Language: English

Annoying prayers

de
Adam Y Zhang - Good Kisser

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, … (Matthew 5:44, New International Version)

If someone annoys you (I won’t use the word “hate”, I think it’s too much, in my opinion, most people are annoyed by others, they don’t hate them deeply), you can try and make good gestures for them. Show a sign of good fate and behave nicely.

But such occasions tend to be rare – to do a small sacrifice, to do good, to actually act on your intent.

Yet, there’s a simpler way to love those who annoy you – pray for them.

It’s a placebo effect – if you wish the good of the other, you will get past their annoying behavior much more easily.

Citește mai departe

Some dark patterns

de
Marcin Krawczyk - After your 40's you know right from wrong

You open a chat with a website, and you see that “the operator is typing”. But sometimes you talk to a bot (computer Artificial Intelligence), and to mimic human behavior, they are also typing.

Sometimes, websites introduce waiting times and screen loaders just to increase the time a user has to wait to get to the page and make the page more desirable.

Some TV Shows in Romania are shown online one week prior to TV, just for you to buy online access.

Some social media websites don’t show you options to navigate in a video, you are forced to watch start to end.

Citește mai departe

Crosswalks

de
Adam Y Zhang - Attention

Crosswalks are only from place to place. On a road, there are portions just for cars (typical roads), and special places (the crossroads) where pedestrians and cars meet.

Assigning special places for crosswalks makes it easier for drivers to focus a lot when seeing a crosswalk and focus much less on other portions of the roads.

It’s the same with social media – you should generally try and block social media from your life and avoid being connected all the time. Then, from time to time, access it and get immersed into it. Separate the attention by grouping “lots of focus attention” and “no focused attention.”

Citește mai departe

Stressed humor

de
Basia Fikszyn - fun fun fun

There are some comedy movies in which the characters are quite stressed – The Office TV series, for example.

There are others which are more casual – Friends.

I think that a show should take you through a carousel of emotions and keep changing them.

The emotions should also be intense or have smart jokes.

At the end of the day, I tend to prefer casual humor more than a stressed one.

Citește mai departe

Being happy with the terms and conditions

de
Onasill ~ Bill - Onasill ~ Be Safe & Healthy - Milwaukee Public Library ~ Milwaukee Wisconsin ~ Historic Building

At one of the Romanian banks, when reaching the T&C area, one can read:

You have reached the Terms and Conditions. :)

Ai ajuns la Termeni și Condiții. :)

The text, in my opinion:
  • Starts with a personal success (“Oh my God! You reached that area!”). It feels like we’re with the winning team.
  • The emoji is a bit manipulative, making it sound like “Here’s the contract, now smile!”, but I think it’s fine, nevertheless.
  • Even if it’s a bank we’re talking about, I find the message friendly and open. On the other hand, going overboard with being friendly can lead to trouble with some users. I read about an online user who was very surprised to see an official bank using cherries, as a joke, in an official currency exchange page on a bank website. Friendly? Yes. Funny? Yes. A bit too much for a bank’s communication? Again, yes. Coming back to the original text, I find the emoji friendly & not too much aggressive.
  • The use of the emoji reminds of the MailChimp final confirmation message when sending a newsletter: an animation with a finger close to hitting the big red button. It’s an emotional charge.
  • The key takeaway – if you can spot important emotional aspects within the funnel, consider trying to answer them in the way. The bank, in case, does this nicely.
  • (PS: As a personal note, I don’t think that mentioning “in my opinion” / “personal note” is wrong in any way)

Citește mai departe

Each person is right in their own terms

de
Un grup despre suflet pe Facebook, foarte simpatic - Înapoi la simplitate

Two neighbors were fighting over a financial dispute. They couldn’t reach an agreement, so they took their case to the local rabbi. The rabbi heard the first litigant’s case, nodded his head and said, “You’re right.”

The second litigant then stated his case. The rabbi heard him out, nodded again and said, “You’re also right.”

The rabbi’s attendant, who had been standing by this whole time, was justifiably confused. “But, rebbe,” he asked, “how can they both be right?”

The rav thought about this for a moment before responding, “You’re right, too!”

(via »)

I think the joke is quite true, a lot of people can be right when looking at their situation and taking into account their specific context.

Citește mai departe

How can they both be right?

de
Alfred Grupstra - Mouth Wide Open

Two neighbors were fighting over a financial dispute. They couldn’t reach an agreement, so they took their case to the local rabbi. The rabbi heard the first litigant’s case, nodded his head and said, “You’re right.”

The second litigant then stated his case. The rabbi heard him out, nodded again and said, “You’re also right.”

The rabbi’s attendant, who had been standing by this whole time, was justifiably confused. “But, rebbe,” he asked, “how can they both be right?”

The rav thought about this for a moment before responding, “You’re right, too!”

(via »)

Citește mai departe

Bringing value

de
Lilian D - Time

One small tip – if you focus solely on closing deals, and not on customer satisfaction, in my opinion, you’ll tend to fail in a medium/long term.

Recurring clients, and having people who are happy buying your products/services are, in my opinion, the key to lasting as a business in place.

Try first to bring value to clients, and only then focus on acquiring new leads.

Citește mai departe

Techniques and strategies for winning at chess games with beginner-level players

de
svklimkin - Queen of pawns

I’m an amateur at chess, but I still like to play.

What are some techniques and strategies for winning at chess games with beginner-level players?

  • Coordinate your pieces, and make sure that, as much as possible, one piece is linked to the other.
  • Try to protect your King with either pawns or minor pieces (Bishops, Knights).
  • For the opponent’s King & Queen, try to put as much attack on them as possible (Rook on same files with a Queen, Bishop on the same diagonal with the opposite King, etc.).
  • Try to guess what it’s going to happen – if a pawn structure completely blocks a piece of yours, try to avoid that line/diagonal.
  • Always leave room for your opponent’s mistake – consider an easy mate, see if they don’t see a pin/fork, etc. A computer will almost never play assuming that you’ll make a mistake, but humans can do so.
  • Try to think while your adversary is moving.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much more than beginner games because this is my level.

Citește mai departe