In 2022, video will be the king of social media content. 82% of consumer internet traffic goes to video. This is 15 times what it was in 2017 – a trend that was impossible to predict. We’re reading less than ever and, instead, users want to watch as much content as possible. This is why TikTok is on the rise as Facebook goes into decline. So if you want to raise your social media game this year, it all comes down to making awesome videos

The Background

The sheer amount of video content users are watching means that every click has a high opportunity cost. While they’ll want to watch hour-long videos occasionally, this means they’re missing out on 60 one-minute clips. In general, short and sweet videos get more views, earning your company more exposure.Having a shorter video also allows you to spend more time thinking about the quality of every shot. This means you can choose only the absolute best footage to blow your audience away.

Keep It Short

Many beginner video producers overlook the importance of sound. It’s easy to think that the visual quality is all that matters. However, audio is what tells the story. It creates the atmosphere, punctuating moments in time. People talking in the background, the whistling of the wind, or even complete silence can all paint a picture even more vividly than actual pictures.

Don’t Neglect Audio 

Online video was expected to be a bit grainy and shaky in the past. These days, though, there’s no excuse. With the average smartphone capable of creating beautiful 4K footage, uploading anything less than production quality is unforgivable. Even the biggest media companies now film using a standard iPhone. Most viewers will switch off if the quality of a video is lacking.You can easily learn some basic camera skills for free online. However, you’ll achieve better results by outsourcing the camera work to a professional.

Meet Professional Production Standards

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

videos

Videos

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

How to Make Awesome Videos for Social Media - Social Media Explorer

Giving and taking credit is a tough subject to speak up about. The prevailing cultural narrative around the world is to be humble, that no task is too small, and when you work hard, the satisfaction of a job well done should be reward enough. If you keep working hard, you’ll be recognized—or so the logic goes.But women and women of colour, in particular, are often denied the opportunity to do the work that is recognized and celebrated in an organization.

The Gap In Opportunity And Credit

While a gap exists even in the recognition that white women receive compared with white men, white women are still more likely to be in high-visibility positions compared with women of colour.For people who do get credit for their brilliance, and whose social identities largely afford them opportunities to progress and prosper, there is a chance to use their privilege for good.

Women Of Colour And Lack Of Recognition

If you’re a manager who leads many meetings, there’s ample opportunity for you to be inclusive on purpose. The first step is to take stock of who usually leads meetings, who gets to present at them, and who is celebrated as innovative and productive during them. In most cases, this is a white person. Being inclusive on purpose requires leaders to seek opportunities to create room for women of colour. If women are interrupted during meetings by their male counterparts, we need to interrupt the interrupters.

Run Inclusive Meetings

Often when women state an idea, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/women-who-speak-out-at-work-get-ignored-men-become-leaders-2017-11-07">it’s ignored</a>, but when a man repeats it, it’s revered and applauded. This even has a name: hepeating.Meritocracy convinces us that like cream, brilliance rises to the top. But in reality, it depends on who delivers the message. The phenomenon shows us that men are frequently viewed as brilliant and leader-like—the ones with the good ideas, while women supposedly don’t have good ideas.If you find that you don’t have trouble getting attention in meetings, but the woman of colour next to you does, you can repeat the idea, credit her and then get out of the way.

Repeat and Then Get Out Of the Way

Become aware of who is considered a visionary and who is seen as a follower. Once you intentionally observe, you will notice that it’s largely white people and men who are given the floor to air ideas or ask questions.Whenever possible, call on women of colour in meetings or other settings to share their ideas, especially if you are facilitating the gathering. Avoid tokenizing behaviour, however, or just taking this action as a symbolic gesture to signal that you’re including women of colour in the moment.

Pass the Mic to Amplify

Research shows that high-visibility projects disproportionately are led and staffed by men. Just 22% of the women’s project budgets exceeded $10 million, compared with 30% of the men’s. Most troubling of all, one-third of men reported that their assignments got significant attention from the C-suite compared with only a quarter of women. Recommend women of colour for high-visibility assignments and roles. Take the time to cultivate relationships with various high-potential employees in your organization, not just the ones who are the same race or gender as you.

Sponsor Women of Color for High-Visibility Projects and Roles

Office housework refers to routine administrative tasks that keep an organization running smoothly. Measure what work in your workplace has to be done for things to run smoothly—from taking meeting notes, organizing birthday/retirement celebrations, ordering lunches, and serving on committees. Where possible, create a rotating system so that different people are responsible for these tasks and it doesn’t default to women of colour.

Redistribute Office Housework

Too often the same people are praised for work while others are consistently overlooked.

career

Career

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

Giving credit matters. Here’s how to give it—and get it

Doomscrolling or doomsurfing, are new words used to describe the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/doomsurfing-doomscrolling-words-were-watching">Merriam-Webster</a> says.
While doomscrolling existed—in practice, if not in name—before the pandemic hit, Merriam-Webster points out that it’s really taken hold lately. It’s not just about the virus, though: People can doomscroll through the news about racial injustice, or the unemployment rate. Basically, if the news is bad or depressing, you can doomscroll it.

Defining Doomscrolling

Doomscrolling can really challenge the way you see the world. People are drawn to doomscrolling because they feel like they have a sense of being able to control any of that bad news. But doomscrolling does not create control and only makes you miserable. The overall impact doomscrolling has on people can vary, but typically, it can make you feel extra anxious, depressed, and isolated.

A Gloomy Outlook

First, identify if you are doomscrolling: That habit you’ve formed of cruising through COVID-19 news online as soon as you get up? Doomscrolling. Your desire to stay up to date on every piece of info about how schools across the country are struggling to reopen? Also doomscrolling.Experts recommend limiting the amount of time you spend on your devices. So, maybe you put aside 15 minutes for you to cruise social media but, when the time is up, you put your phone down and don’t do it again for the rest of the day. And, if even that makes you feel stressed, don’t do it.

How To Stop Doomscrolling

Train yourself to see the positive in things. Start looking for at least three positive things a day, even if it’s as minor as thinking that your coffee was particularly tasty this morning.You can step things up by trying to do more nice things for people.You can't avoid how intense things are right now, but doomscrolling on the regular isn’t doing your physical or <a href="https://www.health.com/condition/mental-health-conditions">mental health</a> any favours—and it's definitely not helping your loved ones or society at large.

Forming A New Habit To Offset Doomscrolling

What is doomscrolling? New term describes tendency to scroll through and seek out bad news that is saddening, disheartening, or depressing. What you need to know about why we do it, and how to stop the habit.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

There's a Reason You Can't Stop Looking at Bad News—Here's How to Stop

The Walking Dead has taught us that it's not easy to survive in an undead wasteland. The last couple of years has shown us that a zombie apocalypse is perhaps not that far-fetched. Real survival experts and experienced preppers can give us tips for surviving a doomsday scenario.

Learning from The Walking Dead

John Ramey, the founder of survivalist company The Prepared, doesn't recommend putting your money into a bunker. Instead, we should focus on making our existing homes and communities more resilient. Your home is your castle. It's your base for any emergency. If you had to lock yourself in your home right now, no water, no gas, no electricity or communication, how long can you live there? It should be two weeks at a minimum because that covers most emergencies like natural disasters.

Surviving an emergency

Basic supplies include food, water, health, communication, first aid supplies, hygiene supplies. You need a gallon of water per person per day and filtering products to make water safe to drink. Keep a 'bug out bag'. It is a bag of essential supplies you can grab when you need to leave the safety of your home. It should contain a lighter or waterproof matches, an emergency blanket, sleeping bag, freeze-dried food, flashlight, batteries, solar radio, water purifier, camping stove, knife, gun and medical kit. A bicycle is a classic bug-out vehicle.

Be well stocked with basic supplies

You will need first aid and a core medical understanding of cleaning and dressing a wound. For example, if Daryl from The Walking Dead gets hit in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt, how will you handle it? Outdoor survival skills are also essential. Can you read a map and start a fire? Do you know how to create a winter shelter? Do you pay attention to what's going on around you or how to diffuse tense situations?

Skills to use your supplies

At some point, you may be forced to leave the house and find shelter elsewhere. Would you know where to go? If a zombie apocalypse happens, you will need community as community wins most of the time compared to being alone. We are not machines. We get sick, we need to sleep, we can't learn every skill we'll need through every calamity. Knowing someone that can help can save the day.

We need community

How you deal with zombies depend on what kind you meet. If you get into a confrontation with a slow one, just move around them. But if you meet a fast-mover, you know there is more. So you have to turn to stealth. Move in the shadows, underground, in any way to avoid them. Make use of dogs, who can sense threats or major changes and warn you in advance. For example, something is up if they start to act strange, growl, show their teeth, or pace a lot.

How to deal with zombies

Survival experts and professional preppers give their tips on how to survive a zombie invasion.

Survival experts and professional preppers give their top tips on how to survive a zombie invasion.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

movies

Movies & Shows

How to survive a real-life Walking Dead apocalypse

PrivacyHQ.com survey shows that <ul><li>63% of parents allow their children to watch YouTube,</li><li>54% allow their teens to use Instagram, and</li><li>49% let their teenagers use TikTok.</li></ul> <ul><li>A third of parents allow their children younger than 13 to use social networking to help them with future goals such as becoming content creators or professional gamers.</li><li>64% of parents said their child wants to influence others on Instagram and YouTube.</li></ul>

Children and the internet survey results 

Social media exposes younger users to content that is worse than on TV. The Internet and social media have an overabundance of information that is not child friendly, such as adult content or breaking news. Research found that although 95% of parents talked to their children about social media safety, <ul><li>almost 50% did not discuss topics like bot recognition, privacy, fake accounts and the differences between real and online life.</li><li>52% of parents did not speak to their children about issues like cyberbullying. </li><li>20% of parents caught their child posting to a fake Instagram (finsta) account.</li></ul>

The danger of the Internet and social media

There are no universal ratings for content shared on social media. However, parents can stop their children from downloading apps to smartphones, so platforms can or should not do anything unless they require identification when signing up. While YouTube is full of good educational content, it is still unsuitable for children under 13 years old. The same goes for other platforms.

Inadequacy of ratings

parenting

Parenting

What Is The Right Age To Let Kids Use Social Media? - Social Media Explorer

Expert-Knowledge paradoxically seems to be a barrier of unbiased thinking for many experts (Expert-Bias-Barrier).The open and clear horizon of an area of expertise narrows for the expert behind a city made of expert knowledge.

The biased Horizon

Laypeople & amateurs are less restricted by the intrinsic rules and thinking paradigms of an area of expertise, because it is more likely they are not aware of them.This condition, as it does not narrow their view, allows them to openly create more unbiased ideas to an expert topic.

The unbiased Horizon

Innovative problemsolving needs all stages of competence hand in hand.While amateurs can be a creative source of open impulses and ideas, experts can structure and evaluate those specifically towards the problem that needs to be solved.So merging horizons comes down to complement each others strengths and weaknesses with an inclusive and participative approach of solution creation (synergy).

Merging Horizons

Society tends to unerestimate ideas created by non-experts. This limiting conviction restricts the full potential of a society's innovational fundament.

philosophy

Philosophy

creativity

Creativity

Expert-Knowledge-Paradox

If you start a sole proprietorship or a partnership, you could be held personally liable for almost anything related to the business; that means you will be responsible for paying any business-related debts you incur and you could be sued by your clients, employees, etc.If you start an LLC, you'll have some degree of liability protection. These business structures allow your business to be treated as if it were an individual of its own. The business itself can take out a loan, incurred debt, and be the target of costly lawsuits - reducing your personal exposure to these financial risks.

Establish an LLC (limited liability company) or a Corporation

New business owners are tempted to fund the business themselves, even if they don't have the savings to cover those expenses. They take out personal loans, max out their credit cards, or incur debt in other ways to get the money they need.A few minor expenses here and there won't hurt you, but for the most part, you should never take out personal loans. Instead, work with investors, tap into your savings, or rely on your business credit to take out loans in the business's name.

Never Take Out Personal Loans

<ul><li>Budgeting and frugality: Be smart with your budgeting and try to remain as frugal as possible.</li><li>An emergency fund: Set aside at least enough money to cover a few months of personal expenses.</li><li>Tax-advantaged investment vehicles: With any extra money, use tax advantage investment vehicles to maximize your savings and plan for retirement. </li></ul>

Focus On Independent Saving Strategies

Try to diversify your income streams, both inside the business and on a personal level.<ul><li>Within the business, that could mean selling multiple different types of products and services, monetizing your content or applications in different ways, or even targeting different audiences. </li><li>The same principle applies to you as an individual. You can diversify your income streams by investing in dividend-paying stocks, investing in real estate, starting independent blogs or websites, or even picking up side gigs.</li></ul>

Diversify Your Income Streams

The right strategies can help you minimize your personal financial exposure when starting a business.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

startup

Startups

The 4 Most Important Ways for Entrepreneurs to Mitigate Personal Financial Risk

Existentially, we are one – only socially, we are too divided.

If you sink into the past, it will rule your present and determine your future. Going beyond this trap is Yoga.

Agricultural practice that are Soil-friendly are vital for the future of Humanity. The Human Body is a reflection of the Living Soil.

Without knowing the sweetness of love and the overwhelming nature of the Divine, you are yet to touch life.

With a heart full of devotion, meticulousness will come naturally.

If the foundation of who you are is stillness, the dance of life can be absolutely carefree.

Shiva is Pashupati, the lord of all creatures. Most earthly of all Divine entities and the master of Biodiversity. Save Soil; let us make it happen.

If you strive to make yourself in such a way that no one can help loving you, life will blossom into Beauty and Prosperity.

We must impart to every human being that soil, water, and air are not resources to be used and thrown away. These are life-making ingredients.

Indian culture is all about creating the necessary ambience for a human being’s spiritual growth.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

writing

Reading & Writing

Mystic quotes from Sadhguru : 10 quotes

One of the feelings of the age is a kind of anxiety or unease about things.One reason is that we’re on our phones all the time, we’re consuming more information than ever. Technology has enabled us to do everything on demand. We never get downtime between moments.We're exhausted because of social media and keeping up with the Joneses. In short, we have sort of merged with our phones.

Hooked on technology

A transformation has taken place that is not well documented. We can’t figure out why we can’t read a book. We can’t consume long-form complex ideas. During the Lincoln Douglas debates, Lincoln talked for three hours, Douglas for three hours, then after a break, everyone returned for another three hours. Now democratic debates are one hour and 20 minutes in total, and there are eight candidates. Yet, when we consume long-form stuff such as hours of television, we consume entertainment that doesn’t require us to engage deeply and robustly with it.

Technology is diminishing our capabilities

Previously, media houses were the only trusted sources. Now, almost anyone can create podcasts, books or YouTube videos.  Traditional media institutions are becoming empty shells. Their only value is in their brand's reputation, but their content is decreasing. They seem to only talk to each other and themselves. Focusing on themselves could lead to being irrelevant and wrong or misleading. Yet they still have a measure of coherence that the wild west lacks. On the one side, we have the interesting stuff that is incoherent; on the other, we have stuff that is coherent but meaningless.

The media landscape is shifting

We may watch stuff that doesn’t make sense and leave us fixed in a sort of hypnagogic state. We pay attention to the traditional media houses, but we completely miss important things because they are filtered out by whatever the dominant media narrative is.  We pay attention to the media narrative because our mind is looking for symbols to inform us what is the important narrative. Or that has been vetted. We’re unreachable by real art. The art created now that matters, that is appropriate to this time, and would genuinely pierce the cultural consciousness is mostly unseen.

Why we're fixated on the unimportant and miss the crucial things

People these days try to find meaning in things like polyamorous relationships, travelling, or being an influencer. We emptied our life of real meaning, then tried to replace it with nothing. We tear down marriage and replace it with nothing. We tear down the office, community, the small town square, and replace them with nothing.  If you want to have a meaningful life, get married, have kids, live within your means, find work that you find purposeful and fulfilling, participate in your community.

If you want a meaningful life, start a family

The baby boomers caught a wave that made it easy to prosper. But in their selfishness, they are more concerned about themselves than their children.  They hoard stuff they are not willing to give up. They think everybody will find their bliss and make their own way, just like they did, but they don’t know how expensive college had become relative to themselves or home prices than when they were young. Millennials experienced 9/11, the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, huge student debt, and more. “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”

The disconnect between the Boomers and the Millennials

Informed in an interesting fashion by his relationship to stoicism, Ryan shares that he cares deeply about the future, but always in a thoughtful and measured way. In this podcast, he shares what is really driving our current moment across many areas.

Ryan Holiday is a master manipulator with a cool head, and keen eye for social observation and a big heart. Eric sits down with the Author of "Conspiracy" and tries to get a self-confessed former manipulator and one of the top emerging millennial social analysts to tell us how he unweaves society's artifices to see what is really driving our current moment across many areas.   Ryan is a unique voice who uses stoicism to remain intellectually detached but without seemingly succuming to emotional or moral disinterest in the issues of our day. With a background in marketing and media. he has gone beyond mere vice signaling to try to help people see how open they are to having their own media and digital habits weaponized against them. In some ways, one could say that he has migrated from grey-hat mind hacker to a white hat analyst and conversationalist helping us to better understand ourselves using ancient wisdom in a modern moment.    This interview was recorded slightly before the quarantining and so is interesting to think of in light of what is about to happen.      Thank You to Our Sponsors:  Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/portal  Personna: Amazing.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25   Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portal  Theragun: theragun.com/portal  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

podcasts

Podcasts

Ryan Holiday is a master manipulator with a cool head, and keen eye for social observation and a big heart. Eric sits down with the Author of "Conspiracy" and tries to get a self-confessed former manipulator and one of the top emerging millennial social analysts to tell us how he unweaves society's artifices to see what is really driving our current moment across many areas. Ryan is a unique voice who uses stoicism to remain intellectually detached but without seemingly succuming to emotional or moral disinterest in the issues of our day. With a background in marketing and media. he has gone beyond mere vice signaling to try to help people see how open they are to having their own media and digital habits weaponized against them. In some ways, one could say that he has migrated from grey-hat mind hacker to a white hat analyst and conversationalist helping us to better understand ourselves using ancient wisdom in a modern moment.  This interview was recorded slightly before the quarantining and so is interesting to think of in light of what is about to happen. Thank You to Our Sponsors:Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/portalPersonna: Amazing.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25 Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portalTheragun: theragun.com/portalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Portal is an exploration into discovery, including conversations with thought leaders. Host Eric Weinstein, Managing Director of Thiel Capital, brings his unique expertise and diverse roster of guests for a wide range of discussions, including science, culture, business, and capitalism. The show will feature people whose lives demonstrate that portals into what we would normally consider impossible, are indeed possible.  Guests include presidential candidate Andrew Yang, NY Times bestselling author Sam Harris, and retired Navy Seal and creator of the hit business podcast Jocko Willink.

The Portal

31: Ryan Holiday - Conspiracy, Manipulation & other Pastimes

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

You can blame bad luck or enemies for your dissatisfaction, but the real reason is cultural gravity. Cultural gravity is the invisible force that sways you in the direction that society wants you to go. This default path is a socially approved narrative about how to live: Study hard, go to college, get a good job, save money, get married, have kids. Then, when you're old, relax and enjoy the utopia until you die. Yet, this path, with all its promises, crushes your sense of well-being and dampens the joy of existence.

Cultural gravity is to blame

You know life is short, that you should avoid trivial pursuits, that you want to be happy. You know that you should choose the alternative path, but choosing to follow that path starts a war with cultural gravity. <ul><li>Your parents may tell you to get a real job and give up trying to be an artist.</li><li>Companies tell you to try and get ahead in the grind.</li><li>Friends smirk when you tell them about your startup idea.</li></ul> The alternative path is never smooth. You will face difficult moments and doubt if you're doing the right thing.

Pursue an alternative path

When you start on an alternative path, you will take many psychological punches. Eventually, you may wonder if you made the wrong decision and give up. So you return to the default path but feel empty. You turn to stimulants, sugary foods, philosophy, therapy and meditation and work harder, but nothing soothes the dissatisfaction. If you're brave, you will accept that cultural gravity will always be there, so you start to take its powerful punches. But you're not phased. You know to keep going and become a person that you admire.

Staying on course

People blame bad luck and political enemies for their dissatisfaction, but cultural gravity is the real culprit.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

Defying Cultural Gravity - Calvin Rosser

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