Very good point, I do that all the time, because I can have about 2 games installed at any given moment.
112 karma · joined December 17, 2012
As others remarked here, TikTok has this aspect of freshness. Companies still have to learn how to monetise on it. People just share their lives quite randomly. They are just people. They are not trying to look their best, they are not "Instagram" kind of influencers. All new platforms are like that. Every revolution lowers the entrance barrier and allows new people to become popular or get their message across.
People really miss the times when YouTube just started. There was nothing there, just boring people doing nothing in front of the camera. No makeup, no script, no light, no production value. It was the time before mobile phones, so these were videos made with webcams. Someone opened a box with a new purchase. There wasn't a concept of unboxing. It became a format and made many people rich. There was no concept of daily routine or makeup, or yoga. There were people living their lives and sharing it online. That was very appealing, but these formats were discovered, and companies saw business opportunity because there were so many people watching YouTube. And then the commercialisation killed this early democratic and "flat" YouTube.
YouTube has become professional - it's no longer "You" TV, it's large studios, production companies, big money is involved. If the quality is not good enough, if you don't have backgrounds, good cameras, microphones etc., you won't make it on YT. The barrier of entry has become increasingly high.
TikTok on the other hand has a very very low barrier of entry and it is sort of expected to be consisting of short single hand-held shots, unpolished etc. This will definitely change, and marketing companies will be willing to pay big bucks to make a video look like an amateur youngster's video but at the same time it will be totally controlled and crafted production. It won't last long.
TT as a YT optimisation for mobile is an understatement. The interface and tools for editing videos on the phone are done exceedingly well. Some things could be improved, but the editor is advanced enough to enable creativity and restrictive enough to have a distinct "rough" TikTok style. And frankly... I like it a lot.
And finally - the social aspect. I have reached out to some Tiktokers and met them in person in real live. Some of them I follow and I really like them as human beings. I can imagine we could be friends if we lived in the same place. There is also a lot of interesting people that maybe are not someone you would like to hang out with, but you can learn from them in a light and interesting way. There is a Vietnamese guy who makes sculptures in clay. There are Chinese potters and carpenters that show really brilliant pieces. There are lawyers, statisticians, biologists. They are all really interesting - to me - and without TikTok I wouldn't be able to know about their existence. There is crap there too, but I can just skip the dancing teens and I soon get to the content I like. It works well for me.
No matter how terrible it may sound, I really feel my life has been enriched.
There were many "Aha!" moments in my journey. Here is a couple of honest examples:
* Action Script 3.0 - It may sound stupid and unlikely place, but classes and OOP started to make perfect sense only when I could draw shapes in Flash and then manipulate them with Action Script. Suddenly the idiotic examples of cars, vehicles and bicycles or animals, cats and dogs were unloaded from my mind and OOP really sinked in.
* Java for Dummies - Also unlikely place to look for answers, but TTD and OOP made sense when I read the book many years ago. Somehow when they said "everything is a class in Java, there are no real primitive types" I really started to translate the world into objects. I am not a Java programmer, but it helped a lot.
* Tutorialpoint - YES, I will say it. It is an excellent resource, even if it teaches bad style and is outdated (as some people rightly point). They reduce the number of things to learn. You can refresh your memory on the spot, you can learn (if you have experience) an entire language over one weekend or maximum one week. Afterwards you can go to references and more complicated publications, but they are an excellent starting point.
* Derek Banas on YouTube, especially Design Patterns. The examples could be more real-life based, but he makes sense much better than the original GoF book.
* Code, Tech, and Tutorials on YouTube, especially about CMake.
What do US nukes use? Anyone?
Build big projects steps by step, 30 minutes every day (code, write a book, run a YT channel). Otherwise you'll wake up at 35 not having build anything significant of your own.
Don't be afraid, take risks, be bold.
Get tech education and study math.
For daily work - Everything Google - Hangouts/Meet for instant chat and calling, Callendar for coordinating meeting times, Google Drive for sharing files and working together on documents. It's really not optimal, I know, I know, but we still use Spreadsheets for tracking issues (yes, we are not idiots, but we are not integrated with our vendors and we keep spreadsheets to keep track of open tickets, and projects for our little team of <10people), and GMail.
For internal tickets and problem management - ServiceNow.
For intranet - Jive.
There are two problems with these tools: e-mail is the most counterproductive tool ever. I get 100 emails daily, and they are not relevant. I would love to work on "action items" rather than mail + chat for instant messaging, and I would really like to opt out from conversation threads that I don't need to be on. With spreadsheets - of course you'd rather want to keep track of issues and messages without having to manually copy information (!), but yes, we still do it, and it's not going to change any time soon.
* I went to the office 3 times last year, and I live far away from my office desk (hundreds of miles away). From what I see most people I work with work remotely (also partners form other firms), and I cannot, I simply cannot imaginge going back. It is simply a wonderful, cost-optimal and eco-friendly solution for the 21st century. Not to mention we are much more productive as we spend virtually no time on idle chatter.
* I would be afraid of employing remotely freshmen with no previous experience, but maybe I'm wrong. I believe that 2 years in the office teaches you self discipline - getting up every morning, finishing before sunset etc. The tasks we have are measurable and simply put - if I don't do my work, it will be noticed right away by my manager. It's a perfect self-balancing mechanism.
*I'm not affiliated in any way with the author
The third step would be about making them understand the difference between client and server side programming and between programs in the browser and standalone programs. But that's only if they get the first part.
I would also stress, from the very beginning, that it's really simple, that there is no magic or super-powers involved. Open a popular news website, open the source and change the articles on the New York Times website. You want to achive the "aha!" effect within the first 2 minutes, so that they are encouraged and positive about the idea. It's a small lie, but an important one.
But let's put things in order:
I think your assumptions are wrong. First I would deal with the automated driving, then with the farming business.
Automated cars are not only for people who don't enjoy driving their car towards the setting sun and enjoying freedom. Literally everything you can buy, eat and enjoy in life relies on transport. I would guess that none of the consumer goods you purchase are produced where you live - maybe with the exception of a bakery, restaurant and your local Starbucks. Automated trucks are simply a huge thing. You will be able to drive them non stop, distribute the traffic more reasonably etc. Passanger transport is another thing, no less important. A lot of white collar workers have to visit their clients in person and spend many hours driving. Their talents and competences are not used properly. If they don't have to focus on the road, there could be a huge boost in their productivity. Even if they would just be able to relax more during the business travells by watching films.
Self driving cars are not just a matter of leisure, but of significant reduction of cost of transport that everything relies on.
And why do we automate in the first place? - to free human energy. Sitting in a car and driving thousands of kilometers is just dumb. Necessary, but dumb and tremendously repetitive. Once the machines can do it, the man can focus on specialised tasks that only humans can do. I believe that is the major task of CS in general - to free human potential.
I have nothing to do with farming, but I believe your diagnosis is mistaken. Food production has been automated so heavily, that a single farmer is able to produce an incredible amount of food (it means farmers invested a lot in their current technology). Moreover, as indicated in the beginning, US gov. and other governments in Europe PAY farmers for NOT growing food. And food production is often not very profitable and has to be heavily subsidized. Farmers operate on very very narrow profit margins and therefore investment has to be able to cut (already low) production costs. Robots are sophisticated machines and the maintenance cost is high. On the other hand manual labour on farms is very cheap. I believe that the benefits of automatisations in the farming industry are still not good enough to balance the cost.
Moreover, there is virtually no shortage of food, especially in the west. The last big starvation (not caused by politics) in Europe was a matter of the end of 19th century. While transport is an ever growing business - we want more stuff, faster, delivered from further away, food producers are rather more concerned about governments keeping the subsidies and import tariffs to supress supply.
Considering all of the above - food production is not such a big problem, and its share in the economy is very very small.
Having said that, of course there is a potential market for even more machines and automation, but I am not surprised that the farmers are not interested in it at the moment.
Then I really ask again, about 2-3 times, even if it's just within 30 seconds after the introduction. If there is more people around, together, then I say: "Hey, does everyone know names of each other? Let me try!" And then I try to say the names. People take it as very very friendly and fun, and by doing this I release a lot of pressure, because the less confident people also can use this opportunity to review the names.
There are often moments when I happen to be a guest at small parties/meetings. Learning all the names is my little game (the side effect of which is that girls will think you are more attractive). I sit next to the host, so that I can ask silently about the names (assuming that the host knows almost everyone), and then I just repeat them in mind again and again. Being silent in a conversation is usually a good idea anyway[1]. And then, when I leave, I stand up and say: "Thank you very much: John, Anna, Martha... etc, it was a lovely evening with you". And everyone is really impressed. The next time you meet with the same crowd, people will be extremely friendly to you :)
In business setting: that's more tricky. First of all you collect business cards and check people you are going to have a meeting with way ahead - check them up on facebook or linkedin. Even if you know only the name and function, and not the face, it will be later easier for you to associate them with the right person.
When you sit down with people who gave you their business cards, put the cards in front of you, on the table, in the same order they are sitting.
If this meeting is another meeting with the same people, take your note pad with you (you should be ready to take notes anyway) and before the meeting write the names on the margin. Then when you are with them, they will usually mention some names of the people present, or titles. Then you write on the page the names in order of sitting - person to your right - write the name on the right side of the page, etc.
Btw: it is extremely important to ALWAYS make notes from meetings. Do it right after the meeting, sit in the lobby or in your car and write down things like: who you met with, what were the issues discussed (even - or especially - when someone said something trivial or private like: my son was playing football last weekend, you will ask about football the next time you are on the lift with this important CTO), what you agreed for, what is missing, what do you have to bring to the next meeting. Collect those and always review before another meeting [thank you B. for teaching me this].
[1] - the little secret about conversations: people will think that the conversation was interesting if you let them talk. That's true when you are on a date or with your client. Ask questions, listen to what they say, reply with short replies, listen more. Show them that you are really interested in what they say, laugh at their jokes, consider what is important for them, be sad when they are sad. We often tend to think that we become interesting because we say something smart, but that's not true. -- does not apply to John Carmack and the like;)
Someone mentioned Estonia here - well, when I think of differences, quality of transportation (roads, trains) and the rule of law (if you have to do anything with the administration, complaints, registrations etc.) in Ukraine are much worse for sure.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lw%C3%B3w_School_of_Mathematic...
Even if they ask you to fill a form, just leave these fields blank.
In short: to reach moderate fluency at B2/C1 level, learning any language, would require a couple of hours every day for about 3 years. But there is -NO- optimal method!
I have put a considerable amount of effort to research this question as a semi-professional (currently studying applied linguistics) and for my own private use.
I've reached fluency in English (and to a lesser extent in Hebrew) as a second language. I've also learned and sometimes use Spanish (learned at a university), German (high school, I live in Germany now), Danish (university), French (high school), Ukrainian (university), Italian, Latin (high school), Classical Greek and Aramaic.
People studying full time Chinese, Arabic or any other language get their BA in 3 years and are quite fluent. It often requires about 10 hours a day of work (classes, reading, drills). It's hard. No short cuts.
On the other hand, however, I'd say that you need about 50 verbs and about 200 other words with almost no grammar to communicate. Where I work I speak Portuguese (a language I don't know!) German and Spanish with a girl from Portugal who speaks only Portuguese. The notion of "learning" a language is a construct of our education system. Grammar is almost useless is day to day communication. You only need both sides to wish to communicate, and there has to be no superiority and inferiority in the relationship. Somehow a natural "pidgin" grammar emerges spontaneously - you may not know past tense, but then you say simply "yesterday" + infinitive and it works perfectly well. The more I talk with Amalia the more Portuguese I get. And then I use it with two other friends from Brazil. It simply works - with no formal training, courses, textbooks. In class you are focused on correctness, not on getting your message across, and you are graded for correctness. This creates stress, confusion, doubt in your abilities.
My Portuguese, however, would not be good enough to get a job in Portugal. And my English, by the way, which I use with ease, would most probably be not enough to work as a journalist or in a radio station, although I read and listen to English between 5 to 10 hours every day.
What the research about language learning teach us? Almost NOTHING! It only confirms common truths about what helps: immersion, having no stress, living in the country, being self-reflective about your methods, good resources, practice, reading, radio, tv, vocab drills etc.
I talked with prof. Anders Ericsson about why is it that 40 years of serious systematic research has not produced ANY conclusions. You might have heard about Stephen Krashen and his "silent period" and "natural acquisition method", in short: adults learn just like children. This method is very popular among polyglot YouTubers such as the popular Steve Kaufman[1]. The most important principle of this method is that you don't learn grammar at all. The research on second language acquisition is NOT CONCLUSIVE! I believe in science (the same science that builds transistors smaller than visible light waves) and apparently Krashen's theory has not been confirmed or rejected which means that we still have no clue what works and what doesn't. I've spent tens or maybe even hundreds of hours reading about Krashen and I am only frustrated. Language research is tricky, there are dragons, don't go there.
I spent over a year on scholarship studying Hebrew, I was very methodical about it, I made beautiful statistics, graphs, precisely measuring everything for 12 months and my conclusion is that: leaning a language is freakingly difficult, requires inhumane tons of hours, and that brute force works (Anki drills). I had excellent conditions, money for free, a room, teachers, no family, no concerns. I can now (slowly) read academic papers and watch movies, but I just cannot imagine anyone (not super smart) learning any language having a (intellectually demanding) day job and kids, and reaching fluency on a graduate level.
I am about to start leaning Arabic and I feel I will die trying (I'm 30). With just about 3-4 hours a week I expect to be able to read Judeo-Arabic in 15 years.
Resources (in fairly random order):
* Julia Herschensohn, Martha Young-Scholten (ed.), Second Language Acquisition (The Cambridge Handbook), Cambridge University Press, 2013.
* Carol Griffiths (ed.) Lessons from Good Language Learners, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
* Christine Pearson Casanave, Controversies in Second Language Writing, Dilemmas and Decisions in Research and Instruction, University of Michigan, 2004.
* John W. Schwieter (ed.) Innovative Research and Practices in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism, John Benjamins Publishing, 2013.
* Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool, Peak, secrets from the new science of Expertise, 2016. (interesting but not strictly scholarly)
* Stephen D. Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, University of Southern California, 1982.
And I agree with that - every new device and operating system changes things, and most often those changes are not necessary. I am not talking about functionalities, but UI.
I am not sure there is any value added in the UI changes between Win 95 and Win10. I am still using the good old WinAmp and TotalCommander which still have not changed by pixel in the last 10-15 years. Once you get used to certain technology, even if it is uncomfortable at the beginning, should not be re-designed and forcefully imposed on users.
I lived in Denmark and Sweden before, in both 99% people speak English, system is clear, helpful, forgiving, supportive. Coding environment is rich, strong, creative and growing. It comes at a cost - taxation is merciless, but if you plan to have a family and like outdoors, Stockholm is the place to go. Working conditions, days off, healthcare, childcare, you name it, it's great. In Denmark I lived with a woman who had a rare lung desease, lymphangioleiomyomatosis, and was waiting for a transplantation (M., rest in peace), the state paid for everything, a cab came twice a month to take her to cinema or restaurant, she had an extremely expensive light oxygen machine with which she could go for a walk or take a shower like a human being. So it's really great.
Poland and UK I would not recommend because of the political situation there is not sane or predictable. But both have surprisingly low taxation, I ran a company for two years in Poland, costs are very low for a big European country with good developers (e.g. you pay flat 18% income tax + ~300euros social&health insurance) and you can get junior developers (I know about .NET C#, Sharepoint) working for you for 1000 euros a month, seniors for 2000-3000. And life is extremely cheap minimum wage is something like 400 euros a month. I did accounting myself, the tax authorities did not penalise me for making a lot of mistakes and being weeks late with paying VAT (!!!) or totally messing up with the tax declarations (confused net with gross income and costs calculations). Most of the paperwork is done online, accountant will take as little as 30 euros a month to take care of it for you. To get incorporated (ltd.) costs about 500 euros for the lawyer and then a bit more for accounting, but you (if I remember correctly) don't have to have any initial capital - marvelous! There are also companies that sell ltd's with good credit history, so you can also easily buy a dormant ltd. company without much paperwork and quickly get a credit/ apply for European funding.
But now they are messing up with the law so I'd be careful.
A lot of warm things I've heard about the Netherlands and I would consider Amsterdam for myself as the next stop. Same situation - good social support, very open and direct culture, sane and predictable state and rules of the game, great high-tech environment, everyone speaks English. Big minus - once you employ someone it is VERY difficult to get rid of the person. Workers protection is great for the employed, not so much for the entrepreneur.
Then I learned PHP to run a website of our school class, I used PHP to automatically generate a gallery of pictures located in a folder. Saved me tens of hours of time.
Then I started playing with Flash and ActionScript and I was shocked to discover that different shapes - triangles, circles and rectangels are objects that share methods (resize, fill colour etc.) and that was the Object Oriented revelation.
Years passed. I got a job in IT where I had to learn the internal scripting language and do a lot of SQL - so I've learned that. The product did not allow you to do certain things and they had to be "hard hacked" in JavaScript, so I had to learn that, and I realised it's no longer difficult. I learned C++ finally when for a short time I enrolled into University (software engineering). Then I got a new job where the product was made in Java and in order to make any extensions they had to be coded in Java, so I learned Java (Head First Java). In the process I realised what are the unit tests and how to first write a test and then your object. Somewhere along the way I learned about Design Patterns, but I cannot say I really can use them effectively. I also learned C.
I no longer work in IT, coding is just a weekend hobby.
Now what I still have to learn is to make bigger things that would make sense for others, both in therms of usability and code readibility (I write heinous-ugly code). I am ignorant of MVC model. I don't know much about linux administration or scalability and functional paradigm. I hate myself for not knowing math beyond highschool level.
Still a long long way to go :)
In short: the business wants to deliver fast and the users will use it anyway.
But nevertheless a great read!
[1] - no startups, no long-tail, no hi-tech hype, no big data, no Zuckerberg... the list is long...