graven image, H6459 or any H3605 likeness H8544 of anything that H834 is in heaven H8064 above, H4480 H4605 or that H834 is in the earth H776 beneath, H4480 H8478 or that H834 is in the water H4325 under H4480 H8478 the earth: H776 Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not H3808 bow down thyself H7812 to them, nor H3808 serve H5647 them: for H3588 IH595 the LORD H3068 thy God H430 am a jealous H7067 God, H410 visiting H6485 the iniquity H5771 of the fathers H1 upon H5921 the children H1121 unto H5921 the third H8029 and fourth H7256 generation of them that hate H8130 me; Exo 20:6 And shewing H6213 mercy H2617 unto thousands H505 of them that love H157 me, and keep H8104 my commandments. H4687 Exo 20:7 Thou shalt not H3808 take H5375 (H853) the name H8034 of the LORD H3068 thy God H430 in vain; H7723 for H3588 the LORD H3068 will not H3808 hold him guiltless H5352 (H853) that H834 taketh H5375 (H853) his name H8034 in vain. H7723 Exo 20:8 Remember H2142 the (H853) sabbath H7676 day, H3117 to keep it holy. H6942 Exo 20:9 Six H8337 days H3117 shalt thou labor, H5647 and do H6213 all H3605 thy work: H4399 Exo 20:10 But the seventh H7637 day H3117 is the sabbath H7676 of the LORD H3068 thy God: H430 in it thou shalt not H3808 do H6213 any H3605 work, H4399 thou, H859 nor thy son, H1121 nor thy daughter, H1323 thy manservant, H5650 nor thy maidservant, H519 nor thy cattle, H929 nor thy stranger H1616 that H834 is within thy gates: H8179 Exo 20:11 For H3588 in six H8337 days H3117 the LORD H3068 made H6213 (H853) heaven H8064 and earth, H776 (H853) the sea, H3220 and all H3605 that H834 in them is, and rested H5117 the seventh H7637 day: H3117 wherefore H5921 H3651 the LORD H3068 blessed H1288 the(H853) sabbath H7676 day, H3117 and hallowed H6942 it. Exo 20:12 Honour H3513 (H853) thy fatherH1 and thy mother: H517 that H4616 thy days H3117 may be long H748 upon H5921 the land H127 which H834 the LORD H3068 thy God H430 giveth H5414 thee. Exo 20:13 Thou shalt not H3808 kill. H7523 Exo 20:14 Thou shalt not H3808 commit adultery. H5003 Exo 20:15 Thou shalt not H3808 steal. H1589 Exo 20:16 Thou shalt not H3808 bear H6030 false H8267 witness H5707 against thy neighbor. H7453 Exo 20:17 Thou shalt not H3808 covet H2530 thy neighbour’s H7453 house, H1004 thou shalt not H3808 covet H2530 thy neighbor’s H7453 wife, H802 nor his manservant, H5650 nor his maidservant, H519 nor his ox, H7794 nor his ass, H2543 nor anything H3605 that H834 is thy neighbor’s. H7453 Exo 20:18 And all H3605 the people H5971 saw H7200 (H853) the thunderings, H6963 and the lightnings, H3940 and the noise H6963 of the trumpet, H7782 and the mountain H2022 smoking: H6226 and when the people H5971 saw H7200 it, they removed, H5128 and stood H5975 afar off. H4480 H7350 Exo 20:19 And they said H559 unto H413 Moses, H4872 Speak H1696 thou H859 with H5973 us, and we will hear: H8085 but let not H408 God H430 speak H1696 with H5973 us, lest H6435 we die. H4191 Exo 20:20 And Moses H4872 said H559 unto H413 the people, H5971 Fear H3372 not: H408 for H3588 God H430 is come H935 to H5668 prove H5254 you, and that H5668 his fear H3374 may be H1961 before H5921 your faces, H6440 that ye sin H2398 not. H1115 Exo 20:21 And the people H5971 stood H5975 afar off, H4480 H7350 and Moses H4872 drew near H5066 unto H413 the thick darkness H6205 where H834 H8033 God H430 was.

Here we can see that YHWH identifies Himself, then says not to worship anything else. Immediately following, He says not to call yourself His if you are not going to obey Him. “Do not take the name in vain” is a small-minded translation. It literally says, “Do not honor his renown in deceit.”

As soon as He establishes his identity with the people, YHWH tells them to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”

This should be a huge alarm bell for the reader. Unfortunately, we miss the implications because of the way it is identified by verse numbers, and the translations lead you into apathy.

He is still identifying himself in the remembrance of the Sabbath. How do we miss it?

First of all, most of us take for granted that the Elohim speaking to Moses is the same Elohim of the rest of the Torah. So, it is easy to breeze past His self-identifiers without a second thought. However, we miss some of the real meat of the text. YHWH identifies the Sabbath as his seal or mark of ownership on his creation, as well as on His people.

If you think of a mark of ownership, what is it? Let’s look at some content to gain a contextual perspective:

You can see that in context, the words mean the same thing as was intended in the testimony. “Ownership, approval, completion.”

On the royal seal, you can see that animals and house sigils define the borders of the ownership, and the animals indicate the powerhouses. The inscriptions reads in Latin, “God is my right,” and, “Shame to who thinks badly of it.” (Honi soit qui mal y pense). Even the royal seal follows the same protocol as set forth by YHWH in the Law.

This is who I am, respect it, and this is my region.

If I were a commander of a combat squad and a new recruit just joined the ranks, I would approach him and say something like, “I’m your commander, don’t mess with me or mine. This is my squad.” Then I would lay down basic practices of the squad’s accepted behavior. It’s the same principle.

So the identifier that YHWH gives is indicating that He has the authority to deliver this Law because He is the one that created the heavens and the earth, referring back to the beginning of the narrative:

Genesis 2:2

On the seventh day, God finished the work; so on the seventh day, he rested from all his work.

Genesis 2:3

And God blessed the seventh day, and called it holy, because he had finished the work.

By citing the seventh day, YHWH demonstrates that the heavens and the earth are His, and his craftsmanship is sealed by the seventh day, wherein He designated it all as complete, approved, and owned.

In delivering the Law to Moses in this way, he places the seventh day in advance of interpersonal Law, which indicates that none of the rest of the law has personal merit without first recognizing his authority. The Sabbath day of rest is the foundation of a relationship with Him. It is more important than murder, fornication, etc. Because, without recognizing His seal of ownership, you can not be part of His kingdom, and thus the rest of the Law is pointless to you.

Let’s look at the self-identifier that YHWH gave Moses in this part of Exodus, and try to see it as a seal of ownership.

I Am (YHWH ALHYM), there are no others, respect it, and shame to whoever denies it.

I Made it (His region is everything heavens and earth)

I approved it (The Sabbath)

This is the seal of ownership.

Now, it is easy to see why YHWH put the seventh day rest command where He did. If He had put it after the other directives regarding social conduct, it would not have been part of His seal. If the Sabbath was just another social parameter for Yasharael, He would have put it among the social directives. Can you understand this? Sabbath is part of His seal of ownership, His mark on His people.

SUNDAY IS THE NEW SABBATH (???)

First of all, let me be blunt in this message. Neither YHWH, His Son, nor His people ever decided to convert the first day of the week into the official sabbath. Please get that lodged firmly into your brain housing group.

Okay, so who did it and why?

Let’s look at some key data points of the origin of first-day worship, and walk through some of the histories of how it got worked into modern false-believer religious organizations, and then picked up by the ignorant masses who had no idea what was going on.

Here are some data points: verify and quantify them to see if what they say is true.

THE ORIGIN OF SUN WORSHIP. Sun worship originated in Babylon with the Bible character known as Nimrod setting himself up as a “mighty one” in the earth by subjugating the population of that time to his authority and control (Genesis 10:8-12). … “Sun worship was the earliest idolatry .”

Hebrew Roots/Neglected Commandments/Idolatry/Sunday – Wikibooks

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots/Neglected_Commandments/…/Sunday

The ancient Egyptian god of creation, Amun is also believed to reside inside the sun. So is the Akan creator deity, Nyame and the Dogon deity of creation, Nommo. Also in Egypt, there was a religion that worshipped the sun directly, and was among the first monotheistic religions: Atenism.

Solar deity – Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_deity

During the later periods of Roman history, sun worship gained in importance and ultimately led to what has been called a “solar monotheism.” Nearly all the gods of the period were possessed of solar qualities, and both Christ and Mithra acquired the traits of solar deities.

Sun worship | religion | Britannica.com

https://www.britannica.com/topic/sun-worship

Apollo Helios

: “In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios, Titan god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene, Titan goddess of the moon.

Who is the sun god in Greek mythology? – Quora

https://www.quora.com/Who-is-the-sun-god-in-Greek-mythology

Constantine, Origin Of Sun Worship, Trinity, Babylon & Sunday

www.the-ten-commandments.org/origin_of_babylon_sun_worship.html

Jan 13, 2018 – Constantine and the origin of sun worship, trinity, Babylon and Sunday worship and is sun worship from Satan and the origin of the Sunday …

It goes on and on across every civilization, back to the beginning of religion. Some of my readers may not understand how to perceive the historical record in a biblical way so I will offer here a short and concise perspective to help you sum it all together.

Adam fell from the Garden, and the Melchizedek priesthood was formed. Noah was the 8th in the line of Melchizadeks. 2 Peter 2:5, Noah is the 8th preacher of righteousness.

After the flood, a systematic reinterpretation of society took place and was empowered, ruled, and solidified under Nimrod. This epic event was recorded specifically by the pre-Hindu Vedic priests in what we now call India. It is also recorded minutely in the Torah. More info can be found in the texts that most people call extra-biblical. The Nimrodian empire converted the Vedic (worshipping the supreme creator) teachings to Hindu pantheism under the Brahmin priesthood, resulting in the split of India into a North and South division. The Nimrodian corruption then moved West and into the land occupied by the descendants of Ham that stole part of Shem’s territory allotment (Sumer/Akkad/Hittite) establishing the capital of satanism which would eventually be called Babylon. This empire also eventually made its impact in Israel when the Pharisees took control of the Temple of Yerusalem by force and subterfuge.

It can reasonably be stated that all emperors who rose up through warfare and served false gods were part of the same corrupt empire system. They served the same fallen angels, corrupted faith and priesthoods, and coerced the people to serve the fallen angels under the pretext that it was serving the Most High YHWH. For example, Constantine, Alexander the Great, Rome, The Vatican…

“We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.”Pope Leo XIII, Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae (The Reunion of Christendom), June 20, 1894

There were many great kingdoms of Japheth and Shem’s descendants, but they also tended to fall into the same corruption, whether they started under YHWH or not.

The Sun Day worship system is key and crucial to satanism (serving the false Elohim, the fallen angels) and has been imparted to modern day believers in YHWH as if it had biblical merit. This is only possible because of lies and ignorance.

How has this been presented to us this day? Let’s check it out.

According to http://catholicstraightanswers.com/how-should-we-keep-the-sabbath-holy/, the Sun Day sabbath is valid because Jesus resurrected on Sunday, and God began creating the heavens and earth on a Sunday.

“For Christians, the “Sabbath” rest was transferred to the first day of the week– Sunday, the day our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For us, Sunday marks the day of the new creation, when Christ conquered sin, darkness, and death. Sunday marks the day of the new covenant when Christ, the High Priest who had offered Himself as the Unblemished Passover Lamb of Sacrifice on the altar of the cross, gave the promise of everlasting life. Therefore, Sunday is the fulfillment of the Sabbath of the Old Testament. St. Justin Martyr (d. 165) wrote, “Sunday, indeed, is the day on which we hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, transforming the darkness and matter, created the world; and our Savior, Jesus Christ, arose from the dead on the same day.””

Let’s think about this statement. A perusal of it gives you a great warm feeling and makes you think that the reasoning is great, does it not? Well, let’s consider the source. First, it is from the Papal authority, which means that a man who sits on a throne and calls himself the LORD GOD VICAR (pope) has determined that Sunday is the new Sabbath. Secondly, a known denier of truth (Martyr) has corroborated the argument with more blatantly misdirecting argumentation. This kind of argument completely betrays the foundation of the mark of ownership as proved by YHWH in the Torah. At what point in the narrative did YHWH or any of His people ever declare that Sunday is a valid Sabbath day of worship? Well, never. Consider this:

“The Church made a sacred day of Sunday…largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.” Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1928): pg 145

In the Vatican’s official record of decrees, Sunday worship as replacing the seventh day Sabbath is a MARK OF THEIR AUTHORITY. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7O.HTM

I’m going to drop some truth bombs here and then explain why this happened.

“But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.” – Cardinal James Gibbons The Faith of Our Fathers (Ayers Publishing, 1978): pg 108

Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q. Why Do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.

The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957): pg 50

“Question: Have you any other way of proving the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?

Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the 1st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” As quoted in God’s Answers to Your Questions (Review and Herald Publishing, 1989): pg 50

“The [catholic] Church is above the Bible, and this transference of the Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.” Catholic Record (September 1, 1923)

“Practically everything Protestants regard as essential or important they have received from the Catholic Church… The Protestant mind does not seem to realize that in accepting the Bible and observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope.” Our Sunday Visitor (February 5, 1950)

“Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is a homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the (Catholic) Church.” Louis Gaston Segur, Plain Talk about the Protestantism of To-Day (London: Thomas Richardson and Son, 1874): pg 213

“It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the 1st day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, AD 364, anathematized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the 7th day under penalty of anathema.” Catholic Priest T. Enright, CSSR, Kansas City, MO

“I have repeatedly offered $1000 to any one who can furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep…The Bible says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” but the Catholic Church says, “No, keep the first day of the week,” and the whole world bows in obedience.” Catholic Priest T. Enright, CSSR, lecture at Hartford, KS, Feb 18, 1884

“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act…And the act is a MARK of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.”

Letter from C.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons on October 28, 1895

The Pope sits on the Ecclesiastical throne of Nimrod, representing the Sun god. Under this authority, nearly every person in the world who has tried to believe in YHWH has been corrupted into lawlessness and will not partake in the Kingdom of Yah. I refer you back to Exodus, “Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exo 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

It is stated emphatically and clearly that one way to “take his name in vain” is to NOT keep the Sabbath on the seventh day, as a remembrance of His mark of ownership, since he created it all, and approved it on the seventh day.

So, it can be said that transferring Sabbath to the first day, which is named after the sun in honor of the fallen angels, under the authority of a man claiming the ecclesiastical authority of Nimrod and claiming that he is above the Torah (The Law of YHWH) is a direct and blasphemous attack on the primacy and authority of the creator Himself. Anyone who engages in Sun Day Sabbath is partaking at the table of demons, and is taking the name in vain. Ask yourself this question: Will I be accepted into the eternal kingdom of righteousness (Lawfulness) if I blaspheme the name of the King, and blaspheme His Law? I’m not judging you, I don’t have to. We have all been judged by the same Law. Determine the truth of it for yourself.

So, why is the first day so important to the satanic kingdom? It all starts in Genesis 1:1. Let me try to explain.

Genesis 1:1 as presented: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

This sounds like a great translation, right? It’s the one we all know by heart, and we know all the implied doctrine contained in it. However, this phrasing lacks the potency of what was originally written, and in the English, it does not inform us of very much at all.

Genesis 1:1 (better version): At this point (fulfillment), ALHYM fashioned (brought fullness to) the heavens ON the earth.

This is much more informative and helps explain some of the undercurrent of the narrative in the rest of the Tanach. Consider every mention of the world that was before Adam in ancient texts, they all include in their cosmology a central great Mountain that represented Heaven and the Star ruled from it. This is Genesis 1:1, where THE ELOHIM created heaven on earth.

This may seem a little confusing to you, but it is because your entire conceptualization of the first two chapters of Genesis is based primarily on the evolutionary theory that you have to combat your own predilections to see more clearly what is being stated. Most people explain it thus: God made the heavens and the earth from nothing, and there was nothing before this, and then God started bringing more definition into the heavens and earth over the successive verses.

Does this not speak of evolution? Is it not possible that the text was not written for people who understood the modern concept of evolution? Let’s try to understand it as it stands on its own.

God made the heavens on the earth. (a perusal of the actual Greek and Hebrew will reveal that the word is ON and not AND).

This statement emphatically states that God made the heavens on the earth. Boom, done. No more explanation needed. If the rest of the narrative hangs on this moment, then this is extremely important to understand. If we continue through the narrative and try to apply evolutionary theory to it, we will yet again arrive at unsupported conclusions that are not actually in the text. It follows then, that the next section will explain what happened AFTER God made the heavens on the earth. Does this not make sense?

Genesis 1:2 as presented: And the earth was formless and void.

Easy verse, we all know it. Makes sense, right? If God made the heavens and the earth, then the obvious result would be chaos, from which order was formed, right? Are we all satanic mystics that we eagerly believe that order comes from chaos? Try exploring that concept and see where it came from. It’s the same delusion that applies to Sabbath Sunday, and it relates to the same origin of satanism. Let’s keep exploring.

Genesis 1:2 (better rendition): The earth became desolate and without life.

There we go, now we have a narrative that makes sense. The second statement follows the first statement chronologically and does not require modern science-babble to explain.

God made the heavens on the earth and then it became desolate and without life.

This is key to understand why the satanists want to promote Sun worship. I know you can’t see it yet, so let’s keep moving.

The words in Hebrew that were translated into formless and void are Tohu and Bohu. These same words are presented in accord in Isaiah 45:18 where it states that God did not create the heavens and the earth desolate and without life. If we want to believe that God created the heavens and the earth, and the next step was to secure order out of chaos, then we have to throw out the entire writings of Isaiah, since he just stated that is not how it happened. I am fully aware that your translation probably reads something like: For God did not bara the heavens and the earth to be toho w’bohu. I highly suggest crossing out the to be indicators.

If YHWH did not bara tohu w’bohu – create desolation and without life, then what happened to cause tohu and bohu to happen in Genesis 1:2?

You can see that the text does not say nor does it imply that God created tohu and bohu. It states simply that it came to be. Wrap your mind around this and let’s discover why the satanists love this part so much.

The next phrase states something that is somewhat enigmatic in the English, and makes no apparent sense to identify what it means.

“And the spirit of God moved upon the surface of the deep.”

It literally says that God’s life-giving ruach (spirit, breath, wind) was ABOVE the surface of the waters. Did God then create the heavens and the earth and not engage with it? Was He instantly separated from His creation? It seems odd to think that way, yet it is the only explanation that can be gleaned from this modern translation/perspective. We are conditioned to think that it says that God created the heavens and the earth, which were chaotic and lifeless, and God was withdrawn from it. Naturally, through the process of evolving order from chaos, the rest of creation unfolds in a very naturalistic and evolutionary way. I submit to you that this is incorrect in so many ways.

First of all, the next part is when God makes light be, without star or moon to cause it. After He divides the night from the day, darkness from light, He calls it the first day.

How then can we have a day/night cycle as a time marker without sun, moon, stars which were created in day 4?

This does not fit the evolutionary narrative and seems to leave a lot of room for confusion. God is not the author of confusion, so we have to look at the whole narrative to see why it is this way.

Here is a brief overview to get you started since this piece is getting a bit lengthy. It is your responsibility to examine the text and see if you have the truth in mind or some fantasy of ignorance.

The antagonist of the Garden in Eden who used subterfuge to deceive Havah (Eve) is called the nacas or nachash in Genesis; the Day Star, Son of Dawn, in Isaiah 14:12 and referred to as a cherub and a satan and a dragon throughout the entire narrative. In the beginning of This story that is being recorded here in Genesis and explained throughout the rest of the texts, it is telling us the beginning of our troubles.

In the apex, Elohim established heaven on earth, and the earth became darkness, desolate and lifeless. At this point, the Day Star was cast from the Mountain of Yah (heaven’s representative place) on the earth, since his heart had been filled with violence and he brought chaos and death to the land that he was supposed to rule in righteousness as a representative of Yahua. After this, Elohim reinstated light, and separated the light of truth from the darkness of the fallen/deposed Day Star. After this, He fixed the desolated landscape, returned life to it, and established sigils and markers to let His people know what is happening, where they are, and what to expect. He specifically sanctified the seventh day to indicate that it is exactly how He wants it, and anyone who challenges that claim is referring back to tohu and bohu, claiming that He created order from chaos. This challenge indicates that God only reworked what the Day Star had corrupted, bringing chaos and corruption into the foundation of creation. However erroneous this claim may be, it is the idea that supports Sun worship. They willingly offer themselves to the Day Star of Darkness who brings desolation. They willingly forfeit their inheritance from the creator who deposed the Day Star and offers eternal life through His Son.

There is a distinct and paramount difference between the seventh day and Sunday. First of all, the names of the week are satanic inventions derived to give honor to fallen angels. In Yah’s record, the days are numbered and not named. Let me show you the difference.

seventh day:

Mark of completion, ownership and approval. Designated by YHWH as His mark and seal as creator of the heavens and the earth. Not named after a fallen angel/false deity. Part of a system of measuring to identify how to live according to His will. A significant part of the sacrifice of the Lamb and the resurrection. A day for His people to rest and bask in the light of His glory, in respect for His work and authority.

Sunday:

Satanic mark of the Day Star, named after him. Indicates that chaos came first in satanic cosmology. A burden on the people to worship the Darkness of the Day Star. Used legally to punish those who observe the seventh day. Used as a mark and seal of authority by all satanic rulers. A day in direct opposition to the Sabbath established by YHWH.

So, we read comfortable explanations to ease us into the worship of the Day Star. They sound legit and we can’t see any reason to argue with it. Doesn’t everyone know that we live in a NEW covenant? Doesn’t everyone know that Jesus rose again on Sunday? It seems to work out so we blindly follow and lead our children into darkness.

Is it a NEW covenant? No, check out the word used for new in the text regarding the covenant. It is RENEWED. The same way that YHWH renewed the covenant with Noah, with Abraham, and with Moses, He renewed the covenant through His Son. Only Adam received a NEW covenant. God does not change, He definitely does not tell mankind to follow a certain path for thousands of years and then send His Word in the flesh to tell us to ignore everything that was previously spoken.

Did Jesus raise from the dead on Sunday? Well, no. Read the text. By the first day of the week, he was already out of the tomb. He rose again on Sabbath, bringing FULFILLMENT and REST. See the narrative there?

It is easy to find scholarly arguments and ecclesiastical authority figures to quote to argue with what I am saying. The world is filled with endless explanations of eloquent arguments that are designed to lead you into darkness. They even completely changed the words in several new testament translations, making them say “first day of the week” where it actually says the seventh (sabbath). It is your responsibility to either accept or reject His Law. If you reject even one part of it, you cannot enter His Kingdom.

“Many will say unto me on that day, ‘Lord Lord, have we not done many wonderful works in your name?’ I will say unto them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, you who work lawlessness.'” – Yahushua HaMashiach (whom you call Jesus).

Righteousness is Lawfulness is Torah is the directives (instructions) of YHWH our ALHYM. Can an unrighteous man enter the kingdom of righteousness? Answer that for yourself.

The same Day Star that was kicked from the Mountain of Yah is the same satan that oppresses and deceives the world. If you worship on his day of worship, how can you claim to be of the Light?

For we are not of the darkness, but of the light.

“all ye are sons of light, and sons of day; we are not of night, nor of darkness, … …4 But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you …” I Thes 5

The fable they sell you in sunday school is that we have an invisible devil enemy who cannot really be traced. This is part of the same deception. His story rolls along right beside the children of Adam. His mark is all over history, and it is easy to identify. The Nimrodian system, which is called Babylon, is the counterfeit to the Melchizedek order. Just as there have always been few righteous in the past, there are few righteous now. Since our great High Priest the Messiah is of the order of Melchizedek, if we really believe and follow Him, we are also of the order of Melchizedek. There are not many religions, only one satanic religion. In opposition to this world order is the Yahudim, the people of Yah, who are designated as sons of Elohim, children of righteousness, who follow His Law, and do not partake of the satanic system. It’s high time to separate from the darkness and move into His glorious Light.

Look it up, search it out, ask Him, read the word. The narrative speaks for itself, and cannot be argued with no matter how many church fathers or doctrines or arguments you throw at it. So you have grace? Shall you continue in disobedience and lawlessness that grace may abound? I think not. What are you going to do with the grace that is given? Every person who ever believed in YHWH also obeyed Him and His Law. Are you willing to take a plunge into the living waters and shake off the yoke of the Day Star and put on the light burden of His Law?

Five waited with oil in their lamps, prepared according to His schedule. Five others waited out of sync with the calendar of Yah, they ran out of oil and missed the boat. Which group are you in?

Bless and be blessed, Marsh

prophetofwar.home.blog

Day of Rest SABBATH Most people, when asked about when Sabbath became a sacred day, will bring up the Law of Moses and cite the verses that say not to work and whatnot.

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psychotherapyconsultants · 6 years ago

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The Masculinity Trap: A Science-Based Response to the APA Guidelines

Andrew was a 13-year-old boy who walked into my counseling office with a lot of issues. He had been diagnosed with a learning disorder and ADD, and his parents felt he might be depressed. Like many male clients, he would quickly decide if I as his potential counselor knew how to work with him as a male. If I did not, he would start trying to leave therapy in a few weeks or less. After normal intake, the first thing we did together was walk outside, talking shoulder-to-shoulder. Because the male brain is often cerebellum-dependent (it often needs physical movement) in order to connect words to feelings and memories, we sat down only after our walk was finished. By then, a great deal had happened emotionally for Andrew.

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Once in our chairs, we talked with a ball in hand, tossing it back and forth, like fathers often do with children. This cerebellum and spatial involvement help the male brain move neuro-transmission between the limbic system and frontal lobe, where word centers are. We also used visual images, including video games, to trigger emotion centers, and we discussed manhood and masculinity a great deal, since Andrew, like every boy, yearns for mentoring in the human ontology of how to be a man. I’ve seen hundreds of girls and women in my therapy practice. Few of them needed walking, physical movement and visual-spatial stimulation to help access memories, emotions, and feelings because most girls are better able to access words-for-feelings than boys and men are while sitting still. Girls and women have language centers on both sides of the brain connected to memory, emotion, and sensorial data, while the male brain mainly has word centers and word-feeling connectivity on the left side. Without our realizing it over the last fifty years, we’ve set up counseling and psychological services for girls and women. “Come into my office,” we say kindly. “Sit down. Tell me how you feel/felt.” Boys and men fail out of counseling and therapy because we have not taught our psychologists and therapists about the male and female brain. Only 15% of new counselors are male. Clients in therapy skew almost 80% female–males are dragged in by moms or spouses, but generally find an environment unequipped for the nature of males. Male nature, the male brain, and the need to contextualize boyhood into an important masculine journey to manhood are missing from the American Psychological Association’s new “Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men.” While the document calls attention to male developmental needs and crises in our culture, which I celebrate as a researcher and practitioner in the field, it then falls into an ideological swamp. Males, we are told, are born with dominion created by their inherent privilege; females (and males) are victims of this male privilege. The authors go further to discuss what they see as the main problem facing males—too much masculinity. They call it the root of all or most male issues including suicide, early death, depression, substance abuse, family breakups, school failure, and violence. They claim that fewer males than females seek out therapy or stay in therapy and health services because of “masculinity.” Never is the skewed female-friendly mental health environment discussed. The assumption that all systems skew in favor of males, not females, is so deeply entrenched in our culture today, the APA never has to prove it. Perhaps most worrisome, the APA should be a science-based organization, but its guidelines lack hard science. Daniel Amen, Ruben and Raquel Gur, Tracey Shors, Louanne Brizendine, Sandra Witelson, Richard Haier, Laurie Allen, and the hundreds of scientists worldwide who use brain scan technology to understand male/female brain difference do not appear in the new Guidelines. Practitioners like myself and Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, who have conducted multiple studies in the practical application of neuroscience to male nurturance in schools, homes, and communities are not included. Included are mainly socio-psychologists who push the idea that boys and men are socialized into “masculinities” that destroy male development. Stephanie Pappas on the APA website sums up the APA’s enemy; “Traditional masculinity—marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance, and aggression—is, on the whole, harmful.” Our job as therapists, the authors teach, should be to remove all but the ideologically sound “masculinities” from boys and men, and specifically remove masculinities that involve competition, aggression, strength, and power. How much longer can our society and its professionals pretend we are developing a saner society by condemning the very parts of males that help them succeed, heal, and grow? In the same way that it is misogynistic to claim femininity is inherently flawed, it is misandrist to claim that masculinity is also thus. And it is just plain wrong. Stoicism, aggression, self-reliance, and strength are helpful to human growth, healing, and self-development. Steven Pinker recently made this point when he asked the APA to revise its Guidelines, and put to rest “the folk theory that masculine stoicism is harmful.” And, a new study published in January 2019 in Psychology of Men and Masculinities, echoes Pinker, showing that boys and men who adhere to masculine training do better in life, are happier, and become better husbands, fathers, and partners. I am an example: I was a sexual abuse victim in my boyhood, and a very sensitive boy. My ten years of healing from the abuse came as much from tapping into masculine strength as it did from expanding my sense of self in the 1970s toward the feminine. Both are good; neither is zero-sum, but I could not have healed without the very masculinity Pappas finds suspect. Part of the problem with the APA guidelines is that, from a neuroscience point of view, masculinity is not as limited as Pappas’ assessment would have us believe. Masculinity is a social construct made of biological material, an amalgam of nature, nurture, and culture that forms an ontology in which a male of any race, creed, or ethnicity commits to developing and exercising strength, perseverance, work, love, honor, compassion, responsibility, character, service, and self-sacrifice. What professional in the psychology field would not want to embolden these characteristics? Most fathers and mothers would want counselors to embolden them because, as the APA authors themselves point out (somewhat unaware, I think, of their self-contradiction), fathering and mentoring boys in masculine development has been proven among the most important determinants of child safety, school success, and emotional and physical health. Not the erasure of masculinity but the accomplishment of it is required if we are to save our sons from the crises outlined in the APA guidelines. Without counselors and parents understanding how to raise and protect brain-based masculine development, boys like Andrew drift in and out of video games, depression, substances, half-love, and, often, violence. As all of us in our profession know, the most dangerous males in the world are not those who feel powerful but, rather, those who feel powerless. “Toxic masculinity” is a convenient academic avenue for condemning males who search for strength, healing, and love by conflating things bad men do with an ontology that is necessary for human survival and thriving. The masculine journey is not perfect and expanding what “masculine,” “male power,” and “man” mean to a given family and person is a point well made by the APA authors, but trying to hook mental health professionals into this ideological trinity of false ideas—

*masculinity is the problem, always on the verge of toxicity *males do not need nurturing in male-specific ways because men have it all in society anyway; and *masculinity is not an ontology, a way of healthy being, but a form of oppression,

—ignores one of the primary reasons for the existence of our psychology profession: not just to help girls, women, and everyone on the gender spectrum be empowered and find themselves, but also to help boys and men find their strength, their purpose, and their success in what will be, for them, a complex male and masculine journey through an increasingly difficult lifespan. Sources

Amen, D.G., et.al., “Women Have More Active Brains Than Men." August 7, 2017 Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Halpern, D.F., et.al., “The Science of Sex Differences in Science and Mathematics.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest. August 8, 2007 Burman, D., et.al., "Sex Differences in Neural Processing of Language Among Children." March 2007. Neuropsychologia Benedict Carey, “Need Therapy: A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” New York Times. May 21,2011 APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men Stephanie Pappas, “APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys.” APA Monitor. January 2019 Steven Pinker. Male Psychology: What is Wrong with APA’s Masculinity Guidelines. Psychology of Men and Masculinities Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men’s meta-study

from http://www.psychotherapy.net/blog/title/the-masculinity-trap-a-science-based-response-to-the-apa-guidelines

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dutifullywingedpersona-blog · 7 years ago

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12 things every successful retail banker knows on Customer Experience

We are truly in the age of the customer. There is probably more buzz about your customer experience outside of your channels as they are inside it. I can imagine that running a banking operation can be incredibly difficult and complex.

My own personal experience as a customer with my bank has been delightful. I have had just one lasting relationship with my bank for close to 20 years now, while others have fallen by the wayside. I speak or write to only one individual (my relationship manager) in the bank, do everything online through the app or website, never called the call center in the past 12 years, never issued a cheque for over five years – took the digital route to save my own time and gain control. Same with my investment partner too. I wish life was that simple for banks.

Banks (and more broadly the BFSI segment) have the most interesting challenge in customer experience. Unlike many other categories, banks serve multiple product ranges, multiple customer segments in terms of value and customer demographics. To effectively win across journey points, across channels and touch points consistently, institutions need a very nimble approach to everyday improvement. LitmusWorld, a contextual conversations platform has made this simpler.

Through our work with over a dozen BFSI companies in the past year, we have found a few key ingredients of success. It is a short list of a dozen ‘rules’ amidst over a few dozen ‘must-do’ items that millions of consumers have told us through the contextual conversations. So, in no particular order of importance, here’s our short list:

The service-profit chain is more relevant than ever before. The 4 virtuous cycle steps of motivated employees – great service quality – loyal customers – profitable revenue should be the driving force. If you are studying the customer experience of a channel or a branch, start with what is the employee experience. Or at least start the linkages. Don’t let your organisation silos come in the way of a clear view of employee engagement leading to great customer experience.

Measure, measure, measure in context, measure in real-time, measure across the journey and measure continuously. Understanding emotions on a continuous basis through a quantification approach is the beginning of the improvement journey.

Start small but be sure to scale up quick as positive emotions from customers drive loyalty. According to the US Banking Customer Experience Index, 2017, 90 per cent customers from the direct banking industry who felt valued, advocated the brand.

No one has perfect consumer data – so don’t wait for the perfect level of data quality.

Go beyond measurement – Consumers need to be heard. If you are ever doing any market research and not acting on individual comments, you probably need to stop that now.

Get the right balance between spray-and-pray campaigns and contextual conversations. The world of one-way advertising and direct marketing is increasingly delivering very low ROI. Today’s consumers want to participate. Don’t let your size mislead you that it is not possible to have genuine conversations across the touchpoints. Clients normally tell us that they get less than 0.5 per cent response to their campaigns. Will contextual conversations do any better? We typically prove to them that a 5 to 15 per cent response is easily possible if we approach it with a genuine real-time process of action management.

Focus on journeys, not just touch points. Brands sometimes take a simplistic approach to CX by measuring performance across some touch points and not on others. Consumers are keen to get their tasks done and they need an ‘omni-channel’ solution to great CX.

Customer experience is a culture. It is not always that organisations have the right structure to enable great customer experience. Don’t let your organisation structure and silos come in the way of great customer experience. Keep a nimble central team that can play the orchestra and ensuring that the ‘main thing is kept the main thing’. True consumer experience issues escalate to inter-department rivalries and it becomes more important for the leadership team to keep the strong customer-centric culture above everything else.

Your call centre is NOT Your solution. Don’t get me wrong here. Some great managers run customer service departments in banks but the fundamental truth is, if consumers need to call you for help, something is already broken in customer experience. Brands with such large consumer base always find it difficult to provide a great experience at this channel. Its about time that you actively focussed on self-service channels and mobile apps. That is true for bank branches too.

Benchmark In, don’t benchmark Out. Your CEM platform should throw up insightful leaderboards on which branches are you winning the CX battle, where you are losing, which channels are you winning, what you are not, what products, what customer life stages – all of these throw benchmarks on how your top quintile hierarchies are doing, how your bottom quintile is failing you.

3 things are transforming the possibilities in customer experience – Mobile, Cloud and AI. Balancing security and speed is important, but most organisations are still choosing in favour of internal hosted infrastructure vs the cloud. Our only urge would be to constantly revisit this model – in today’s context if you need to keep pace, I am sure there are solutions balancing cloud and on-premise models that can be created. Our own tokenization server models help many banks preserve their PII while implementing our full-fledged platform.

Build Strong ROI evaluation metrics for your programs. Too often, CX programs lose steam because they disproportionately focus on measurement and research and too less on ROI. If your customer experience is creating advocates, it is time to ask them to bring in new consumers. They are probably only waiting for you to ask. Highly satisfied customers tend to invest more in their relationship with banks. According to Mc Kinsey, banking customers are seven times more likely to increase their deposits and twice as likely to open an additional account if they rate a bank as excellent (with a customer-satisfaction score of nine or ten out of ten) rather than average (six to eight out of ten).

“Best day, every day” philosophy of continuous improvement is embedded across our engagement with over 100 brands we work within the customer experience, employee engagement and performance marketing domains. Across the 30 million contextual conversations initiated, we’ve enabled business leaders across industries to dramatically improve their stakeholder experience. All in real-time and made simple!

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blackhatseoguy · 8 years ago

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11 ways to get feedback from your most introverted employee

I’m an introvert. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them this (I do a lot of public speaking for an introvert ), but I am an introvert through-and-through. When I need to recharge, I seek alone time as opposed to being around a group people.

As an introvert, I also tend to avoid questions that seem overly personal or require long, drawn-out answers. Honestly, it can feel draining to divulge so much of myself and talk all the time.

Early in my career, I remember how this played out at work: My boss at the time would ask me for feedback about the company… And I struggled to answer his questions candidly. As introvert, I never felt comfortable being 100% transparent with him about what I thought could be better in the company.

I’m embarrassed thinking back on what was probably viewed as avoidant, disengaged behavior. It’s not that I didn’t want to be honest — I just didn’t know how.

Little did I know that, on the other end as a manager, it’s possible to create a work environment where introverts like me can feel comfortable giving their feedback. Having studied this issue and gathered insights from thousands of employees we work with through Know Your Company, I now know how to build a workplace where quieter employees feel comfortable speaking up.

Here are 11 things you can do and say today to encourage even your most introverted employee to be more forthcoming with you…

1. Set up a time to talk in advance.

My former boss used to walk up to an employee’s desk and ask her, “How are things going?” or “Wanna go grab coffee in like 10 minutes and have a quick one-on-one?” While these seem like positive, well-intentioned gestures on the surface, I remember these “surprise” requests for feedback feeling abrupt and off-putting to me as an employee. As introverts, we prefer having time to reflect, process, and prepare what we might want to share. So asking for feedback on-the-spot without a heads up doesn’t jive. Instead, set up time to ask for feedback in advance. For example you might say: “Hey ____, I would love an opportunity to grab some time with you, and simply listen to what you think could be better in the company. Do you have any time later this week or next?”

2. Be clear on the “why.”

Are you asking for feedback to “check a box” because it’s something leaders are “supposed to do”? Or do you genuinely believe that your employees’ feedback is paramount to the business as a whole? If it’s the latter, make that clear. (And if it’s the former, here’s a bit of data to understand why employee feedback matters). Oftentimes, introverts like myself don’t speak up because it’s unclear why our feedback is being asked for and if it will be valued. If I don’t hear the “why,” then I’m not going to put in the extra energy to share feedback that already feels unnatural for me to share in the first place.

As a manager, you must reveal the “why” behind you asking for feedback and show your employees why their feedback matters to you. For instance, you can say something like: “The reason I’m asking for your input is because I truly believe your suggestions will help the company get to where it needs to be in the long run.”

3. Ask “what” instead of “any.”

When you’re asking your quieter employees for feedback, pay attention to the exact words in the questions you’re asking. Using the word “what” instead of “any” invites a greater response to a question. For example, when you ask, “Do you have any feedback on how the last client meeting went?” it’s very easy for the person to default and say “no.” But when you ask, “What could have been better in that last client meeting?” that question assumes that there are things that could be better. Asking “what” instead of “any” opens the opportunity for someone to provide a more honest answer.

4. “Time box” your question.

Give your employees a specific timeframe to contextualize their feedback the next time you ask them a question. This helps more introverted employees in particular think of feedback that is more concrete to share with you. I call this “time boxing.” For example, rather than asking, “What could we do better?” which usually leads to generic, vague responses, I’ll ask, “What’s something in the past 2 weeks that we could’ve done better? ” When you narrow that frame of reference to “the past two weeks,” it’s much easier for the other person to respond. She or he is now reflecting on just the past two weeks, instead of having to jog their memory for the past year or more.

5. Ask about “one thing.”

Not only do I try to contextualize questions to specific timeframe, but I try to ask about one thing, instead of leaving a question open-ended. For example, instead of asking, “What could we have improved on in that last project?” you should ask, “What one thing in the last project could we have improved on?” By asking for “one thing,” you make the question much less overwhelming for an introverted employee to answer. And the less overwhelming the question is, the more likely it is that you’ll get a candid, in-depth answer.

6. Ask: “I feel X didn’t go well. Would you agree or disagree?”

Another way to create a safe environment for your quieter employees to open up is to admit something you’re struggling with yourself. This is particularly helpful when you’re noticing radio silence from an employee. For example, let’s say you ask her or him, “What’s one thing about the last project we could have improved on?” And the other person is clamming up and can’t seem to think of anything (even though you asked about “one thing”). Try sharing something you think didn’t go well, and say: “I feel like I personally didn’t do the best job at X. Would you agree or disagree?” This vulnerability gives permission to the other person to be critical about something they might not otherwise be.

7. Look to the future.

People tend to be more honest when you ask them about the future versus the past. This is because giving feedback about the past can feel like a negative critique about what went wrong, while giving feedback about the future is seen as a forward-looking, creative opportunity to make things better. Use this to your advantage when looking to get honest feedback from a quieter employee. For example, you can ask: “Going forward, what’s one thing you think we should try doing as a company to improve our marketing?” instead of “What should we have done to prevent the marketing initiative from failing in the past?” See how the first question about the future seems much more positive and inviting compared to the second question about the past.

8. Bring a notebook.

Whether or not you consider yourself an avid notetaker, bring a notebook to your next one-on-one with your employee. When you have a notebook in front of you and a pen in hand, you’re indicating that you’re ready to listen, absorb, and take notes on the feedback the other person is giving you. It also demonstrates that you’re not entering the conversation with an already fixed agenda of what you want to get out of it. For an introverted employee, this is especially important, as it reassures her or him that the energy it will take to open up and give honest feedback will be worth it.

9. Say thank you.

Showing gratitude to an employee who shares a dissenting point-of-view is one of the most effective ways to encourage her or him to be honest with you… Yet it’s something we often forget to do. Get into the habit of regularly saying, “I appreciate that viewpoint” or “It means a lot to hear that” or simply “Thank you” every time an employee gives you feedback. When you do, you prove that candid feedback is welcome — even if it’s an opinion you might not outright agree with. Your quieter employees will be more willing to open up again the next time around, if you show gratitude for their input.

10. Be quiet.

Perhaps the best way to show someone who is more introverted that you want to listen to their feedback is to do that: Just listen. Be quiet. Don’t rebut. Don’t talk. Don’t think about what you’re going to say next. Just listen. Why? Typically, when you respond right away, you come across as defensive. And when you come across as defensive, it means you didn’t really want to hear the feedback. This will discourage an employee from sharing their honest feedback with you in the future.

If you do feel like you need respond, you can say something like: “I’m grateful to you for sharing that. Let me take some time to digest what you’re saying and get back to you.” Introverts in particular recognize silence not as an absence of thought, but as a space for deep thinking. They’ll respect that you’re not trying to counter every point or talk over them.

11. Let her or him know WHEN you’ll follow up — and stick to it.

The biggest reason why quieter employees tend to not be as forthcoming with feedback is because of the sense of futility: It feels futile to give feedback because no action will be taken. In fact, studies have shown that futility is the #1 reason employees don’t speak up at work. This means in order to overcome the sense of futility and get honest feedback from your employees, you must communicate how you’re going to close the loop about a piece of feedback that’s been given to you.

To do this, the next time an employee shares some salient feedback with you, try saying: “This is a helpful piece of feedback. I’m going to chew on it and get back to you by next Friday on how we’ll more forward.” Or if it’s something you can take action on immediately, you can say: “Because you shared this, I’m going to change X for our next project.” If it’s something that requires some time to think through, you can say: “Can we follow-up 2 weeks from now, and I’ll have an update on where I think we should go from here?” Notice in each of these examples, I’m very specific about when I will follow up with the employee. Make sure you do the same to show you’re serious about acting on their feedback or resolving their issue in some way.

These tactics are helpful not only in asking for feedback from introverted employees, per se. As managers, founders, and CEOs, we all have at least one employee who we wish we heard from more regularly: An employee in our company who we might not see all the time, an employee who we haven’t developed a strong personal rapport with yet, or an employee who we’re dying to know what she or he really thinks.

The next time you’re wanting to get honest feedback from one of these employees, try a few of these 11 suggestions. It’s as simple as setting up a time to talk in advance or bringing a notebook (or both!).

You’ll hear more honest feedback from your employee than ever before.

If you’re looking for a way to continually get feedback from the employees you don’t typically hear from, take a look at Know Your Company. We built Know Your Company with the sole purpose of creating a safe environment for quieter employees to speak up at work. Sign up for a free trial of Know Your Company today.

Lastly, if you found this post useful, please feel free to share + give it ❤️ so others can find it too! Thanks (And please say hi at @cjlew23!)

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askkopcommunity-blog · 8 years ago

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Rating The Super Bowl Commercials

Posted by Alexander Wolfe, Feb 3, 2008 10:06 PM

As always, the real contest at the Super Bowl was among the commercials. (Admittedly, the game, in which the Giant upset the Patriots 17 – 14, was exciting, too.) On Fox, there were some 50 ads, which went for upwards of $2.7 million for each 30-second spot. Based on the preponderance of beer ads, it must be an American truism that you can never be too rich or have too much Bud Light.

There were also a surprising large complement of tech- and Web-site ads, which gives me my excuse for blogging this Super Bowl ad report-card. Dell (Dell), Go Daddy, Garmin (NSDQ: GRMN), Careerbuilder.com, and T-Mobile were all represented, albeit in mostly tepid fashion.

In crowded marketplaces, as in life, sometimes the best way to get one’s message across is to speak softly.

That was the case with the best commercial; admittedly not a huge honor amid such a weak field. Nevertheless, my winner is “Doritos Sing Along,” which stepped back from the smart-ass ad agency meme to feature a new singer, one Kina Grannis, doing her song, “Message From Your Heart.” There’s an interesting back-story here: The ad came out of Doritos’ “Crash The Super Bowl Challenge,” which Grannis won, along with a contract from Interscope Records.

In a less high-minded vein, I’m forced to admit that the most memorable ad was “Booooood Light.” This commercial for Bud seemingly attempted to flip stereotypes about non-English-speaking Americans on their ear, but only ended up reinforcing them in the most boorish manner. (Which is why this also was probably the worst among the Super Bowl ads.)

Here, then, are my ratings, in the order in which the commercial appeared during the Fox broadcast (tech ads noted via red titles):

1) Bud Light Dinner Date Fire-Breathing Guy. Unusually well-manner guy — presumably he hasn’t started tanking up yet — having dinner a deux at his date’s apartment. Demonstrating his biggest skill before the meal is served, he lights the candles the way most people blow them out. But then her cat enters the room and, being allergic, his sneezes ignite the rest of the room. Smokin? A little. B

2) Audi Godfather. Stealing a scene from the Coppola classic, a guy wakes up screaming, but to a car grill, not a horse’s head, in his bed. Interesting, if contextually misplaced, reference. Points for reinforcing the automobile’s brand; I’m mean, who even knew Audi was still a factor in the U.S. market? B

3) Diet Pepsi Max Announcer Guys. SuperBowl announcers Troy Aikman and Joe Buck appear on screen, so you almost think the game didn’t cut to commercial. But no, they’re “announcing” the intro to a commercial. A boring commercial, which doesn’t tip its hand until way too late to get me excited about Diet Pepsi Max. Pass me the Diet Coke. C

4) Animated Salesgenie Guy. I’ve always wondered about Salesgenie.com. Do you get 100 free sales leads, or do you get 100 free leads that work? The guys from Glengarry Glen Ross want to know. D

5) Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. House ad for Fox series about a superbabe with a steel plate in her head. (I’m not rating the house ads or the public-service announcements.)

6) Bud Light Cheese Wheel. Guys acting stupid over football and beer in the kitchen, while the pretty girls are left alone in the living room. What’s wrong with this picture? The commercial’s mildly effective, though, at tying the watery beer brand to youthful male camaraderie. B-

7) UnderArmour Nation. Another ad which was hard to place, I’m thinking, this has gotta be a Nike ad. Not the strongest brand when your ad’s look-and-feel suffers from such apparent me-too-ism, even more so when this company apparently occupies a unique niche as a purveyor of form-fitting athletic wear. C

8) Bud Light Screeching Animals. A bunch of rodents and an owl wailing as a car speeding down a winding country lane comes dangerously close but manages to avoid turning them into road kill. Not driven by a Bud Light drinker, I hope. What was this one about? Couldn’t tell until the end, when the Bridgestone tire logo appeared. B-

9) Doritos Sing Along. The one straight commercial which didn’t need schtick to make its point. The ad wasn’t about the chip, but rather has a new singer, one Kina Grannis, doing her song, “Message From Your Heart.” Very nice. A+

10) Prudential Retirement. Not memorable, though one might wish that these ads would be the ones that’d stick with you, rather than the booze commercials. We’d all be happier in our old age. C-

11) Derek Jeter for Gatorade. Who doesn’t like Derek Jeter? Plus, there’s no steroid taint. This one wasn’t flashy, but it’s effective. B

12) Go Daddy. This one hints at the Web domain registrar’s infamous Super Bowl ad of several years back, where a busty babe was poised to drop her top before a committee of superannuated Senators. (Hope they had a CPR kit handy.) This time, race car driver Danica Patrick, seen on a video screen — how meta is that? — threatens to peel down the zipper on her top. Why? Still, you gotta hand it to these guys: How many domain-name sellers are known to the general public? Undoubtedly just this one. B+

13) Buy Dell. A funky, MTV-generation commercial which picks up Dell’s new Red product theme. It moves, and is short and to the point. B+

14) FedX Carrier Pigeons On Steroids. Birds gone wild attack the city, prompting white-male middle manager to suggest that his younger minion pick FedEx (NYSE: FDX) for his future shipping needs. Huh? C+

15) Cars.com Doofus Death Match. A twenty-something buyer comes to the used car lot armed with data on his planned purchase, salesman doesn’t give him a hard time, so he says: “Good, otherwise I’d have you fight Klondor over there in a death match inside the wheel of fire.” Who says creativity is dead? For all that, I knew that this one was for cars.com right from the get-go. For this reason, it gets a B+

16) Tide Job Interview. As this one unspolled, I was thinking it had to be CareerBuilder.com, because I’d read they’d purchased a commercial. For CareerBuilder, this would’ve been cute, since it had a guy inappropriately talking past his interrogator during a job interview. However, since it was for a stain removal pen by Procter & Gamble’s flagship detergent brand, not so much. C-

17) Budweiser: Hank The Horse. Oh, I get it, he’s a Clydesdale, and he’s pulling a freight train, to the theme from Rocky, the better to prove he’s worthy of joining the beer-toting horse team. You know, if they spent one-fiftieth of the money they pour into beer commercials on medical research, they could cure cancer in a week. B

18) Iron Man, the Movie. Robert Downey Jr. is out of rehab and CGI-buff as the latest Marvel super hero to hit the silver screen. Coming this summer.

19) Toyota (NYSE: TM) Corolla. The high point of this very muted car ad is that the voice over was by the Peterman guy from Seinfeld. C

20) George Clooney, Leatherheads. Another movie ad.

21) Garmin GPS. Some kind of French vibe going on, with a Euro car driving through some non-American looking city, an actor dressed up like Napolean, and French rock ‘n roll in the background. Sorry, I only know Ca Plan Pour Moi. B-

22) CareerBuilder: Follow Your Heart. A throbbing, disembodied heart leaps off a keyboard and makes its way into the bosses office. Ah, this is the CareerBuilder.com ad. That sound I hear is Monster.com not being worried. C-

23) Thriller/Life Water. I really should know who that model bopping with a bunch of lizards to strains of Michael Jackson’s Thriller is. Naomi Campbell, right? (Nah.) A fun little commercial, in spite of itself. Loses half a grade since I still don’t know what Life Water is. A-

24) Yukon Hybrid from GMC. “Never Say Never.” To what, high gas prices? This commercial was so muted, it made me wonder what kind of internal constituency hybrid technologies have inside GM (NYSE: GM). Certainly, this is not one of Bob Lutz’s “gotta have” cars. D

25) Boooood Light. A continuation of Bud’s series where non-native speakers from India and China are initiated into doofus bad-beer lingo. This time, though, the ESL geek gets the pretty girl. This commercial is so idiotic and aberrant that it’s … memorable. So it gets a high rating, but please don’t tell anyone I said that. A

26) Planter’s Cashews. Unattractive 30-something woman bops down the street to strains of Frankie Valley’s 1967 hit, “You’re Just Too Good To Be True.” Grabs a handful of Planters nuts, still looks the same, but suddenly all the guys are chasing her. See, it’s not just about looks! Kinda heartwarming, actually. A-

27) Charles Barkley for T-Mobile. The cellular service provider is doing the hard sell for its “Friends and Family” plan, with the former basketball star calling his son, or maybe Dwayne Wade, or maybe both. I couldn’t really tell. Yawn. Hey, I’m still waiting for Sir Charles to run for the senate. C-

28) Justin Timberlake for Pepsi. The once and current pop star is hurled into the air, through traffic, and all about the city, literally, but survives. Dating Britney couldn’t have been this rough. B+

29) Doritos Chair Guy. Guy in chair eats Doritos, gets beaten up by guy in giant mouse suit. Forgettable. C

HALFTIME

30) Cars.com. Now our data-laden auto buyer is threatening to have the recalcitrant dealer’s head shrunk. Hey, it wasn’t funny the first time, but I get the “cars.com” tag, which is presumably why they paid the $2.7 million. A-

31) Salesgenie Panda. Now they’ve got an animated panda named Ling Ling, doing a Charlie Chan voice, pimping for the sales-lead site. In most workplaces, including mine, that wouldn’t be allowed. D-

32) Shaquille O’Neal Vitamin Water. The basketball star wins a horse race and gets a cold, nonalcoholic beverage as his reward. Most memorable moment: Little kid in stands inserting finger up nose. Decent (the ad, not the pick), but not Super Bowl-worthy. C

33) Bud Light Cave Men. In ad terms, this one is an oldie but oldie. D

34) Carmen Electra/Ice Breakers Gum. The breath-freshener preferred by “D” listers? D

35) Alice Cooper/Richard Simmons Bridgestone. In the second chapter of this tire saga, our winding-road driver has passed the animals and finds a couple of celebs in his path. There’s a couple of hundred bucks in it if you get them both, buddy. (I originally thought Alice was Ozzy Osborne, until a commenter below corrected me. Makes more sense; Ozzy doesn’t need the work.) B-

36) CareerBuilder’s Wishing. The job site tries to move the needle in its battle with Monster with this “Wishing Won’t Get You A Better Job” ad. Doesn’t. C-

37) E-Trade Baby. Toddler in high chair buys stock on line, upchucks. Like you or I, after we’ve checked our 401(k) balances the past few weeks. B-

38) Bud Light “Flying.” The watery brew now gives you the ability to fly, the ad posits. If you’ve been chugging every time a Bud ad has come on during the game, well, yeah. C

39) Music Girls For Sunsilk. Marilyn Monroe, Shikira, and Madonna for some kind of hair product (I couldn’t figure out whether it was shampoo, or what, from the site.) Bet only two of them have used it. B

40)Stewie Griffin for Coke. The Family Guy character, as a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon, vies with Pluto {correction: Underdog) for a Coca-Cola, but Charlie Brown snaps it up at the last minute. Where’s Lucy when you need her? B

41) James Carville and Bill Frist for Coke. Whaaaaaaaat on Earth is this? One of the most off-putting commercials I’ve ever seen. What demographic is this one aimed at? Dead people? Pass me a Pepsi. Please. F

42) Toyota Sequoia. “The dishes will have to wait” is the theme of this one, as our SUV owner goes out for a spin. About as flashy as your average Toyota. B

43) E-Trade Baby 2. This kid’s diaper must be leaking by now. B

44) Taco Bell. Just what you want when it’s a nail-biter of a fourth quarter and the Giants are up 10 to 7 over the Patriots. C

45) Gatorade: Man’s Best Friend. A very big dog slurps up Gatorade from his water dish. And this is supposed to turn me on to their drink how? C

46) Will Ferrell for Bud. The egregiously unfunny comedian pitches the watery brew in surprisingly humorous fashion. Best is Ferrell’s close: “Bud Light. Suck One.” A

47) Hyundai Genesis. Straight car commercial; gets the message across. B

48) Victoria’s Secret. The game’s almost over, promises the tag line, as a beautiful babe tosses a football askance. Maybe Tom Brady’s after-party. I give it a wishful-thinking B-

49) Fat Guy for Amp. The Red Bull competitor gets the almost Full Monty, as a hip-hop-dancing tow truck driver chugs the energy drink to get “amp’ed” enough to jump-start a stalled car. This all makes sense in the world of $2.7-million Super Bowl ads. B+

Here’s the Kina Grannis video:

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brendagilliam2 · 8 years ago

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How conversational interfaces are innovating banking

It’s probably fair to say banks aren’t particularly popular these days. What is Capital One doing to help change people’s feelings about their bank?

The first step is designing for people and keeping humans – with their full, messy stories – at the centre of everything we create. Every year we gather as a company for a TED-style speaker series where we share customer stories and insights, so we never forget who it is that we’re making financial products better for. It’s what drives us, and why so many of the most talented designers I know are working at a bank right now. Money is emotional, and it enables us to live our best lives. What better design challenge is there?

Capital One acquired UX pioneers Adaptive Path a couple of years ago. How is that influencing the design culture at Capital One?

We love Adaptive Path. Even before they joined our design team, Evelyn Huang began to teach and institutionalise design thinking at Capital One, so now you see 350 designers all working for a bank versed in things like human-centred design and service design, doing empathy research, testing early and often with real people.

Steph Hay, the head of conversation design at Capital One, leads what is now a weekly international meeting, where all 350 designers across the US (and a few in the UK) get together on a video conference and talk about our discipline and craft. All of these things together create a culture of empathy that starts with each other and ultimately drives us to create great things for our customers.

Another thing that we’re learning from Adaptive Path is how to be good hosts. Their events like UX Week have been beacons for how to run a good conference. This year, Brandon Schauer, Steph Hay and myself have programmed a new conference called Humanity.AI where we’ll gather people to talk about designing for the future of bots in a human-centred way. And when you have a powerhouse like Adaptive Path behind you, it makes you much more confident that the event will be great.

In her session at Generate New York Mindy Gold will talk about what it means to design for conversation

How does Capital One use conversational interfaces?

Right now we’re really digging into character development, which is particularly interesting in the context of money. How we use data and AI impacts the development of our character and how the character speaks with our customers. Sometimes, there’s a fine line between a character that feels like a stranger (who knows just a little too much about you) and one that you connect with in a meaningful way because it has context about your life and your personal relationship with money. And since we deeply believe that money is emotional, it’s important to get that right.

When we do, we move beyond transactional interactions that sound robotic and cold, to contextually relevant, meaningful conversations that evoke emotion and lead to relationships rooted in trust, empathy and understanding. Through character and conversation, we’re creating an environment where customers are comfortable and an experience that has them paying attention with their hearts as well as their minds. Stay tuned for more on that.

Do you think the industry is finally making headway with chatbots design?

If I’m being honest – and I know my buddy Chris Messina (of hashtag and conversational commerce fame) would agree – we’re not yet at the point of super-awesome best-in-class chatbots. We’re in the phase of exploring the cultural contexts that are making them more prevalent, testing use cases that work well for the new medium and weeding out ones that don’t feel authentic, and figuring out what new job roles this elicits (for example, the head of AI Design at Capital One was producing movies at Pixar not so long ago). So this isn’t me being pessimistic, it’s actually a really fun time of prototyping and it’s okay that not everything’s going to be great.

Could you give any examples of chatbots or conversational UIs that are getting things right? What do they do well? I’ll throw some opinions out there. I should note that these are not Capital One’s opinions, by the way, just mine.

Slack /Giphy

Slack looked at the way people were already accomplishing tasks on their platform and designed a bot by learning from existing behavior. In this use case the task just happened to be sending the Dawson crying emoji to your coworker who’s complaining about the office being too cold.

Things I like:

It does one thing, and it does it really well

It simplifies a user flow by integrating discrete tasks so I only have to do one thing. Instead of going to giphy.com, searching for a GIF, copying and pasting it, and then sending it, it’s all done in one place

It’s delightful as heck

Giphy lets you send GIFs to your colleagues easily

Digit

Digit helps me go on more vacations and that’s all I need to say about that. Kidding. But it does. Digit learns from my behaviour and helps me save money by putting small amounts from my checking into a savings account. And then when I want to go on vacation I have a slush fund to pull from and I feel less guilty!

Things I like:

It meets me where I am by integrating into my messages. I don’t need to go to a separate app to do things like check my savings balance or transfer money

It designs for tensions in a thoughtful way. When you’re building a bot you have to think about things like, ‘What does this thing do in a push mode vs. pull mode?’ and ‘What interactions should it have daily vs. less frequently?’ I think Digit does this well, and I know that because it rarely annoys me

Digit lets you check your finances from within your messages

DoNotPay

In the fall of 2015, 19-year-old Joshua Browder launched a bot to help reverse parking tickets in London and New York City. So many things are amazing about this, but having chatted with Joshua a little bit (he’ll be speaking at Humanity.AI), he’s totally the heart of this story. In the first six-ish months, the bot had been used 9,000 times for parking tickets, so then Joshua started thinking of new use cases, like helping refugees seek asylum.

Things I like:

It started with one use case and nailed it before moving on

It guides you through a complex process, allowing both experts and novices to get the same value out of the experience

It keeps real human needs at the centre, instead of delivering pizza faster (which, I know, has its own value)

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career and what have you learned from it?

I received one of the most valuable pieces of feedback early on at IDEO – someone said, “We asked you to come in and help install some windows and instead you started ripping up the floorboards.” And though I didn’t realise it, it was true. I’d be asked to come in and polish some work, and the next thing I knew I was taking it all apart and trying to tell them they were wrong about some of their most foundational stuff. In trying to enforce my own sense of ‘truth’, I was the brakes and the bulldozer, and I wasn’t helping anyone move forward with momentum.

Now my mantra when it comes to design – especially in teams – is to be generous and generative. Or as one of our design leaders says, “Make stuff before you debate stuff.” I’ve learned recently that one of my top five strengths (according to StrengthsFinder) is ‘Arranger’. So I use that to remind myself that often the process is more art than science. Try. Build. Do. Design to prove new things, not disprove them.

What can people expect to take away from your talk at Generate New York?

On the conversation design team at Capital One, we use our expertise in storytelling and communication to bring humanity and clarity to every conversation we design, and that work manifests in happier teams, lower call-volume costs, higher NPS, and – most importantly – healthier customers.

Over the past three years, we’ve coached teams to design more meaningful, tailored experiences that feel like personalized conversations. Now with CUIs, a meaningful conversation isn’t just part of the design, it IS the design.

In this talk I’ll share some conversation design principles, best practices for adapting those to the new medium of CUIs, and some examples of what makes bots successful and not so successful.

What can designers do to make the world a better place in 2017?

If you’re reading this and have an idea and think I can help, please reach out to me. After the 2016 US election, many people were distraught. One thing I read that made me feel better was a Fast.Co article about how designers will be integral over the next four years. We tell the best stories. We structure information in a way that is consumable. We make sense of messes. We are inclusive, empathetic, and we figure out solutions based on real human needs. I think designers are going to be so important in 2017.

I recently saw a project where someone hacked an Amazon Web Services IoT button to make it easy to donate to the ACLU. Let’s do more of that – let’s design for buying toilet paper and also protecting our civil liberties.

If you can’t make it to Generate New York, there’s also a Generate San Francisco conference on 9 June featuring a talk about conversational interfaces by HUGE’s MD of Experience Design, Sherine Kazim.

This post comes from the RSS feed of CreativeBlog, you can find more here!

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from Brenda Gilliam http://brendagilliam.com/how-conversational-interfaces-are-innovating-banking/

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blackhatseoguy · 8 years ago

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11 ways to get feedback from your most introverted employee

As an introvert, I also tend to avoid questions that seem overly personal or require long, drawn-out answers. Honestly, it can feel draining to divulge so much of myself and talk all the time.

I’m embarrassed thinking back on what was probably viewed as avoidant, disengaged behavior. It’s not that I didn’t want to be honest — I just didn’t know how.

Here are 11 things you can do and say today to encourage even your most introverted employee to be more forthcoming with you…

1. Set up a time to talk in advance.

2. Be clear on the “why.”

3. Ask “what” instead of “any.”

4. “Time box” your question.

5. Ask about “one thing.”

6. Ask: “I feel X didn’t go well. Would you agree or disagree?”

7. Look to the future.

8. Bring a notebook.

9. Say thank you.

10. Be quiet.

11. Let her or him know WHEN you’ll follow up — and stick to it.

You’ll hear more honest feedback from your employee than ever before.

Lastly, if you found this post useful, please feel free to share + give it ❤️ so others can find it too! Thanks (And please say hi at @cjlew23!)

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