Why digital advertising is broken and how we’re fixing it: (thread)

1/ Attention is a scarce asset. Yet, today’s advertising platforms are built on a model of interruption, forcing brands between you and your intention.

2/ Though ads are everywhere, people don’t trust them. Study after study shows, when you pay to reach people in an interruptive way, less than 5% pay attention.

3/ In today’s interruption-based ad model, the more money you spend, the more people you annoy. Advertisers are trying to solve this problem by spending more money and showing more ads but that only makes it worse.

4/ Ads interrupt us everywhere, leading to more people tuning them out. This is not a content problem. This is not a targeting problem. It’s a context problem.

I’ve been thinking a bit about being openly or obviously ‘other’.

My life experiences have been fairly unusual, & while I do enjoy communicating about this, it can also be quite othering being perpetually the odd-one-out in a group who folks ask to explain stuff.

THREAD

And while it’s well-intentioned, and I think it’s important that folks actually listen to autistic/trans/POC/etc people when it comes to understanding our experiences, it can also be a lot of pressure when I’m the only autistic nb non-white person in a group of cis white folks

And over time even when folks listen and are respectful, I feel that self conscious, and also worried that they are placing me on a sort of ‘pedestal of otherness’ that actually can stop them from truly empathising and understanding.

To start to understand folks who are different, it’s important to both acknowledge how different experiences can be(esp if yours are more ‘typical’), but also acknowledge that they are not SO different that you should not try to challenge yourself to try and understand better

We should not be stopping at “I can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be you” but instead always be trying, even with the knowledge that it might be difficult. This is the perhaps the kind of labour that NTs, cis, white, and other dominant groups owe marginalised identities

Interpretation of Financial Statements - preliminary filters.

1. Looking for sustainable competitive advantage:

When looking for sustainable moat, you wanna see consistency - in earnings, in having low debt, in having growing earnings, low spending in capital expenditures, etc.

The longer the company has existed, and if it sells you the same product for years (like Coca Cola), it reduces production costs and other costs (R&D, Training, marketing) slowly as the company ages.

When costs are reduced, margins and profits increase.

2. What to look for in an income statement:

Let's take a look at Apple:

i) You want to see earnings grow at a steady pace. Take a look at the net income below.

ii) Another thing that's important is a consistent and high gross margin.

As a thumb rule, Warren Buffett wants to see a gross margin of around 40% or above.

Although not quite 40%, it's around that range with respect to Apple.

Compare this to Apple's competitors.

Samsung's gross margins are around similar range, highest being 45.7% in 2018, and Huawei had a gross margin of 38.6%.

What if too much empathy leads to bad decisions?

Is being too empathic holding you back as a leader?

///THREAD///

Empathy is the ability to feel what other people are feeling, and it is seen as one of the most essential leadership skills

Empathy indeed helps you see from the perspective of others and helps build stronger relationships

And all leaders need an element of this...

However,

Some psychologists estimate that one in five business leaders have such low empathy they can be considered psychopaths

We have all worked for one or at least worked in an organization that sees you as employee #2658, not an individual

All numbers

No heart...

Now I know you are not one of the psychopaths

You are like the vast majority of leaders

You have a big heart, and you want to do the right thing

But let's look at a typical example...

You have a team member

They've been with you years, your team loves them, and you can't imagine work without them

However, they're failing with the new demands of their role

People are starting to notice, some complaining to you

Results are being effected...

JSON Interview Cheatsheet

We have been using and hearing a lot about JSON, but many of us don't really know what is JSON, below is a Thread about Json and Interview Questions!

🧵Thread🧵

#100DaysOfCode #DEVCommunity

1) Mention what is JSON?

JSON is a simple data exchange format. JSON means JavaScript Object Notation; it is language and platform-independent.

#100DaysOfCode

2) Explain what is JSON objects?

An object can be defined as an unordered set of name/value pairs. An object in JSON starts with {left brace} and finish or ends with {right brace}. Every name is followed by: (colon) and the name/value pairs are parted by,.

#100DaysOfCode

3) Explain how to transform JSON text to a JavaScript object?

One of the common use of JSON is to collect JSON data from a web server as a file or HTTP request and convert the JSON data to JavaScript, and then it avails the data in a web page.

#100DaysOfCode

4) Mention what is the rule for JSON syntax rules? Give an example of a JSON object?

JSON syntax is a set of the JavaScript object notation syntax.

Data is in name/value pairs
Data is separated by comma
Curly brackets hold objects
Square bracket holds arrays

#100DaysOfCode

When a new president is sworn in, they gets told a lot of secret stuff - launch codes, backup plans, etc. But one of the best-kept presidential secrets is the "Enemies Briefcase," a collection of "presidential emergency action documents" (PEADs).

https://t.co/A6Jh3Gkip7

1/

These aren't just revelations about the fallback plans for things like a nuclear strike - they are a meticulously maintained collection of emergency authorities that the administrative branch claims it is entitled to.

2/

These authorities are analyzed in legal memos that give the president to unilaterally declare an emergency "imposing martial law, suspending habeas corpus, seizing control of the internet, imposing censorship, and incarcerating so-called subversives."

3/

The PEADs were incredibly well-kept secrets, known only through fragmentary redaction failures, appropriaions and declassifications...Until Trump starting bragging on 'em:

"I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about." -Donald J Trump

4/

PEADs are particularly ominous given how many non-secret emergency powers the president has - more than 100 powers granted by Congress and never rescinded, dating back to the Civil War, from freezing bank accounts to deploying troops domestically.

5/

you know how Atari called the Jaguar as a "64bit system", because it had two 32bit CPUs? (or because it had a 64bit bus, but let's not worry about that)
we should apply that logic to the current generation of consoles.
So the Switch is a 256bit console. It's the Nintendo 256.

The Xbox Series X? terrible name.
Better call it the "Xbox 512 Blu-ray".
like the Jaguar CD, the Sega CD... the good old days when consoles had their media type in the name.

Boringly the PS5 is also a Playstation 512 Blu-ray, because both of them are using the same AMD Zen 2 CPU.

The Switch one is weeeird. It's built on an Nvidia Tegra X1, which is an 8 core 64-bit CPU, so that should be 512, right?

Well... no. Four of them can't be used. And later documentation doesn't even mention them.

it's some weird system where the system-on-a-chip has four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores but only the A57s are usable?

One of the arguments for permitting monopolies is that they are "efficient." That's the logic under which Universal was allowed to acquire Comcast and NBC - the "vertical integration" would make all three companies better and we'd all reap the benefit.

1/

It turns out that there are DISeconomies of scale, what Brandeis called "the curse of bigness" and really, the Universal-NBC-Comcast octopus is a poster child for that

Comcast has just informed its subscribers that they are at risk of losing access to "Bravo, CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Olympic Channel, Oxygen, Syfy, Telemundo, Universal Kids, NBC Universo, USA Network and NBC Sports

That is, Comcast has warned its customers that Comcast might not license its channels to Comcast anymore.

This is a "carriage dispute" - a dispute over how much the cable operator will pay the broadcaster. It's a common dispute to have.

4/

But in this case, Comcast's dispute is over the accounting fiction of how much one division of a vertical monopolist will nominally charge another to access its products.

5/

Event 201 consisted of fifteen ‘players‘ that represented, amongst others, airlines and medical corporations. Out of these fifteen, six are direct partners of the World Economic Forum.

Surveillance companies assure us that they employ safeguards to ensure that their customers aren't abusing their products to engage in unlawful or unethical surveillance. And yet, inevitably, these companies abuse their tools THEMSELVES.

1/

It's almost as though being the kind of person who dreams of achieving incredible wealthy by spying on people makes you kind of an asshole.

2/

Like the people at @VerkadaHQ, "a fast-growing Silicon Valley surveillance startup" whose male employees used its own products to sexually harass their female colleagues and received the barest wrist-slaps for

Male Verkada employees maintained a private Slack channel where executives posted photos of female employees - captured with the company's own surveillance tools - and made sexually explicit remarks about them.

4/

When this came to light, the company's founder and CEO Filip Kaliszan called an all-hands meeting, expressed disappointment in the harassers, and told them that they could either quit...or lose some stock options. They chose the latter and remain employed there to this day.

5/

#analysis THREAD

Here I'll show that investors already consider BTC a safe haven under on-chain capital flows.

Common wisdom that BTC is "risk-on" is a fallacy; solely a consequence of trader liquidations on derivative exchanges.

During the 2 months of the COVID "correction" BTC price went from $9k to $9k with very quick and deep price rejection below $7k. Even traders rejected sub $7k valuations.

As fears of COVID swept the economy, investors moved into Bitcoin. You can see this in the NVT Price Chart which values BTC according to on-chain investment velocity.

This coincided exactly with coins being scooped off exchanges and locked into long term HODL wallets. The largest by far in BTC's history. It still continues.

While traders were selling Bitcoins, investors were accumulating. It's investors that determine the long term price.

The fundamentals of BTC became visibly bullish over the COVID correction, this was hidden by traders freaking out and being liquidated. Bitcoin is only now reflecting its organic valuation.

1/7 My thoughts on what could happen within a decade after #Brexit with the formation of the #UnitedCelticNation as a new country:

2/7 After the #Brexit transition period ends on 31 Dec 2020, the Scottish Parliament will announce a new independent referendum (under a Section 30 order which the PM has to agree to - he won't - they will change their laws to enable them not to need his approval).

3/7 This new Scottish independent referendum will happen within the first 6/9 months of 2021 and result in the decision to leave the UK.

4/7 An application to rejoin the EU will happen immediately after the Scottish referendum result and within months the EU will accept Scotland back in (justified as 'the will of the people' plus how recent their exit was).

5/7 Within 3-5 years of #Brexit, Wales will also hold its own referendum on independence (fuelled by the decline in economy plus the example set by Scotland) and will also be successful. EU membership will also be sought and gained with an accelerated timescale within a year.

Many Brits live under the false impression that the UK has a Special Relationship with the US. In reality, it's far more transactional, especially for the Americans. This delusion is especially dangerous as post-Brexit UK seeks a new place in the world

While the two do have a very close relationship on security and defence built on post-war efforts, it would be foolhardy to expect any US president to place much emphasis on the UK's economic interests over any other third country

The problem Boris Johnson has is that a close relationship with the White House is more important than any time since the war, given the UK's new status outside the EU. What a headache, then, that the US is having an election with 2 v different candidates

On one hand: Trump likes Brexit, dislikes the EU and might see benefit in disrupting the EU by teaming up with the UK in a way that helps the UK economically. However, Trump is wildly unpopular in the UK and Boris does not want to be seen as his best mate

On the other: Brits are generally more pro-Democrat & more pro-America when a Dem is in the White House. However, Biden clearly does not support the UK's Brexit position, especially when it comes to Northern Ireland.

How do you compare the understanding of a generation that was propelled into protest by the music of Bob Marley,Peter Tosh Okosun and Fela to the one ravaged by the music of Wizkid,Badoo😁 and Naira Marley? A child that say his father is not rich and said his mother doesn’t have

money,na there him dey now. Nobody taught me history, I was 20 when I read Obafemi Awolowo biography,Das Capital by Karl Max at 23 and became a Marxist later to become a social democrat at 26 after reading Awolowo’s trilogy. You don’t even know your history and you are washing

your dirty mouth on your elders. We were on the street as kids in secondary school in 1978 when Segun Okeowo led Nigerian student against the Obasanjo regime,we did the SAP riot against IMF Conditionalities,we fought IBB to a standstill. We are not begging for recognition😁😁you

you are only exhibiting your foolishness and ignorance. The fact that you can’t wine and dine at a protest venue across Nigeria,the price was paid by the blood of a generation. Do you know Beeko-Ransome Kuti, Olisa-Agbakoba, Ayo Obe, Segun Mayegun and many others who got this?

The day I lost interest in this generation was when they started comparing Burna Boy to Fela Anikulapo! Fela didn’t become a legend because of weed,it was his intellectual depth that made him one. Do something for your generation and stop blame game,fight your fight,I fought mine

Brexit. UK-EU talks. Let's try to explain why we're in such a state, of increased risk of no deal, moving away from the fish and playing fields which are the detail but not the answer, to differing philosophies and divorce parallels that might just help... 1/

First, with apologies to those concerned, we need to go beyond those saying this is the inevitable path to deal / no-deal. Half of them will be right and I'll definitely be wrong (don't worry, I'm hedged in wine bets), but it wasn't inevitable, typical, or necessary. 2/

I'll also ignore the content of any deal, which has been clear for months, the UK compromises on level playing field, the EU on fish. Something so obvious really isn't the fundamental issue. Could, as some not noted for their perspicacity have said, be done in an afternoon. 3/

Some truth in the idea that flounces and playing the tough cop are a part of trade negotiations. But equally as we're in about the 5th pass of these, I think it has ceased to be helpful. Either side could already have cut the deal having shown their toughness. 4/

Some fundamentals then, that we've forgotten. First, the trade deal that will lead to much less free trade than before. The incentive structures, the ability to create a win-win, are inevitably going to be different to a normal deal. 5/

Excerpts from The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. to help shed light on the way to go as regard the #EndSARS #ReformPoliceNG protest going on across the country.

A thread.

Before the Boycott started, Martin Luther King Jr. thought about the morality of the method of protesting - the Boycott.

In spite of the fact that the Black community had a legitimate demand, they still thought about the morality of their method.

Would anyone suffer unjustly?

On the first day of the protest, Martin Luther King Jr. noticed that at the peak of the morning traffic, no more than eight Negro passengers rode the bus.

Almost everyone in the Black community cooperated.

Now, what happened next?

Leaders in the community discussed the need for some organisation to guide and direct the protest because everything happened spontaneously.

They decided to elect officers and Martin Luther King Jr. was made the President of the Association.

They formed an ad hoc organisation called the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA).