#stop using those same communities for clout! you suck

[pbpsbff]

not a big fan of “reblog if you think (marginalized group of people) are valid” posts because if i have to reblog a shitty post to make that apparent on my account then idk. i’d feel like i’m doing something wrong!

[thebookishbruja]

I've never watched Heartstopper, so in that sense, I don't go here. But in the sense that I am a bisexual with opinions, I do go here. (I saw that they forced that boy to out himself as bisexual and I have thoughts.)

I just think it's highly ironic that people have taken the inclusive, positive (as in, do something actively to add to the world) concept of 'Own Voices' and made it exclusive, negative (take away stories, police people's identities), and then used it for clout, pretending that they have any moral authority.

LMAO THAT'S ABSURD. YOU ARE ABSURD.

The entire point of 'Own Voices', and having people tell their own stories is to bring more people into the fold. It is to prevent the all too common bullshit of studios and publishing companies and powerful straight white men, of benefiting from marginalized communities while at the same time, leaving them out in the cold.

The point of Own Voices is to put a stop to the common Hollywood phenomenon of "oh look at that brave straight man willing to debase himself and play gay for a role" and lauding him with awards. Meanwhile gay men can't even get in the door because 'you're too femme' or 'no one will believe you as a straight man.'

The point of Own Voices is to address the fact that there are a ton of unemployed trans people because 'we don't know what to do with you' and 'we don't think you are versatile enough to play cis people' or 'we don't need any 'niche' writers, thank you' meanwhile they've got cis people picking up Oscars for the 'brave incredible' act of pretending to be trans for a few months. It's having people lining up to suck you off because 'oh look how much you care about those people' but in real life, they wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.

The issue is, the vast unemployment problem for visibly queer people, and then, us having to watch the people who exclude them parade around acting like their savior.

The answer is always…if the money is flowing, you need to make sure little dams are not being built to keep it from flowing to the communities you are profiting from.

The solution is to make sure marginalized people are in the room in positions of influence, so that the characters aren't mocked. To make sure the stories are told in an authentic manner.

If you are telling queer stories and you haven't got any queer people on the project? That's a problem. If you are making money off communities and excluding them? That's a problem.

Own Voices is a principle that targets the capitalist element of producing art. It looks at the people who fund the project. It takes into account makeup of the project over all. It makes sure that the capital is flowing to the places it is benefiting from.

IT IS NOT an exclusionary principle of 'you have to be of that exact queer identity in order to depict that queer identity'. That's literally absurd. It inhibits empathy. It restricts storytelling. And, it goes in the dead opposite direction of where we want to go!!

AND it is actively homophobic and destructive and malicious, because it leads to policing people's identities. It leads to outing people. It leads to reductive, predatory, behavior, it leads to harassment. And for bisexual people, it creates this constant hostile environment of we cannot just be. We cannot just exist. We have to keep proving ourselves.

I remember when I told one of my friends that I was bisexual. (I talked about this in my day of bi visibility post) She told me she didn't believe me. That all girls like to kiss girls for boys attention and for fun. She told me when I ate pussy, she'd believe me. (lmaooooosob I know!) And this is a common common common attitude towards bisexual people. "I don't believe you. Perform a sex act." PEOPLE I'M NOT KIDDING THIS IS ABSURDLY AWFUL AND HORRIBLE AND YES SOMETIMES FEELS DARKLY COMEDIC BUT IT IS SO HARMFUL AND IT IS SO COMMON. STOP IT.

Now, is there nuance to the question of casting queer people in queer roles? Yes. Of course. As a feminist I would be remiss to not mention trans women. (actual feminists give a fuck about all women not just cis women, just, you know, for the record) For example, with trans women, the most overbearing stereotype of trans women is that they are men in disguise. There are quite literally legal defenses that are built on it that have (and continue to allow) men to murder trans women and escape punishment in America. That they are just men under women's clothes, tricking you. Waiting to spring the truth on you. They are literally murdered behind this vicious bigotry. When you have a cis man playing a trans woman, you risk feeding into that stereotype.

Now. There is more nuance on top of that. If the project involves trans people, trans women are writing it, is it well done, is it humanizing? It may have value! But people also aren't obligated to feel overjoyed about it either. People are allowed to point out that connection and to prefer to see a trans woman in a trans woman role.

BUT THERE IS LITERALLY NO NUANCE ANYWHERE that allows you to take this concept of own voices, and use it to say "you must always be x to portray/write x or we will harass you." THERE IS NO EXPLANATION ANYWHERE that allows you to require people to 'prove' their identities to you. There is LITERALLY NO WIGGLE ROOM for you to demand people to perform sexual or romantic acts for you to 'prove' who they are. That is disgusting. And it is actively hostile to bisexual people.

And when you fix your fingers to get on twitter and say that a boy (HE IS BARELY 18) is APPROPRIATING queer identity because he hasn't fucked a dude for you on camera, I mean lol you don't give a fuck about queer people. STFU lmaooo. You don't look like Marsha P Johnson, you don't look like Harvey Milk. You look like a petty, small minded little asshole with too much time on their hands, trying to get clout on the internet. (I also suspect there is some horny fetishizing behavior at play there because people want to watch him kiss other boys. This is the whole....please understand the difference between fiction and reality. Enjoy fictional queer relationships all you want. Find men hot together all you want. But do not treat REAL LIFE ACTUAL men and boys like they are your little performing dolls ffs. Gross, people. Gross!!)

Anyway,

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE QUEER TO PLAY QUEER. We can demand broad and consistently inclusive projects, AND not be utter assholes and police people's identities. I promise you. We can. In fact, it is perfectly logical, consistent and normal. We can include gay men and bisexual men in projects that depict them, without bullying children. I promise you that. It's easy. It's simple as pie my dears.

And if you get online and use the language of social justice to be a heinous little bully, I hope you know everyone else can see you for what you are. No one thinks you're smart or that you care about social justice. You're just a clout chasing asshole and you need to stop.

[savnofilter]

no nuance november!

a/n: which is basically you have a bunch of opinions and dont explain any of em' and let your followers discuss them (much more suited for tiktok sjsnj). i'll be doing it since it compiles with many topics like fandom, racism, lgbtq+, politics and etc. i highly encourage people to do this simply because why not? feel free to send your own opinions n stuff, i wanna know what my followers think!!

disclaimer!! ⚠️ all of these are broad, not pin pointing certain people or situations. even though these are my opinions these were all in fun and have been collected over the years and will change as time goes on. nothing is sugar-coated so thread carefully. feel free to agree or disagree. :)

warning(s): mentions of racism, p*do micro aggression, fetishizing, toxicity, abuse, politics, labelling, mental health, cancelling, fandoms, ages.

key:

iswis = i said what i said, no explanation to that one.

whe = will happily explain.

stop sexualizing gay/m|m/yaoi relationships. it's not only demonizing to the males, it's also very fetishizing. (iswis)

most times /10 yall root for "feminine men" when you really mean white boys and fetishised asian men on social media. (whe)

bullying someone isnt educating. you either cant cope with the fact people have different opinions from you or you have a struggle with things either always never going your way or the opposite. (iswis)

straight people will never have a say in lgbtq+ issues. stop inserting yourself. (iswis)

white people will never have a say in poc issues. stop inserting yourself. (iswis)

poc will never have a say in black people issues. stop inserting yourself. (vice versa but im black and it happens more often to us lol) (iswis)

using the defense, "but black lives matter, right?" when one black person does something bad isnt facts, youre racist. (iswis)

fandom adults need to stop gatekeeping the target audience (demographics) to animes/shows. (iswis)

poc people can be racist. (whe)

even if a certain site was adult doesnt mean that every adult wants to see your porn. either keep it to yourself or tag properly. (iswis)

saying shit like, "im more xyz than you and im not even xyz" is not only disrespectful but disgusting. just because you believe in a popular opinion of a group does NOT suddenly make you a person in it, get over yourself. (iswis)

dont hate on people for the same things you have done at a young age. (ex: writing fanfic, seggs, etc) (iswis)

blaming a minor/someone mentally unstable for being abused is not only victim blaming, but it enables the notion that people who go those things that they wanted it. (iswis)

going off of that last point, if you do victim blame for situations and been in them yourself you either still havent coped with what you went through and still think it was your fault when it wasnt. (whe)

it's stupid people hate minors for being undeveloped when adults are the reason as to why people get traumas, abused and quite literally are destroying the world right now. (iswis)

gen z is white as fuck. (iswis)

early 2000s kids are equivalent to 90s kids who use to post, "only 90s kids under this" and post something that 2000-5 experienced. (iswis)

dear 2005+ kids, abusing harmful substances and having sex doesnt make you grown. stop it. (iswis)

adults, being able to post porn doesnt make you grown or mature, stop believing that it does. (iswis)

just because it's a coping mechanism doesnt mean it's healthy. (iswis)

avoiding conflict doesnt mean youre mature. if there is an active problem and you know ignoring it will only benefit you and not the actual problem at hand that is selfish. (iswis)

black women generate clout for everyone. when we're hated the person gets patted on the back, someone appreciates black girls they are praised, and people of many groups repeatedly steal from our culture. (iswis)

YES THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING BLACK AND AFRICAN AMERICAN. (whe)

if youre black you do not have to be democrat OR republican, there are many other parties. (whe)

i do not trust either parties, no minority should. (whe)

this 2020 election was not a win for poc people no matter who won. (iswis)

we do not decide whether or not what to do on columbus day. it is up to the natives themselves. (whe)

pointing out other countries (current) faults is not racist. although the issue can be misconstrued, if proper research is done it safe to say it's an educated observation or opinion. (whe)

privilege heavily varies; ex, americans are seen as privileged, while the people who live in it experience a disadvantage because of the societal standards. within the country itself. (whe)

americans, stop saying that america is the worst country and there are other countries who are suffering much worse than we are. yes sometimes it sucks but do not label it as the worst. (iswis + whe)

white people are privileged and will always be until we break the racist issues deep rooted in EVERY community. (iswis)

9/10 when marginalized groups like (women, lgbt) are mostly focused on white people and never address the poc counter parts. using the excuse "well idk much about that" is not good enough and just promotes pseudo-white supremecy. (iswis + whe)

do not use aave. (iswis)

aave is not gen z language, stop calling it that. (iswis)

gay men (white especially) use black women and get praised for the things we do that are called ghetto. (iswis)

yes it is offensive if you touch a black persons hair with or without permission. we are not your pets nor zoo animals. (iswis)

and yes it is offensive if you see a black women with beautiful hair and assume it's fake or ask, "is it yours?" "is it real?" (iswis)

using jailbait as an excuse to lewd minors is just as disgusting. (iswis)

beauty standards for women is rooted from pedophilia. (iswis)

using other pedophilic relationships as an excuse to ship yours is disturbing and you shouldnt be near children at any capacity. (iswis)

everything doesnt need a label. (iswis)

the fact that gangs have been criminalized while mafias havent is racist and feeds the stereotypes that poc are criminals. (iswis)

people are more forgiving to white predators than to poc (neither are good but people let white off the hook more often). (iswis)

if youre okay with your friends being racists, creeps, abusers you are just as bad. (iswis)

although you can like what you like, making dark content shouldnt be as glorified as much as it is. (iswis)

some kinks do deserve to be kink shamed. (iswis)

adults need to be more held accountable when held in situations with minors. (iswis + whe)

everyone perceives the world differently, many people will see the same things you see differently. (iswis)

calling people crazy for questioning the things around them doesnt make them crazy, youre just asleep. (iswis)

the human body can function without a soul. (iswis)

stop disrespecting christianity. you wouldnt do the same with hinduism, islam and etc. (iswis)

the bible was altered by white men and the true meanings have been misconstrued. (iswis + whe)

bullying someone who you THINK is problematic is not excuse to be hateful. youre just scum and feel the need to justify your actions. (iswis)

not everyone has to like you and dont need a reason. (iswis)

just because you dont like someone doesnt mean you have to make a show of it. be mature and move along. (iswis)

yes callouts/cancelling has its place but it's never done right. (iswis)

"cancel culture" wasnt a thing till white people joined in. (iswis)

dont cancel someone for stuff they did years ago. bringing it up is important but not allowing them to understand, reflect, and apologize is not only bullying it defeats the purpose of bringing awareness. (iswis)

big writers need to stop complaining when one fic or a few dont do good. not only does it rub in small writers faces, it shows that if you need people's validation to write you probably shouldnt be writing. some works will be popular and some will flop, get over it. (iswis)

stop witch hunting & crucifying people for shit you have done or your friends have done and going "uwu sorry" when you get caught. (iswis)

90% people believe content creators with bigger audiences. (iswis)

people spontaneously posting, "uwu take care of your mental health" doesnt mean that they actually care. (iswis)

people are always quick to judge people with real mental health such as depression, anxiety, adhd, and etc are always the one to turn and pretend to be exactly what they just mocked. (iswis)

dont have kids if youre not going to take care of them. (iswis)

stop baiting baby otakus (people freshly getting into anime) into watching cp like yarichin bitch club or boku no pico. they are minors, it's not funny, stop it. (iswis)

stop being protective & toxic over anime characters. if they were real they probably wouldnt even like you. (iswis)

just because someone is your friend doesnt mean that they arent toxic or abusive. (iswis)

start believing when people show their true traits. (iswis)

trauma happens in different forms, stop saying something didnt happen because it didnt go the way that has commonly happened or the way it occurred to you. (iswis)

stop saying minors should "know" while also being the loudest to say that our brains arent even developed till 25. (iswis)

the adult age should be raised to 20 years old. (iswis + whe)

tos should be raised to 16 years old. (iswis + whe)

minors take "18+" & "minors dni" out of your bio. (iswis)

yelling at minors for finding the content you freely put out without any care is your fault not theirs. (iswis)

there are plenty of adult sites that are more confined for adults but you guys ignore them because youd rather get popular on writing erotica on a popular social media platform. (iswis)

trying to cancel someone over one mistake and or blowing said things out of proportion is toxic and stupid. (iswis)

if you take someone saying they need to distance themselves for mental health reasons personally and make them feel bad for it youre an actual shitty person. (iswis)

if someone disrespects you, you have the right to say whatever you want in response. (iswis + whe)

stop hypersexualizing everything (adults especially). (iswis)

the excuses of, "they look grown" "i mentally think xyz" "theyre fake" is creepy and weird and yall should come up with a better excuse. (iswis)

yes i do believe minors should be writing for minors only, but i will not give a shit if an adult does if said characters are aged up in every work sfw or not. (iswis)

stop saying teens cant go through traumatic things and cant experience mental illnesses. it just shows that you werent cared for as a child and never get the therapy for it. (iswis)

gen z has a very colonized idea of activism. (iswis)

feminism was never for all women until the rest of us forced ourselves in. and even now it's still an issue whether or not people realize it or not. (iswis)

poc solidarity doesnt exist as much as we try to make it happen. (iswis)

colorism is an issue, and no you will not tell me otherwise. (iswis)

the hot cheeto girl is offensive and demeans black & hispanic culture. (iswis)

stop bashing minors for breathing, just say youre mad youre not young anymore and move on. (iswis)

black men are the white people of black people. (iswis)

there is no reason as to why you anyone would refer to black people as "blacks". nor should you (non-black people) be arguing whether or not to say nigga even with the hard r. (iswis)

if you (pertains to white people) think white privilege doesnt exist but go on to make fun of or ignore minority problems you are the living and breathing example of what we are talking about. (iswis)

loli/shotas are fucking disgusting and people who like it deserve to be tortured for eternity. (iswis)

seriously, stop using theyre "fake" as an excuse. (iswis)

if youre comfortable with being hateful to someone but still consider yourself a nice person because you do the hate minimum to be a decent human, youre either a narcissist or have a god complex. (iswis)

coons have no say in black issues. (iswis)

people need to stop blaming the "home wrecker" for ruining the relationship when it was the s/o's fault as well. there is no home to enter without an owner. (iswis)

stop saying any asian man yo see reminds you of a haikyuu character and or any anime character. it's racist. (iswis)

stop saying any asian person looks like a kpop idol, it's racist. (iswis)

stop downplaying and invalidating when black women go through traumatic things. not only does it promote that we have to be strong and save everyone else's problems, it says that we dont have emotions and cant be a victim which is disgusting. (iswis)

if you say shit like "minors curate your own experience" then go and turn around to say you REFUSE TO TAG YOUR SHIT YOU ARE LITERALLY MAKING THE PROCESS OF CENSORING HARD! (iswis)

white women are just as much of a problem as white men. only difference is sex keeping them apart. (iswis)

stop saying kpop is racist. expecting artists from a different political progression to understand that things can be offensive is bland. (iswis)

people accept boy groups fuck-ups more than they accept girl groups. and most times out of ten, the males are worse. (iswis)

if you engage in nsfw conversation with a minor, it is your fault they responded. (iswis)

anyone can be abused. (iswis)

stop coddling adults and bullying minors. (iswis)

most of you females have internalized misogyny and dont even know it. (iswis)

you can callout issues without having to drag a group of people. same with uplifting. (iswis)

if youre fine with being a sheep unfollow me. (iswis)

seven deadly sins is not a good anime. (iswis)

there is a difference between boku no hero academia fans based on if they call it "bnha" or "mha". (iswis)

ships literally are not serious stop harassing people over ships. (iswis)

do not harass creators of series because they do something with THEIR story. make your own. (iswis)

stop saying horikoshi sexualizes his women too much/mineta is the worst when you guys enjoy shows like one piece, hunter x hunter, naruto and etc. (iswis)

minors often or not are sheeps (heres your sign you dont have to agree with everything other people say). (iswis)

just because minors can be mature doesnt mean that they are adults. stop treating them as such. (iswis)

we should give more voice actors in the asmr (idk what to call it) community more recognition instead of just one. (iswis)

writers are the ones that send hate to other writers. anon hate is so corny and if you do it that goes to show that you are truly a toxic person wearing a fake mask of kindness when youre not on anonymous. (iswis)

stop being mean to smaller writers because they did not have as much luck as you. (iswis)

stop blaming your readers because one story flopped. (iswis)

ignoring someone's shitty actions encourages them to do it more. (iswis)

going to school and getting a job is much harder now than it was before. (iswis)

being an adult doesnt automatically make you mature. just because youre older doesnt mean youre better or you opinion is more valuable. it just shows that you werent heard when you were younger. (iswis)

there should be no reason as to why someone of the age of 18 should be having any romantic relationship with someone who is a minor. (iswis)

hawks is a shitty character. (iswis)

bakudeku isnt toxic. (iswis)

just because bakugo is in a ship, doesnt mean it's toxic. (iswis)

stop shipping male characters together simply because they have screen time together. it's creepy. (iswis)

almost all of 1-a students have ptsd and anything close to the after effects of being traumatized. (iswis)

no, editing characters to be poc is not racist. youre just mad they arent "white" when they never were. theyre asian and come in many colors as well. (iswis)

wanting to only be with a different race to get a mixed baby is fucking disgusting. (iswis)

stop ignoring pedo relationships between older women and younger boys and or with older women in general. (iswis)

males can be abused, stop telling them to suck it up or that they cant go through things. (iswis)

shaming young females about things they cant control is misogynistic and is damaging to their identity and shouldnt be excused. (iswis + whe)

not all females have to shave. (iswis)

what you dont like in someone is the projections you see of yourself on other people that you dont like about yourself. (whe)

popular bl stories extremely misrepresent gay relationships and frankly it's disgusting that theyre boosted as much as they are. (iswis)

jjba isnt ugly, you just watch animes to sexualize the characters. (iswis)

it's shitty that anime and kpop only became cool once white people stated to like it and made it mainstream. go gatekeep family guy or something. (iswis)

if you have been anime fan for a long time you were with bullied/teased for just generally liking it or you were a weirdo who recreated shit from it. (iswis)

weaboo and weeb were bad terms till we made them positive?? literally otaku is the word for it but we use weeb instead lol. (whe)

normalize and promote educating someone without going straight to bullying them. (whe)

haikyuu isnt really a good manga/anime nor is the art style the best but the characters make up for it. (iswis)

stop misusing terms and stop nitpicking definitions to manipulate your narrative. (iswis)

toxic positivity is manipulative and if you have to make it back handed you are not as nice as you like to make it seem. (iswis)

studying a major doesnt mean youre actually good in the subject. (iswis)

normalize people realizing their past mistakes and growing from it. (iswis)

do not self diagnos unless you actually feel like you may have that issue and would like to seek help. mental health is not a personality trait. (iswis)

stop projecting onto people. (iswis)

stop misusing terms and stop nitpicking definitions to fit your narrative. (iswis)

stealing any type of work should not be tolerated. (iswis)

constantly trying to trigger someone to go back to their old ways (being toxic, abusive, addiction, suicidal etc) after changing is toxic and manipulative. (iswis)

if you make jokes about hurting kids and or feel the need speak badly about them i do not want to speak to you. (iswis)

the human brain wasnt developed to understand complex ideas such as death or the universe. (iswis)

we will never truly know what is beyond our skies. (iswis)

thats all, thanks for sifting!

[thenewscover]

The Fight Over Police Use Of Facial Recognition Technology | News Cover

The News Cover: The majority of Americans appear in a facial recognition database, potentially accessible by their local police department and federal government agencies like ICE or the FBI. It's not something you likely opted into. But as of now, there's no way to be sure exactly who has access to your likeness. 

Over the past 10 years or so face recognition, face surveillance has moved from the realm of science fiction to the realm of science reality. But in light of recent protests for racial justice, facial recognition technologies have come under scrutiny for the way in which they're deployed by police departments around the country. Protesters worry they're being tracked, and communities of color say this tech will exacerbate bias. 

Nobody can get clear answers about who is using facial recognition and how. These technologies do not work the same across different groups of people. And oftentimes the people that they fail most on are those who are already marginalized in society. In response, IBM, Amazon, and Microsoft have all stated that they'll either stop developing this tech or stop selling it to law enforcement until regulations are in place. 

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And in late June, Democratic members of Congress sought to make these pledges permanent, introducing a bill banning government use of facial recognition technologies. But lesser known companies like Clearview AI, NEC, and Rank One plan to pursue business as usual, and say this tech has an important role to play in the justice system. If somebody violently harms somebody else, that is an ongoing threat to public safety and tools that can be used safely should be available. 

Whether or not they support a ban, researchers and activists across the political spectrum are increasingly speaking out about privacy concerns, algorithmic bias and the lack of transparency and regulation around this tech. I don't think we should take an approach that a technology is inherently good or bad. But I'm not comfortable at the moment with the lack of regulation, having this technology being used among law enforcement. 

This is a type of technology that has profound implications for the future of human society. And we need to have a real conversation about whether we can have it in our society at all. Facial recognition technologies use biometric information, that is body measurements specific to each individual, to match a face from a photo or a video to a database of known faces. This database could be composed of mug shots, driver's license photos, or even photos uploaded to social media. 

It's likely that you already use this tech in your daily life, as advances in artificial intelligence over the past decade have greatly improved its capabilities. Every time you use your face to unlock your smartphone, accept Facebook's photo tagging suggestions, or sort through a Google Photos album by person, you're seeing facial recognition at work. This isn't really the type of thing that lawmakers are seeking to ban, and some are definitely eager to see the everyday users expand. 

I think there are a lot of applications that are potentially quite exciting. You know, going to a grocery store and being able just to walk out of the store without having to pay, you know the store just identifies you and automatically done it to you. But whether you're tagging photos or searching through a vast government database, it's the same technology at work. And that has others concerned. We're worried that people are going to start to normalize this technology and that could bleed into acceptance on the government side, which is extremely concerning. 

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Real-time surveillance of video footage is often considered the most worrisome use case. Right now, the tech is far from 100 percent accurate. But in theory, using facial recognition on video feeds would make it possible to alert police when a suspect shows their face in public or track where anybody is going and who they're associating with. 

China and Russia already do this, and some U.S. cities, like Detroit and Chicago, have acquired tech that would make it possible. Detroit's video surveillance program started in 2016, when security cameras replaced at eight gas stations. In 2017, the department bought facial recognition software, giving them the capability to scan these cameras video feeds. Over the last, under three years, i t has rapidly expanded. 

They have surveillance helicopters, access to drones, traffic lights with surveillance capabilities. After heated debate, Detroit banned the use of facial recognition on live video, so the city cannot track people in real-time. Chicago promises that it doesn't do this either. But throughout the U.S., using facial recognition on photographs is still common, though San Francisco, Boston and a number of other cities have outlawed all government use of this tech. So we should not forget, right, San Francisco was the first city to ban face recognition. 

The place where the sausage is being made did not want the sausage, right? Private companies like Walmart, Lowe's and Target have also trialed facial recognition systems to catch shoplifters, though they say they're not currently using it. And U.S. airports are starting to roll out face scanners at the gate, so passengers need not show their passport. There's also potential to use similar tech in targeted advertising, something that Walmart is experimenting with in partnership with a startup called Cooler Screens, which infers a shopper's age and gender in order to show more relevant ads. While the screens don't identify individuals, it's not hard to imagine a system that could, a thought that puts many on edge. 

I think many people will be concerned and creeped out, but will eventually suck it up and get used to it. If someone can come up with a way, in the private sector, to ensure that this is not easy for criminals or the government just to take advantage of, then I can see people becoming quite comfortable with it. The global facial recognition market was valued at 3.4 billion dollars in 2019, and it's projected to grow steadily over the coming years. 

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However, in the wake of George Floyd's death and protests against racism and police brutality, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM made headlines for pulling back on police access to facial recognition technology. But while these tech giants certainly have clout, as well as other significant ties to law enforcement, they're not actually the most important companies in this specific market. First off, IBM did not have a real product in this space. 

Microsoft and Amazon, neither of them were big players in the law enforcement space. They did not have a large line of business there. So one could call it a bit of virtue signalling. After announcing a yearlong moratorium on police use of its facial recognition software, called Rekognition, Amazon says it doesn't know how many police departments actually use it. Rekognition is widely used in the private sector, but previously only one law enforcement customer was listed on its website. 

For its part, Microsoft says it does not currently sell its facial recognition software to police and that it promises not to until there are federal regulations in place. IBM took the boldest stance of the three, promising to stop research and development on facial recognition altogether. But this tech wasn't really generating much revenue for the company anyway. 

But many lesser-known companies are providing this technology to the police on a large scale, and they've made no such promises to stop, upsetting privacy advocates. My view is that it's fundamentally incompatible with democracy and with basic human rights to have technology like facial recognition in the hands of law enforcement. Clearview AI is a huge player in this space. Founded in 2017, Clearview has amassed a database of over three billion images, scraped from millions of websites and social media platforms from Venmo to Facebook. 

Its catalog is far more comprehensive than anything that came before it, and the company says it's used by over 2,400 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. at the local, state, and federal levels. Because we're like the largest provider in the space and we've had so much experience, we feel that it would be a shame and a really big mistake to take it away, because all these crimes would go unsolved. 

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The way Clearview works is simple. You just upload a picture and the system searches its database for matches. So Katie, do you mind if I show you how it works on your photo that you supplied earlier? Go for it. So it just takes a matter of seconds. You pick the photo that you want to search, which is that one. And as you can see, it's uploading it. It's finding photos. And here there's eight photos out of over three billion that match. 

And you can see they all come with a link to the original. I see a picture from my personal website, an old news article, CNBC's website. All things I knew were out there, but not things I knew were a part of a facial recognition database, accessible to thousands of police departments. The Clearview system itself does not reveal my name, but the links point to websites that do. So we don't actually identify someone, we help you identify someone if you're an investigator. 

While Google, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have all sent cease-and-desist letters to Clearview, the company says that because these images are public, it has a right to compile them. At the end of the day, it's a search engine just like Google. So we think it's a little bit hypocritical of them to then send a cease-and-desist. But fundamentally, it is publicly available information. 

Other players include NEC, the 1 21-year-old information technology and electronics giant that sells its software to about 20 U.S. law enforcement agencies, and Rank One, which says it supports about 25 different law enforcement agencies. We think face recognition is a tool that empowers people when used correctly. If it wasn't our technology, it absolutely would be somebody else's technology. 

Advocates have raised the alarm on facial recognition for years, and now their concerns are gaining momentum. One of the most oft-cited issues is the general lack of transparency when it comes to exactly who is using facial recognition and for what ends. I wish I could tell you how many police departments are using this technology. Researchers at Georgetown discovered that Detroit was one of the cities using facial recognition. 

They had been using that technology for over a year before the community got wind of it. So because we don't have this transparency, I'm not able to answer this question of house widespread this technology is. That lack of transparency ma y be by design. The concern here I think from the police is, we don't want to show our hand to criminals. 

The idea is, well if we have to be more transparent about what technology we use, then people will adapt their behavior. And I think in a functioning democracy that takes civil liberties seriously, that's a price sometimes we have to pay. What's more though, the tech just isn't always accurate. And when it's wrong, it reveals bias. A 2018 study by the ACLU tested Amazon's Rekognition software on members of Congress, running their images through a mugshot database. It incorrectly identified 28 of them as criminals. And while only 20 percent of Congress members are people of color, they comprised 39 percent of the false matches. 

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This report came on the heels of a 2018 study by Buolamwini and her co-author, Timnit Gebru, which demonstrated that software by Microsoft, IBM, and Chinese company Face++ frequently misgendered women and people of color. I was working on an art installation that used face-tracking technology. It didn't work that well on my face until I put on a white mask, and so that led to some questions. Others that did de tect my face labeled me male. I am not a man. B uolamwini and Gebru found that the systems they tested were nearly 100 percent accurate when identifying the gender of white men. 

But when identifying gender in darker skinned woman, Microsoft's system failed about 20 percent of the time and IBM's system failed about a third of the time. After the study came out, Microsoft and IBM trained their algorithms on a more diverse set of faces and improved their error rates. But when B uolamwini conducted a follow-up study using Amazon Rekognition, it still m isgendered dark-skinned woman nearly a third of the time. Amazon, unlike Microsoft or IBM, actually actively attempted to discredit our research. 

And we were really fortunate that more than 70 A.I. researchers and practitioners came to say no, this is rigorous, peer-reviewed, in fact even award winning work. The issues that are being pointed out are core to our field. Like Amazon noted in their critique of B uolamwini's study, Brendan Klare, CEO of Rank One, says that gender identification is a different technology than matching a face to a database of faces. 

Obviously gender estimation is sort of a different type of application, but there never should be errors like that. And the errors they showed were egregious and those are not representative of the technology. Our technology is about 99 percent accurate on gender estimation across all races. He says that claims of algorithmic racism and sexism are misleading. 

It's an important topic. It's one that has been susceptible to a lot of misinformation. Both Rank One and NEC recently made the news after their algorithms misidentified a black man in Detroit as a suspect in a shoplifting case. The man, Robert Williams, spent 30 hours in jail. Klare says that Rank One's technology was misused in this case, because a match is not probable cause for arrest. The investigating officers did not collect independent evidence. 

If the case of Mr. Williams is not an isolated incident, if there is a pattern that emerges, we will get out of this market. Clear view says a recent test showed its system is 99.6 percent accurate and exhibits no racial bias whatsoever. Previously, the ACLU has called Clearview's accuracy assertions absurd and challenged the company's testing methodology. 

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The Detroit police chief, facing scrutiny over Williams' arrest, said that if the department relied solely on its facial recognition software, it would misidentify suspects about 96 percent of the time. The huge difference in stated accuracy rates vs. actual accuracy rates could be because these systems are tested using relatively high quality images. 

But when they're deployed in the real world, security camera footage can be too low quality to yield accurate results. But just for context, the most important thing, this is much more accurate than the human eye. And I think there's only beneficial things that can happen once you get to this level of accuracy. But even if a system could achieve perfection, others can think of a whole host of not so beneficial consequences. 

It's dangerous when it works and when it doesn't. But even if the technology worked 100 percent of the time, it would be extremely dangerous because at its logical conclusion, what it really does is eliminate privacy and anonymity in public space, which is something that no free society should ever tolerate. Some are more optimistic about the role that facial recognition could play in society. Facial recognition technology could be exculpatory evidence. Like, look Your Honor, I know I'm being accused by three witnesses, but there is an image of me at Walmart at this moment. It cannot be me.

What if there was a facial recognition system and it only included images of children that parents had volunteered in the case of a missing child? That's the kind of situation where I imagine that people see the value of it. But still, others ask, are the serious drawbacks worth it? There is the scenario that we would hope to be true, which is this flawless system is used in a police force that doesn't have a history of systemic racism. But this is not the world we live in. 

And so I can understand wanting to use whatever tools are available, but we have to ask, are we bringing the correct tool to the job? And so it's one thing if oh, it worked out how you thought. But at what cost? How much data did you have to collect? We believe it's extremely dangerous, in a predominantly black city especially. It doesn't make any sense to double down on something like this at a time when the nation is calling for some systemic changes within policing and to undo systems of brutality and racial violence. 

What most experts agree on is that at the very least, more regulation and transparency is needed. Many also say this tech should not be used to help solve low-level crimes like shoplifting or drug use, though some concede that it may eventually be appropriate to use facial recognition on still photos to help solve violent crimes or kidnappings. But using it on video footage is often considered a red line. 

We believe strongly that the use of facial recognition algorithms to analyze video data either in real-time or to look back at historic video footage, that that ought to be banned permanently in the United States, that we should just never be engaged in that type of surveillance. In general, a federal moratorium on this tech could garner significant bipartisan support. 

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Last year, an ACLU poll in Massachusetts revealed that nearly eight in 10 voters supported a statewide moratorium, which included 84 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Independents and 50 percent of Republicans. We're kind of in this sweet spot right now where the technology is not quite good enough to really be able to effectively achieve the goal of cataloging every person's every public movement, habit, and association. But it's getting there. So this is the perfect time, actually, for lawmakers to step in and say, you know what we're just going to draw a big bright red line in the sand here and say, we're not going to go any further until we have a deliberate conversation about this. 

But some worry that Big Tech will use this time to lobby for overly permissive regulations. We're going to be on the lookout for legislation that is clearly backed or sponsored by companies like Amazon and Microsoft, where their lawyers and lobbyists have gone over the text to make sure that it's friendly to their business model. In some form or another, facial recognition is likely here to stay. We'll probably continue using it to unlock our phones and tag our pictures. 

It may become commonplace to use it to confirm our identity at the airport or grocery store checkout line. Maybe we'll even come to accept a world full of hyper-targeted advertising screens. Name one technology we've developed and stopped. This genie is not going back in the bottle. It really is just going to be coming down to how well do we manage it? But to what extent governments and police departments can access this technology remains an open question. And that's where the real debate lies. 

Some think the political environment right now presents a real opportunity to ban a ccess to this tech at all levels of government. I think in Congress we have a real shot at getting strong legislation to put at least an immediate moratorium on local, state, and federal use of facial recognition. And I'm optimistic that we will get a ban on facial recognition in the United States. 

Others predict legislation will stop short of a ban. I think there will be many members who take the view that the technology has many worrying applications and civil libertarian issues, but that it also is ultimately useful with the right guidelines in place. And crafting these guidelines soon will be essential, because technology like facial recognition is advancing at a rapid clip. 

It may be too late to turn back the clock altogether, but some privacy advocates say that this debate is emblematic of the idea that just because we can build something doesn't mean that we should. Sometimes algorithmic justice means you don't make it, you don't deploy it. I think these technology companies need to have a sit down and ask themselves before they innovate, is this something that necessarily needs to exist in the world? 

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[thejoerussoexperience-blog]

In Memorandum: The Mobile Apps That Shaped Our Lives

Intro

Similar to The Newspaper Delivery Boy, people, gallons of milk, American made vehicles, and candles: nothing lives forever. Even if it’s an app on the internet. Which is just a damn shame, because there were many apps that shaped and changed the lives of all kids born in the latest decade of the 20th Century.

This blog post is dedicated to the apps that we’ve lost, or have just died because they’ve become futile.

Rock Band (2009-2012)

This game was a spin-off from the incredibly popular console game of the mid 2000′s. The game was self-explanitory, you basically just had to form a band and absolutely rock out to the computer generated crowd.

The game died because you couldn’t sing the songs, (I mean you could, but it wasn’t a feature of the game) and the app only blessed players with about 25 songs or so.... which isn’t impressive at all.

Skype (2003 - ???)

Skype was one of probably millions of communications apps available to iPhone and Android users. It was available on the PC since 2003, but did not become popular for mobile devices until around 2010.

Skype still exists, in the same way Blockbuster still exists. You couldn’t ever videochat with more than one person, and I think you were restricted to like 8 people in an audio-only call. Buy hey, at least Skype gave users the ability to call mobile phones and landlines. Great for prank calling!

Angry Birds (2009 - ???)

Another awesome app that came about right before the start of the 10s, Angry Birds was the game that everyone had on their iPod Touch devices.

Fun Fact: The game started around the Swine Flu epidemic, so the creators decided to use pigs as the enemies.

Technically the franchise of Angry Birds is still alive and thriving, but I promise you from the bottom of my modern heart that no person between the ages of 16-115 is playing this game. Time and place for everything.

Temple Run (2011 - ???)

Another one of those mobile games that’s technically still available, but I promise you that nobody in the world is playing it anymore.

Kik (2010-2019)

Ask any person my age about Kik, and they’ll tell you some crazy tales about groupchats and texting random strangers. Holy crap, this is probably one of the most legacy apps of the 10s. It was just like any other app, like AIM (which arguably is an app that shaped our childhoods, but only the older folks know about that one.)

To this day, many young adults still stay in-touch with the people they’ve met over Kik. Shout-out to Dallas from Texas and Maya from Minnesota!!!!

Technically, the app is still available for downloading... but only 19 employees are working for the company, and the founder of the app sold the company to another person, and is currently being sued by the SEC.

Farmville (2009 - ???)

Listen, I cannot tell you the premise of this game. I think it’s about micromanaging a farm. All I remember is all of those awful, disgusting, spam-y notifications that would flood and devastate my Facebook notifications.

Please just die already.

Flappy Bird (2013 - 2014)

If there was ever an anomaly of an app to exist in all of our lives, it’s gotta be Flappy Bird. The premise game was simple: Tap the screen, and fly through the pipes. However, the game was so difficult for some people. Like the arcade games at your local Pizza Hut though; there was a lot of high-school-clout involved with having the highest score. (Mine was 189 and I bested everyone at my tiny high school, thus making me the Flappy-God of Onondaga Jr/Sr High School)

Unfortunately the creator was rumored to have been sued by Nintendo, (for the pipes) and the creator was also disgusted at how addicting the app became to people.

It really was the end of a era when the app was removed off of the store, but the app is one of the most copied in the iOS and Google Play store.

I hope someone makes a documentary about the history of the app, there’s definitely enough to go off of.

Microsoft Outlook (2015 - ???)

People still use this app, but it just sucks so much. If The City College of New York ever sees this, please for the love of all that is holy, stop using Microsoft Outlook.

Oovoo (2007 - 2017)

This is the app that blew Skype out of the water. You could videochat with up to 8 people! During its peak popularity in the early 2010s, it was definitely the best app around for chatting with multiple friends face-to-face.

With the emergence of apps like Zoom (Another app that needs to die ASAP) and Facetime, Oovoo just didn’t have a space in the marketplace anymore.

Pandora (2000 - ???)

Another app that still exists today, but has definitely hit its peak many years ago.

In 2014, Pandora was the superior way to discover music! iHeartRadio was around, but it was pretty horrible. iTunes was still around, but no 15 year old kid was willing to pay 99 cents for each hit song. That’s why we all destroyed our parents computers and used LimeWire!

Vine (2013 - 2017)

This is TikTok, but less cringe and not filled with losers. Oh yeah, this was the greatest app of many of our high-school carers. It not only gave rise to a whole new generation of online superstars, but many Vines are still quotable to this day by anyone within my age-range.

Seriously, go on Youtube and type in ‘Best Vines,’ and you’ll shortly realise after only a few videos that this app absolutely blew TikTok out of the water.

It’s just a shame that Twitter gave it the kiss of death bought it out in 2017, ending the most iconic app of all time.

[topicprinter]

I want to tell you the story of how I over committed myself to do an event last year, it went bad- like really bad and when the smoke settles it will be over $100,000 loss.Last year after coming back to America in early March I still had this crazy idea in my head to launch an events based startup that would take over the extreme sports world. There was all kinds of new things I had never done involved in this new venture like…-Building a new team and working with new people -Traveling to and learning a new country I had never been too -New hurdles, walls and roadblocks -& so much more...I had successfully run events in the past, so I came into this with an ego that thought I could handle anything.In the end things went so bad that it was almost embarrassing, the event fell apart by the 3rd day and we had to end up refunding everyone, the team ran off with all the gear and film equipment and I was left holding the bag for everything. To be clear, that isn’t me being a victim, I take full responsibility for what happened, it just flat out sucked and truly almost broke my will.I talked about this “massive failure” to only a handful of people and now after 4 months it's time to talk about more of the lessons I learned that can hopefully help you avoid mistakes we made.Also I think these lessons are applicable to any business that requires building a team and serving the public.Here are the big things I learned…1. Past Results DOESN’T Dictate Future Performance-Just because I had run successful events in the past, seen successful events run, been a part of past teams and had a good amount of experience in that arena DOESN’T guarantee anything actually, it does shore up confidence from your inner team and investors but overall it's not necessarily a safer bet.I’m a prime example of this, which screams the importance of a documented process for as much as you can for you and your team for any business. The reading and re-reading of this would of pointed out many of our blind spots I am 100% sure of that now.I went out to Japan a month in advance to make sure that I could orientate myself with the culture, the route we would be taking, the airports, food, car rental process, ATM issues/withdrawal limits etc. I thought I was thinking of everything but I wasn’t….The biggest thing I missed was that wires from my US account to any Japan bank account took 1 full day and to Australia took sometimes 3 days to show up, and those would both be a regular required thing for us around the event.This was a showstopper especially considering a few of the businesses we were working with looked at us as competition and were not willing to give us the same treatment they gave others with our billing even though they personally knew many people who were working on our team and friends who had all vouched for us in advance.Next an assistant would’ve worked wonders to run out and grab us all food, ensure that there was enough water at all times, the attendees personal needs were attended too etc.That job was given to me which again if we had spent the time to really prep, would’ve been glaringly obvious that I couldn’t handle this.Lastly I didn’t take into considerations how I would be performing if things did start to go south and have my own safety net in place to help support me if my state started to shift, which it did and by the 3rd day I was cooked.2. Blind Faith Has Its Limits- I am all for leaps of faith, being delusional and going for it but when you use that as an excuse not to do the actions that are required for success then you most likely won’t succeed.I had plenty of time to reach out for help along the way and get people involved that could of helped, from friends to investors but I didn’t do enough here. Then because of my half assed effort when it came down to the wire, I was making calls desperately in the middle of the night Japan time for anyone and everyone who could help me. This hurt my reputation and clout more with my network than if I had 50 people who hated me and talked about me on social media.One of the big barriers I knew we would have going into this was money, I knew it would be close and tight, this is because I sold the event at a cheaper price than I knew it would take to actually put it on and that I could pull personal money out and use that plus the business model looked really sexy so assumed we would get investors or “something” to swoop in and save us.This is by far the biggest hit to my ego, this was flat out fucking dumb!I had 1 investor reach out from my network after a public FB post (agh the power of Facebook) who actually I thought would be a great fit, we shared similar interests, he was involved directly in the market this company was in and I personally liked him. This seemed like a good business move and it looked inevitable that we would move forward but on the first day of the event I got the email that he wasn’t going to move forward.Again if I had rolled with my backup plan to pull out more personal money, then I would’ve had that already, but instead it didn’t show up till day 4 or 5 of the event. By then the whole event was over and I had driven a van full of people who probably hated me back down 4hrs away to the airport for them to hangout the last few days before their return flights.3. The Buck Stops With You! No matter what happens, and I repeat NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, it all falls on YOU! Most people suck at taking ownership it seems these days and I totally get it because it's so easy to just point at something/someone else and say “no it was because of that!”.For the first 30 days after the event was over I was yo-yoing between owning what had happened and attempting to blame things outside of me. I would attempt to blame other people, events, circumstances, businesses and things, then eventually I had cleared out enough of my emotions on the whole thing to accept that YES it does all fall on me regardless if the biggest and craziest conspiracy known to man had occurred, it was still up to me to make it all right and of course move on.Yes people will take advantage of you if you allow them Yes people will lie, cheat, steal and conspire against you Yes people will always want more if you offer itThis is life, accept this and keep moving.4. Filter Your Team- I made many mistakes here, a few go directly against even my own rules and SOP but due to time constraints and budget I framed as my ‘only option’. Let me just say this now, when you’re desperate you usually don’t pull the greatest talent and you’re usually working with a lot of clashing agendas because again the deal was originally created out of desperation. This is unspoken and unseen but it's there...Over the last 6 or so years I have been hiring and firing outsourcers and remote workers, that is in fact one of my first hustles when I started to make money on the internet. Funny how you can still fall for cognitive fallacy even when you’ve already made those mistakes in the past.Now I want to note that I wasn’t even that deep in desperation but I could see how that altered my normal process in a big way almost like a laziness, so I wasn’t running people through proper onboarding, I wasn’t spending ample time with them one-on-one to get them hooked on the long term vision of the company, I wasn’t testing and training them to get up to my speed and most importantly I wasn’t picking up on their agendas and anchoring their own personal goals back to what we wanted to do as a company.Lastly I was giving more and more responsibility too fast without actually testing to make sure they could handle that and even at times I didn’t even ask if they wanted that responsibility just assumed they did.Some of these people I had known from before, we hung out many times and I felt I had a basic understanding of who they were and what was driving them. That being said I knew they were essentially a big gamble because they were prone to drug use and I know how that can affect people's decision making abilities.Slow and steady wins the race, if you have a short window till your event then speed up the onboarding process but ALWAYS stick to your process, no need to skip because you think you need to.5. Expectations With Team & Customers- I didn’t convey proper expectations with the attendees which I think would’ve even come back to bite me in the butt if everything went smooth, there would’ve been questions of “why didn’t we get more” because there wasn’t enough talk of the baseline “stuff they got” for attending the event. I thought this was an advantage to leave it a bit “loose” but think it was the exact opposite.The biggest error I see here was the lack of clear communication I had with the inner team on their compensation for their work at the event. I feel this is what led to almost all of them running off with gear and equipment, as if that was their payoff for something they were “owed”.Around the end of the event because nothing was documented all but one of the team members were flat out making stories up about specifics in conversations that in fact didn’t happen but because there was nothing documented and I was already in a low mental state I couldn’t recall so it led me to waiver in my decision making ability in many of those conversations.I felt like an ATM at the end, as people just said “hey you owe me money, give me this or that” I just did as I was just exhausted over the whole thing.This is also what lead to a lot of the victim driven thoughts I had at first, thinking “how could people do this to me”, haha easy- they justified their crappy actions based off too loose of expectations and agreement.I hold the belief that people are predominately good, but if you push too much of someone's edges like what I saw happen here, they will react in very unpredictable ways like what I experienced here.6. Don’t Over Commit To Satisfy- At many points in the lead up and during the event I felt like I had said yes to things I really didn’t want to say yes too, I was way too attached to the event being a success and I kept writing it off these new promises like “oh what's another ____”.I remember thinking several times right after saying yes, “why did I just say yes” which usually when I do that I will call myself out immediately and respond with something like “actually I have no idea why I just said yes to that, I don’t know if we can _______ it will depend on ______ let me find out and give you a clear answer” or sit with the question for a minute and then just say ‘no’.Again this points out just how attached I was to this thing all working, that led to a lot of bad decisions and broken promises which will never sit well with people because almost all of us have a memory of someone we know/like/trust/love breaking a promise and those aren’t associations you want for your name or business, it taints the milk.7. How To Actually Move On- All of this leads to an obvious question that I get asked all the time actually….“How the heck did you actually move on?”That is followed by advice to others on how they can move on faster after their own massive flops.First off I believe that with anything in life the sooner you can accept the current reality, the better off you will be. Next you have to be able to bring up that memory in your mind without it triggering a whole bunch of emotional memories and feelings, in fact when you recall it, it should be damn near neutral in terms of triggering you.The hardest thing I think for people is to drop the inner judgements, that voice inside your head that just keeps replaying the event and how it all went wrong with its layers of self guilt, making you feel stupid and silly for this or that.We have to be able to look at just the facts, drop the opinion and emotional crap and get clear on it all.Part of really getting down to the level of acceptance is to attempt to see from others perspective that were involved and see what could be causing them to be acting/thinking/behaving in the ways you dealt with during the meltdown and even afterwards how they are behaving with you.You must also forgive yourself, bottom line is you probably feel you didn’t give your best performance based on what you’re capable of but you did do YOUR best for that event because it's what you in fact did. Can’t argue with the reality of what happened.There is tons of room to grow in everything so in terms of the things you did that you really don’t like, look at how you can change your actions to build in new habits that support the subconscious behaviors you do want to display because remember in the high pressure situations we are pulling from the subconscious.If you want to change how you behaved it's just like rewriting code, you must get into the code base and change the statements and calls.Lastly you need to keep moving forward!Just like in a football game when lets say the kicker misses a super close field goal, in that same game you will see him make a kick from 2-3 times the distance as the one he missed. Its that short term memory to the emotional trap that they have gotten good at avoiding that leads to such fast turn around in their performance.Some people are literally shocked when I tell them I am going to host the same event again this year and do it all over again but differently, often telling me “bro you got balls”. It has nothing to do with that, if you make a mistake like that you gotta work to fix it as best you can and then get right back out there again. I feel like people are too quick to give up nowadays, you stop when you’re done not when things go wrong.So I have no idea if this year's will be the smashing success that I want it to be but I know that we will not make the same mistakes we made last year or I won’t even put it on.In Closing I have held onto the details of this story for months, partially because I wanted to make sure we mostly had cleared up the debt that we accumulated but also wanted to give more time to see what else I can learn from the experience itself to better serve with telling the story itself. I am a believer that story is an amazing tool for growth and healing and I would never tell a story that I didn’t think could impact people in a good way through the mistakes and experiences I had.Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions or reach out.Rooting for you!Shameless plug to blog: http://OptimizingMan.com