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July 2, 2020 • 2:17 pm 0
CEOs Good to Great: Who Makes the Cut and Why?
3 Lessons I Learned from Jeff Weiner at LinkedIn
My five years at LinkedIn 1 is the best experience of my career.
One of the biggest reasons: Jeff Weiner.
Here's my thoughts on what made Jeff the best CEO I've ever worked with, as he transitioned his role a month ago to Ryan Roslansky after 11 years of one of the most successful runs as Chief Executive I've ever seen.
From L – R: Jeff's first LinkedIn Hackday judging with Adam Nash hosting, to the picture on the right, arguably (correct me if I'm wrong) Jeff's first LinkedIn All-Hands in 2009 as he was introduced as CEO by founder Reid Hoffman, and below: my peers in the marketing & comms team, circa 2008: Richard Chen & Krista Canfield
There are Good CEOs, and then there are Great CEOs. Besides, Jeff Weiner, Dan Nye and Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), I have worked on Jack Dorsey's team (Twitter), Andrew Dudum (who now runs Hims) and worked closely with Adam Nash (CEO Wealthfront) during his time at LinkedIn — one of the best product minds I've ever seen. But, I can objectively say, Jeff Weiner is as good as it gets as a leader.
Here's three reasons why and three lessons I learned:
Good to Great CEOs: Who Makes the Cut and Why?
Lesson 1: Compassion As Purpose
The Aha Moment: Breathe In, Breathe Out
Compassion in the Workplace: A Feature, Not a Bug
Lesson 2: Clarity, Consistency and Curiosity
Great Leaders Teach, But Also Relentlessly Learn
Lesson 3: Culture & Community
How You Go from 100s to 16,000 Employees!
In Summary; Thank You Jeff!
Jeff Weiner was always about the High-Order Bit. I talk about that in my post on grief. As Steve Jobs would often say, what is your high-order bit. And Jeff would always ask us to stack-rank prioritize our goals, and if I had to pick the highest-ranked legacy of Jeff's — it'd have to be compassion.
Harvard Business Review wrote about the "Best Leaders being Great Teachers," in which they relate a story shared by Mike Gamson 2, who I got to know in 2008 and who went on to lead LinkedIn's Sales efforts:
Another example comes from Mike Gamson, a senior vice president at LinkedIn, who told Business Insider that his first meeting with the company's new CEO, Jeff Weiner, involved a two-hour discussion of Buddhist principles. Gamson said he wanted to be a more empathetic leader, and Weiner asked why he wasn't instead aiming to be more compassionate. The pair explored the difference between those concepts, with recourse to a religious parable.
I have a similar story, though I wish I had the chance to explore spirituality more with Jeff, than just this brief moment during my time at LinkedIn…
Some of you may have read my recent post on how Meditation has become an incredibly important part of my life, helping deal with grief and cope with chaos.
Way before that post, there was this anecdote:
During my time at LinkedIn (since early 2007) I had the opportunity to work with the founding team, executive team, and Jeff during his first few years since his time as acting CEO.
Fast forward, to a particularly high-stakes conversation I was having with Jeff in the middle of a tumultuous period in my life, and (of course) I have a panic attack 3.
I don't know how other CEOs might have handled it; maybe they'd asked me to collect myself and reschedule the meeting, but Jeff instead helped guide me through composing myself while he suggested breathing techniques that are common to those who meditate, and it helped calm me and got me on to the habit of meditation that I have finally put into consistent practice.
Sure, it felt strange sharing this here, but it's the tiny moments in life that leave a mark. Of the five years I spent at LinkedIn, this experience is at the top of my list!
CEOs also need to recognize that we are in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, stressors mounting by the minute 4, an epidemic of loneliness so desolate that compassion is more relevant now than ever in the history of the workplace.
A group of researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Harvard Medical School released results from a survey they conducted in the second half of May, and 55% of people said they were more stressed than in January, before the virus was perceived to be a widespread threat.
We are living through unprecedented times, when over half of a country's adults are under a once-in-a-century moment in history and this situation is only likely to continue.
As the workforce transitions into Gen-Z you recognize that unlike prior generations, they care most about personal well being and a work-life balance and more than ever, they crave a sense of purpose. 5. The two biggest takeaways post-pandemic (epidemic of loneliness and the WFH phenomenon) will demand that CEOs be more compassionate, wise and spiritual; the best among them setting an example worth emulating.
Jeff has also created a platform-for-compassion in The Compassion Project for elementary school students across the United States, inspired by the PBS Documentary "A Class Divided;" a classroom experiment in compassion that has its origins in a teacher's efforts to calm her students and help them understand discrimination and divisiveness in the aftermath of the Martin Luther King assassination.
We're in a time where people are increasingly being torn apart. People are looking to reinforce their own views by connecting with others that look like them and sound like them. Tribalism, as some would call it, is reinforced through both conventional and new media channels. – Jeff Weiner
Couldn't agree more. It's never been more important than in these days Black Lives Matter, where stoked by the fires of circumstance and polarization, we find our deepest insecurities bleed into an epidemic of anxiety.
These circumstances are seeing parents moonlight as teachers while going about their day jobs, a shocking increase abuse, both in homes and in the workplace, as we continue to isolate and expose ourselves to the searing heat of 2020. It is, now more than ever, for all of us (at work and home) to create a platform for compassion in every imaginable scenario.
Great leaders don't just teach about work—they also proffer deeper wisdom. – Harvard Business Review
The very first thing I recall Jeff define as CEO was a clear vision ("Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce") and mission ("Connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful"). Remember this was before the IPO, when LinkedIn has 30 million users (that under his leadership has scaled to 700 million users) 6, and the stack-ranked priority, the high-order bit for Jeff was identifying those core values, then sharing that with the leadership team, and as part of his Comms team our priority was disseminating that vision across our entire company.
One Vision, One Mission, Godspeed.
The Vision Jeff entrusted with his teams, and the Mission he demanded we create for ourselves were reiterated over and over again, until you could blurt it out were someone to wake you rudely in the middle of the night.
And everyone in the company knew that 7, as Reid continues:
Jeff says that you build trust through consistency over time. One of the things he said that stuck in my mind was that by the time that you're getting bored of yourself saying a message, your organization is just beginning to hear it.
And Jeff hired for Mission Sync:
This showed up in how Jeff recruited people to LinkedIn. His pitch wasn't, "Come work for me." It was, "Come work together with me on this mission."
Star leaders also take a page from Socrates and teach by asking sharp, relevant questions, often in the course of furthering their own learning. According to a colleague at HCA, Frist "was always asking probing questions to find out what was happening." He did it to "educate himself, not to make you feel like you were doing something appropriate or inappropriate. It was an educational venture." 8
Jeff's product curiosity was always spot-on. Not only was he one of the first few people at LinkedIn, who understood the true import of Twitter that I evangelized internally relentlessly, when everyone was wondering where does fit into the larger corporate storytelling paradigm. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, relates a similar story about Jeff when he first visited Jeff at Yahoo! Network critiquing the product with Jeff's team 9
Jeff's reaction was perfect and telling — he was intellectually curious rather than defensive. He showed an intensity of curiosity and learning, especially towards being what I call an infinite learner. And, he wanted his people to talk and interact more than he did, which reflects Jeff's focus on leading the team, as well as being a part of the team. – Reid Hoffman on Jeff Weiner
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs' biographer, famously asked 10 Jobs during the last few months of his life, thus:
I once asked him what he thought was his most important creation, thinking he would answer the iPad or the Macintosh. Instead he said it was Apple the company. Making an enduring company, he said, was both far harder and more important than making a great product.
And I think Jeff understood that very well, since the day he started at LinkedIn.
Our All-Hands was a big deal. And with Jeff's arrival, it became the heart-and-soul of LinkedIn's culture. I briefly had the fortune of working with Jeff on crafting those until my good friend Armen Vartanian took over, and it was clear from Day One, Jeff was going to carry forward the vision and reiterate it in ways — both artful and purposeful — at these gatherings.
The All-Hands wasn't just an excuse for us to gather, like the Pixar building that Steve Jobs built, but it was a reason to be a part of something bigger than yourself. It was the culture, given who LinkedIn is about connecting every single professional in the world — bigger than all of us professionals working at LinkedIn.
And it worked. And it shows.
In another distinct way, Jeff's actions pay homage to the lessons left by Steve Jobs, especially with the way he crafted his transition, to Ryan Roslansky, who came to LinkedIn from Yahoo!
Jobs maintained an excellent and relatively stable executive team during his second tenure at Apple. The more mature and confident he became, the more he surrounded himself with strong, opinionated executives who felt comfortable arguing with him. – There Is No "I" in Steve, Fast Company
Jeff came to LinkedIn that way. With a team in mind, a plan in place and this transition, as Reid suggests was always the best case outcome, and kudos for finding a stellar product leader to carry forward that vision:
Another great lesson I learned from Jeff was the importance of having multiple succession plans for every executive — one for an immediate emergency successor, one for a year down the road, and one for the long-term. Ryan was Jeff's long-term succession plan. He was Jeff's first hire after arriving at LinkedIn, and had worked for him at Yahoo for five years before that, so they have a very strong and lasting alliance. – Reid Hoffman
Jeff's Biggest Legacy is the team he built and is leaving behind. Having briefly crossed paths with Ryan, it's clear LinkedIn is in great hands.
And, yes, these are all stellar examples of why was trending on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, given the outpouring of gratitude and employees, past and present, sharing their career high — working for Jeff.
Of course, in classic Jeff style, the All-Hands was a huge-send off with singing of Jeff's favorite song, which did and would have brought tears to the eyes of anyone who had the pleasure of working at LinkedIn with Jeff during a glorious run. No wonder, the hashtag was trending for a while.
For showing me what real leadership is; #ThankYouJeff!
The Last LinkedIn Alumni Reunion Dinner I attended in 2019 with some of the early folks, hope to see Jeff in the future
My alma-mater of over five years, and where I spent my most informative and insightful years as the second PR & Marketing Hire right through to our I.P.O. ↩
A great Harvard Business Review by Sydney Finkelstein on what separates the best leaders – the ones that teach ↩
Check out how meditation helps me cope with grief, while dealing with a relentless pandemic in 2020 here and how this episode might have been my first foray into meditation ↩
Here's the most recent study on July 1, 2020, that finds 55% of Americans are stressed with numbers shooting up if you're past 50 years of age ↩
Source: Dynamic Signal, "When Gen-Z'ers believe they are surrounded by like-minded people who feel their effort has a purpose, work is less like a job." ↩
Source: Statista and 400 employees (that Jeff scaled to 16,000 employees!), Growth of LinkedIn members from 2009 to 2016 ↩
Here in Jeff's own words that we heard reiterated during those formative years, how and why one should define their Vision, Mission and Values so clearly ↩
Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at Tuck School, Dartmouth, writes "Best Leaders are Great Teachers" for the Harvard Business Review, calls out their Socratic approach as well as their compassion ↩
I'd highly recommend you check out Reid Hoffman's LinkedIn post on Learnings from Jeff ↩
This Harvard Business Review piece by Walter Isaacson outlines The Real Leadership Lessons of Jobs, which include Focus, Simplify, and Taking Responsibility to the End ↩
Filed under: Best-of, Jeff Weiner, Latest at LinkedIn, Linkedin, LinkedIn Colleagues, LinkedIn in the News, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Thoughts
July 18, 2014 • 7:48 am 0
The Secret to Effective Communication: Being Heard is not Enough
Communication is underrated and vastly misunderstood.
The larger the audience, the more cliched and tiresome our communication becomes. Worse still, we seem less wary of the impact of our words when we write for larger groups.
Corporations tend to be the worst offenders in this category especially when they get tied down in their inane press releases and top-down missives. The problem is even more acute during trying times, when a CEO needs to rally his troops behind a common cause.
I give you, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella's recent missive around the organization's future direction.
The amount of meaningless jargon in this useless, rambling letter is extremely impressive. http://t.co/Ic9o22iZO2 I worry for Microsoft.
— dustin curtis (@dcurtis) July 11, 2014
Rather than poke holes in Nadella's tired cliches, I'd like to share the secret sauce on how anyone can communicate efficiently to large groups of people.
And there's no better story to illustrate this than Steve Jobs' trial-by-fire return to Apple at Macworld 1997 when this had happened.
There was something dramatic, almost Shakespearean, about Steve Jobs' return to Apple. A humbler, self-deprecating leader, whose second act was laser focused on first getting Apple out of the red. To do that Jobs would have to rally his troops, inspire them, yet give them a dose of real talk; a delicate balance he pulled off with style at Macworld 1997. Here's the secret sauce to doing that.
1. Be Upfront
Always, be honest with your troops – both internally and externally. This doesn't mean you have to share all but you've to find ways to address the elephant in the room. And once you do, the ultimate segue would be to find a way to inspire confidence and hope amidst the burning embers.
Jobs gets into it right away, highlighting the three complaints leveled against Apple and how he sees it:
"Apple's not as relevant as it used to be everywhere, but in some incredibly important market segments, it's extraordinarily relevant."
"Apple's executing wonderfully on many of the wrong things!"
"Rather than anarchy, people can't wait to fall in line behind a good strategy. There just hasn't been one."
He agrees with the accusation, does not gloss over the facts, but spins it in a way that inspires confidence. It's his own way of saying "It's not you, it's us" which goes down well with the audience. A lot of executives seem to forget they are talking to a bunch of rational, smart folks and try to ignore the obvious sword hanging in the air. They avoid the elephant in the room, and lose their trust. Lose their trust and you lose your audience.
Every time you write, visualize a skeptic you're trying to persuade. Convert her and you've won them all. Instead I'm loathe to find myself reading press releases and corporate missives that sound like this:
We live in a mobile-first and cloud-first world. Computing is ubiquitous and experiences span devices and exhibit ambient intelligence. Billions of sensors, screens and devices – in conference rooms, living rooms, cities, cars, phones, PCs – are forming a vast network and streams of data that simply disappear into the background of our lives. This computing power will digitize nearly everything around us and will derive insights from all of the data being generated by interactions among people and between people and machines. We are moving from a world where computing power was scarce to a place where it now is almost limitless, and where the true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention.
You lost me at "mobile-first, cloud-first world." Most people don't know what the heck the cloud is; just ask Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz.
Nobody understands the cloud. It's a fuckin' mystery!
So get to the heart of the matter with simple words. Think like a blogger, not like a novelist.
2. Talk Normal, Write Simple
Certainly @satyanadella (and @fxshaw) are capable of writing like normal people; It'd be worthwhile to do so for memos that are made public.
— Anil Dash (@anildash) July 17, 2014
Corporations sure think they are people, but turn on a press release or a camera and they sure as hell sound like corporations. As Anil Dash suggests, I'm sure Nadella and team write normal when they email each other but turn on the spotlight and it turns weird; like this scene from Talladega Nights:
I've seen this Deer-in-Spotlight phenomenon in many an executive, but I've also seen some of them overcoming it over time. Writing makes it worse, since there's no immediate feedback to your original missive. But if Nadella and his PR team are seeing the tweets or posts since, they should know this could have gone better.
Maybe the new Microsoft CEO could try writing letters and emails without using bullshit terminology for one week just to see how it feels?
— Garrett Murray (@garrettmurray) July 17, 2014
Sure, most of Nadella's speech might have avoided the obvious hard truths but worse still, there was no letting up on the esoteric:
A few months ago on a call with investors I quoted Nietzsche and said that we must have "courage in the face of reality." Even more important, we must have courage in the face of opportunity.
Rainer Maria Rilke's words say it best: "The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens."
Even True Detective makes more sense now:
Someone once told me time is a flat circle; where everything we've ever done, we'll do over and over again.
The reason I insist on simplicity, is comprehension – the ultimate goal of all communication. In our attention-deficit world, the disparity between being heard and listened to is huge. The importance of your words lies solely in its ability to drive action and that cannot happen with the incomprehensible. This ain't about you, the writer.
It is always about the reader.
3. Be Precise
Now to the heart of the matter. Rhetoric teaches us that in order to drive action, you need to persuade. And that happens with clarity of vision. Flashback to our 97 Macworld and here's how Jobs set the stage for the future; inspirational, and on hindsight, prescient:
"We have the makings of a really healthy company, with some really talented people that need to come together and execute on a great plan."
"What's the fundamental problem? Declining sales."
He then dives straight into how they are gonna overcome that in 5 concrete steps:
Board of Directors (calls out people but does it in a very subtle manner)
Focus on relevance
Invest in core assets
Forge meaningful partnerships
New product paradigms
Actions speak louder than words. And to back up those words, he clearly spells out actions like installing a new board of directors, one which includes the legendary Bill Campbell (who just today retired, after 17 years on Apple's board), Steve Jobs' close friend, Larry Ellison, among others.
"The confidence starts with a really clear vision. Then you take that vision down to strategy. People have to look at it and say "Yes", they can do that. The past has been failure. The new board inspires hope." – Bill Campbell
It's just that Jobs makes what seems impossible for any CEO to do, seem easy: calling out past mistakes honestly and focusing on what needs to change, boldly and precisely.
One more thing: Bolt of Lightning
Towards the end of the presentation Steve Jobs says something that kinda gave away the mainstay of rhetoricians:
"Sometimes points of view can really make you really look at things differently."
"For me when I was looking at the statistic and it hit me that Apple is the largest education company in the world, that was like a bolt of lightning. That's huge.
"What an incredible base to build off of."
"Another bolt of lightning is that Apple and Microsoft equal 100% of the desktop market.
And so, whatever Apple and Microsoft agree to do, it's a standard (laughter). I think you'll see us work more with Microsoft because they're the only player in the desktop industry. And I think you'll see Apple work more with Microsoft more because they're the only other player in the desktop industry.
I hope we have more cooperation in the future because the industry wants it."
Art of Manliness points out the third rule of persuasion – Appeal to Reason:
Finally, we come to logos, or the appeal to reason. Aristotle believed logos to be the superior persuasive appeal and that all arguments should be won or lost on reason alone. However, he recognized that at times an audience would not be sophisticated enough to follow arguments based solely on scientific and logical principles and so the other appeals needed to be used as well.
In The Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle states that appealing to reason means allowing "the words of the speech itself" to do the persuading. This was accomplished through making inferences using deductive reasoning, usually in the form of a formal syllogism. You've seen these before. You start with two premises and end with a conclusion that naturally follows the premises.
Jobs had to conclude that speech with a convincing call to arms. The troops were still skeptical but his conclusion hits at logic, while earlier in the speech, he tackled emotion:
Microsoft + Apple = 100%
What we do together = the desktop standard
The industry wants it.
The conclusion of Nadella's letter reads:
We must each have the courage to transform as individuals. We must ask ourselves, what idea can I bring to life? What insight can I illuminate? What individual life could I change? What customer can I delight? What new skill could I learn? What team could I help build? What orthodoxy should I question?
With the courage to transform individually, we will collectively transform this company and seize the great opportunity ahead.
Confusing quote, followed by rambling ideas ("What orthodoxy should I question?" Uh?) ending with more meaningless blah.
Let me clarify, this is not a dig on the writing style of one CEO over the other. It's a reminder that most of us, myself included, sometime gets sucked into the "more is better" mentality, as a writer. And that's just a bad place to be in, if the goal of your writing is to communicate effectively.
Every leader should be writing for the audience's collective cynic, not to their internal sycophants. And I notice CEOs oftentimes do the latter. And don't get me wrong, any decent PR effort can help broadcast this mindless jargon across the airwaves and social media, but then all you get out of that is awareness.
Communications, in my opinion, is far bigger than PR-as-Marketing and it involves converting people over to your line of thinking and this happens only with strong beliefs and convincing rhetoric. And to do that just follow the rules I outline above.
Filed under: Crisis Communications, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs
May 21, 2013 • 8:55 am 8
Quora's Big Problem
I haven't been on Quora in a long time.
I used to be there every single day, so much that many Quora users' feed was filled just with stuff I curated. But that was months ago.
Slowly but surely as Liz Gannes from AllThingsD suggests in an interview with co-founder Adam D'Angelo, "it can be easy to forget to visit Quora, with its random jumble of writings on topics that are interesting but not crucial."
So as a friend of Quora's (I even hosted a Quora meetup at my digs last week) and an obsessive about how startups communicate in today's social media world, I carefully read through the article to figure out if it had clues to where Quora may be headed but was disappointed. Here's the where and the why:
I'd love to do a Kara Swisher style deconstruction of the answers but frankly it'd get repetitive here, so let's just cut to the chase and address the big questions and what they lacked.
Where's Quora now and where are they headed?
Adam: We've become more data-driven. When you're small, you have to do everything on intuition, but now we're at the scale where we have a lot of users, so we can run experiments. We have a data team that's pretty big, actually.
What do you use the data for — is it personalization?
Adam: No, it's more about to make decisions about what to build. We're looking at whether something's going to be a good investment of resources. When you're small, you can say, "I use the product myself, and I'm annoyed by these things, so let's change this." Now we can say, "Twenty percent of our users have encountered this issue that makes them less engaged or more engaged," so we can test it. That's really important, because then you don't have to centralize the decision making. So it doesn't all go through me.
I think one of the challenges with operational details is that it detracts from the bigger picture and introduces more questions with room for confusion. Wonder how it's done?
Mark Zuckerberg and the folks over at Facebook, have figured out a way to code every announcement (even ones as mediocre as their recent Facebook Home announcement) in broad strokes compliant to a grand vision:
Mark: At one level, [Home] is just the next mobile version of Facebook. At a deeper level, I think this can start to be a change in the relationship that we have with how we use computing devices. For more than thirty years, computers have mostly just been about tasks, and they had to be–they were too expensive and clunky and hard to use, so you wouldn't really want to use them for anything else. But the modern computing device has a very different place in our lives. It's not just for productivity and business, although it's great for that too. It's for making us more connected, more social, more aware.
Home, by putting people first, and then apps–by just flipping the order–is one of many small but meaningful changes in our relationship with technology over time.
It's always about people first. And, Zuckerberg has truly come a long way and learned well.
Words matter. And, ideas matter even more. This is an area where Quora absolutely needs to spend some time articulating their vision, and they gotta do it now.
Now show it works
How big is Quora? What are the most important metrics to you — volume of content, how many people use it?
Adam: We look at people who use it. We don't share the particular numbers, but it's pretty big, and it's growing.
Nah. Not good enough. From a communications perspective, this is the worst answer one can probably give but some startups do it and think they can get away with it. Guess what? No one's buying it.
You've got to come up with metrics that are understandable to the public and it needs to be framed the right way. When I joined LinkedIn, we were close to 5 or 6 million members on the site and from my first day there, our vision was always clearly framed around the world that we operated within (5 million professionals on LinkedIn vs. 25 million folks on Facebook). Likewise, with Quora, there's a plethora of factors they can make a great case with to show growth in relevant areas, the most obvious being the number of questions answered each day the world over by knowledge workers in specific topics and categories. Instead, it falls flat when you say: "we're pretty big and growing."
Always, show, don't tell.
Let me give you another example, this time, more relevant to Quora's size. Take Flipboard for example, which has done a good job of framing their metrics around Flips. How many articles are being flipped, read and therefore shared in their magazines. I've created three magazines on Flipboard and psychologically it's a great feeling when I have 100s of thousands of flips even when my readers number in the thousands. Either way, it's good for the user and the reader to know where things started, and how it's doing right now relevant to that start.
Even when Apple was floundering, Steve Jobs always painted a clear picture of the future. This needs to be done; without which everyone's lost. Moving on…
The elephant in the room: Purpose
You've introduced a bunch of new content types in addition to Q&A. What's working?
Adam: So we have answers, blogs and now we have reviews. The area we define as what Quora's good at is long-form text that's useful over time, and where you care about who wrote the text. Not that you need to be friends with them, just that they're someone trustworthy.
Their introduction of boards was the first time I stepped outside the fan circle and re-evaluated my enthusiasm for the product. And since then I've noticed a deterioration in the quality of the Quora feed. Things never been the same since.
But this question leads to clarity in the mission which also should answer why I should use Quora. But instead it led me to thinking of the reason why I've dropped out of Quora oddly similar to the reason Liz gave in the early paragraphs: "it can be easy to forget to visit Quora, with its random jumble of writings on topics that are interesting but not crucial."
Every product mission should have a purpose in the lives of their users that makes the product irreplaceable. Take LinkedIn, whose mission to transform the lives of all global professionals led to – jobs. Helping users find a better job, a dream job.
It may not be what LinkedIn talks about all the time, but as a user, it's this promise that keeps bringing you back for more. It's this tacit understanding that leads you to update your profile, build your connections and maybe share articles you hope your future boss will "like." But it all starts and ends with that purpose for a user: what's in it for me?
Once that reason exists in the users mind, is articulated and is based on reality – it creates a compelling reason to return over and over again. A compelling reason to contribute. Frankly, I think Quora's unique strengths may lie not just in gathering, sharing and building that knowledge graph (since there are so many others building that graph) but rather in the application of said knowledge towards intelligence and skills that will give it a purpose it so sorely lacks.
But, what do you think is Quora's purpose?
Thoughts? Leave a comment.
Filed under: Public Relations, Quora
April 22, 2013 • 8:38 am 0
BREAKING: Can we put Journalism back together again?
This is an attempt at deciphering the happenings of the past week in Boston and the way we follow news today. What are some of the learnings from the past days and what must we avoid. And most importantly, how has social media, Twitter in particular, forever changed the way we consume real-time news.
The photo acquired via a LetsRun forum that gave us a closer look at Suspect #2 (with white hat in left corner)
This was our generation's OJ Simpson – Broncos chase. This time, instead of 21 helicopters hovering over the infamous slow-speed chase, we had hundreds of thousands of us refreshing our Twitter feed in real-time as the Chechen brothers evaded, assassinated, and ran over their way into infamy. This time, we contributed and participated our way into the history of media.
Journalism isn't dead. We're just reinventing it.
Let's refresh our memory on a few of the biggest on-air and online human errors the media bungled:
1. CNN who rushed to call that an arrest had been made when none had and other too eager networks like Fox who repeated the nonsense.
Well no one pokes fun at CNN better than Jon Stewart, so here goes. This should give you a sense for the continued hits that CNN has been taking as a sub-standard bearer of mediocre news these days.
2. NY Post: No one expects much from this tabloid, the second Murdoch outlet that screwed up the Boston coverage by pointing fingers at bag men who weren't Suspect 1 nor Suspect 2.
3. Reddit: Aah… where would we be if social media weren't a part of these screw-ups.
Yes, there may have been some smugness from social media folks when they thought some of the internet sleuthing pin-pointed the suspects but as was the case, they were way off-base and have apologized profusely since. And I regret being a part of the RT mafia that was a lil too eager to beat our chests a lil too early; a culpability we now share with mainstream media. But for every Reddit fiasco, there's a LetsRun success and that's why the "wisdom of crowds" works and is here to stay:
In places where reporters could not tread because of police restrictions, local residents filled in some of the audio and video gaps. From their front stoops and through their windows, they posted videos of an early-morning shootout and photographs of a vehicle said to be involved in a police chase. The material was quickly scooped up by local television stations and Twitter users. On NBC's "Today" show, Savannah Guthrie was able to interview two Watertown residents sheltering at home, thanks to a Skype video connection. The residents showed images of bullet holes in their walls, presumably from the shootout.
Farhad Manjoo of Slate Magazine goes as far as hyperventilating:
Next, pull out your phone, delete your Twitter app, shut off your email, and perhaps cancel your service plan. Unplug your PC.
Finally, load up your favorite newspaper's home page. Spend about 10 minutes reading a couple of in-depth news stories about the events of the day. And that's it: You've now caught up with all your friends who spent the past day and a half going out of their minds following cable and Twitter. In fact, you're now better informed than they are, because during your self-imposed exile from the news, you didn't stumble into the many cul-de-sacs and dark alleys of misinformation that consumed their lives. You're less frazzled, better rested, and your rain gutters are clear.
Breaking news is broken.
Molly Wood of CBS suggests:
It's not. We have more information, but it's a morass of truths, half-truths, and what we used to call libel. It's fast, but it's bad. And bad information is a cancer that just keeps growing. I'd argue the opposite of Ingram: that the hyper-intense pressure of real-time reporting from Twitter, crowdsourcing from Reddit, and constant mockery from an online community that is empirically skewed toward negativity and criticism is actually hurting journalism. It's making all the news worse.
I beg to differ. Bad journalists make specious judgments with or without social media.
Social media had nothing to do with John King's judgment to call that an arrest had been made.
Social media had nothing to do with the New York Post broadcasting two innocent young men's photographs from the rooftops.
Yes, Redditors, did get their facts wrong, messed up, fessed up and now have offered to help find the poor young man who's been missing and was falsely accused by them as a potential suspect but it's the last in a string of bad judgments made this past week.
It's easy to blame social media for all the ills ailing journalism, but fact remains good journalism will always be about an objective interpretation of verifiable facts. And it's the responsibility of the world's largest media institutions to uphold these standards. Not CNN their way into infamy.
So much nonsense on TV about Chechnya, jihad, terrorism. If you don't have facts or an expert, you find a windbag.
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) April 19, 2013
None could have said it better than Alan Gregg, former director of Medical Sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation in this excellent post on the Art of Observation:
"Most of the knowledge and much of the genius of the research worker lie behind his selection of what is worth observing. It is a crucial choice, often determining the success or failure of months of work, often differentiating the brilliant discoverer from the … plodder."
The Boston incident is not an isolated incident. Increasingly we find news outlets choosing to be held captive to the ever quickening news cycle. It was true during the Kennedy assassination, it worsened during the OJ trial, and it's running a mile a second in today's social media world.
It is the journalist's job to be the discoverer, not the plodder.
It is the journalist's job to urge caution and call out the plodder.
It is not the journalist's job to be the plodder.
Thoughts echoed by one of the few journalists who proved his value in this melee of real-time nonsense:
'The essence of journalism is the process of selection.' — @PeteWilliamsNBC http://t.co/H1EQPVk17s
— National Journal (@nationaljournal) April 19, 2013
But I'd like to go one step further and point out that social media can be a huge asset to journalists in doing their job better. And that job is keeping the rest of the country (that's on edge) posted on the latest in an unnerving string of attacks. And, if Twitter is the best medium to get that information out, then journalists have to figure out the best way to use it. And some did.
This is a really minor point, but @boston_police is very good at Twitter.
— Ravi Somaiya (@ravisomaiya) April 20, 2013
And as the @Boston_Police (now with over 330K followers on Twitter) found out this past week:
"Nothing has really changed," Bar-Tur, a social media and law-enforcement consultant says, "just the medium has changed." That might be enough for a new model manhunt to emerge.
And, that exactly should be the takeaway for journalists today.
The medium has changed. Journalism will evolve with social media.
Filed under: Crisis Communications, HOW-TO Use Social Media, Journalism
January 26, 2013 • 2:25 am 0
Handling a personal crisis like Letterman
We've seen this before. An executive's fall from grace over a workplace dalliance. The world loves stories like this and the media just can't have enough of it.
The tech world, which is usually insulated from such drama, just saw earlier today the second of such stories in recent times. Keith Rabois, second in command at Jack Dorsey's Square stepped down in his role as COO because of sexual harassment claims.
There's definitely gonna be a lot of "He Said, He Said" over the next few weeks but Keith's response to these allegations both on his blog as well as on his Twitter page, is a textbook case immediate response in crisis communication. It reminded me a lot of David Letterman's handling of a blackmail over dalliances he had with his employees. Here's Letterman addressing those allegations:
The key is authenticity. Letterman address was precise:
"The creepy stuff was that I've had sex with women who work for me on the show. My response to that is 'Yes, I have.'"
"And would it be embarrassing if it were made public. Yes, it would. Especially for the women!"
Keith's response has been somewhat along similar lines, though a tad more nebulous:
"In May 2010, I met someone via mutual friends. With increasing frequency, we hung out, drank wine, and I helped prepare him for interviews with tech startups. As our friendship deepened, we spent more time together, and our relationship became physical. We regularly worked out at the gym, occasionally hung out at my home, and exchanged intimate, personal information, as people in similar relationships often do.
Several months after our relationship began, I recommended that he interview at Square. He went through the interview process and was ultimately hired. I had no impact on his potential success at the company. At no point did he ever report directly to me, and I have seen his work product less than a handful of times."
This may not be as cut-and-dry as the Letterman example, but the immediate response in all such cases is the same: an honest appraisal (see above) and a sincere apology (see below).
I deeply regret that I let my personal and professional lives to become intertwined, and I apologize to my colleagues and friends (at Square and elsewhere) who I've let down, and who will bear the brunt of some of the unnecessary, negative attention this situation will likely bring.
You may think it's easy but very few people have been able to handle these situations right (Just ask Bill Clinton) and it takes a lot of courage to watch your dirty linen washed in public.
But at the end of the day, people are willing to forgive and forget as long as your work counts for something.
Just ask Bill Clinton of the Clinton Foundation, or David Letterman who was recently honored at the Kennedy Center for his contribution to pop-culture.
Filed under: Crisis Communications, Leadership Communication, Public Relations, celebrities, current-events
Write like the President's Speechwriter
Remember, President Obama's triumphant "Yes, We Can" speech, or the hopeful New Hampshire concession speech or most recently the comforting Newton tragedy speech…
Words matter and a President's words carry meaning to hundreds of millions of people; it helps sooth, comfort, and uplift a nation.
So there's a lot we can learn about writing from the President's young speechwriter Jon Favreau (not the guy who brought you Iron Man). This past week Favreau crafted one of his penultimate speeches for the President and shared some of his secrets gleaned while writing for the President.
First, nail the theme
One of the biggest mistakes you can make while writing an essay or a blog post is to blah, blah, ramble on relentlessly towards an unspecified goal in the far distance. Smart writers always get the theme right first, which helps with Act 1 and 3 of the piece, and then work around it to get Act 2 right – usually the toughest part.
The President's working style with Favreau is no different.
"We wanted to make sure that we were going to pick one theme and not go all over the place. And the president said, "Look there's the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and for 200 years the American story has been about making those promises real,'" recalled Favreau. For an underlying theme, they settled on the notion that "alongside our rugged individualism, there's another strand of American belief which is that we're all in this together e pluribus unum, out of many, one."
Keep it short, keep it real
For cryin out loud, please keep it short. Everybody's got ADD (thank you, Twitter!) these days, so holding their attention is gonna be your biggest challenge.
As Ted Sorenson, Kennedy's speechwriter, said about JFK's speeches:
No speech was more than 20 to 30 minutes in duration. They were all too short and too crowded with facts to permit any excess of generalities and sentimentalities. His texts wasted no words and his delivery wasted no time.
And, boy did Kennedy's speeches work because of that very fact:
For he disliked verbosity and pomposity in his own remarks as much as he disliked them in others. He wanted both his message and his language to be plain and unpretentious, but never patronizing. He wanted his major policy statements to be positive, specific and definite, avoiding the use of "suggest," "perhaps" and "possible alternatives for consideration."
Yes. Always be specific.
"Write drunk; edit sober."
Nah, I wouldn't recommend that rule because not all things that work for Hemingway work for mere mortals. But, Hemingway was right about one thing – relentlessly edit your work till its worthy of public consumption.
Editing is an art form with the structure depending on how you choose to approach it. In some cases, logic will be the guide:
"He's known for his rhetoric, right?" said Favreau. "But he's also got a very lawyerly, logical mind. And so the thing he always does best is putting every argument in order."
The night before the inauguration, Obama was done editing. All that was left were words to underline so that they'd get proper emphasis in the delivery. The president did a read through in the map room of the White House that night.
And, in other cases, reason will dictate the contents of a speech as Ted Sorenson describes JFK's goal with his speeches:
At the same time, his emphasis on a course of reason –rejecting the extremes of either side –helped produce the parallel construction and use of contrasts with which he later became identified. He had a weakness for one unnecessary phrase: "The harsh facts of the matter are . . ."–but with few other exceptions his sentences were lean and crisp. . . .
But regardless, if there's one thing I'd like you to takeaway from this post, it'd be edit, edit, and edit until your post is worthy of being seen by people. Or as Hemingway said to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934:
"I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit," Hemingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934. "I try to put the shit in the wastebasket."
Put it in the wastebasket, not on your blog.
Filed under: Best-of, Leadership Communication, Public Speaking, Writing, blogging, current-events, how-to, literature, politics, quotes
Bad Communication, according to Larry Page
I've written about great communicators like Steve Jobs, I've called out lame attempts by Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos who tried copying the master and failed, and I now gotta write about bad communication, courtesy of Google CEO Larry Page.
Scott Edinger's recap of Aristotle's three rules of rhetoric helped me pull together the three elements of Larry Page's bad communication skills.
1. Lack emotion and logic
Aristotle's rules of rhetoric are credibility, emotion and logic. While credibility is a given with folks like Page and Zuckerberg, it's emotion and logic (!) that these CEOs stumble upon.
Let's take Page's comments on Google+, an area that's obviously not Google's brightest spot today. In Dec 2012, this is how Page addressed its "success":
Fortune: It is a big bet. What's most important to you? Is competitive with Facebook (FB)? Is it about weaving identity across all of Google's products? You've talked about adoption being higher than you expected. What's the measure of success going forward?
Page: I think it's gone pretty well. I'm very happy if users of Plus are happy and the numbers are growing because that means that we're on to something. We've got a huge team actually in this building. If you walk around, you see everyone's excited and running around and working hard on it. I think that they're doing great stuff. They're making it better and better every day. That's how I'm measuring it.
That made no sense. After months of touting meaningless numbers to showcase Google+'s "success", the past couple of months have seen Page just bullshitting us with nada.
Take a another example just a few days ago, in Wired Magazine:
Wired: What's your evaluation of Google+?
Page: I'm very happy with how it has gone. We're working on a lot of really cool stuff. A lot of it has been copied by our competitors, so I think we're doing a good job.
Now, obviously there's no way in hell this is how Google (one of the smartest companies on the planet) measures success for a key product, ranging from "excited employees, running around, working hard, doing great stuff" to "lot of is copied" so we're doing good.
Now who does this kind of talk remind me of: Dubya!
He answers questions like an 8 year old does when they didn't read the book.
He just describes facts.
People always say: "President Bush. I think he's stupid." He's not stupid. When you listen to him you realize, he talks like he's talking to someone stupid.
And that in essence is how Larry Page sounds most of the time. Especially when he's talking about Google+.
Wanna know how it's done right? I can give you so many examples of Jobs' masterful answer to tough questions.
Jobs was one of those rare leaders who was able to combine both emotion and logic in his answers, much like he presented Apple at the intersection of Art and Technology. Even when heckled, Jobs knew how to respond to it with a unique blend of emotion and logic.
As I've mentioned earlier, the key here is to earn the respect of your audience.
2. Badmouth your competition
An unwritten law of communication is to not badmouth the competition, but somehow Larry Page sounds either condescending, like a douche (more on that in just a second) or plain clueless.
Wired: One area where people say that Google is indeed motivated by competition is the social realm, where in the past two years you have been working hard in a field dominated by a single rival, Facebook. That's not the case?
Page: It's not the way I think about it. We had real issues with how our users shared information, how they expressed their identity, and so on. And, yeah, they're a company that's strong in that space. But they're also doing a really bad job on their products.
The part that really gets to me, is you can't just throw stuff out like that without getting examples! It's a whole other problem that the interviewer didn't ask the obvious question: which Facebook products are you referring to? Wouldn't that have made for a fascinating follow-up.
And it ain't just Page; others in his "L Team" (yuck!) have done it earlier to which Jobs responded:
Just because you're a competitor, doesn't mean you have to be rude.
3. Sound like a douche
Finally, as I said earlier, you don't wanna come off as condescending to your competition (or worse still) sound like a dick about your users.
Fortune: While the company has touted the success of Google+, its answer to Facebook, many analysts say they see little activity on the social network.
What you should want us to do is to really build amazing products and to really do that with a long-term focus. Just like I mentioned we have to understand apps and we have to understand things you could buy, and we have to understand airline tickets. We have to understand anything you might search for. And people are a big thing you might search for.
And so we think about it somewhat differently. We're going to have people as a first class object in search. We need that to work, and we need to get started on it. If you look at a product, and you say the day it launched, "It's not doing what I think it should do." We say, "Well, yeah. It just launched today." Part of this is you have to interact with it and you have to claim your name and make it work for you. And so I think for me I didn't have any issues around that. I think that people weren't focused on the long-term. And I think again it's important if we're going to do a good job meeting your information needs, we actually need to understand things and we need to understand things pretty deeply. People are a component of that.
As you can see in both instances people always seem to be "a component of" Google's "need to understand things pretty deeply." People are a necessary cog in Google's need to "understand apps and things you could buy and they have to understand airline tickets."!!!
Jobs on the other hand always began with the user in mind. Even in the example I gave above, he says:
One of the things I've always found is that you've gotta start with the customer experience and work backwards the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're gonna try to sell it.
And as recently as with his last interview at the D Conference, this is a word cloud of his responses and as you can see "People" figures quite prominently.
So if I can leave you with two last words, two more lessons from Jobs, it'd be transparency and consistency. Transparency because every word you say on stage has to be backed up by your product actions not the other way around. Consistency because what you say today should match with what you say in your last interview.
And that's something we can all learn from Steve Jobs. Especially if you are a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company.
Filed under: Best-of, Larry Page, Leadership Communication, Public Relations, Public Speaking, blogging, Jeff Bezos, technology
The magic left the building with Jobs
I remember the moment Steve Jobs scrolled through his music and uttered those magical words – "scrolls like butter" – while illustrating the beauty of the original iPhone.
It's moments like this that you lived for, as a technology obsessed professional in Silicon Valley. And with Jobs we got to watch the Michael Jordan of technology, courtside, at his best. iPods, iPhones, iPads, the hits kept coming and Jobs made them look great.
So, it's a pet peeve of mine these days when companies try to rip off Steve Jobs' launch style. Not Apple's style because the new PR machinery at Apple leaves a lot to be desired. But what Jobs created, no one else can put together, because it was and will always be classic Jobs.
Jobs in the above video is the same age as Zuckerberg is today. Incomparable!
Why "Public Relations" sucks?
Kevin Roose writes of the Applefication of Facebook PR in light of today's Facebook press conference.
I'm sitting in the Facebook headquarters, in Menlo Park, in a room filled with the symphonic clicking of keys produced by hundreds of tech bloggers, all writing the same stories and updating the same live-blogs on identical Apple laptops.
Zuckerberg has long departed — he was disappeared from a teeming pile of reporters and cameras and out a back door like a sitting president — so now it's just us and the PR Borg. Oh, the PR Borg. Facebook's communications staffers are paired up with reporters at demo stations, showing off Graph on a series of computers. The spares are milling around the room. There must be 50 of them — a phalanx of fresh-faced professionals with smiles on their faces and carefully scripted responses to our questions in their hip pockets.
These are today's news factories. These are things I'd hoped would change with social media but frankly the hand that runs the machine continues to operate with an old playbook. And that sucks…
Because companies take your time for granted and insult your intelligence by throwing pablum like "three pillars," and "graph search" at these press junkets
Because most of the press and the media invited to these junkets regurgitate this bullshit
Because investigative journalism is dead
Because empty sensationalism seems to be the only way to run a blog these days and no one's held accountable
Because access is the currency of public relations and will never change
Because press releases will continue to work since they scale
But wasn't social media meant to change these things… Hold that thought.
Because no company can ever be Apple with Jobs
I never went to an Apple event in the Steve Jobs era, but I gather that the pitch is nearly identical: the charismatic founder, the well-paced presentation, the subtle way that certain media outlets are subtly given preference. (This time, major news outlets — this one not included — were given off-the-record briefings about Social Graph.) It's all drawn from a playbook that was developed a decade ago and has been used to transform a smallish computer company into the largest corporation in the world.
Not so fast. This playbook copied by every large company from Amazon to Facebook forgets three key elements for this communication to work: killer product, charismatic founder, real user values.
The magic with Steve Jobs was his effortless communication. A passionate user himself whose demos communicated his wonder around Apple products that truly changed the way we interact with technology.
Yes, Apple had their PR machinery but the difference was Jobs.
The difference was the simple email responses that Jobs would personally send users who wrote him about Apple products.
The difference was Jobs' passionate discourse with just about any user on all things Apple.
The difference was in the conversational way Jobs wrote his controversy-defusing missives when the situation demanded.
The difference was in backing up those missives by publicly sparring, evangelizing and winning over developers or journalists when they called him on it.
The difference was a holistic approach at communicating openly to users by treating them as adults.
Wasn't that the utopian goal of social media? To help companies talk one-on-one with their users. Instead here we are, still mass producing press releases around giant product announcements, trying to reach the lowest common denominator at the lowest possible price. In some cases, at the ridiculously low price of $100.00!
Welcome to the future of social media communication.
[Disclosure: I own public stock in Facebook, I do not own stock in Apple. This blog holds my my personal thoughts on all things marketing and communications since 2006.]
Filed under: Best-of, Facebook, Public Relations, Social PR, corporate communications, Mark Zuckerberg, public relations, Steve Jobs
August 4, 2012 • 9:31 am 1
Did Steve Jobs change the world?
In the beautiful, rarefied bubble called Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs is God. Kind of like the tech world's Eric Clapton. As a Jobs enthusiast, I'd consider it blasphemous to think otherwise of Jobs' enormous impact in the convergence of technology and art.
But it's an exaggeration (most of these articles offer business pablum, not facts) to suggest he actually changed the world. Did DaVinci or Picasso change the world? No they did not. Nor did Jobs.
Particularly in the Silicon Valley, a place I call home, some folks may be missing the bigger picture. A recent Quora answer by Susan Wu kinda hits the nail on the head. Thoughts worth reproducing in most of its entirety. So here goes…
Most of Silicon Valley is focused on building products for the top 1% of the world's population. Most of the world needs solutions to problems we rarely talk about, in areas like health care, agricultural production, sustainable construction, citizen activism and empowerment, childhood education, affordable transportation, supply chain optimization, community solidarity and efficacy, etc. And I'm not solely referring to base of the pyramid topics (like clean water access), either. The average "middle class" citizen outside the US doesn't have as much luxury to indulge in existential crisis and loneliness.
Most of the world is not 16-29 year old males. There's a whole range of perspectives that go underrepresented in Silicon Valley. There are a lot of women out there. Older folks. Also, it might be hard to imagine, but there are a lot of kids not growing up on video games.
Given the above two points, the emergent 'morality' of the products Silicon Valley creates can be limited and not particulalry reflective of much of the world's compass. All products inherit the values of their creators and have a sort of corresponding 'morality.' When you create an algorithm, it's optimizing for something — it might be that you think "saving time" is a value worth optimizing for. Or it could be that what you're trying to optimize for is quantity (quantity of access, of distribution), which can often come at the cost of quality and depth of interaction. Or like most of us who are successful Americans, we automatically assume that our stance on individual rights and belief in the individualistic survival of the fittest / the elite will rise are "ideal" or "optimal.". Another example is our cultural bias towards the "cult of the celebrity." And we tend to measure success by economic output.
These assumptions aren't necessarily true or as relevant or perhaps ideal for a large part of the world, yet we often imbue the products we create with these values.
I'm not saying any of this is good or bad, it's just worth thinking about. What are the values you are imbuing your product with? Do they fit into your vision of the future? Be thoughtful not only about all of the stuff we talk about openly (design, business model, user interaction, hiring and culture) but also be thoughtful about this stuff too.
In this context Malcolm Gladwell's recent comments that "50 years from now Gates will be remembered for his charitable work seems to make sense. No one will even remember what Microsoft is, and all the great entrepreneurs of this era, people will have forgotten Steve Jobs." ring true. Even in the technology space, it's Microsoft who has put a PC (may not be pretty, but it's affordable) on every desk world wide.
So taking pride in your work, working like an artist (this is far less common than one would like) and designing the heck out of your products with a fierce attention to detail will probably be Jobs' legacy.
As for changing the real world, there's no shortage of hard work that needs to be done on products and issues that impact billions of people world wide.
Coming Soon: A list of non-profit startups that are actually changing the world. Here's just one tackling a big problem.
Filed under: Public Relations
October 1, 2011 • 3:12 pm 1
Zuck & Bezos: LEAVE JOBS ALONE!
Problem with the game now, there ain't no innovation
I see my shit all in your shit, we call that imitation
And they say that's flattering, but I ain't flattered at all
Matter fact y'all need to practice that more
– J. Cole, Cole World
I've been planning to write a post ever since I watched Mark Zuckerberg's keynote (where he launched Timeline – more on that later). But, then just last week I saw this and it creeped me out. So, Jobs, steps down as CEO and every Zuck, Bezos and Harry decide to literally rip off the presentation style of Steve Jobs. That's just not cool.
But, I digress. Let's catch some make-believe as CEOs try to play Steve Jobs.
Zuckerberg as Jobs
WTF! 7 minutes of Andy Samberg introducing a tech conference. You know that even in SNL segments we can't take Samberg in more than 3 minute bytes. And, what's with all the awful "humor" (I'm Zuckerberg, he's Andy Samberg, and we couldn't have Eisenberg here, so I'll mimic Eisenberg). C'mon, guys. This ain't high-school no more.
What's worse is that this is a bit that Jobs introduced in his keynotes. First, in 1999 when Noah Wyle (who played Jobs in "Pirates of the Silicon Valley") played Jobs on stage before Jobs' adoring fans. Noah's intro was less than a minute long. That was it. Well timed humor about the movie and a joke or two about Jobs temperament – for another minute. And, he's gone. That's how it's done.
And, Jobs himself has overplayed that shtick. More recently, PC guy (played by the ever-adorable "The Daily Show" "reporter" John Hodgman) did a "I'm Steve Jobs" shtick and it was funny, short, and poked fun at Microsoft. Who doesn't like an anti-PC ad, eh?
Bezos as Jobs
So, in short. The Samberg shtick was pure Jobs imitation. And, more importantly, it wasn't funny and was way too long.
Things got a lil' creepy when Bezos, whose maniacal laughter I fear, decided to jump on the "I'll present as Jobs" world. This is him introducing the new Kindle at Amazon World or whatever it's called. What's with the deliberate stilted pacing that'll make any viewer go nuts. C'mon, be yourself. Smile a little during your presentation. Don't take yourself so seriously. And quit ripping off Jobs' style. Trust me, it ain't flattery.
One of the comments on the above Youtube video nailed it.
I love how dramatically he reveals things a la Steve Jobs to none of the cheers typical of an Apple presentation.
mgaums 1 day ago
This one's even better…
and not a single fuck was given that day.
That crowd seemed so unimpressed it was almost sad.
TADA KINDLE FIRE!!!!!
yeah and?
MegatronSmurf 1 day ago
Please leave Jobs alone
As Jon Stewart would say: Zuck, meet me at Camera 3 (y'know, for a 1:1) – you're a smart guy and developers love you. I know that for a fact cos they hate to see you embarrassed. I remember what a hard time they gave Sarah Lacy when you did a terrible job answering simple questions at SXSW.
They idolize you, the same way Mac fanatics adore Steve Jobs. There are very few folks in our tech world, who commands that adulation. You're finally creating products that restore a sense of childlike wonder (more on Timeline later).
That doesn't mean you can replace a black turtleneck sweater with a North Face jacket, sneakers with Adidas flip flops, Noah Wyle with Andy Samberg and turn into tech world's great Houdini.
So, stick with creating great products, figuring out what works best for you on stage in your own unique way (it takes a while) and don't let your handlers play you around.
And, I'll let Jobs himself describe why a f8 or Amazon presentation will never be a Jobs presentation.
The problem with Microsoft is that they just have no taste. Absolutely no taste.
In a sense that they don't think of original ideas.
So, I guess, I'm saddened not by their success. I've no problem with their success.
They've earned their success.
I have a problem that they make really third-rate products (replace with presentation).
There'll never be another Jobs. You know that. So, quit trying.
Filed under: Best-of, Jeff Bezos, Leadership Communication, Mark Zuckerberg, Public Relations, Public Speaking, Steve Jobs, Amazon Kindle Fire, Jeff Bezos, Kindle Fire launch, Mark Zuckerberg
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text:
Q: How to eliminate the space before apostrophe (python) For example:
print Var1,"'s value is X."

When I execute it, I get this:
Variable 's value is X.

You see that space after the e letter at the end of "Variable" word? How can I eliminate that? There isn't any space between the coma and the. quotations marks. Thanks.

A: Don't use comma-separated arguments to print multiple items. Instead, build your desired string explicitly:
print "%s's value is X." % Var1

A: Use string formatting:
 print "{0}'s value is X.".format(Var)

or you can also use print() function(from py3.x) and pass sep=""(default value of sep is " "):
In [6]: Var1="foo"

In [7]: from __future__ import print_function

In [8]: print(Var1,"'s value is X.", sep="")
foo's value is X.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


... only kidding! Gee, reminded myself of that bit in Donnie Darko then. Anyhow, this is proof that I leave my computers connected to the internet for waay too long. I mean, imagine what the power bill was for that month!
I don't really use that account anymore, I've most likely lost the password. Its handy to know how long computers run before they require restarting. I must note that Windows XP is by far the most stable version of windows I've seen.
I hear Windows 2000 is better, but I don't use that so can't comment. Congratulations to Microsoft for making something that works, I wouldn't be here typing this message without them.


Backed by massive air support from the Saudi-led coalition, hundreds of army troops on January 6 launched a major military operation in the west aimed at pushing out the rebel forces from the entire western coast and put an end to the flow of arms supplies from Iran. To obstruct the movement of government forces, the Al Houthi rebels planted a huge number of landmines in the area and deployed their snipers in the nearby hilly locations.
Dozens of rebel fighters have been killed and many others captured since the beginning of the operation. Fadhel said Al Houthis are putting up stiff resistance as the government forces get closer to Mocha town. "Mocha is a major point for smuggling arms into the country. So they are fighting hard to keep it under their control." he said.
Coalition's warplanes on Saturday carried out at least 15 air sorties on Sana'a, targeting a Republican Guard camp and other military sites controlled by Al Houthis.


Local schools have one more week to apply for a chance to win grants from Beneficial Bank's annual School Challenge, which awards students who develop projects to make long-term improvements to their schools.
The bank's charitable arm, the Beneficial Bank Foundation, will award $13,000 in grants to select schools within its service area, which includes Montgomery and Bucks counties in Pennsylvania and Burlington County in New Jersey.
Entries for the School Challenge are due Dec. 7. Submissions can be made in two categories, grades 4-8 and grades 9-12, in one of three subject areas: financial literacy/math, science/history and language arts/reading.
Ten finalists will be announced early next year. Those finalists will be asked to create videos, which the public will use to vote on a winner through an online contest.
Visit https://www.thebeneficial.com/school-challenge-rules_regs.asp for a complete set of rules or an application form.


Amal Clooney graced us with her presence while wearing a hand-pleated J. Mendel gown ($6,490; bergdorfgoodman.com) for a United Nations event.
Mandy Moore took over the red carpet at the Wommen in Entertainment Gala while wearing a Gabriela Hearst dress with an off-the-shoulder silhouette and a sultry illusion panel. A Kendra Scott gold cuff ($80; kendrascott.com) and floral pumps completed her outfit.
Lupita Nyong'o posed for the cameras in a gray Jean Paul Gaultier suit and Nine West pumps ($49; macys.com).
Nicole Kidman made a breathtaking statement in a floral embroidered Valentino gown at the AACTA awards.
At the 100 Women in Entertainment gala, Viola Davis wowed in a white jumpsuit paired with a black blazer.


March 11, 2019 09:00 ET | Source: ConSynance Therapeutics, Inc.
Rensselaer, New York., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ConSynance Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing two innovative treatments for Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), today announced that they joined the PWS Clinical Trial Consortium.
The PWS Clinical Trial Consortium (https://www.pwsctc.org/) was established to accelerate clinical trials to address unmet needs for PWS by leveraging the expertise and perspective of industry, academia, patient organizations and regulatory agencies. The consortium is supporting the development of endpoints to measure the benefits of treatments against hyperphagia and behavioral challenges in PWS and was recently granted a Critical Path Innovation Meeting with the FDA.
"We are delighted to participate in the PWS Clinical Trial Consortium and to extend best practices for clinical development of our therapeutics to treat individuals suffering from PWS," said Peter Guzzo, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of ConSynance.
PWS is a rare, genetic condition that is characterized by hyperphagia (insatiable appetite), which can lead to obesity and related metabolic comorbidities. Individuals with PWS also typically suffer from behavioral problems such as anxiety, compulsivity and cognitive disabilities. Currently, there is no cure for PWS and no treatment for some of the most difficult aspects of the syndrome, such as the hyperphagia and other behavioral aspects of the disorder.
ConSynance has two distinct candidates for the treatment of hyperphagia and other behavioral aspects of PWS: CSTI-100 (a melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 antagonist) and CSTI-500 (a triple monoamine reuptake inhibitor).
CSTI-100's pharmacological profile is expected to treat the core symptoms of PWS, mainly: hyperphagia, obesity, anxiety, and day time sleepiness. In phase I clinical studies, healthy, overweight volunteers had up to a 47% suppression of hunger on a visual analog scale after 14 days of oral dosing suggesting the potential to treat hyperphagia in PWS patients.
The appropriately balanced triple monoamine reuptake inhibitor, CSTI-500, is anticipated to address the hallmark symptoms of PWS, particularly the hyperphagia, obesity, and multiple behavioral issues such as social isolation, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cognitive disabilities, and excessive daytime sleepiness. In phase I studies with CSTI-500, a long half-life (44-50 hours) after oral administration and weight loss was observed which we believe is a relevant signal for treatment of PWS.
FPWR is composed of thousands of parents, family members, researchers, and others who are interested in addressing the many issues related to PWS, including childhood obesity, developmental delays, psychiatric disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. The mission of FPWR is to eliminate the challenges of Prader-Willi syndrome through the advancement of research and therapeutic development. FPWR supports cutting edge research studies around the world to advance the understanding of PWS, and collaborates with research institutions, pharmaceutical companies and the FDA to advance new treatments that will help those with PWS. To date, FPWR has funded over $12 million in PWS research. For more information please visit https://www.fpwr.org/.
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996 regarding the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical and/or bio-technology products. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Among other risks, there can be no guarantee that any treatments in the company's pipeline, will receive regulatory approval for the indications described herein. ConSynance Therapeutics, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
More articles issued by ConSynance Therapeutics, Inc.


text:
What You Hear From Cambridge You Can Trust…
Andrew Delman is a true believer in the adage that honesty is the best policy.
As the owner of Deerfield, Ill.-based National Preservation Housing Partners (NPHP), he currently owns 38 low-income Section 8 senior housing properties in Illinois, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky. Because of his commitment to Section 8 projects, he regularly is asked to participate and speak to various industry groups, and to provide training sessions for HUD employees and managers at various HUD offices.
With Cambridge Realty Capital in the current century, Mr. Delman says he has closed about 25 HUD loans totaling more than $200 million. The financing provided has funded both the acquisition and/or refinancing of existing senior Section 8 properties.
"First and foremost, Cambridge is professional, knowledgeable – and honest. The company doesn't promise what the borrower wants to hear but what it can get done.
"When working with Cambridge, the profit and fee structure is transparent. And the company has experience and knowledge with the HUD product that is second to none," he said.
Mr. Delman believes Cambridge is driven by a desire to close transactions, not just earn a fee. He strongly recommends the lender to anyone who is shopping for realistic expectations.
"Setting realistic expectations, building relationships and treating people fairly inspires loyalty and is what Cambridge is all about," he said.
At Cambridge, Mr. Delman's primary contacts are Andy Erkes and Tony Marino. Mr. Erkes is President of Cambridge Realty Capital Ltd. of Illinois, the Cambridge business that underwrites HUD loans. Mr. Marino is a vice president with the company.
"The HUD end product may appear to be a commodity but the process that delivers it is not. This especially applies to low income Section 8 senior buildings, which can require various federal and state approvals and a low income tax credit (LIHTC).
"The underwriting complexities can be especially challenging because of the stringent criteria involved when combing more than one federal program. Cambridge is my first choice in any FHA financing because the company can be relied upon to find solutions for whatever problems arise," he said.
"What you hear from Cambridge you can trust," he added.
What You Hear From Cambridge You Can Trust…2017-01-062017-01-06http://cambridgecap.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Cambridge-Senior-Housing-Capital.pngCambridge Realty Capitalhttps://www.cambridgecap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/j0415786-e1482442566431.jpg200px200px
Fed Rate Hike Sends Signal to Senior Housing/Healthcare OwnersCambridge News
Video Teaser: Finding the Right Financing FitCambridge News

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Still only 11, fashion designer Minnie has already launched ten collections
Her Purisa Glitzy is a brand to watch
When a Thai girl just eleven years of age tells you her hero and inspiration is Coco Chanel, you take notice. And immediately wonder why.
But then Purisa 'Minnie' Hengtrakulsin is no ordinary youngster. Incredibly, this little lady is already an established designer of fashion clothes for children with ten collections to her credit under her own well-known brand 'Purisa Glitzy.'
So how did she become such a fan of Coco Chanel, France's legendary fashion designer, especially as she passed away some four decades before Minnie was born? "My mum and dad took me to a book fair when I was seven years old and I came across a book about Coco Chanel, and I loved it," explained Minnie in her self-taught flawless English. "I read that book many times and loved all of Coco's designs, and I decided that I wanted to be like her. Coco is my inspiration."
Suitably motivated, Minnie, aged just eight, launched her first collection 'Purisa Glitzy' in 2016. It quickly caught the eye of several buyers and showed she was on the right track. But it was her second collection that really propelled her career. This came about after watching a famous Thai musical drama called Four Reigns based on the life of a lady in waiting in the Grand Palace.
After researching popular fashion designs from that period of Thai history, Minnie sketched her own ideas – a mixture of Thai and Victorian clothes - and matched them with carefully selected fabrics and textiles from the leading suppliers in Bangkok. Called 'PLOY' after the heroine
in the historical drama, the collection of all-white outfits attracted interested from around the world. Meticulously styled and beautifully made by a respected dressmaker, her clothes are a wonderful evocation of the complex designs favored during the reign of four Thai kings.
Her third collection, which really put the Purisa Glitzy brand on the map, is called 'Bittersweet'. This was followed recently by a series of new collections, including her latest called 'Girlish', which tells the story of a little girl who grows into a young lady. Minnie, who attends Rajini School in Bangkok, says the inspiration for this latest collection was her pencil case, which has beads and glitter underneath transparent plastic,
and thus the see-through fabrics and pastel tones of her Girlish clothes.
Because her clothes are bespoke, they are not cheap. Even though Minnie is also money-smart and good saver, she leaves the finances to her mum and dad, Tisa and Pume, who own a wholesale clothing shop in Bangkok's Bobae district.
But the way her career is developing in its own unique way, Minnie is certainly destined to become one of the country's most loved clothing brands.


The Oceanview on Sunset Beachhouse is as cozy as it is luxurious. A self-contained 2 bedroom suite is only minutes from White Rock Beach and a 10 minute walk to the Pier, shops and restaurants. The Beachhouse is recently renovated, with all new furnishings, linens, kitchen supplies, etc. The suite comfortably accommodates 4 people but is also set up to entertain daytime visitors of our guests.
Cheryl Lynn is a Superhost · Superhosts are experienced, highly rated hosts who are committed to providing great stays for guests.


No, this is not a tribute you the John Lennon's song. This blog does not tout humanist drivel.
No, Imagine is the title of Steve Deace's latest splendid blog post.
In fact I think this piece by Steve is his best and so timely for this election season.
It is primarily written to Iowans however it is easily applicable to all of America, particularly Christians.
We are counting on you Nevada; only you can defeat Harry Reid and only Sharron Angle is the person to do all we pray for in a candidate!


text:
All Life & Style
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Property Clinic
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Get Running
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Summer of Family
Generation Emigration
Returning to Ireland
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Ross O'Carroll-Kelly
Séamas Ó Buachalla Obituary: Driver of change in Irish education
Educationalist advised several ministers and helped found Young Scientist competition
Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 01:53
Séamas Ó Buachalla
Born 15 March 15th, 1930; died March 22nd, 2019
Dr Séamas Ó Buachalla, who has died in his 90th year, was an educationalist who made significant and long-lasting contributions to the formation and development of educational change in Ireland both as an energetic, far-sighted and personally modest reformer in the Department of Education, and also subsequently as an academic in Trinity College Dublin.
Born in Cork city, he was educated first in that city's Christian Brothers school, in University College, Galway and in Queen's University, Belfast, where he was awarded successively a BSc and an MSc, before joining the Department of Education in 1962 as a science inspector. His career in the department was marked by his role in the development and introduction of important new syllabi in science and mathematics, including the promotion of biology as a post-primary school subject, and his encouragement and support for the teaching of science in girls' secondary schools.
He was a member of the advisory board for the department's revolutionary report on Investment in Education in 1965, and the following year became an adviser to the then minister for education, Donagh O'Malley, as O'Malley was developing his project of free secondary education for all in Ireland, based on that report. The same decade saw his involvement in the launching of educational television and his role as a founding board member of the annual Young Scientist school competition, first established by Aer Lingus, which has been an increasingly important landmark in the Irish educational scene in successive years.
In 1968 he joined the academic staff of Trinity College Dublin, and was responsible for the professional and educational moulding of several generations of students who acquired their teaching qualifications in that college. He was awarded his PhD by Trinity in 1980 and became a Fellow emeritus of that university following his retirement.
During his career as an educationalist he was associated with a number of significant bodies in the development of educational policy at both national and international levels. He has been a consultant to the Council of Europe, Unesco and the European Cultural Foundation of the Council of Europe, in which he made contributions on education and regional development, higher education policy, and education in sparsely populated areas.
In 1977 he became a founding member of the Educate Together movement for the development of multidenominational primary schools, which was first established in Dalkey, Co Dublin. In 1982 he became a member of the National Council for Educational Awards and chairman of its Board of Humanities. As an educational academic, he was also consulted from time to time by no fewer than four different ministers for education from different political parties.
His early interest in the educational theories and practices of Patrick Pearse led to his publication of an edition of the 1916 leader's writings on education in 1980, which featured a foreword by FSL Lyons, among other works on Pearse in a number of languages. He also took a significant hands-on role in the restoration of Saint Enda's, Pearse's school in Rathfarnham, and the establishment of the Pearse museum.
In 1980 he also served as a consultant to the Van Leer/Údarás na Gaeltachta project on Gaeltacht education, and from 1982 became a member of the National Council for Educational Awards. In his seminal work, Education Policy in the 20th Century (1988), which was the first major contemporary study of its kind, he described the Catholic Church as "the greatest proprietorial and managerial presence" in Irish education. It rapidly became a standard work.
An article on trends in Irish higher education policy between 1987 and 1992, published in the European Journal of Education in the latter year, underlined his status as an informed academic commentator, as well as a participant, in the field of Irish higher education. He was also a founding member – and a regular participant until health issues prevented from travelling in more recent years – in the meetings of the Interskola organisation, an international meeting of minds concerned with education in Scandinavia and other sparsely populated areas of Europe.
His love for, and commitment to, the Irish language marked his personal as well his academic life, and was reflected in his supportive role in organisations such as Muintearas, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Gael-Linn. His family and academic interests were combined on country walks with his children in their early years, when he would teach them the names of the flora and fauna they encountered in Irish as well as in Latin and English.
He is survived by his wife, Éilis (nee O'Sullivan), whom he married in 1963, by their two daughters, Niamh Buckley and Sinéad Buckley Quinn, and his granddaughter Rachel Quinn.
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Pádraig Ó hUiginn obituary: A dynamic, unorthodox public servant
Kim Kardashian West says she is studying to become a criminal lawyer
Big smiles, cute pups: Meet Ireland's Insta-politicians
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: 'I know it's an unusual thing to ask your son but could you get me drugs?'
Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: 'I'm just saying that our kids are three little yobs'
'There's so much negativity around direct provision but I liked it'
The world has been designed by men, for men, and women have had enough
Nailing it: How Tropical Popical made it to the National Gallery
A kale and hearty salad with a totally tropical taste
Best buys – family saloons: Czech mate has so much space it echoes inside
'The baby cries now and you don't even cry along with her. A truly magical milestone'
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2 We all have servants these days. And we like having them
3 Irishman in London: Could Boris be Britain's first cute hoor prime minister?
4 Conor McGregor buys home of former taoiseach's son for over €2m
5 Undocumented Irish in America: 'Come in legit or stay at home'
6 Would my dead mother's voice from old recordings destroy my warm memories?
7 Catherine Cleary: My highest ever restaurant review scores
8 Cycling matters: 'Young women feel judged to be on a bike'
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After her ordeal at the hands of Josef Mengele, she sought to forgive her tormentors
John McCririck obituary: Racing pundit, journalist and broadcaster
Provocative television personality who became one of the best-known figures in horse racing
Noel Whelan obituary: Political campaigner, barrister, newspaper columnist and pundit
Remarkable man combined range of successful careers in relatively short life
A Friday roundup of the latest exclusive offers and competitions, and a sneak preview of what's coming up over the weekend in The Irish Times.


The Aston SPIRIT is a high-performance, switchable pattern, microphone utilising a 1? gold evaporated capsule. A switch on the mic body selects from Omni, Cardioid or Figure-of-Eight polar patterns. It is versatile enough to use with most instruments and excels on acoustic guitar and vocals. Its hand-selected capsule is teamed with high-end transformer balanced circuitry using only the best components.


text:
Parallel Thoughts
Under House Arrest
China Plans Winter Smog Shutdowns
An analysis by Michael Lelyveld
Cyclists ride along a road in heavy smog in Weifang, eastern China's Shandong province, Jan. 2, 2017.
ImagineChina
China's government is hoping to avoid another smog-blackened winter in Beijing by cracking down on emissions in surrounding cities and cutting production during the cold weather months.
The plan announced last month by key agencies and six provincial-level governments would cover 28 northern cities with new pollution curbs on steel, cement and coal-fired power plants, state media said.
The rules may represent the toughest moves yet to ease the air quality crisis in the capital. Beijing claimed a 9.9-percent drop in smog-causing particles known as PM2.5 last year despite frequent pollution alerts.
Conditions were especially dismal in January as average PM2.5 density soared 70.6 percent from a year earlier to 116 micrograms per cubic meter, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) reported. The concentrations were more than four times the safe levels set by the World Health Organization.
Average readings for the first quarter stood at 84 micrograms, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Beijing has targeted a reduction to 60 micrograms this year from 73 micrograms per cubic meter in 2016.
The spike in smog has been blamed on steel production that surged in the second half of last year to take advantage of price increases, particularly in neighboring Hebei province.
According to the government, the industry met its official target for reducing production overcapacity with 65 million metric tons of cuts last year. But a study by Greenpeace East Asia found that capacity actually increased as mills reopened closed lines.
The new rules would require seasonal suspensions or production cuts during the winter heating season from November 15 to March 15, when emissions are high due to coal-fired heating and power.
Cement and casting plants would cease operations with limited exceptions for the entire period. Coal-burning power plants in the 28 cities would close unless they meet low emission standards by the end of October, the official English-language China Daily said.
Steelmakers will have to cut winter production by half in Hebei's two largest city centers, while aluminum output in all 28 cities would be reduced by 30 percent.
Other steps include shifting coal transport from road to rail, closer monitoring of vehicle exhaust and replacement of coal for heating with electricity and gas.
The plan was issued jointly by the MEP, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and the provincial-level governments, China Daily said.
Temporary benefits at best
Implementation in the provinces including Hebei, Henan, Shanxi and Shandong seems bound to have a beneficial effect on Beijing's winter smog.
But the seasonal nature of the measures may make the benefits temporary at best.
Given their past performances, steel and cement makers seem likely to compensate for the four months of cuts with increased production in the rest of the year. The result may simply shift the time frame for emissions and smog.
"If you're going to make up all that production in the same area in the other months of the year in the spring, summer and fall, you're going to load a lot of extra pollution into those seasons," said Mikkal Herberg, energy security research director for the Seattle-based National Bureau of Asian Research.
The seasonal suspensions could also play havoc with power plant utilization rates, which are already too low.
Conversely, if the steel and cement industries try to make up for lost time by boosting summer production, supplies of power and fuel could be seasonally squeezed.
The ups and downs in demand are likely to frustrate plans to deal with China's overcapacity problems in the coal, steel, cement and power industries.
"It sounds like a classic administrative mandate-oriented way of doing things," said Herberg.
"You try to move a bunch of levers to control one thing, but then you create all kinds of distortions and collateral effects in other things that you're trying to do," he said.
Philip Andrews-Speed, a China energy expert and principal fellow at National University of Singapore, called the seasonal smog plan "amazing" and the "ultimate administrative instrument."
Among the complications, Andrews-Speed sees trouble for industrial profits and employment in one-third of the year.
"Companies will face real financial losses, as will the workers, I guess," Andrews-Speed said by email.
Plant efficiency depends on operating at or near full capacity all the time, he argued.
"So, if they close and then ramp up, the full advantages of these technologies will be lost," Andrews-Speed said.
The scheduling disruptions could have ripple effects for suppliers, trade and the entire economy.
"These plants are at the front end of long supply chains, which will also be affected," Andrews-Speed said. "Do the intermediate manufacturers have to become seasonal, too? Should they build up huge stocks of inputs in the summer, or do they instead import the inputs?"
Chimneys at a factory discharge smoke in heavy smog in Taiyuan, northern China's Shanxi province, Jan. 6, 2017.
Credit: ImagineChina
Fake emissions data
The complications of the smog crisis coincide with reports of widespread noncompliance with the central government's environmental restrictions, raising questions about whether the winter plan can be carried out at all.
In February and March, the MEP sent 260 inspectors in 18 teams to check on 8,500 emissions sources in the northern region, including factories, mines and heating providers, the South China Morning Post reported.
At least 3,119 of the sources had either "faked emissions data" or resisted the inspections, the paper said, suggesting a noncompliance rate of more than 36 percent.
According to a ministry statement, the inspectors found a litany of violations including entire areas that lacked systems to curb production during declared smog alerts.
In an economic development zone of Hebei province's Tangshan city, antipollution plans from another region were randomly copied along with incorrect place names, the paper said.
The inspections in nearby regions have become a standard reaction to the outbreaks of smog in Beijing.
On April 4, the MEP sent inspection teams to seven northern cities following an orange alert, the second-highest level, in the capital during that week.
The inspectors again found glaring violations, including falsified pollution data and a Tangshan steel mill that had turned its pollution detector off.
Those responsible were detained by local police, Xinhua said, citing the MEP. But it is unclear whether government regulators are having any effect on compliance rates.
In another case, a furniture plant in Hebei's Xingtai city simply refused to be inspected, Xinhua reported.
On April 3, the ministry said it had summoned officials from seven districts in Beijing, Tianjin and cities in Hebei and Shanxi to reprimand them for poor environmental enforcement. The officials pledged to submit rectification plans within 20 days, China Daily said.
The prevalence of noncompliance gives little confidence that the winter smog plan will work, although there could be significant consequences if it does.
The issue also raises the question of why central government authority has had such a limited effect on local officials and industry with regard to smog at a time when President Xi Jinping has exercised increasing political power.
"It just demonstrates how complicated this economy is and how difficult it is to keep managing it," said Herberg.
"There's tremendous power of the provincial and local governments to ignore edicts from Beijing," he said.
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text:
<?php

namespace Ite\Http\Factory;

use \Ite\Http\Factory\UriFactory;
use \Ite\Http\Message\Response as ResponseMessage;
use \Ite\Http\Message\Stream;
use \Ite\Http\ResponseService;

/**
 * ResponseFactory
 *
 * @author Kiril Savchev <k.savchev@gmail.com>
 */
class ResponseServiceFactory
{

    public function createOutputResponse()
    {
        $uriFactory = new UriFactory();
        $response = new ResponseService();
        $response->setResponseMessage(new ResponseMessage(200, 'OK', new Stream('php://output', 'w')));
        $response->setUri($uriFactory->createFromSuperglobals());
        return $response;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub