There is a lot of math behind how the Golden Ratio is calculated. But designers, artists, and photographers aren’t usually high-level mathematicians. To benefit the algebraically disinclined, let’s keep it simple.
The Ratio is approximately 1.618 to 1. It’s approximate because it is an irrational number that continues with an infinite number of decimal places. In math, the number is referred to by the Greek letter φ or Phi.

Calculating The Golden Ratio

The Ratio was first described by the ancient Greek mathematicians Phidias, Plato, and Euclid, as early as c. 450 B.C. It has been studied and refined for two and a half millennia.
The Ratio is also closely related to the Fibonacci sequence. This mathematical pattern shows numbers that are added together to make the next number. The first numbers of the sequence are 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.

The History

One of the most common arguments against the importance of Phi is that, while Phi can be applied to many things in nature, careful analysis shows that it is seldom mathematically perfect. When the spirals of a nautilus shell are measured, their ratio to one another is not exactly 1.618.
Famous pieces of artwork and architecture fail to stand up to careful study as well. This is true from ancient pyramids and famous buildings from ancient Greece to the Mona Lisa and other artworks by the masters.

The Mystery of Imperfection

It has often been claimed that the Rule of Thirds in photography is a simplification of Phi. It creates roughly the same result while being easier to apply in the field or on the go. Does the Rule of Thirds help photographers create more captivating images? It does.
Does it have to be applied perfectly every time? No, you can get great results and beautiful photos by using it as a starting point and modifying it as you see fit.

The Rule Of Thirds

Whether we realize it or not, humans can’t help but find objects that conform to Phi as intrinsically beautiful. 
As artists and creators, we can use this predisposition to our benefit. By incorporating the Ratio in our design and photography, we can improve the quality and beauty of our work.

Mathematically Inaccurate But Beautiful

In algebra, it is usually shown with the variables a and b.But when working with visual arts, it’s easiest to apply it geometrically. The most common example is the use of rectangles. A Golden Rectangle is one whose short edge is 1, while the long side is 1.618. The rectangle can then be divided into itself by the magic number 1.618 an infinite number of times.A common extrapolation of this is the Golden Spiral. By looking at the image of the slowly diminishing rectangles, the dimensions of a spiral shape can be drawn.

Applying The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can be observed in the spirals of a seashell, rainbands of a hurricane, petals of a flower, or the leaves of a plant. It’s only natural for artists to mimic the beauty of nature.

The Nature Has It Already

In design, layouts are the perfect place to start applying the Ratio. Two-column layouts are extremely common. But weighing the columns differently adds a dynamic flow to any publications. Webpages, in particular, use the sidebar concept to apply a dynamic, weighted feel that works naturally.
But what should the dimensions be? The units of measurement do not matter. The larger edge of the larger rectangle should be 1.618 times the length of the edge of the smaller rectangle.

Golden Ratio in Design

Many iconic logos can be distilled down to the ratio. By using 1:1.618 to all manner of shapes, cutouts, fills, and patterns, the symmetry of design can really come together. Search online, and you can find some excellent analyses of how some of the most iconic corporate brands benefit from the use of the Ratio in their designs.It’s essential to realize that the Ratio can be repeated in a work several times over.

Logo Design With Golden Ratio

Many photographers use the Rule of Thirds as a simplified form of the Ratio. In the Rule of Thirds, you simply divide the frame into one-third sections vertically and horizontally. 
Important elements are placed at the intersections of the lines. The lines can also be used in the photo itself. Horizons in landscapes are commonly placed on a horizontal one-thirds line.

Golden Ratio in Photography

Another use of Phi in photography is to capture objects that already possess it. Plant leaves, distant spiral galaxies, flower petals, and seashells are alluring objects that make great subjects. 
The challenge is to recognize how the golden spiral plays a part in making that beauty and to capture it in an image. What can you do to emphasize the spiral and communicate that beauty to your viewers? Seek out objects that already use the Ratio within and leverage this to your advantage.

Discovering New Places In Nature Using The Golden Ratio

Let us understand what is Golden Ratio composition, and how can it really be applied to art, design and photography

Stashed ideas

Understanding the Golden Ratio in Design and Photography

Artists and creators were the first to jump on the NFT frenzy, creating unique artworks and making a fair share of profits. This caused NFT sales to top $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021 and the trend shows no signs of dying down anytime soon. 
Even other industries like fashion, real estate, and healthcare are experimenting with NFTs now. But, an industry where NFTs could bring about the next-big revolution is photography.

NFT And Photography

NFTs can be underpinned by practically anything. Memes, tweets, music, audio, video, and of course photographs. But, while digital art and memes are thriving in the NFT space, photographs are still on the back burner. They’re among the least explored NFT types. 
Ironically though, photographs are an art form that we most interact with on a daily basis. From the adorable photos of animals to the paparazzi clicks of your favourite celebrity photographs are lauded by everyone. And this is precisely why NFTs present an excellent opportunity for photographers.

The Million Dollar Opportunity

By converting their best photographs to NFTs on-chain, photographers can claim a significant share of the NFT profit pie. Why? Because people love to collect and photography NFTs give them a chance to uniquely own something. 
For instance, fans of celebrities would love to own the exclusive paparazzi clicks and photographers who spend days trying to get these clicks now, have an opportunity to make a buck out of it. The same goes for wildlife photographers, food photographers, and astrophotographers. Enthusiasts would be willing to shell out money to exclusively own these photos.

NFTs Getting Married To Photographs

Bryan Minear, a landscape photographer, has already explored this opportunity. He dropped a collection of five photographs ranging from $200 to $2500 and managed to sell it out in 10 minutes. 
If this was not enough, photographer Justin Aversano created an NFT collection of 100 photographs called Twin Flames. These photos were sold and resold on NFT markets several times with the floor price for each photograph being 90ETH.

It's Already Happening

The market for photography NFTs is definitely there and it has huge potential. By converting their photographs to NFTs, photographers would be able to create rarity for these pieces and thereby catapult their value. 
This presents a new way for photographers to attain financial freedom through the art they’ve always loved.

Financial Freedom For Photographers

With the NFT craze picking up speed every day, NFTs are poised to become more valuable in the years to come. In this regard, they present a huge opportunity for photographers to capture a share of this ever-growing market. 
Photography NFTs have the unique quality of universal appeal that even popular art-based NFTs lack. This quality enables them to cater to the varying interests of people across different spectra. In doing so, they could soon enter the center stage of NFT operations, transforming the lives of both photographers and photography lovers.

The Bottomline

NFTs are transforming the world and building the virtual economy. Here, we look at the industry where NFTs could bring about the next revolution, photography. 

Having Revolutionized Art, NFTs Are Now Coming for Photography

People often quit jobs based on other opportunities that emerge (a better package), and those opportunities may end up being far less attractive than they appeared to be. 
It takes time to figure out what you really want in your career. In fact, as we mature and evolve not just as professionals, but also as humans, we refine our understanding of what really matters to us, what’s important, and what we truly want to prioritise in life.

Why People Leave Their Jobs

Consider someone who quits their job because they are tempted by a higher salary, only to discover that the extra pay does not justify doing a more boring job, working longer hours, or being part of a company that is in obvious conflict with their core values.
Scientific research tells us this is more common than we think, not least because there is only a tiny correlation between pay and job satisfaction (just 2% of overlap between them according to meta-analyses).

That Better Package Was A Trap

People are often tempted into new careers for the wrong reasons. Other than salary, there is a big marketing machine out there positioning jobs and organisations as utopias for spiritual fulfilment, personal growth, and astronomical career success. Recruitment has partly been co-opted by marketing, and it has never been easier for brands to curate their external image, reputation, and cultures to seduce smart and talented people into joining. But you shouldn’t trust everything you hear about companies, especially if it comes from them.

Leaving For The Wrong Reasons

Just like our salary is valued in a skewed way (people would rather have a 5% increase if their colleagues get 0% than a 20% increase if their colleagues get 30%), our career self-evaluations are largely based on what we think of others’ level of success.
When people tell you that you shouldn’t stay too long with your employer, you immediately worry. And when you hear that so many people have allegedly found a sense of belonging, calling, or purpose in their jobs, you start to wonder whether there is something wrong with you.

Success Is Relative To Others

Employee engagement data reports that only 3 in 10 employees are engaged at work, and scientific research shows that engagement only accounts for 9% of the variability between people’s performance (and half of that is dependent on people’s personality rather than how they are treated at work). Likewise, most people are fed up with their bosses, not least because they are poorly managed, largely because organisations tend to appoint managers on the basis of confidence rather than competence, and politics rather than performance.

A Different Reality About Work

For every Michelangelo or Elon Musk, there are always millions of worker bees, but in modern times we discovered the utility of brainwashing them with purpose so they become spiritual workaholics. When companies turn their cultures into a cult, they attract possessed employees who are capable of throwing themselves into their jobs with 100% commitments even if they are overworked and underpaid.
This works out better for them, as compared to managing rational and balanced employees who understand that there is more to life than work, and that a job is just a job at the end of the day.

The Reality About Knowledge Workers In Cult Companies

One of the best ways to develop new skills is on-the-job learning, and if your old employer didn’t provide many opportunities to expand your skill set, they may be interested in having you back after you learn new key skills somewhere else. 
Consider someone who acquires new digital or analytics skills with a new firm, in order to turn into a key talent asset for their old employer.

The Skills Required

Whether you like or dislike your job is largely dependent on your boss, with research suggesting that 30% of employees’ engagement and performance can be attributed to their direct line manager. As the saying goes, people join companies but quit their bosses. It follows that if your old boss is no longer around, even returning to the same job you had maybe a very different proposition.

A Change In Leadership

There is only one way to know what you want: try things out, experience, experiment. Unless you allow yourself to fail, you will never really succeed because in the best of cases you will not go outside your comfort zone and test the limits of your potential. And of course, learning from failures is the best way to enhance your understanding of your own potential as well as grow your career.

Experiment With Your Career

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”

A must-read piece for any professional navigating their career.

There may be good reasons to return to your former employer, especially if you can change or upgrade several factors.


This is how to decide if returning to a former employer is the right choice

Compared to previous major disease outbreaks like Sars and Mers, the Coronavirus has a much lower mortality rate. The best available data suggests that the death rate appears to be less than 3 percent, but there are questions about its reliability. For patients over 80 years old, the mortality rate is 14.8 percent; for 70 years and over, 8 percent; for 60 years and over, 3.6 percent; for 50 years and over 1.3 percent; for 40 years and over 0.4 percent; and for younger,

1.1 The mortality rate could be at least ten times worse than flu

Scientists are racing to understand how rapidly Coronavirus can spread. Key metric is the basic reproduction number (R0)- Expected number of infected cases directly generated by one case of infection. If the reproduction number goes below one, it means that the epidemic can be expected to die out soon. Over time the reproduction number seems to be somewhat higher than originally hoped. A study published on 24th February found that two-thirds of infected people travelling globally are not being detected.

1.2 The infection rate is much worse than we thought

If we assume that 400 people have been infected but undetected, the number of infected by the end of the week would reach 3,600. if the same process continues for another week, we are already at 32,400 by week two of our thought experiment. By week three, we reach 291,600 and by week four we reach 2.6 million, and by week five 23.6M, and week six, we’re at 212.6 million,

1.3 Coronavirus is circulating in communities in the US, UK and Europe

Public health experts say the Coronavirus expansion could play out in four ways.&nbsp;Scenario 1: the outbreak could be controlled via public-health interventions and disappear.&nbsp;Scenario 2: a vaccine could be developed but it won’t come in time to contain the global spread. Scenario 3: the virus could burn itself out within six months due to the impact of the summer, in terms of sunlight, temperature and humidity. As the virus spreads, containment efforts look unlikely,

2. Scenarios

The most devastating impact of the coronavirus might well be not from the virus but from the way human systems respond to it.

3. Synchronous failure

In 2006, US Department of homeland security issued a guide on pandemic preparedness. A pandemic could also "cause significant economic and security ramifications" a useful framework for assessing the societal impacts of the Coronavirus would be the ‘ synchronous failure’ concept led by Thomas Homer-Dixon.&nbsp;

3.1 Systemic fragility

The 2008 financial crash was triggered by a global shift to more expensive sources of fossil fuel energy, due to the depletion of cheaper conventional resources. This shift was compensated for by massive quantitative easing (Qe), essentially, the expansion of global debt. This Debt-Expansion has fuelled GDP growth to the point that debt levels for some years have been higher than they were before the 2008 crash.

3.2 Global phase-shift

The Coronavirus has hit the global system at a point when its Energy-Economic vulnerability is extremely high. The most immediate impact has been on global financial markets, which have seen massive volatility in the stock market. The OECD has warned that the rate of global economic growth could be cut by half, while several major economies such as Japan and the Eurozone, could slide into recession. The Coronavirus has almost certainly averted an oil price shock.

3.3 The risk of cascading failures

The Coronavirus is not Vector-Borne, but Zoonotic — passed from animals to humans. There's no specific link between climate change and the Coronavirus. But there can be little doubt that climate change has increased the risk identified here. China’s particular vulnerability is related to rapid industrial growth, urban expansion, and how these factors have brought human populations into contact with animals carrying diseases. T

4.1 The industrial origins of the coronavirus

Industrial civilization is moving into the final stages of its life cycle. This stage creates wide new spaces for societal and civilizational renewal. The Coronavirus outbreak is, ultimately, a lesson in not just the inherent systemic Fragilities in industrial civilization, but also the limits of its underlying paradigm. It is an exercise not just in building societal resilience, but in relearning the values of cooperation, compassion, generosity and kindness.&nbsp;

4.2 Adaptation

Human capacity to give freely regardless of material constraints. This is the capacity through love to work, give and share not for monetary gain, not for self-protection, not for any reason other than the intrinsic beauty of the act itself. As the Coronavirus crisis kicks off, it is our capacity through love to work, give and share not for monetary gain, not for self-protection, not for any reason other than the intrinsic beauty of the act itself.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Five years ago, the Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future, an independent panel of distinguished scientists, issued a landmark report warning that over the next century, the…

Coronavirus, synchronous failure and the global phase-shift

Vegas has the two candidates in a dead heat. Pretty rare if you consider how often two racehorses are ever given the exact same odds of winning. If you had to put money down to vote, who would you bet on?

Don’t Believe the Election Polls. Look at the Odds Instead.

Positive odds represent the profit a bettor will receive if they bet $100. So in the example above, if someone bets $50 on Michelle Obama and she wins, they receive $5,000 or half of 10,000. Meaning, fewer people are betting on those odds (because it’s a long shot.)Negative odds numerically represent what a bettor would need to bet to win a $100. So if the New York Times wanted to put its money where its mouth is betting Joe Biden will win, they would have to bet $120 to make a profit of $100. Meaning a lot of people are betting he’s going to win.

Positive And Negative Odds

Back in November of 2016, the New York Times predicted Hillary Clinton had an 85% chance of winning the presidential election. Indeed, nearly every other news outlet reported 3 to 4 point leads in…

When the economic season changes, it is useful to know how to prepare and deal with what could happen.<ul><li>If you were to lose your job, how long could you keep going?</li><li>If you had to take a significant pay cut, what would that look like?</li><li>If you got sick, do you have a backup plan?&nbsp;</li></ul>These questions can help you to prepare for a possible storm.

Get a plan together

Foster a mindset that can overcome challenging times.&nbsp; Consider what work looks like and having a second income. You could sell your skills to more people or work for many employers to diversify your risk.

Reinvent yourself

It is essential to have a buffer, even if you think you have enough money. <ul><li>Cut your costs. Reconsider your subscriptions, eating out, paying off a credit card. If you cut your costs too much you can always add them back again.&nbsp;</li><li>Sell stuff you don’t use anymore or don’t really need to further increase your financial buffer.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Cut your costs

The real economic disaster hasn’t begun yet. In America the $600 extra a week that those who are unemployed receive is about to end. Those who have mortgages on their home backed by Fannie Mae…

The Economic Season Is About to Drastically Change

To apply for a job at Doist, one can check the open positions on their website to see if there is any suitable vacancy.Another way is to write to them with a good cover letter. Just providing a resume would not work.Having a side project like blogging, podcasting or any online training can be a great plus.As remote jobs are now mainstream, it is crucial to be self-disciplined, rather than nudged for providing work.

How to Get a Job at Doist

Doist is a remote team of 62 working from 26 countries.&nbsp;They never raised outside capital (aside from Startupchile) and don't have an exit strategy.&nbsp;They have a healthy and fun startup culture that shines through their products and the way they communicate.&nbsp;

About Doist

Boasting about one's top grades at school or listing out your Grade Point Average won't really help the company understand your human qualities or how good a team player you are.

GPA Is A No No

The person who initially interviews you would be an operations person who would eventually work closely with you if you are hired.After a test task and couple more interview rounds, the person should be getting a big thumbs up from at least three of the interviewers, else he is not hired.&nbsp;Being okay is not going to land you a job here!

The Hiring Process

There is a growing trend towards having someone fit culturally, instead of simply looking at expertise or experience. If the person does not fit the company culture, it might jeopardize the same.

Being Culture Fit

<ul><li>No cover letter.</li><li>&nbsp;Too formal. Haven’t adjusted the tone and style of the cover letter to the company the candidate is applying at. Doist is a startup!</li><li>Too much focus only on individual skills and experience and not why the person wants to be part of the project.</li><li>Bold subject lines scare such as I’m your next XYZ… no, you’re not!</li><li>I’m applying because I want remote work! (Don’t say that, it gives us the impression that it’s the remote part that appeals primarily to you and not the interest in joining our company.)</li></ul>

Mistakes To Avoid While Applying For A Job

They built a healthy and fun startup culture that shines through their products (Todoist and Twist) and the way they communicate. I also love their commitment to remote work and to do things…

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Michael Fitzgerald
@michaefitzgera

Understanding the Golden Ratio in Design and Photography

Having Revolutionized Art, NFTs Are Now Coming for Photography

This is how to decide if returning to a former employer is the right choice

Coronavirus, synchronous failure and the global phase-shift

Don’t Believe the Election Polls. Look at the Odds Instead.

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Michael Fitzgerald@michaefitzgera

Understanding the Golden Ratio in Design and Photography

Having Revolutionized Art, NFTs Are Now Coming for Photography

This is how to decide if returning to a former employer is the right choice

Coronavirus, synchronous failure and the global phase-shift

Don’t Believe the Election Polls. Look at the Odds Instead.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Michael Fitzgerald
@michaefitzgera