Let’s focus on the key features of each productivity tool. By learning about them, you can get to know them better and eventually make a proper decision. So, without further ado let’s get started!

Clockify

First, let’s take a look at Clockify. The main thing that makes this software stand out is the time-keeping segment. There is a timer, calendar, timesheet, auto track, and Kiosk features. Among these features, the Kiosk basically lets you clock in from a shared device. It is one of the unique features of Clockify.

Then, there is the reporting segment, which includes activity, reports, rates, progress, and location features. On the location option, you will be capable of seeing all of the sites and routes you have visited.

Finally, there are management options. That includes scheduling, approval, time off, invoicing, and expense features. All these features will make it easier to manage your team’s time and maximize their productivity.

Another great thing about Clockify is that it works across different devices. That will allow you to track time from anywhere and from any device. All of the data gets synced online, which means you will have total access to them all the time.

Focus Bear

The main focus of Focus Bear is to help you avoid distractions while you’re working. Although it does track your time, its focus is on making sure that you get the most done in the period you’re working. It blocks distracting websites and apps so you can dive into deep work.

Focus Bear blocking Facebook

The app also helps you build healthy habits. When you install Focus Bear, you decide what activities you want to do in the morning. Instead of mindlessly scrolling Instagram or checking emails first thing, Focus Bear will help you develop a meditation or yoga habit. It blocks tech distractions while you’re doing your habits so you stay on track. That way you’ll be in a great headspace when you start your workday.

Focus Bear morning routine screen

As well as eliminating distractions during your work hours and morning/evening routine, Focus Bear also helps you take productivity-boosting breaks. For example, you can set the app up to remind you to stand up and stretch every 20 minutes. It’s not just a little notification at the top of your screen — it takes over your whole screen to make sure you don’t ignore the need for a break. If this sounds alarming, be reassured that the app can tell if you’re on a Zoom/Teams/Google Meet call and won’t annoy you with breaks at an inopportune time.

At the end of the day, Focus Bear shows you a summary of what you achieved and how much you spent on deep work.

Final Thoughts: Which One is Better?

Clockify and Focus Bear are actually complementary tools. Clockify is mainly used by employers looking to track their employee’s time for record-keeping/payment purposes. For employers who are looking to increase the amount of work that employees get done during their working hours and make sure that their team remains physically and mentally healthy, Focus Bear would be an excellent addition.

1. Your time is in your control. You keep doing what you want to do.

2. Things are either a hell yes, or they are a no. Set your priorities straight.

3. Set a daily highlight. It is the most important thing for that day. Focus on doing that thing first.

4. Use a physical to-do list. It helps a lot more than the digital ones.

5. Time Blocking — Set up a particular time for specific tasks.

6. Set up strict deadlines for your tasks.

7. Having protected time — Set up some time where you attend no calls.

8. Delegation — Delegate your tasks as much as possible.

9. Automated Scheduling — People can book a slot on your calendar to meet you for some time.

10. Be satisfied at the end of the day with what happened, and go to plan for the next day.

As months passed, the changes and norms imposed by Covid like masks, alternate shifts, and alternate seating arrangements also started to disappear. Off late, things are almost back to the earlier ways, except that as a manager one has to account for absenteeism as if even one team member tests positive — not only does that team member have to get into a quarantine mode but the rest of the staff needs to get tested as well. However, organizations have to come to accept this as part of the new normal now.

Some recent changes in my personal life brought about by the failing health of a family member have brought me to a juncture where I have to actively start pursuing WFH and remote opportunities. Though I am at a stage where I don’t have much of a choice and it looks like WFH is going to be my only preference for the next few years at least, I still thought that an assessment of my experience with WFH is fair game. So here it goes:

Positives:

Flexibility: WFH gave me the flexibility of location. I need not continuously calculate the travel time and cost, weigh options of which route to take to reach the office on time, or make it to a meeting at the other end of the city on time. WFH gave me the gift of time — 2 precious hours of additional time added to my day. I was able to take up online courses and utilize this time to pick up new skills that are helping me today.

Work-life balance: Less commuting meant more time on hand for me to practice better time management not only for work-related tasks but also for better management of personal time. I also observed a slightly better level of mental and physical health. This could largely be due to a reduction in stress related to the daily commute and the office environment. Also, with more time on hand, I was able to pay more attention to my health and fitness by allocating daily time to an exercise and meditation routine

Deep work and productivity: “This could have been an email!” I remember having this thought almost every single day in the office after an unnecessary and unproductive meeting that would eat up hours of precious time, leading to late hours in the office to finish important tasks since there was no time to do them during the day. In the WFH era, while the call volume went up and online meetings became a regular fixture, a lot of stuff that was meant for an email happened over an email. Even with the calls and online meetings, but without the other unnecessary office-related distractions I was able to do deep work for 3–4 hours every day, and that too during the working hours. I remember observing that I was more productive when I was working from home.

Multi-tasking: WFH meant that I could do multiple tasks and balance professional tasks with chores related to the house like helping out with cooking, cleaning, and home improvements. I was able to look after my ailing and old parents, and spend more time with the family and I could see the positive effect it was having on their mental as well as physical well-being.

Negatives:

Isolation: While WFH ensured that I got quality time to do some deep work, it also brought about the feeling of isolation. I sometimes found that despite a high volume of calls, emails, and chats — a lot of times the output produced by me and my team gave an impression of utter disconnect of thought. It lacked cohesiveness of approach and the silo effect was overwhelmingly strewn across the output. This led to a lot of rework and extra effort. Though this got better with time, it was obvious that the cohesiveness that comes with the physical proximity of the team working in the same room is difficult to achieve with virtual proximity, more so if the task on hand needs a team effort.

Too much screen time and gadgets: WFH means no respite to your eyes from constant screen time, whether it’s your laptop, mobile phone, tablet, kindle, or TV. Life was never so overwhelmingly surrounded by gadgets as it has been in the last couple of years. I remember seriously contemplating gadgets and screen detoxification almost every day.

Social anxiety: I didn’t like going out anymore. Despite being an introvert all my life — the bare minimum social contact that I had due to the office environment or due to the daily commute, meeting the one or two friends that I had during the weekends helped me in controlling the social anxiety that threatens to take over every time I am faced with a situation of meeting people. WFH ensured that now I didn’t need an excuse to avoid social interactions, however, it has also increased my social anxiety levels to an all-time high now and often I find myself clueless in social situations that were easy to handle even for an introvert like me.

Perception management: WFH always kept me guessing what my boss thinks of me, whether the top management knew how hard I was working, and whether my team understood the pain that I was taking in making sure that their work stood out as compared to other teams. The signals, the conversations, and water cooler chatter though distractions were also an asset that helped one to survive and thrive. WFH meant I had to work extra hard on my communication skills and make sure that I am communicating clearly and regularly with my team members, my peers, and my bosses.

Preparing for WFH:

Here is my plan based on the above learnings to make sure that this time when I start WFH I can be more effective and efficient, and can incorporate WFH as a way of life successfully:

Self-discipline: I need to be stricter on myself than ever before. There is no room for lethargy and procrastination anymore. Adhering to a set timetable and sticking to a schedule will be my primary objective. Whether is sleep hours or waking up at 5 am, meditation or leisure time, Meetings, or deep work — following a schedule unwaveringly and relentlessly is the only way I can do this in long term.

Setting Boundaries: Setting clear boundaries between work and personal space, literally as well as figuratively is something that I will have to do even before I start this new phase of my life. This means a separate workspace within the house, volume control on the TV, and curtailed social activity for the family during the day. This requires equal efforts and participation from the family as well and hence makes this point very critical.

Efficient Time management: Demarcation of work hours and personal hours, allocating time for deep work, scheduling specific hours for Emailing, calls and meetings, and not only keeping a to-do list for the day but also diligently dealing it with twice a day is going to be very important. A little slack in this area will mean work hours will stretch into personal hours and this will eventually lead to chaos. Efficient time management will also mean that it is up to me to ensure that I still can maintain a 5-day work week and make sure that the weekends are kept aside for me, my family, and the household chores, just the way it used to be before.

Higher emphasis on Communication: I need to get out of my shell and put extra emphasis on effective communication. Do not procrastinate on making that extra call to my team member or a peer, or avoid that evening email to my superiors. 1 social call a day to a peer has to become a regular feature of the day.

Off-screen time: Last but not the least, off-screen time whether it means no mobile after 9 pm and mandatory screen break at least twice a day, even if it is for 30 minutes is very important for this to work. I have realized that the addiction to checking for calls, messages, Emails, and notifications on social media is much more dangerous than any other addiction that I have ever had. I have noticed that I don’t even realize how involuntary and natural the process of checking my phone every minute has become for me, that sometimes I have to force myself to keep my mobile locked somewhere in the other room to stop myself from checking it every other minute and I can barely last for a few minutes.

As I prepare to adapt to this change in my life, I can sense that this change in a way is happening globally and I am hoping that soon we will see tools and programs that will aid people to function more effectively while Working from home. But even then, this will always be more of a personal battle of self-discipline and strength of the mind over matter.

Everyone in the productivity space is talking about new shiny tools like Mem, Obsidian, Roam…, and the list goes on.

Truth is, backlinks can seem daunting. Especially if you’ve been taking notes for years using the good ol’ fashioned way of folders and tags. In fact, I’ve been wasting my time taking notes for 10 years without any specific Methodology… until I stumbled across backlinks.

Backlinks gave a new purpose to my note-taking, and today I want to show you can they can dramatically improve your creative output, too.

Let’s dive into it.

When tags and folders backfire

For years, I’ve been using folders and tags to classify my notes.

When you think about it, classifying notes that way makes sense. Why? Because it helps us prevent chaos. It gives us a feeling of being in control of the thousands of notes we amass. (Yes, I’m looking at you, damn web clipper!)

But I found out that all the notes I took were locked into specific boxes. True, I could regurgitate everything I learned about “productivity” or “marketing,” but… I wasn’t really creating something new out of them.

In short, my notes simply became a better way to be a parrot. I was only retrieving without really creating.

Backlinks boost your Creativity

Creativity is a buzzword.

Everyone and their dog wants to be more creative. Everyone wants to get recognized for his ideas.

But few truly are.

Why? Well, the first reason is that most people don’t understand what Creativity actually means.

Here’s how the late Steve Jobs put it:

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.”

No matter if you hate or love Apple. I think that we all agree that Jobs was an incredibly creative person. In fact, the Invention of the smartphone is living proof of his creative genius.

So now comes the question: okay, how do we connect things between them?

Well, our brain has the answer. Our brain contains billions of neurons. Those neurons are connected with synapses.

Think of every neuron as an idea. And every synapse as a link.

Once you understand that linking is how we humans proceed with information, the next logical step is to implement links into your note-taking, too.

How to start using backlinks… today

So now comes the question: how to use backlinks?

Many people try to overcomplicate backlinks. When in fact, it does not have to be that hard.

I’m a huge fan of simplicity. Simplicity is the ultimate level of sophistication.

So if you want to take effective and simple backlinks, here’s the procedure.

First, you need to pick a note-taking app that allows you to create backlinks. If you’re in doubt, I always recommend Obsidian to my clients for one simple reason: because it works on every platform.

Obsidian allows you to create backlinks very easily by simply typing two brackets like so:

Image by Author

Then, start typing the first letters of the note you want to link to… hit enter. Voilà.

But now comes the question: How to choose which note to link to? And that’s a great one.

My answer is always the same: Simply link to what comes to your mind.

When creating a note, your brain will start making associations. It’s time to replicate those associations in your note-taking app.

This is how you truly create a second brain!

Do you want to take better notes? Sign up for my FREE 7-Day Email course by clicking here (Safe link to my website)

Find out more about me here (YouTube/Discord/Telegram): https://www.linktr.ee/keeleytan

If you find my post helpful, I’ll be grateful and appreciate it if you could leave me a like on this post, and follow me for future posts like this.

Let me know in the comments if you agree and what you think.

#PLTR

Price played out well last week as analyzed. Price is currently on a downtrend, taking sell-side liquidity. From here, I’m still expecting price to continue lower, taking the lows at 7.50 before we see a retracement to the upside. Keeping an eye on the $5.00 round number psychology mark.

#AMD

Price bounced off the bullish POI at 91.58 as expected last week. The reaction was not strong enough to break the market structure to the upside. From here, I’m expecting deeper mitigation of the bullish POI, or for the price to initiate a downtrend.

#NFLX

Price has played out nicely as analyzed last week. Price took liquidity at 248.70 and broke the market structure to the downside. From here, there is sell-side liquidity nearby and I’m expecting the price to take them while it continues on the downtrend. Possible target for this down move is the bullish POI at 190.21

I’m thinking of trying out to provide free signal services on discord. If you’re interested, DM me for a role there!

Like, share, and comment if you’re holding any one of these companies!

Let me know if you have any tickers you want me to analyze.

Research shows the anxiety you face at the thought of a big presentation is exactly the same as when a spider tries to take a shower with you. 😨

Now, The idea behind the 5- min rule is to promise your brain to work on small but a specific part of a task for only 5 mins, put a timer, and start working, with the idea that you can quit after 5 mins if you like.

5min rule reduces the fear and anxiety associated with the task which is why you procrastinate in the first place.

Ok, let me ask you a question. what sounds more doable writing a few ideas and preparing the outline of how your article will look like or writing a whole essay of 1800 + words in one go? you got the idea.

The good part is after 5 mins, you will probably end up doing the whole thing. and once you cross the barrier and catch the momentum there’s no looking back.

You are the “Boss”. People either respect you or are afraid of you. You determine who gets a raise or a promotion, even who gets to keep one’s job. Here when you want something to get done, you ask for it and your subordinates will bend over backwards to get your wishes fulfilled. When you are present, everyone agrees with you and wants to have the best relationship with you. This is the scenario when you are the “Boss”.

Now consider the other scenario. You are not the boss and you want something get done. You enjoy no such powers as the boss, still you want the same response from people who are not reporting to you. You are not in the position to give them the raise they desire. If they don’t help you, they are still going to keep their jobs. Is there any way you can get the same people to work for you as they would do it for “Mr. Boss”?

The intent of this article is to enable you to be the boss, when you are not. The idea of leading people without formal authority is explored at length. The amazing art of influencing people and building relationship is not an easy feat to achieve without understanding the other person. Human beings are not machines or software algorithms. There is no single formula that fits all. How will you get them to work for you? If you must have a different setting for each person, then this will become the most difficult of jobs in the world. But it is not difficult. The formula may be different but the method to achieve the formula is somewhat similar. There are a few key elements which will help you understand the person you are trying to deal with. Only after that you can proceed further.

I was working on this project’s implementation providing fiber optic connectivity over several hundreds of KMs, including the ISP part. My team was complaining about a particular region not sending timely updates (these updates were essential for management reporting as this was a mega project of strategic nature). The issue was highlighted, and I decided to intervene. I called the regional manager who was in a different city. I simply started chatting about current weather, law, and order situation etc. after our formal introductions. Before saying goodbye i just reminded him about the report which was due. We got the report one day before the deadline. Over the course of the project i had several calls, MS Teams Meetings with the person. Also, i got to know about his interests and family. Never once did we get another complain from that region in other projects.

In the example above, the key was communication. I understood the person more and more by communicating regularly. I build a relationship with him. Sometimes that’s enough to get the person to work for you.

Still there are instances where you do not have enough time and must act quickly to solve the issue. I will share another incident with you.

Once I was asked to cover for a colleague. I attended a customer meeting which belonged to her. When I reached the meeting venue, I sensed tension in the room. Only two other people were sitting there. They didn’t ask me, if I wanted anything to drink like tea and coffee (something customary in Pakistan). I recall even the air conditioning and lighting were giving an uninviting vibe. We waited for 5 minutes and then their boss entered the room. Without any greeting or hello, he just started sharing his disappointment. He started with poor workmanship, late delivery, not getting regular updates and many other things. Before sitting down, he said that he wants an update now. I got my regional manager on the phone and gave him the update and it wasn’t as bad as the customer was anticipating. I understood the issue was that they were not getting regular updates from the account manager. This had led to poor visibility of the project status and caused panic at customer end. After the updates session the environment changed, and we had a great chat on telecom industry’s future and where is this leading. We had tea together and discussed future projects. When I went back, I asked my colleague why she wasn’t updating the customer. She said that she is providing them monthly updates, but they are asking about updates every other week. I tried to make her realize that the project may be small for us, but for the customer, it will be bringing in a new revenue stream, so he needs better visibility. She agreed on providing fortnightly updates to the customer. The issue was settled for good.

It is evident from this example that when you do not give clarity to your customer, they will panic. The key to solving the problem here was empathy. My colleague did not prioritize the customer requirements as she was only looking at the monetary value of the project for us. The customer was panicking and blaming us for all sort of things. So just by making my friend empathize with the customer we resolved this issue.

The method to reach the formula

First and foremost, you need to understand the person. It will not be possible to get all the information on the individual. Still by looking at the way the person communicates, you can get most of your required information. You should consider these elements:

· Body language

· Communication style

· Tone

· Attentiveness to you

· Comfort level while communicating

We will explore each of these in the next chapter.

Analyze first, understand, and then act

Now that you have the information, analyze it. Every organization has a personality. You need to understand the personality if you must deal with the people there. Culture plays a great role and if you observe keenly, you will understand how things work around that place. And if you understand the culture, half of your job is done. Now you need to dig further. Understand the subculture of the department that you are dealing with. At this stage you would have gained enough clarity to understand the person you are trying to influence.

Another aspect that you need to consider is the background of the person. This is difficult as people are from diverse places and you cannot have all the information about their origin. At times that can be misleading as you will meet people who had exposure and moved around a lot. So simply depending upon stereotypes will not be helpful. You must get things done so your understanding should be better than that. The key is more contact, more communication and listening.

A few years back, I had to get information on Karachi’s market for the launch of fiber to the home service to provide smart TV and internet services to consumers. I flew to Karachi from Islamabad and asked a colleague to set up some in-depth interviews with experts of the field. I interviewed a few people and got a lot of information which was actionable, but I did not get real insight from these people. I shared my concern with my colleague as I already knew this much from my secondary research and although the data will be helpful for designing my business case, it will not be very insightful. He set up a lunch meeting with his friend who had been working in the Karachi market for the past 20 years. I did the interview before lunch and the result was fairly like my previous interviews. Somewhat disappointed, i started having lunch with these guys. Suddenly the expert looks at me and start talking about how people think that no one here will pay more than PKR 2,500 for an internet connection. But in reality, there is a market potential of people who are sick of unreliable service and will pay much more for quality service. This was something very interesting and we got to talking and I had great insights from that lunch discussion which went over 2 hours and we also had a tea session. For the next two days that I was there, I only did either lunch discussions or on tea. I understood that people open up when you are having a candid discussion. They often give reserved responses when you have a set of questions on a paper and you are asking them and taking notes. We understood the people there. We launched a pricy service with a promise of best customer service in the city and it was a huge success. Earlier we were looking for ways to subsidize the upfront cost but those lunch discussions proved fruitful and we did not make the mistake of getting into price wars with competition, rather we offered a reliable service and customers happily paid for it. This would not have been possible for us to get people to sign up for our services if we hadn’t understood the market first and we would have lost a lot of money by not getting the price right for our premium service.

Personification of Organization (First meeting)

Does this ever happen to you that when you listen to an organization’s name, an image comes into your mind. Think about this. If I say google, what comes to your mind. I see a person with casual wear sitting on a beanbag working on a laptop. His desk is filled with clutter and he has many graphs and charts and algos around. A person who will text more than talk. A person who talks in sophisticated computer science lingo and is very much into comic books and superhero merchandize. All his wall decoration will speak volumes of these interests. I also see the person wearing glasses. I don’t consider him much of a people person. Now tell me how would you handle someone belonging to this organization. This is the preliminary picture, but these impressions hold some wisdom. All the aspects that I shared earlier would require much communication but in your first meeting what you need is to understand the impression. This image in your mind is based on a lot of information that goes around and you may have picked up and this could have been stored at the back of your mind or in your subconscious. Just thinking about the persona of the organization will help you a lot if you need to get something done. Here again they key is communication. The more you do it, the better image will come into your mind.

Now consider a writer on the series “The big bang theory”. I picture a female who is quick witted. I know she reads a lot of books and loves to write. Someone who creates jokes and likes to share with them. She also is equipped with technical and scientific knowledge. She researches a lot about science. She likes to talk to people and is outspoken as well as have a large social circle. Now consider asking her to do you a favor. It will seem very easy as the she will be more inviting and helpful than the google persona. You may even hear a few jokes and even have a lovely time with this person. So think about the persona of the organization from available knowledge and then meet people. Your task will become easier.

Now consider an auto dealership of Mercedes Benz. My mind gives an image of a well-dressed individual. He has a nicely trimmed sort beard. Very outspoken. Confident. Likes to talk to people. Can engage people and judge their interests. Someone full of energy and very persistent. Also understands cars very well. I can say that he is a family guy with kids and loves to spend some time with family. Also, I see a sophisticated watch on him. He is very approachable and has an inviting personality. I also sense that this person understands who a real customer is and who is window shopping. So, he may choose to give his time accordingly to each and very person coming to buy a car. So there is a little tendency to get rude at times and be less helpful to some people. He likes to eat at expensive dining areas and likes to spend time with friends. He is also a go getter and can handle rejection well. Read this description and tell me, don’t you think you may get something more if you think about the persona of the organization that you are about to deal with. Culture has little or more effect on everyone.

You also need to appreciate that while you personify, keep you mind open as this is different from stereotyping. Stereotyping is primarily a mental block where you believe a specific set of a person will always act in a certain way. That is something negative and always keep an open mind. Persona is more about the first image that comes to your mind with a huge room to change as you communicate and understand more. You also need to understand that the image that comes to your mind can be different what other people may perceive someone.

Dealing with a rude customer

In a nationwide cell site connectivity project, I received an email from a very disgruntled customer. He was the main point of contact for our company from the customer side. He was also the person whose input could have an influence over future business opportunities. Let’s go back to the email. In order to explain the issue here, I have to touch upon how Telecom towers were supposed to be connected in this project (in as simple terms as possible). They were to be connected with fiber optic in a ring. So every tower is connected from two different ends. In case cable is cut at one end, the tower will stay up and work as total connectivity will not be lost. Every city had 15 to 25 different rings.

My regional team had given a plan to the customer which had timelines of when we will be able to connect the whole cities but they could not provide them with ring-wise timelines even after several reminders. I responded to the customer, assuring him that I will personally intervene and sort out the issue here. I called a meeting with my regional teams in Karachi, Lahore, Gujranwala and Hyderabad. After a little discussion, I learned that they were of the view that they already communicated timelines and a huge workload was involved in figuring out these timelines. The level of details they were mentioning was too much and I did not expect any customer to demand so much information on such a short notice. I realized that my regional teams and the customer have only exchanged emails and have not discussed the requirement in detail. During that meeting I called the customer and asked him if it will be possible to join the conversation (this was an online meeting on MS teams). The customer declined and told me he was busy and will call me later. On this my regional teams started complaining about the customer’s arrogance and non-cooperativeness. They were of the view that the data is too much and it will require at least two weeks to compile. They also thought that this was a futile exercise and the customer does not need this much data.

An hour later I got a call from the customer. As soon as I picked up the phone, he started complaining about my regional teams and their lack of professionalism. I listened calmly and when he finished, I asked him what he needs. He only needed timelines of ring completions. Something which could easily have been provided within an hour’s working. He wasn’t asking for complete project implementation plan where we track each activity, resources costs etc. So, all this was due to communication gap. My regional teams thought he needed a detailed plan while the requirement was very little. I added my colleagues to the call and when they understood what was required, it was provided by next day.

In the example above, it is evident that we need to understand the problem first. A person may seem arrogant (as the customer was being perceived) and people seem unprofessional by not responding to reminders. So we need to understand why a person in behaving in such a manner. Judging a person when he/she is angry should be avoided at all cost. This misunderstanding could have easily been avoided by just communicating and not relying on email as the only medium of information exchange.

Another angry customer

I got an email from a customer who wanted me to visit their office with project updates tomorrow. I responded that we could do an online meeting as I was busy at that time. I told him to do it on MS teams and next week I will visit their office. After that I got involved in my work. An hour later I got a call from the same customer. He was very rude and was complaining a lot about my company’s previous project delays. He asked me to join him on MS Teams for online meeting immediately after our call ends. I agreed as the issue seemed urgent and needed my attention. When our meeting started, he showed me the project updates he got from my regional teams. There was no standard format and in one of the updates, it was not clear what work has been performed. He told me that he has to present this to his Chief Technology and Information officer tomorrow. He shared the information that he wanted. I added my regional teams to the conversation, and they promised to share the data before close of business that day. The attitude and tone of the customer suddenly changed. We all had a very good discussion afterwards. When I met the customer the next week in his office, he had arranged tea with doughnuts/pastries as his CTIO was very happy with the progress. This is also the case due to non-standard format of data. He could not understand the progress (which was good) and was under pressure as he had to present the data to his big boss. With little discussion where the issue was understood first, we also understood the person better and served better.

The conversation is not complete and we will continue from here. Take care.

When the pandemic arrived as it did, without warning, I found myself within the four walls of my pastel-hued room. I won’t lie: as a homebody, I did not get terribly bored like many others during this time. I resorted to collecting more books and reading them, picking up new hobbies, and binge-watching a whole lot of shows and anime.

My college classes moved online, and I got invested in internships and even started writing more than I ever have. I completed a fantasy short story (which, for the record, I am never letting anyone read). But that’s besides the point. I felt happy. Genuinely and wholly so.

Then arrived the months leading to graduation, and finding a job became a priority. I shifted into a new house, relentlessly dabbled a full-time trainee position, and attempted to finish my final year thesis. Between these, there was hardly room to breathe. Finally, when I did mark my first step into the corporate world and experienced a slice of work life, I discovered that I had to tuck back all the interests and hobbies I had picked up over the past two years. As rewarding as making your own income is, there’s also that productivity fatigue. It’s that dreaded exhaustion when you commute back home after 8 hours, knowing you can’t do much else.

So, I ended up trying to recreate all the best moments of my life.

I set up lights in my room just as my old one had, I watched the exact same shows I’d seen during the lockdown, I made a schedule mimicking my days prior to starting work. It’s unhealthy, I’m sure, living in the past like this. It reminds me a little of how movie makers remake older hits. I know what worked for me in the past, so I rehash it all again.

Maybe I’m trying to find happiness the way it was. Without living the joys it might bring in the present.

When I saw QAnon, I knew exactly what it was and what it was doing. I had seen it before. I had almost built it before. It was gaming’s evil twin. A game that plays people. (cue ominous music)

QAnon has often been compared to ARGs and LARPs and rightly so. It uses many of the same gaming mechanisms and rewards. It has a game-like feel to it that is evident to anyone who has ever played an ARG, online role-play (RP) or LARP before. The similarities are so striking that it has often been referred to as a LARP or ARG. However this beast is very very different from a game.

It is the differences that shed the light on how QAnon works and many of them are hard to see if you’re not involved in game development. QAnon is like the reflection of a game in a mirror, it looks just like one, but it is inverted.

Guided Apophenia

In one of the very first experience fictions (XF) I ever designed, the players had to explore a creepy basement looking for clues. The object they were looking for was barely hidden and the clue was easy. It was Scooby Doo easy. I definitely expected no trouble in this part of the game.

But there was trouble. I didn’t know it then, but its name was APOPHENIA.

Apophenia is : “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas)”

As the participants started searching for the hidden object, on the dirt floor, were little random scraps of wood.

How could that be a problem!?

It was a problem because three of the pieces made the shape of a perfect arrow pointing right at a blank wall. It was uncanny. It had to be a clue. The investigators stopped and stared at the wall and were determined to figure out what the clue meant and they were not going one step further until they did. The whole game was derailed. Then, it got worse. Since there obviously was no clue there, the group decided the clue they were looking for was IN the wall. The collection of ordinary tools they found conveniently laying around seemed to enforce their conclusion that this was the correct direction. The arrow was pointing to the clue and the tools were how they would get to it. How obvious could it be?

I stared in horror because it all fit so well. It was better and more obvious than the clue I had hidden. I could see it. It was all random chance but I could see the connections that had been made were all completely logical. I had a crude backup plan and I used it quickly before these well-meaning players started tearing apart the basement wall with crowbars looking for clues that did not exist.

These were normal people and their assumptions were normal and logical and completely wrong.

In most ARG-like games apophenia is the plague of designers and players, sometimes leading participants to wander further and further away from the plot and causing designers to scramble to get them back or (better yet) incorporate their ideas. In role-playing games, ARGs, video games, and really anything where the players have agency, apophenia is going to be an issue.

This happens because in real games there are actual solutions to actual puzzles and a real plot created by the designers. It’s easy to get off track because there is a track. A great game runner (often called a puppet-master) can use one or two of these speculations to create an even better game, but only as much as the plot can be adjusted for in real time or planned out before-hand. It can create amazing moments in a game, but it’s not easy. For instance, I wish I could have instantly entombed something into that wall in the basement because it would have worked so well, but I was out of luck!

If you are a designer, and have puzzles, and have a plot, then apophenia is a wild card you always have to be concerned about.

QAnon is a mirror reflection of this dynamic. Here apophenia is the point of everything. There are no scripted plots. There are no puzzles to solve created by game designers. There are no solutions.

QAnon grows on the wild misinterpretation of random data, presented in a suggestive fashion in a milieu designed to help the users come to the intended misunderstanding. Maybe “guided apophenia” is a better phrase. Guided because the puppet masters are directly involved in hinting about the desired conclusions. They have pre-seeded the conclusions. They are constantly getting the player lost by pointing out unrelated random events and creating a meaning for them that fits the propaganda message Q is delivering.

There is no reality here. No actual solution in the real world. Instead, this is a breadcrumb trail AWAY from reality. Away from actual solutions and towards a dangerous psychological rush. It works very well because when you “figure it out yourself” you own it. You experience the thrill of discovery, the excitement of the rabbit hole, the acceptance of a community that loves and respects you. Because you were convinced to “connect the dots yourself” you can see the absolute logic of it. This is the conclusion you arrived at. More about this later.

Everyone on the board agrees with you because it’s highly likely they were the ones that pointed it out to you just for that purpose. (more on this later)

“Hey, what’s that?!”

“It looks like an arrow, pointing at the wall.”

“Why do you think it’s there? Do people just leave arrows pointing to things randomly? What does your common sense say about that?”

“It says there must be something there.”

“Yes. You are right. Maybe you should look at it more closely?”

Every cloud has a shape that can look like something else. Everything that flickers is also a jumble of Morse code. The more information that is out there, the easier it is to allow apophenia to guide us into anything. This is about looking up at the sky and someone pointing out constellations.

The difference is that these manufactured connections lead to the desired conclusions Q’s handlers have created. When players arrive at the “correct” answers they are showered with adoration, respect, and social credit. Like a teenage RP, the “correct” answer is the one that the group respects the most and makes the story the most enjoyable. The idea that bolsters the theory. The correct answer is the one that provides the poster with the most credit.

It’s like a Darwinian fiction lab, where the best stories and the most engaging and satisfying misinterpretations rise to the top and are then elaborated upon for the next version.

Even Q-Anon was only one of several “anons” including FBIanon and CIAanon, etc, etc. Q rose to the top, so it got its own YouTube channels. That tested, so it moved to Reddit. The theories that didn’t work, disappeared while others got up-voted. It’s ingenious. It’s AI with a group-think engine. The group, led by the puppet masters, decide what is the most entertaining and gripping explanation, and that is amplified. It’s a Slenderman board gone amok.

Let’s go back to the arrow on the ground again.

It was not an arrow on the ground, pointing to a clue in a wall. It was just some random bits of wood. They did not discover an arrow. They created it. They saw random pieces of wood and applied their intelligence to it, and this is everything.

It’s easy for people to forget that they are not discovering the story, but creating it from random data.

Propaganda and Manipulation

Another major difference between QAnon and an actual game, is that Q is almost pure propaganda. That IS the sole purpose of this. It’s not advertising a product, it’s not for fun, and it’s not an art project. There is no doubt about the political nature of the propaganda either. From ancient tropes about Jews and Democrats eating babies (blood-libel re-booted) to anti-science hysteria, this is all the solid reliable stuff of authoritarianism. This is the internet’s re-purposing of hatred’s oldest hits. The messaging is spot on. The “drops” implanted in an aspic of anti-Semitic, misogynist, and grotesque posts on posting boards that, indeed, have been implicated in many of the things the fake conspiracy is supposed to be guilty of!

Q is also operating in conjunction with many other initiatives as documented by other sources and other developers. The coordination is consistent.

A game helps the people who play build an internal world that best serves them. Q helps players develop an internal world that best serves Q’s initiatives.

Let’s look at how that works.

Game Play

Q is a fictional character

I’m afraid this needs to be said. Q is not a real person, but a fictional character.

QAnon uses the oldest trope of all mystery fiction. A mysterious stranger shows up and drops a strange clue leading to long-hidden secrets which his clues, and your detecting power, can reveal.

Let’s think about this for a minute. How many great movies, books, and TV shows would have been forever ruined if the mysterious stranger just laid it all out for the protagonists in the first meeting. “Jim did it. It’s Jim. He’s laundering money for the mob. Check his bank records. Never mind, I have them right here.” The X-Files would be a lot shorter if The Smoking Man had just used his words!

It doesn’t work that way. The fictional mysterious stranger already knows, but instead of telling you the answer in the first ten minutes, they give you clues. Hard to follow clues. Ambiguous clues. They say things like “Follow the money. Don’t let them fool you. This goes all the way to the top.”

There is no reason for this in reality, but fictionally, this is what creates the whole plot, the sense of mystery, and everything entertaining that is to follow. This is the white rabbit. This is the breadcrumb trail out of the forest.

It doesn’t work for reality. Real people in the government with important information to disseminate deliver it as fast as possible usually all in one go. They don’t make you solve things. They try to be as specific as possible. They are whistle blowers. Daniel Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers). Edward Snowden. Chelsea Manning. Etc.

Q is NOT a whistleblower. Q is a “plot device”. Q is fictional and acts exactly like a fictional character acts. This is because the purpose of Q is not to divulge actual information, but to create fiction.

dO tHe ReSeaRcH The fictional reason Q doesn’t just tell the world what they know is that Q wants you to “do your own research” and come to your own conclusions. How polite…

This is not a real reason. Q does not want you to come to your own conclusions. Q is feeding you conclusions. This is VERY important and here are several reasons why this is included in the verbiage of almost every fictional conspiracy theory ever.

1: Follow The Breadcrumbs

Telling people how and what they should think is the path of most resistance. Ideas that challenge us can do just the opposite of convincing us or enlightening us, but further engrain our old ideas. Even when presented with factual evidence.

“It is well known that people often resist changing their beliefs when directly challenged, especially when these beliefs are central to their identity1,2,3,4,5,6. In some cases, exposure to counterevidence may even increase a person’s confidence that his or her cherished beliefs are true7,8.” https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39589

Strongly held beliefs are literally a part of us. As such, attacks on core beliefs are treated very much as attacks on us, even as strongly as a physical attack.

“The brain’s primary responsibility is to take care of the body, to protect the body,” Jonas Kaplan, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, tells me. “The psychological self is the brain’s extension of that. When our self feels attacked, our [brain is] going to bring to bear the same defenses that it has for protecting the body.”

Why we react to inconvenient truths as if they were personal insults. By Brian Resnick

If the ideas are generated by us, however, then these are the ideas we defend. If we “create” the ideas in our own minds, they become fused much more intently into our personality. They’re OURS. There is no friction. Guiding people to arrive at YOUR conclusions is a perfect way to get people to accept a new and conflicting ideology.

Getting them to arrive at the destination can be a little tricky. You have to guide them there one little step at a time.

In QAnon parlance, these steps, or trail markers leading you into the forest, are called breadcrumbs. Little morsels Q disperses that are easy to digest that lead the players towards wherever Q is guiding them. One little bite at a time.

But the breadcrumbs are not facts, they are questions. Puzzles and clues for the “investigators” to uncover.

This leads us to another reason Q would really like you to do your own research.

2: The Eureka Effect

Puzzle-solving is a special way to learn and it encodes information into the brain in a different way than other learning. Puzzles and knowledge gained through our own efforts are incredibly rewarding and also come with a hit of dopamine, the brain’s pleasure drug, as a reward.

As far back as 1978, it has been known that having an “Aha!” moment increases retention of memories.

Recently, a report published in 2018 in the journal Human Brain Mapping found that Aha! moments also activate the brain’s reward systems.

Aha!-moments are characterized by hyperactivation in (a) nucleus accumbens, which has been shown to be involved in the feeling of relief, ease, and joy, (b) VTA, which is related to the encoding of certainty about a decision, (c) the posterior hippocampus, responsible for memory reorganization following an insight, and (d) aSTS/STG associated coarse semantic coding.

[…]

As those structures are part of a dopaminergic pathway, associated with reinforcement, we suggest the Aha!-Moment as a special form of fast retrieval, combination, and encoding process.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/hbm.24073

Basically, that “A Ha!” moment when puzzle solving (even when incorrect) is extremely pleasurable and also may help encode what we learn in a new way.

It also helps reinforce the desire to seek out and solve new puzzles.

In other words, solving puzzles is extremely rewarding from a biochemical standpoint and the thoughts we gain from them are special to us.

The reason for such interest towards artificial intelligence is that artificial intelligence can enhance any product or function. This is why companies and governments make considerable investments in the research and development of this technology. Its role in increasing the production performance while simultaneously reducing the costs cannot be underestimated.Since some of the largest entities in the world are focused on promoting the AI technology, it would be wise to understand and follow the trend. AI is already shaping the economy, and in the near future, its effect may be even more significant. Ignoring the new technology and its influence on the global economic situation is a recipe for failure.

The current state of AI and the challenges it is facing

Despite the huge public interest and attention towards AI, its evolution is still somewhat halted by the objective causes. As any new and fast-developing industry, AI is quickly outgrowing its environment. According to Adam Temper, an author of many creative researches on artificial intelligence, the development of AI is mostly limited by the “lack of employees with relevant expertise, very few mature standard industry tools, limited high quality training material available, few options for easy access to preconfigured machine learning environments, and the general focus in the industry on implementation rather than design”.

With any new complex technology, the learning curve is steep. Our educational institutions are several steps behind the commercial applications of this technology. It is important that AI scientists work collaboratively, sharing knowledge and best practice, to address this deficiency. AI is rapidly increasing its impact on society; we need to ensure that the power of AI doesn’t remain with the elite few.

Another factor that may be hindering the progress of AI is the cautious stance that people tend to take towards it. Artificial intelligence is still too sci-fi, too strange and, therefore, sometimes scary. When people learn to trust AI, it will make a true quantum leap in the way of general adoption and application. Adam Temper supports this point, too, describing the possible ways for AI technology to gain public trust as

“more media attention on positive human impact AI applications, e.g. medical diagnostics and scientific discoveries, general awareness that progress in the field is 100% human driven… Self-improving AI is some way off! Appreciation of the number of new jobs this technology will create, employment shift from manual/repetitive tasks to those with higher creativity seen in a positive light.”

At the same time, if we analyze the primary purpose of AI, we will see it for what it really is — a tool to perform the routine tasks relieving humans for something more creative or innovative. When asked about the current trends and opportunities of AI, Aaron Edell, CEO and co-founder of Machine Box, and one of the top writers on AI, described them as follows:

“Artificial intelligence is a broad term that generally refers to any computer system that replicates human intelligence. As such, a lot of use cases can come to mind from predicting the stock market to vacuuming floors. Where the real opportunity in artificial intelligence lies is in the ability to perform pattern recognition to automate repetitive tasks. At Machine Box, we see a lot of success with customers who are trying to solve a problem centered around automating a task that a human might not be very efficient at, such as tagging people, products, and locations in millions of images or recommending content to people they’re more likely to engage with. Some of these tasks are impossible to scale without something like machine learning to take on the computational burden. The challenges to machine learning are now mostly around having the right combination of use cases and training data. By taking advantage of new research into reinforcement and transfer learning, we’ve built our tools to minimize the amount of training data you need, which is important because where AI and machine learning will succeed is in the ability to tune the models to your data and your needs. A single, grand, machine learning model trained with all the data in the world will not perform as well as one created with your data. What we’re going to see in the near term are smaller, more focused machine learning models that will learn quickly, and can be deployed on-demand like a compute or storage resource.”

AI Influence on Domestic Politics

AI has also become a political talking point in recent years. There have been arguments that AI will help to create jobs, but that it will also cause certain workers to lose their jobs. For example, estimations prove that self-driving vehicles will cause 25,000 truck drivers to lose their jobs each month. Also, as much as 1 million pickers and packers working in US warehouses could be out of a job. This is due to the fact that by implementing AI, factories can operate with as few as a dozen of workers.

Naturally, companies gladly implement artificial intelligence, as it ensures considerable savings. At the same time, governments are concerned about the current employment situation as well as the short-term and long-term predictions. Some countries have already begun to plan measures about the new AI technology that are intended to keep the economy stable.

In fact, it would not be fair to say that artificial intelligence causes people to lose jobs. True, the whole point of automation is making machines do what people used to do before. However, it would be more correct if we said that artificial intelligence reshapes the employment situation. Together with taking over human functions, it creates other jobs, forces people to master new skills, encourages workers to increase productivity. But it is obvious that AI is going to turn the regular sequence of events upside down.

Therefore, the best approach is not to wait until AI leaves you unemployed, but rather proactively embrace it and learn to live with it. As we said already, AI can also create jobs, so a wise move would be to learn to manage AI-based tools. With the advance of AI products, learning to work with them may secure you a job and even promote your career.

Investing Into Your Future

Your future largely depends on your current and expected income. However, another important factor is the way you manage your finances. Of course, investing in your own or your children’s knowledge is one of the best investments you can ever make. At the same time, if you need some financial cushion to secure your family’s welfare, you should look at the available investment opportunities.

And this is where artificial intelligence may become your best friend, professional consultant and investment manager. In the recent years, in addition to the traditional banks and financial institutions, we have witnessed the appearance of a totally new and innovative investment system.

We are talking about the blockchain technology and the cryptocurrencies that it supports. Millions of people all over the world have already appreciated the transparency and flexibility of the blockchain networks. By watching the cryptocurrency trends carefully and trading wisely, individual investors have made fortunes within a very short time.

Nowadays, the cryptocurrency opportunities are open for everyone, not only for the industry experts. There are investment funds running on artificial intelligence that are available for individual investors.

With such funds, you are, on one hand, protected by the blockchain technology. It ensures proper safety of your funds and the security of your transactions. On the other hand, you do not need to be an investment expert to make wise decisions. This is where artificial intelligence is at your service. It analyzes the existing trends on the extremely volatile cryptocurrency market and shows you the best opportunities.

AI Opportunities

The main point is that we should not regard AI as a threat to our careers and a danger to our well-being. Instead, we should analyze the investment openings created by AI technology that can secure our prosperity. For example, Wolf Coin is using AI technology to create a seamless investment channel for savvy individuals. This robust channel opens great opportunities that investors can use to become new rich kids on the block. Most noteworthy, the low entry cost of $10 has made it one offer that will enjoy a huge buzz. The focus on this new market opening will help people build a solid financial nest egg that will keep them safe even in the face of the storm.

Wisewolf Fund launching the Wolf Coin focused its effort on creating a great opportunity for people who wish to benefit from cryptocurrency trading but are new to this trend. With artificial intelligence and advanced analytical algorithms, the fund arranges the most favorable conditions for individual investors.

Mainstream manufacturers, companies, and factories are embracing AI technology to change the mode of their operations. Therefore, it is critical to keep tabs on this reality as it can bring many benefits that cannot be found elsewhere. AI is one of the hottest topics of discussion, however, it is now clear that AI is here to stay. So, people should accept the obvious in order to create the future that they desire. The wisest strategy is to embrace artificial intelligence and let it work to maintain our well-being.