Herman Hollerith previously worked in the census office and experienced first-hand how broken the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting on that data was. So he built a machine that counted the stored data at a far greater speed and with far higher accuracy than they’d been able to before. Hollerith’s machine was used in the 1890 census. In just two years, the job was done, saving the government $5 million. Hollerith began to see the potential for using the data on the cards for other information. He found adjacent businesses for the storage and tabulation of large data sets.

Herman Hollerith tabulating machine

During Roman times, censuses were taken on everything, from bundles of knotted thread to wax tablets. The information was engraved on stone. Eventually, the technology of paper transformed communication and record-keeping. But the problem with paper is that it comes large and unwieldy.  In the United States, the first census in 1790 asked basic questions such as sex, age, and race. But as the number of census questions became dramatically larger, they reached a crisis point where they needed to have a way of literally, physically manipulating this paper.

Paper census found inadequate

The 1880 census in the United States had an increasingly important role, for example, in determining how the political representation would be assigned. But with a growing population, the census was also growing, collecting more data than the government could tabulate or quickly process.A breakthrough in how all the data could be interpreted came when Charles Seaton, the Chief Clerk of the Census, invented the Seaton Device. It had a complicated system of rollers where you could take a wide sheet and roll it through these rollers so that two columns would appear side by side.

The Seaton Device

Asking questions leads to knowledge, not just about our population size or place of birth, but about every aspect of our lives. Surveys have grown to allow everyone to ask opinions on their products and services, from your local pet store to huge multinational corporations. This desire to use surveys to move forward started with the census.

A census is an amazing system

You’ll get a better response rate and quality response if your survey is in context, asking customers questions about the thing they’re currently doing in your product. Surveys should reach users wherever they are, be that your web application or your mobile app, and they can also be sent via a link through an email or a push notification if needed.

Essentials of online surveys

The history of surveys is essentially the history of the technology used to collect and interpret information. As tech has developed, so has our capacity to know ourselves on a large scale.<ul><li>The first mention of a census is in the Bible in the book of Exodus. </li><li>In Chinese mythology, you’ll find a census from 2000 years before the common era – the census of Yu the Great.</li><li>The Romans used a census throughout the Republican period and then into the empire, where they would use it to structure their society.</li></ul>

The history of surveys

The biggest challenge is to get people to fill them in. If you want to claim some sort of representativeness of what you are doing, you have to get the right people or the right spread of people to fill it in. Some surveys are not well made. For example, <ul><li>A business asks you something they should already know such as emailing a survey asking you for your email address.</li><li>They ask too many questions. Most people get bored after four or five questions. </li><li>Clicking on the survey link and it pops over a new window. You wanted to be in your email, not on another webpage.</li></ul>

Online survey challenges

Tristram Hooley, a professor at Inland Norway University, spend years running online surveys for businesses. He co-wrote a book, What is Online Research, in which the authors pinpoint the birth of the online survey. The first online survey was possibly in 1986 when they were doing a survey about surveys to figure out if it would work. From the 1990s, it became easier to access some subset of the general population through online surveys.  From the 2000s, you get things like Web 2.0 Technologies and SurveyMonkey. Today, almost every business has experimented with it in some way.

The birth of the online survey

Andrew Whitby, author of The Sum of the People: How the Census Has Shaped Nations, from the Ancient World to the Modern Age, gives insight into the history and uses of surveys.

A whistle-stop tour into the history of surveys - from the first mentions in the ancient worlds to the effortless, ubiquitous version we have today.Find out more about Intercom Surveys hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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On Inside Intercom you'll hear the team from Intercom interview makers and do-ers from the worlds of product management, design, startups and marketing.

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Questioning tech: The past, present, and future of survey tools

Do something to take the attention away from your strong emotion temporarily. Focus on another sensation in your body, such as the feeling of your weight pressing into your seat, wiggling each toe individually, or lightly rubbing your fingertips together to see if you can feel the ridges of your fingerprints.

Distract Yourself

After the moment has passed, and when you have more time, process your feelings more fully alone or with someone you trust to determine the relative costs and benefits of expressing them. This will help you decide whether to share them more widely — either with your manager or with the person who triggered you.

Process Your Feelings

The above strategies will help you break free from an amygdala hijack and increase activation of your prefrontal cortex. But there may also be times, particularly in team meetings, when you’ll need to respond right away and won’t have a private moment to collect yourself.To prepare for these situations, come up with a couple of go-to lines that will allow you to quickly respond and buy yourself more time.

Be Ready with A Script

Emotional things happen at work every day. When faced with overbearing bosses, annoying colleagues, or comments that derail us, it’s not always easy to maintain our calm and composure. But showing poise in the face of difficult situations is an important skill to develop your executive presence. Should you find yourself suddenly set off at work, try one or more of these strategies to regain your calm.

Triggered At Work

When you’re in fight-or-flight mode, your breathing becomes irregular, fast, short, and shallow. Regulating it can be your first line of defense. Lengthen your exhales and focus on breathing from your belly. Inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of eight. This slows down your heartbeat, stabilizes your blood pressure, and encourages full oxygen exchange, which is critical to the brain’s ability to function.

Take Deep Breaths

Research shows that putting your feelings into words, or emotional labelling, can quickly reduce their grip on you and lessen your physiological distress. When you feel that emotional rush in a meeting, ask yourself, “What are two or three words that describe how I feel right now?”

Use Your Words

Emotional things happen at work every day. When faced with overbearing bosses, annoying colleagues, or comments that derail us, it’s not always easy to maintain our calm and composure. But showing poise in the face of difficult situations is an important skill to develop your executive presence. Should you find yourself suddenly set off at work, try one or more of these strategies to regain your calm Take deep breaths: When you’re in fight-or-flight mode, your breathing becomes irregular, fast, short, and shallow. Regulating it can be your first line of defense. Lengthen your exhales and focus on breathing from your belly. Inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of eight. This slows down your heartbeat, stabilizes your blood pressure, and encourages full oxygen exchange, which is critical to the brain’s ability to function. Distract yourself: Do something to take the attention away from your strong emotion temporarily. Focus on another sensation in your body, such as the feeling of your weight pressing into your seat, wiggling each toe individually, or lightly rubbing your fingertips together to see if you can feel the ridges of your fingerprints. Use your words: Research shows that putting your feelings into words, or emotional labelling, can quickly reduce their grip on you and lessen your physiological distress. When you feel that emotional rush in a meeting, ask yourself, “What are two or three words that describe how I feel right now?” Don’t forget to process your feelings: After the moment has passed, and when you have more time, process your feelings more fully alone or with someone you trust to determine the relative costs and benefits of expressing them. This will help you decide whether to share them more widely — either with your manager or with the person who triggered you.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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How to Quickly Calm Down When You Get Triggered at Work

QR codes are designed to be scanned using a camera, such as those found on your smartphone. QR code scanning is built into many camera apps for Android and iOS. QR codes are most often used to store web links; however, they can store arbitrary data, such as text or images.When you scan a QR code, the QR reader in your phone’s camera deciphers the code, and the resulting information triggers an action on your phone. If the QR code holds a URL, your phone will present you with the URL. Tap it, and your phone’s default browser will open the webpage.

How QR Codes Work

Like barcodes, QR codes are designed with data redundancy. Even if as much as 30% of the QR code is destroyed or difficult to read, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-a-qr-code?op=1">the data can still be recovered</a>. In fact, logos are not actually part of the QR code; they cover up some of the QR code’s data. However, due to the QR code’s redundancy, the data represented by these missing dots can be recovered by looking at the remaining visible dots.

Data Redundancy Built-In

QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways.The QR code’s URL can take you to a phishing website that tries to trick you into entering your username or password for another website. The URL could take you to a legitimate website and trick that website into doing something harmful, such as giving an attacker access to your account

Carrier Of Dangerous Links

Among the many changes brought about by the pandemic is the widespread use of QR codes: graphical representations of digital data that can be printed and later scanned by a smartphone or other device.QR codes have a wide range of uses that help people avoid contact with objects and close interactions with other people, including for sharing restaurant menus, email list sign-ups, car and home sales information, and checking in and out of medical and professional appointments.

The QR Code

While it is easy for people to read Arabic numerals, it is hard for a computer. Bar codes encode alphanumeric data as a series of black and white lines of various widths. At the store, bar codes record the set of numbers that specify a product’s ID. Critically, data stored in bar codes is redundant. Even if part of the bar code is destroyed or obscured, it is still possible for a device to read the product ID.

Before QR Codes, We Had Bar Codes

It is critical that when you open a link in a QR code, you ensure that the URL is safe and comes from a trusted source.  There is also a slight chance that the app used to scan the QR code could contain a vulnerability that allows malicious QR codes to take over your device. This attack would succeed by just scanning the QR code, even if you don’t click the link stored in it. To avoid this threat, you should use trusted apps provided by the device manufacturer to scan QR codes and avoid downloading custom QR code apps.

Stay Safe

While QR codes hold significantly more data than bar codes, they are also more prone to phishing attacks.


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How QR codes work—and what makes them dangerous

Phones use one of three different technologies to read your fingerprint: optical, capacitive or ultrasonic. An optical fingerprint reader is the oldest of the three. It uses a specialised miniature camera to take a picture of your finger, often backlit with little LEDs or the phone’s screen.Unfortunately, these sensors are easy to fool – even a good photo can trick them, so it may be combined with a capacitive sensor, the second technology, to check there is really a finger there.

The Fingerprint Sensor Of Your Phone

A capacitive fingerprint sensor uses a grid of tiny capacitors that store electricity, which is discharged only at the points where your fingerprint ridges touch. An array of thousands of capacitors can then be used to map the pattern of your fingerprint. Sometimes these sensors also support swipes or force sensing.

The Capacitive Sensor

The third and most advanced form of fingerprint sensing uses ultrasonics. Much like the ultrasonic scanners used for medical purposes, an ultrasonic sound pulse is transmitted to your finger and the reflected pulse is measured. Bats, whales and dolphins use ultrasonic to understand the shape of their surroundings; the sensors on a smartphone use it to understand the 3D shape of the ridges in your fingerprint. It can even work through the phone screen.

Ultrasonic Sensing

Fingerprint scanners have become an essential feature of smartphones.

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How does a smartphone ‘read’ my fingerprint?

The biggest reason people can't manage up is that they don't understand their boss's job. You only see a small part of what your manager does.<ul><li>Regularly align on these two questions: What is success for me personally? What is a win for my manager's team?</li><li>Show your work. It's about knowing what your boss wants, then ensuring that you provide them with a steady drumbeat of the things they care about.</li><li>Understand what is your manager's most urgent priorities, then adjust accordingly.</li><li>Focus on what's keeping your manager up at night and identify what you can take off their plate.</li></ul>

Leave your assumptions at the door

<ul>
<li>Feedback should be ongoing and not be left to a formal discussion during performance reviews.</li>
<li>Allow positive feedback to come through louder. When you receive constructive criticism, try to stomach it even if it first rings false.</li>
<li>Don't just try to please your boss. Push back if you believe it is in the company's best interest. If your manager dumps a task on you, mention all your other priorities on your plate and ask where this new task fall.</li>
<li>Train your manager on how to treat you. E.g. don't answer emails after 7 pm or at weekends.</li>
</ul>

Get comfortable with feedback

<ul>
<li>Open up about your "work love language." From early on, share with your manager what motivates and drives you, including what's important to you outside of work.</li>
<li>Observe how your manager listens and processes inputs. If he stops listening halfway through describing a problem, switch to your proposed solution first.</li>
<li>Calibrate to match your manager's involvement. Share your team's wins, and ask for feedback on challenges.</li>
<li>Communicate early and often.</li>
<li>Don't get stuck in your ways of doing things.</li>
<li>Focus on OKRs to ensure you know what's important to your manager.</li>
</ul>

Hone your delivery for communication

<ul><li>Leave some breadcrumbs. Don't hoard information until you feel you have all the answers. Anything complex needs multiple exposures for someone to internalise the concept.</li><li>Create a shared understanding of the problem. Share information you have and consider alternative paths.</li><li>Don't bury your requests. Write regular email updates, including project updates, team wins or personal progress. But don't mix requests in. Treat it separately.</li><li>Always do your homework. Include two or three options and create a table with pros and cons.</li><li>Keep communication open.</li></ul>

Boost your chances of hearing 'yes' to your ask

The relationship between a manager and their report is a two-way street: navigating the road falls on both parties. Some managers are easy to get along with, while others can feel near impossible. However, there are several strategies you can use to manage up:<ol><li>Leave your assumptions at the door.</li><li>Hone your delivery for communication that comes through clearly.</li><li>Boost your chances of hearing 'yes' to your ask.</li><li>Get comfortable with feedback.</li><li>Set the tone in your1:1s</li><li>Share your impact the right way.</li><li>Build lasting rapport and trust.</li></ol>

Managing up - How to manage your boss

You likely got a regular 1:1 meeting with your manager. While they can feel more obligatory than critical, meetings are a powerful tool to build trust and up-levelling your impact. <ul><li>Ensure that the shared agenda and notes are pre-populated with topics you want to discuss plus necessary context.</li><li>Ask a new manager what they care most about, their biggest challenges, your role and responsibilities, and their pet peeves.</li><li>Give a bird's eye view before going deep on any topic.</li><li>Grade yourself on alignment. After a meeting, ensure you know what's top of mind for your manager.</li></ul>

Set the tone in your 1:1s

<ul>
<li>Give regular updates. Written asynchronous communication is vital in the remote world. Managers can read at their leisure and comment async rather than live discussions.</li>
<li>Send weekly "State of Me" emails to your boss. Share what you're doing, what you plan to do, and what you've done. Include current priorities, things on your mind, and blockers you need help with. Using a template can make it easier to digest.</li>
</ul>

Share your impact the right way

<ul><li>Build rapport. You don't have to be best friends to build rapport. However, show interest. Pick a few topics you feel are common ground, such as kids or a shared hobby.</li><li>Get tactical with building empathy. Assume positive intent. Check assumptions and ask questions to get clarity on how your manager is thinking. Summarise what you're learning to ensure you understand their point of view.</li><li>Understand that your manager is likely a mentor. They see the good and bad and provide guidance and direction. A sponsor can indirectly help you manage up. They see your potential and can sway a manager.</li></ul>

Build lasting rapport and trust

Top startup leaders share their best tips for managing up, including communication tactics, building trust, and goal setting with your manager. 

Questioning tech: The past, present, and future of survey tools

How to Quickly Calm Down When You Get Triggered at Work

How QR codes work—and what makes them dangerous

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

How does a smartphone ‘read’ my fingerprint?

CURATED BY

Questioning tech: The past, present, and future of survey tools

How to Quickly Calm Down When You Get Triggered at Work

How QR codes work—and what makes them dangerous

It's time to Read like a Pro.

How does a smartphone ‘read’ my fingerprint?

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.