vincentbarr

(1) I love your book recommendation; however, it dedicates maybe one or two pages to safe-cracking, so I would not recommend it for this purpose.

Instead, I would read the material that Deviant Ollam has published (http://deviating.net/lockpicking/resources.html) or look for an upcoming TOOOL meetup (http://toool.us/).

(2) I don't intend to be pedantic – and perhaps I'm mistaking hyperbole for fact – but how could you are opening a combination lock with an secret unbeknownst to you more quickly than your a combination lock with a secret known to you? Unless, you're shimming the new lock and avoiding dialing the correct combination altogether, in which case you would solve them all locks in the same span of time, this is unlikely. However, you said you're opening the lock by 'feel,' so I assume that's not the case.

lesswrong.com

1. Volunteer

2. Participate in recreational activities suited for small groups, such as dance, rafting, backpacking

3. Join a local hackerspace

4. Practice the art of disinhibition

No, GA provides a variety of reporting options and formats - from simple to complex - out of the box, it has an active expert community, and its best practices are very well-documented.

One reason, I imagine, Facebook made this choice as a company is to increase the amount of real estate their apps have on the app store and 'top 10 most popular apps' lists, similar to how companies strive for top listings and more real estate on search engine results pages.

Between Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook's apps occupy 30% of most top-10 lists.

Another startling Glassdoor review that seems planted by the company:

'Cons Not a con, more of a note -

It is a start up environment, which means that it is very fast and dynamic. It calls for a lot of hard work and creativity. Theranos is not for someone who is set in his or her ways, or for someone who is simply looking for a 9-5.'

Yup – and, as a result, at least one ad tech company has emerged to meet advertisers' need for video caption copywriting, design, and automated testing. And they have customers.

On mobile, Imgur has the most distracting, obstructive, and bewildering modal window I've seen. I'm not being hyperbolic; it's worse than the dark patterns on Forbes.com.

It's in the form of a cat's claw, animated – sliding and extending from the top of your screen almost to the bottom – and slow, making users either click it accidentally or wait in frustration until it can be closed.

Despite having seen it countless times, I still don't even know what it's designed to do or what action it's prompting me to take (e.g. login, capture my email address, etc.).

I believe an emoji dictionary is only helpful if emoji senders universally rely and agree upon its definitions.

I find myself confused by emojis from time to time, and for me the confusion doesn't stem from misunderstanding the emoji's expression, it stems from what the emoji means within the context of the conversation and my relationship with the sender.

Emojis can lessen ambiguity when they're used to complement a message or communicate tone. I believe they increase ambiguity, however, when they're used to replace words altogether.

High Output Management by Andrew Grove [1].

Leadership requires good management of oneself, and this is an excellent book on management.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp...

I highly recommend Vox [1] as a lightweight alternative to iTunes.

I've used it as a compete replacement for iTunes with the exception of when I want to add music to my iPhone.

[1] www.coppertino.com

Marketing is a sprawling category.

Can you be more specific so that I can make a helpful recommendation?

E.g. Are you interested in learning about marketing at a high-level (positioning, messaging, value prop) or about more tactical online marketing (email, paid display & search, SEO, social)?

I see at least one exception: Optimize 360.

Google Analytics used to offer the ability to run very rudimentary experiments. If they now provide a point-and-click, WYSIWYG solution comparable to Optimizely and Maxymizer, then this is a pretty interesting move for them and big competition for any players in the split testing and personalization space.

No, they cannot provide measurement and attribution for campaigns that use Website Custom Audiences or Lookalike audiences, which are often the two largest, most valuable segments of any campaign. Atlas is the only provider that can.

Also, this list points to mobile measurement companies.

Seems like your offering differs in that it caters to visual inventory and you can segment an image by its pixels to distinguish unique products, which is cool.

What sort of customers are using Pleenq so far?

Interesting.

This reminds me of VigLink and other players in the space that essentially sell link inventory to e-commerce companies. For example, you mention Microwave Model #3023 in a blog post, create a hyperlink, and then e-commerce companies selling Microwave Model #3023 bid on each new visit to point the destination URL to their product page.

Facebook is an effective acquisition channel for many verticals especially for Gaming and E-commerce companies. For Mobile gaming, activation campaigns benefit from Facebook's mobile reach, targeting and analytics. For e-commerce, Dynamic Product Ads will generate the highest ROI among most paid marketing activities (albeit at limited volume).

There is one huge catch, though: measurement and attribution.

Yes, setting view and click attribution windows on the platform is a given and necessary, but this is only partly effective, unless Facebook is the only paid marketing channel you're using.

If you're any running media on other networks or channels, then you need to measure the their interactions and influence on the customer journey in order to arrive at the incremental value of each channel and an attributed CAC (customer acquisition cost).

Most attribution partners will allow you to do this and play nicely with all of the networks/partners/channels, with one exception: Facebook.

Facebook is a 'walled garden' in that it does not allow third-party impression tracking, unless you're using its attribution product, Atlas.

This means you are unable to effectively value and weigh the effect of Facebook impressions, measure frequency and overlap across channels, conduct accurate path analyses, and understand the incremental value of Facebook.

That said their ad products are sophisticated, best in social IMO, and their roadmap is very promising.

This is really neat. It stands an easy-to-understand reference among many poorly-written fitness editorials and programs, many of which will require novices to lookup each exercise and assume that the new source is demonstrating them properly.

Your exercise selection and order also looked wise, beginning with compound movements and ending with more isolated movements.

Suggestions: 1)I didn't see wide grip pull-ups or chin-ups after clicking back and biceps. Why not?

2) Would be nice to see some form of cleans displayed.

3) If you add a program section, you may want to check out Fitloop.co [1] for inspiration. It does a good job of presenting a sound bodyweight program with explanations.

[1] https://fitloop.co/routines/bwf-recommended-beginner-routine

I suggest exercise first. Even semi-regular exercise will help stimulate your appetite and need for sleep, making both of them harder to ignore or neglect. Then, of course, there are the benefits of exercise.

I believe the means by which you choose to exercise is extremely important here. Based on my interpretation of your post, I'm going to divide exercise into the two categories.

1.'Exercise hacks': intermittent, low-impact physical activity that optimizes for your convenience and proximity, and done well goes almost undetected in your day-to-day. Usually, this type of exercise splits its time with another activity. Examples: use a treadmill desk while working; do five pushups every time you enter your kitchen; choose stairs over the elevator.

I do not recommend this category for you. I believe you would be disappointed and unlikely to improve your overall health, and the things in between, by a meaningful and rewarding degree.

2. Activity performed as part of a group class that occurs during discrete, recurring periods of time. Exercise, a safe space for person-to-person interaction, accountability, and opportunities to laugh at yourself are all pleasant byproducts. Examples: beginner salsa or swing dancing; rock-climbing; parkour; whatever.

I think you'll find this form of activity to be a lovely surprise and very rewarding. I urge you to give it a try.

If you're in New York City and enjoy house, funk or soul music, I highly recommend DanceDeets[0] for a carefully curated list of events, some of which would be difficult to find otherwise.

[0]www.DanceDeets.com

I'm curious, what site are you referring to?

I think you can began evaluating whether it's a 'dead-end' job long before the interview, potentially saving both you and the interviewer time.

1. Search LinkedIn for current/former employees of the company who held the title you are evaluating.

How long did they stay with the company? What were they up to previously; what are they doing now? Were they able to grow their responsibilities/title at the company? From what you can tell, do they sound like someone you would learn from or want to work with?

2. Glassdoor. Sort reviews by date, then filter by those specific to your department.

3. Speak with a few recruiters. Ask them about the company you're considering.

Another person that is a counter-example and outlier: Franklin Story Musgrave.

A modern-day polymath, he was a NASA astronaut, Disney Imagineer, and physician among other things. He holds six academic degrees.

He, too, had an extremely troubled upbringing.[1]

In his own words, "I came from an extraordinarily dysfunctional family, full of abuse and alcoholism. And eventually everyone within the family had committed suicide."

[1] http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mus0int-1]

At any point in time, Matt knows better than anyone else which roles in the company have the greatest need for additional resources.

I'm skeptical of this statement. It seems to rest on many unreliable assumptions (e.g. at a busy company, it seems that a team lead may know better than the CEO when his team needs additional resources to deliver).

Other than that, I love their approach to interviewing: casual, asynchronous communication.

When people are actively seeking a new role, they may not be the best version of themselves. They may be stressed, feeling frustrated, dealing with a life event, and attempting to conduct a job search on the side. This gives such candidates a better chance to be able to put a better foot forward IMO.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Forms using company email address for validation are really frustrating.

I assume Marketing or Sales teams are behind the additional requirement with the aim of better scoring and prioritizing 'leads' for an internal Sales team. In theory, company email address would allow for quicker/better estimation of potential deal size based on company revenue, # of employees, title of employee, etc.

As a user, however, requiring a company email address signals to me that in submitting the form I'm likely to receive either a call from a salesperson or a lot of unwanted email. So, I either abandon the form entirely or use a bogus alias at a recognized company's domain. In a way, it does my email/voicemail inbox a favor.

I wonder what percentage of users exhibit similar behavior. It brought to mind the Hawthorne effect, except participant behavior diminishes instead of improves, when I know the observer (Sales/Marketing team) is watching.

There is also the common problem of false positives, as Troy mentioned.

Has anyone out there evaluated the effects of company email validation?

What I've learned:

Accountability. This can mean sharing with a colleague what you intend to complete at the start of your day, and then sharing what you actually completed at the close of the day. It can also mean finding a location where you feel the risk of your distractions being observed when you begin to indulge them (e.g. sit next to the CEO of your company; manage your work on a large, external monitor that's within your team's line of sight).

Sleep. The poorer my sleep habits, the easier it becomes to focus on and become excited by the wrong things. What's tricky is that you may actually feel more energized or alert when sleep-deprived, but this is perhaps due to the extra releases of dopamine that help fuel you through the day, a mechanism that was once useful in hunter-gatherer days when survival depended on persisting through fatigue to complete a successful hunt.

Nutrition. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I require all three if I wish to maintain consistent performance.

Asking a book to change one's life within the course of a year seems like a tall order.

That said I recommend Chade-Meng Tan's 'Search Inside Yourself'[0].

Chade-Meng Tan began his career at Google as software engineer and later transitioned to teach a course – that this book describes – on emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and self-awareness. Allegedly, the course was quite popular at Google. I highly recommend the book.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Search-Inside-Yourself-Unexpected-Achi...

In response to (1), link shorteners provide a very limited amount of clickstream insight and – in most cases – should not be used as a replacement for URL query string parameters.

Several link shorteners may impose their own set of query parameters, unless configured otherwise, which can distort clickstream and referrer data in Google Analytics, Omniture, and so forth.

That said link shorteners are useful for hiding complexity and for quickly and simply tracking how many clicks a link receives. This includes clicks on links to domains that you do not own, or sites for which you would be unable to view visitor and clickstream data.

This made me absolutely cringe.

Such an approach to 'management' and workplace culture is likely to encourage and reward the perception of 'hard work' rather than actual performance and outcomes. This drives out high-performance, goal-oriented individual contributors who aim to work efficiently.

That said I wish all 'team leads' shared their thoughts as transparently online; that way prospective employees can more easily self-select and identify the companies and teams they wish to join.