If you listen, you can hear whirs rather than roars. If you look, you can see charging stations in grocery store parking lots or libraries.For years, electric vehicles were said to be just around the corner. Now, they’re here, moving from niche to mainstream, with their listen-or-you’ll-miss-it driving noises, and with no need for gas, oil changes or emissions tests — ever. The revolution is happening in a time of high gas prices and amid worries about stable energy sources fueled by the war in Ukraine.

The Electric Cars Have Arrived

Even as momentum grows around these vehicles, sales still pale in comparison to gas-powered vehicles. And there are plenty of other obstacles: EVs are more expensive, and charging stations are not located everywhere, though there’s a race to build more. The industry has largely settled on a universal plug, though Tesla still has their own that comes with an adapter. The wait time for charging an EV also varies by vehicle model and charging station.

The Problems That Come With EVs

The biggest EV challenge is scaling up: installing pricey charging stations and ensuring the electrical grid won’t collapse if everyone plugs in at once. The expectation is that people who have charging stations at home will plug in overnight, while those who live in apartments or who park their cars on the street will have to get a charge while running errands or maybe at work.For now, demand far outstrips supply, thanks to ongoing supply chain issues plaguing the auto industry. That means anyone wanting an EV should be prepared to wait, depending on the make and model.

The New Challenges

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

Here’s how the electric vehicle revolution is going

The summer of 2022 is shaping up to be a very warm one. The heat wave is expected to intensify in the next few months, with above-normal temperatures likely across the lower 48 states.<ul><li>Heat waves begin when high pressure in the atmosphere moves in and pushes warm air toward the ground.</li><li>The air warms up further as it is compressed, and we begin to feel a lot hotter.</li><li>A heat wave parks itself over an area for several days or longer.</li></ul>

The Heat Waves: A Primer

As the ground warms, it loses moisture, which makes it easier to heat even more.In the drought-ridden West, there is often plenty of heat for the high-pressure system to trap.The trapped heat continues to warm, the system acts like a lid on a pot - earning the name "heat dome"Last summer in the West, high pressure trapped heat led to triple-digit temperatures that killed hundreds.

Heat Domes

We have long known that the world has warmed by more than 1 degree Celsius (about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1900, and that the pace of warming has accelerated in recent decades.Staying Safe<ul><li>Give yourself time to acclimate</li><li>Increase the amount of time you spend outdoors gradually, if you can, by about 20 percent</li><li>Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke</li><li>Hydrate and drink water</li><li>Don’t push yourself past comfort</li></ul>

Hotter Than Normal

To help reduce demand, consider raising the thermostat by a few degrees and closing window shades and blinds.Avoid using large appliances like ovens, washing machines and dryers during the hottest part of the day, and turn off all lights and electronic devices not in use.

Power Outages

In most parts of the United States, temperatures must be above the historical average in an area for two or more days before the label “heat wave” is applied.

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

What to Know About Heat Waves

Patreon, a platform where fans pay creators via monthly membership, has grown exponentially since its inception in 2013. That trend of creators getting autonomy and control and leverage of their businesses, of their media, of their ownership, their payments methods, of everything, that trend is now coming at the world a thousand miles an hour and nothing can change it.What is happening right now is a sea change in favour of creative people. The world is about to look very, very different for creators in 10 years.

Creative People: Your Time Has Come

The creator economy isn’t new, but a fresh iteration of a much older phenomenon, as well as the beauty of Web3 as it applies to ownership. By focusing on “love” as opposed to “likes,” Patreon has helped change the way art is brought back autonomy to artists and creators around the world, enabling them to receive fair pay—as opposed to fractions of cents—for their creative output.

The Creator Economy

Patreon rewrites the equation and ultimately rights the relationship between creators and their fans. Since its inception in 2013, Patreon has paid out 250,000+ creators over $3.5 billion. But helping artists and creators get paid for their work is only the tip of the iceberg. Much of Patreon’s efforts are also directed toward helping them build deeper connections with their fans.The creators of the app are breaking you out where you have access to your audience and you can focus on the aspects of creativity and community building that those folks fundamentally want.

The Web3 Economics Of Patreon

Jack Conte was inspired to create Patreon to get creators paid after he made a video that reached a million views but earned him less than $200. “Something is deeply wrong with this equation,” he said.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

How Patreon is rewriting the equation between creators and their fans

Empathy is the ability to understand and share someone's emotions. Empathy is vital for moral development, maintaining close relationships, fostering relations between groups and preventing aggression.  Most empathy-building interventions focus on developing the ability to take another person's perspective. However, having a clear understanding of oneself is also important for the ability to empathise.

Empathising well

Psychologists characterise a person's sense of self by assessing their self-concept clarity. <ul><li>People with high self-concept clarity say that they have a clear idea about what they are like, that their sense of who they are becomes stable over time, and that their characteristics and beliefs about themselves are consistent.</li><li>People with low self-concept clarity are unsure of who they are, including their characteristics or desires. The characteristics they use to describe themselves might be contradictory or change from one day to the next.</li></ul>

A sense of self

To empathise well, you need to understand that you and your experience are distinct from another person and their experience. Some people are more capable of making this self-other distinction than others. Researchers suggest the ability to make this distinction might be related to helpful ways of empathising, such as listening and understanding how other people are feeling.

Self-other distinction

Personal distress could result from poor self-other distinction - for example, forgetting that the other person's experience, not your own, is the source of your emotional state. Feeling overwhelmed with sadness and anxiety on behalf of the other person isn't really about the other person's feelings but your own. However, having a clear sense of self should make it easier to appreciate how you are different from other people and to mentally separate yourself from them. It helps you to share another person's emotional experience with an appropriate level of distance.

Creating an appropriate level of distance

One way to establish a clearer sense of self is by identifying your values, such as honesty, spontaneity or ambition.  Being clearer about who you are could make it easier to sense where you end, and another person begins – and to respond to their feelings in a helpful way.

Improving empathic response

Those who lack a clear self-concept might get consumed by another’s experience, becoming distressed rather than helpful

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Why self-understanding could be important for empathising well | Psyche Ideas

Luxury brands used to speak in monologues. News about their latest collections flowed one way—from the boardroom, via billboards and editorial spreads in glossy magazines, to the buyer. In the age of social media, the buyers are talking back.One group, in particular, is getting through to fashion bosses: influencers. These individuals have won large followings by reviewing, advertising and occasionally panning an assortment of wares. Their fame stems from the savvy use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

The Customer Strikes Back

For consumers, influencers are at once a walking advert and a trusted friend. For intermediaries that sit between them and brands, they are a hot commodity. For the brands’ corporate owners, they are becoming a conduit to millennial and Gen-Z consumers, who will be responsible for 70% of the $350bn or so in global spending on bling by 2025, according to Bain, a consultancy. And for regulators, they are the subject of ever closer scrutiny.

The Age Of Influencers

Few reliable estimates exist of the size of the influencer industry. One in 2020 from the National Bureau of Statistics in China, where influencers gained prominence earlier than in the West, estimated its contribution to the economy at $210bn, equivalent to 1.4% of GDP. As with many things digital, the pandemic seems to have given it a fillip, as more people were glued to their smartphones more of the time.

The Influencer Industry

The influencer ecosystem is challenging the time-honoured tenets of luxury-brand management. Apart from being one-directional, campaigns have tended to be standardised, unchanging and expensive. An exclusive group of white actresses with the right cheekbones was supposed to signal consistency, as well as opulence. The same smile from the same photograph of the same Hollywood star would entice passers-by to purchase an item for many years. Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman have been the faces of Lancôme’s bestselling La Vie est Belle perfume and Miss Dior, respectively, for a decade.

How Luxury Brands Use Big Stars

Star-led campaigns can feel aloof to teenagers and 20-somethings who prize authenticity over timeless glamour. And influencers, with their girl- or boy-next-door charm, offer this in spades—for a fraction of the fee of a big-name star. The best ones are able to repackage a brand’s message in a way that is harmonious with their voice, their followers’ tastes and their platform of choice (Instagram is best for all-stars with over 2m followers and TikTok for niche “micro-influencers” with up to 100,000 followers and “nano-influencers” with fewer than 10,000).

Authenticity Vs Timeless Glamour

Influencers are particularly adept at navigating social-media platforms’ constantly evolving algorithms and features. For example, when Instagram’s algorithm seemed to begin favouring short videos (“reels”) over still images, so did many influencers. As social-media apps introduce shopping features, influencers are combining entertainment and direct salesmanship.

Influencers And Online Algorithms

Some luxury houses are leery of influencers. Hermès, the French purveyor of scarves and Birkin bags, maintains a social media presence that is conspicuously influencer-free. But more feel the benefits outweigh the costs. Despite Louis Vuitton’s and Gucci’s live-streaming flops, lvmh and Kering, the brands’ respective owners, continue to rely on influencers to create social-media momentum. To be a top-ten brand, you have to know how to play the digital game. If you don’t, you are not going to be top ten for very long.

Playing The Digital Game

Influencers are becoming brand ambassadors—even for the poshest of brands | Business

Discover the world of business and economics.

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Economics

business

Business

computerscience

Computer Science

The business of influencing is not frivolous. It’s serious

Conflict is the arrow pointing to what we need to learn the most

Conflict is described as "perceived divergence of interest, a belief that the parties’ current aspirations are incompatible.” Pruitt and Kim (2004, pp. 7–8 Conflict resolution is when an agreement is reached on contentious issues.Conflict management is when a problem has been solved where the parties had to work out ways to de-escalate conflict and avoid future escalations. Conflict is disruptive. American businesses lose $359 billion yearly due to unresolved conflict. The emotions associated with conflict include fear, anger, distrust, rejection, defensiveness, hopelessness.

Conflict resolution

People involved in conflict experience “a wide range of psychological and physical health problems including a weakened immune system, depression, alcoholism, and eating disorders.” Realistic conflict theory states that “conflict can always be explained by some tangible (such as money, territory) or intangible (like power, honor) resource" that is desired by both groups but is not available to both.

A theoretical framework for conflict resolution

When there is conflict, the body responds with a fight or flight reaction. Stress increases blood sugar levels and speeds up the heart rate. The cortisol released soaks the brain’s nerve cells, causing memories to shrink. When we deal with emotions first, it will help reduce stress, allowing for regular, rational problem-solving skills to continue. That is why it is important to wait for the emotions to subside before engaging in a discussion. Benefits include:<ol><li>Stress reduction</li><li>Improved self-esteem</li><li>Improved self-efficacy</li><li>Better relationships</li><li>Increased energy</li></ol>

Psychological benefits of conflict resolution

<h3>The following skills are vital for resolving conflict.</h3><ul><li>Self-awareness is recognising a feeling when it happens.</li><li>Self-control is the ability to regulate unrule impluses and emotions.</li><li>Assertive communication is where the speaker maintains self-respect, expresses personal need, and defends their own rights without abusing or dominating the other party.</li><li>Collaboration considers all the important needs of the primary parties and develops a suitable solution.</li><li>Problem-solving pursues alternative solutions.</li><li>Empathy is the ability to share and understand others emotions.</li><li>Active listening.</li></ul>

Conflict resolution skills

This method works well for conflicts involving values and intense emotions. <ol><li>Engage with the other respectfully. Respect involves how you look at the other person, how you listen, your tone of voice, and word choices.</li><li>Listen fully until you understand the other side, the content of the other person’s ideas, what it means for them, and their feelings about it.</li><li>Verbalize your feelings, views, and needs. Assertive communication works well at this stage. However, this is not always necessary. When you make a statement, be brief and truthful, but avoid loaded words. Show your feelings.</li></ol>

The conflict resolution method

When two or more parties are willing to work on solving a contentious issue:<ol><li>Define the primary needs surrounding the conflict.</li><li>Brainstorm possible solutions.</li><li>Choose solutions that meet the needs of both parties.</li><li>Create an agenda delineating who will assume each task.</li><li>Implement the plan.</li><li>Evaluate the solutions and reevaluate if required.</li></ol>

Collaborative problem-solving

<ol><li>Create an open-door policy.</li><li>Appoint Ombudspersons - neutral or impartial managers who can help to resolve work-related disputes.</li><li>Internal peer mediation. Designated employees can act as mediators to help resolve conflict.</li><li>Professional mediators are impartial third parties who assist through a formal mediation process.</li><li>Peer review and employee appeals are used to avoid a union process.</li><li>Executive panels provide an opportunity for employees to present their claims to a panel of senior executives that will be objective and sympathetic.</li></ol>

Approaches to work through issues in work settings

<ul><li>The Two Dollar Game was developed to help employees learn the art of negotiation in a fun way.</li><li>Conflict Description Template created by the University of Iowa is intended to deal with conflict.</li><li>Use this workbook: Coping With Stress in the Workplace Workbook by Ester Leutenberg and John Liptak.</li><li>Consider online tools and resources for conflict resolution.</li><li>Role-play activity. Participants are presented with various workplace scenarios and encouraged to formulate assertive messages to initiate a discussion about the problem at hand.</li></ul>

Best activities, games, workbooks, and online tools

Can we seek a better understanding of conflict and transform its devastating effects? Let’s find out in this conflict resolution article.

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Corporate Culture

communication

Communication

teamwork

Teamwork

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Conflict Resolution Strategies & Techniques for the Workplace

TikTok is contagious and addicting. It drives some of the strongest engagement numbers across the board and has inspired large-scale shifts and imitation from other platforms such as Instagram (i.e., its Reels feature).TikTok’s explosive initial growth was fueled by young adults. Now, the short-form video content platform is gaining cross-generational appeal. This consumer shift will likely drive a shift in brand spending, and sponsored content partnerships will become more common on the platform.

TikTok Will Gain An Even Bigger Share Of The Pie

Social media platforms make money based on engagement. It’s in their best interest to keep influencers motivated to create and share interesting content. That’s why several leading platforms are investing in resources that encourage collaboration.Despite TikTok’s popularity, Instagram wins when it comes to new features focused on content creators and brand partnerships. Last year, Instagram developed Collabs, which allows creators to build content together and then take advantage of a larger shared audience, as well as “Add Yours” stickers to boost Story engagement.

The Race For Creator-Friendly Tools Is On

The pandemic proved the importance of a digital presence and e-commerce capabilities.<ul><li>On the development front, Instagram recently announced testing for a native affiliate tool that allows creators to earn commissions for purchases they drive through the app. TikTok has been promoting a suite of social commerce solutions called TikTok Shopping and expanded its partnership with Shopify.</li><li>With platforms’ push for in-app shopping, influencers are becoming the entire marketing funnel. Brands will be able to leverage them as an awareness strategy and as a purchase driver.</li></ul>

Influencers Will Take Over The Entire Marketing Funnel

LinkedIn has seen a new category of influencers emerge — more executives, CEOs and business owners — and is building tools to support them accordingly.<ul><li>Last year, LinkedIn launched a new function — “Creator mode” — aimed directly at professionals seeking a foothold in the influencer world. This mode allows business leaders to leverage their expertise and be intentional about building community on the platform.</li><li>Brands should look at this as an opportunity to leverage the reach and expertise of LinkedIn influencers in their respective industries and develop cross-promotional partnerships.</li></ul>

LinkedIn Influencers Will Emerge

In 2021, the global esports industry was worth more than $1.08 billion; that number is expected to grow to nearly $1.7 billion by 2024.Esports is a natural fit for influencer marketing because of the high level of audience engagement and interaction. Esports fans are loyal, and enthusiasts stay engaged for hours at a time.While early esports influencer campaigns focused on gaming-related products, we’re seeing a wider variety of brands seeking to capitalize on this audience: mega-brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, Intel, and BMW have gotten in on the game with sponsorships of esports influencers.

Esports Influencers Will Go Mainstream

In my business, we’ve seen growth in influencer activity across multiple platforms. Here’s what we’re predicting.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

Council Post: The State Of Influencer Marketing: Top Insights For 2022

Here's how conflict handling would work using the "SAS" rule:
<ul>
<li>Step 1: (S)tep back -- physically. This creates space between you and your colleague and sends the signal that you're not interested in further aggression or tension.</li>
<li>Step 2: (A)sk for a second to think about the situation logically. With a pause in the communication, ask yourself two critical questions: What is the most important fact on each side of the argument?</li>
<li>Step 3: (S)hare your realization with the other person calmly. Be sure you acknowledge both sides of the argument and how your emotion was coloring your communication.</li>
</ul>

The SAS Rule To Quickly Defuse Conflict

At this point, you may be able to continue a constructive conversation that reaches a peaceful resolution. If, however, there is still tension, ask to excuse yourself so both of you can calm down and rationally think about both sides of the argument.Follow up after a few hours (or days, depending on how much time you need) to calmly discuss the issue and come to a resolution. Be prepared to listen and, as needed, make a concession or compromise.

Follow Up And Listen

You can prepare an agenda for your follow-up or craft a statement of facts or beliefs that frame your side of the argument. Both of you should do this and share it with the other to review in advance. This avoids possible inflammatory statements at the moment and forces you to think about the other person's position.Overall, it's best to defuse these situations quickly and let the other person know you have no interest in conflict, but that you'd much rather listen, share, and come to an understanding calmly. It's the only way forward -- for the issue at hand and for your relationship.

Closure

Conflict appears in many forms, but we seldom are prepared to deal with it. Fortunately, this 3-step rule defuses tense situations and facilitates constructive resolution.

Use The "S-A-S" Rule to Quickly Defuse Conflict & End Arguments 

Website optimization (SEO) still plays a very significant role in your site’s visibility and SERP performance. The main areas of focus should be”<ul><li>Titles</li><li>Headers</li><li>Website copy</li><li>Meta descriptions</li><li>Image alt text</li></ul>By strategically placing relevant and “winnable” keywords of choice in the above areas, you are optimizing your website to be crawlable and indexable by search engines. And of course, the same applies to blogs.

On Page SEO

Search ranking is superficially tailored to user intent. This means that you need to let search engines know that you are an authoritative website that can offer information (and a solution) to specific pains and interests users might have.This is where long tail keywords come in, as opposed to normal keywords and phrases, these show a specific intention:<ul><li>Short tail (typically 1- 2words): “Eggs”</li><li>Long tail (typically 3–5 words): “How to make scrambled eggs?” </li></ul>

Target Long Tail Keywords

When you create a new piece of content, be sure to provide links to previous articles in your blog as it does not only boost your content’s SEO, it also provides visitors with a more user-friendly experience.&nbsp;Furthermore, the more your audience is directed from one post to the next, the more time they are essentially spending on your site, discovering your content and getting educated. This might even result in conversions and more of your content being shared.

Internal Linking

Referral traffic is excellent for increasing your website’s SEO. In addition to providing backlinks from other credible sources increasing your domain’s authority in the “eyes” of search engines, they also might attract more traffic, allowing you to leverage the audience of the site that linked back to you.Keep in mind, however, that referrals are earned, they are not acquired. In order to get referral traffic and backlinks to your site and blog, your content must deserve that link. It must be quality driven and aim to solve a specific pain, need, or interest of an audience.

Increase Referrals

Providing a guest post to another reputable site can increase your authority, expose you to a larger audience, and increase traffic back to your site and/or blog.&nbsp;Just creating a post and sending it to someone to feature on their blog does not work. You will need to build a relationship with them, make sure your audience and content are compatible, and of course always follow guest posting code of conduct when on someone else’s blog.

Begin Guest Blogging

Just like posting your content on others’ blogs is beneficial, the reverse is also true. Guests on your site are likely to share the link with their followers, potentially bringing in a new audience to you.&nbsp;Again, make sure the content you host is quality driven, relevant, and helpful to your readers.

Invite Guest Bloggers to Your Site

Getting an interview with a thought leader in your niche can truly do wonders to your site’s visibility. Not only will it increase your domain’s authority in the eyes of search engines, but similarly to guest bloggers, these individuals are also likely to share the link of the interview with their followers (further increasing your visibility and traffic.)

Interview Industry Experts and Thought Leaders

With a paid promotion, you can ensure that your content is being shown to the right people, at the right place, at the right time.&nbsp;Due to their highly targeted nature, paid ads not only contribute to higher visibility, they can even increase the amount of monthly leads your business generates.

Leverage the Power of Paid Promotion

Try to find aggregators that focus on specific niches as these will be more likely to attract the type of audience that would enjoy your content. If your content is high quality and resonates with the visitors to that site, it will do wonders for your visibility and increase traffic to your site.It is important to remember not to be spammy here. No matter how good the quality of your content is, if it is spammed and forced upon readers, it will probably warrant negative effects to your reputation.

Submit Your Content to Aggregator Websites

Webinars are an interesting, entertaining, and oftentimes engaging tactic to show off your knowledge and build your online authority. Additionally, they are something audiences like sitting down for.You will need a good promotion strategy backing your webinar. You’ll need to get an audience signed up for your webinar; using social media campaigns can be a great place to start. Emails, reminders, and “last notices” for registration are also great for getting people signed on.

Host Webinars

Traditional methods such as email marketing are sometimes (incorrectly) considered to be a thing of the past (especially with social media being a key way to get your message across.) However, it is important to not neglect the power of this tactic.&nbsp;Even moderate email blasts to your list can result in significant traffic, but you will need a strategy.&nbsp;

Email Marketing

With more people than ever browsing the internet on their mobile devices, today’s websites need to be responsive. A website that does not load properly, causing visitors to zoom-in, zoom-out, scroll, and adjusts will just be off-putting and will lead to a poor experience.In order to avoid losing traffic (and reputation) from this, be sure that your website is responsive and comfortably viewable on all screen sizes and devices.

Optimize for Mobile

Just as you would find it unacceptable to wait for tens of seconds for a site to load properly, visitors to your site share the same sentiment. In order to avoid massive bounce rates, diminishing traffic, and a blow to your online reputation, be sure that your site is also well optimized on the back end. This includes HTML ratios, image sizes, page structure, and integration with third-party plug-ins.

Fast Load Times

Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups your audience might be in and begin conversations, answer questions, and share your insight. (Twitter chats are also a great place for you to participate and engage in.)If they have been leaving comments on your posts, engage with them. This will definitely require time, a commodity that in today’s world is extremely limited and valuable, but the pay off can potentially be massive.

Leverage Social Media

Commenting on someone else’s blog brings traffic to yours: by providing additional insight, contributing to the conversations, and answering questions, you will start to expose yourself to new audience members.

Comment

See which tactics are working best for your competitors and even learn from some mistakes they have made, and incorporate this knowledge into your daily strategies.

See What Others Are Doing

One question that keeps popping up is, “How can I get more traffic to my site?” Website traffic is a much sought after “commodity” that few can achieve effectively due to immense market saturation…

16 Ways To Increase Your Website’s Visibility

Just as the social media era of the web was taking off, Google’s rapidly-growing platform radically changed the nature of the content and sharing on the web. Anybody with a website was starting to understand that ranking highly on Google was immensely valuable, and as Google’s ad platform boomed, seeing those paid results alongside “organic” search results made it even clearer that a high ranking had monetary value.Initially, information of how to rank better on Google was exchanged almost as folk knowledge (urban legends or myth, insights that were gleaned through painful experience).

The rise of SEO

Even as SEO matured and formalized, Google had very little documentation and no designated ombudsman to handle questions about how to be in their search engine’s good graces.&nbsp;Eventually, early Googler Matt Cutts took up the mantle of representing the company to the community as an advocate for best practices in search optimization, using his personal blog to explain company policies that had heretofore been opaque or inscrutable.

Advocating for best practices

Through the lens of 1 small choice about a single character in web addresses, we can understand how today’s fake news & algorithmic exploitation had their genesis in the early days of the social web.

Here’s how the electric vehicle revolution is going

What to Know About Heat Waves

How Patreon is rewriting the equation between creators and their fans

Why self-understanding could be important for empathising well | Psyche Ideas

The business of influencing is not frivolous. It’s serious

Jonathan Cooper