Monday, August 24, 2020

Going Green To Save The Environment Essay

The motivation behind this article is to list and talk about a few different ways to spare nature through the rule of green living. Preservation is actually an umbrella rule for all of green living. It truly implies utilizing just what really should be utilized so as to spare something for coming ages (Green Living Ideas, 2007). Preserving vitality by method of reusing is a urgent natural advantage. As the characteristic vitality sources become more difficult to find it is critical to figure out how to spare vitality. Making littler, more eco-friendly vehicles can help save vitality. Riding a bicycle rather than a vehicle is vastly improved since a bike doesn’t use gas. Making new houses that are very much protected likewise assists with sparing vitality. As per Seventh Generation (2007), â€Å"Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), all the more usually known as refuse or trash, comprises of regular things, for example, item bundling, grass clippings, furniture, dress, bottles, food scraps, papers, machines, paint, and batteries. This is regularly produced from peoples’ homes, yet it additionally originates from business, institutional, and mechanical sources. † One man’s refuse is another man’s treasure† is among the numerous aphorisms being resuscitated with new essentialness and reusing bolsters this thought. It has been in the American jargon throughout recent years and in numerous family units it is a lifestyle. Simply, it finds new uses for old materials, primarily junk. As indicated by the Environmental Protection Agency, reusing, including treating the soil, redirected 72 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators. In addition to the fact that this spares nature, the EPA said an examination found that reusing can make occupations too. The shopper situated affordable and natural benefits of reuse were handily perceived by our grandparents. What's more, even today having a container of rescued nails, fasteners, and screws can spare a few excursions to the home improvement shop. Reusing paper items spares our trees and water assets also! Making a huge amount of paper from materials that were reused shields 17 trees from hurt and devours half less water, or 7,000 gallons (Quest4glory, 2004). Yet, while the way of thinking of reuse is working its way into the business part, the complexities of a worldwide economy request that the down to earth focal points and impediments of reuse be ceaselessly talked about and assessed. In any case, industrialized countries are turning up at ground zero: governments are passing guidelines, organizations are reducing expenses, and shoppers are decreasing waste in the acknowledgment that applying the reuse theory in all territories will assist with supporting our agreeable personal satisfaction, upgrade it for other people, and keep up it for people in the future. Moreover, the most engaging motivation to reuse is a result of its capacity to make a horde of occupations, which can therefore improve the US economy. Reusing makes multiple times the measure of occupations incinerator and landfill organizations produce. Reuse, reusing, and squander decrease offer direct advancement open doors for networks (Quest4glory, 2004). Taking everything into account, the advantages of reusing and preservation of vitality can't be overemphasized. Innovation is making it simple to be green. Sustainable power source can make your home increasingly effective. Endeavors to tidy up our air and water, protect our non-inexhaustible assets, and quit jeopardizing plant and creature species, will at last lead to more joyful, more advantageous mankind living in association with the earth. Reference Green Living Ideas. (2007). Reuse. Recovered on September 7, 2007 from http://greenlivingideas. com/reuse/reuse. html Quest4glory. (2004, July 5). Reusing: It’s time to tidy up. Recovered September 7, 2007 from http://www. echeat. com/article. php? t=26204 Seventh Generation. (). Living Green: Reduce, reuse, reuse. Recovered September 7, 2007 from http://www. seventhgeneration. com. /living_green/reduce_reuse_recycle. php

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Design IT for Understand - Improve and Apply- myassignmenthelp

Question: Examine about theDesign IT for Understand, Improve and Apply. Answer: The term blog is a short structure which is utilized to allude to a weblog. It is a site which has distributed data that is on the World Wide Web. A blog is an extremely valuable asset in assisting with following and record the exercises where an individual does. A blog can likewise help a person in sustaining their appearance and composing abilities. On the off chance that an individual can sustain these aptitudes they will have the option to turn out to be acceptable essayists and communicators as they talk or allude to a particular issue. The will likewise have the option to recall and think about different encounters in which they have experienced and gaining from them. This week expectations were to characterize and get online journals and why they are expected to help all things considered. All the sites will develop on one another to guarantee they give a clear perspective overall endeavor. A blog can help an individual offer their very own involvement with alluding to a particular issue or theme. A blog empowers people to detail the learning destinations which they can accomplish over the span of this unit. In the start of the unit the exercises were rousing. True to form they would be since it was another unit. The astounding thing was that the data we obtained as the weeks passed by turned out to be all the more intriguing. This unit was one of the establishing factors which drove me to start my innovative excursion. This week was about the presentation part of the unit and what we expected to realize would be nitty gritty. The basic reasoning talk was one of these weighty talks in my excursion. Basic investigation is the way toward experiencing each conceivable situation when given an issue to locate a suitable arrangement. Basic investigation is a significant ability in attempting to locate a suitable answer for a particular issue. In basic examination the objectives or motivation behind the procedure is to thought of a practical judgment to an issue. Coherent and reasonable reasoning is used in basic investigation to guarantee it is a powerful procedure. Contemplating guaranteeing that your manner of thinking is functional and can be conceivable to complete (Visser, 2006). Over the span of the unit I had the option to use my basic reasoning and examination abilities by seeing what difficulties were being looked by my kindred understudies. Subsequent to doing a meeting to generate new ideas with certain understudies to recognize the issues in which they confronted I found that most understudies were having issues as they did their assignments. The degree of help and direction in which understudies normally get as they are doing their assignments is missing (Beinecke, 2009). I examined the issue and concluded that I would be in a perfect situation to furnish an answer for the understudies with this issue wherein they confronted. I set out on an excursion of understanding the issue and how it would be understood. I used all the basic exercises we were educated on configuration thinking and business enterprise to make the entire endeavor a triumph. Configuration believing is the use of inventiveness and imaginative procedures to think of answers for explicit issues (Brown, 2008). It is used with the architects techniques and reasonableness to coordinate practical answers for the issues which people may confront. Configuration believing is an answer put together methodology which centers with respect to common sense in arriving at inventive answers for explicit issues. Configuration thinking centers and bases utilization of basic reasoning and examination to guarantee that a possible arrangement is acquired to explicit issues. Critical thinking is an endeavor which includes a great deal of basic reasoning and is in this way a drawing in and intriguing endeavor. The plan thinking process empowers different reasoning which is whereby the people concentrating on the procedure subsequent to accomplishing their difficult definition can source out all the potential manners by which they issue can be comprehended. After this focalized reasoning is utilized whereby out of all the potential approaches to tackle an issue a particular one is picked which is the most suitable decision (Dorst Nigel, 2001). Over the span of the semester I had the option to distinguish a difficult which confronted the understudies. I chose to take care of the issue by using the plan thinking procedure to accomplish a suitable arrangement. I characterized the difficult which was about understudies not having enough help as they dealt with their assignments. I examined to distinguish whether there were numerous understudies who confronted a similar issue and the number was very high. The potential answers for take care of the issue were explored on. I chose to choose concocting an informing stage where understudies would have the option to speak with one another and help each other in their assignments. The stage was the best practical choice on the grounds that a large portion of the understudies approached a telephone and they would have the option to conceptualize with one another as long as they approached the web (Plattner, Meinel Leifer, 2011). The informing stage was then evolved. After this the informing stage was tried on a couple of understudies who might utilize it as often as possible as they embraced their assignments. The last stage was gaining from the entire procedure. Most understudies didn't invalidate the way that the web had been of help to them as they embraced their assignments however the informing stage helped them to get the required direction and training from individual understudies and instructors. I was likewise ready to realize why a few understudies didn't embrace to utilizing the stage since it didn't bolster the work area or web application position. This gave great criticism to progress in the undertaking. My critical thinking abilities were tried as I thought of the informing stage and I had the option to learn new standards which persuaded that learning is a deep rooted process. Enterprise is a procedure wherein another business is planned, propelled and brought to activity. These sorts of business normally start as private ventures which are out to take care of an issue (Crainer Des, 2000). They later may become dependent on the effect and pertinence they have on their customer base. The entire procedure of beginning a business spins around fulfilling a particular need or taking care of a particular issue. In the semester that passed I had the option to distinguish an issue wherein my kindred understudies made some hard memories while they were dealing with their assignments. They would now and then get lost or befuddled as they did their assignments which drove them to achieve lower grades. The answer for the issue was the usage of an informing stage in which the understudies would find support from individual understudies and mentors as they endeavored to do their assignments (Zhang Cuete, 2015). The business perspective in the endeavor was to tackle the issue wherein the understudies had and make a benefit while at it (Landstorm, 2007). The selection of the arrangement by certain understudies showed that to be sure it was a practical answer for an issue that they confronted. The business structure behind it was to charge the understudies a participation expense with the goal that they would increase ceaseless constant access to the informing stage. The mentors and teachers would get the chance to be paid a little charge for contribution of their expert information in taking care of the issues which had been posted. There were a reasonable number of understudies who bought in to the administration helping the business make a benefit (Ramoglou, Tsang et al., 2016). The venture was not generally known to numerous understudies and there was a need to keep promoting the business and its advantages to understudies and different partners with the goal that it would become and empower the business to develop. Through the entire procedure I had the option to gain so much both from the information obtained in the unit and utilization of the information I had to a true situation. Business enterprise is in fact a beneficial endeavor for the individuals who are happy to face a challenge and adventure into it (Yetisen, Volpatti, Coskun, Cho, Kamrani et al., 2015). It involves a ton of vulnerability and is for the individuals who are happy to get by under such cruel conditions to make it. It additionally involves a great deal of disappointment and learning encounters. Business visionaries are people who ought to be available to a great deal of guidance, training and enterprise. They ought to be people who wish to become business visionaries, be workable and ready to learn for them to improve and develop in their business. The different sites in detail develop through the twelve weeks where I had the option to attempt the course. During each time I had the option to buckle down and adopt a positive strategy in guaranteeing that I accomplished the necessary information to think of an answer that would be feasible as a business. The procedure of configuration believing was an extremely fascinating approach to use with regards to concocting arrangements. Business enterprise is likewise a satisfying assignment since it is a quick paced adventure which includes the business visionary being on their toes and having critical thinking aptitudes which empowers them to concoct practical arrangements as they develop the economy. References Beinecke R. (2009). Authority for Wicked Problems. The Innovation Journal. pp. 1-7. Earthy colored T. (2008). Configuration Thinking. Harvard Business Review. Dorst K. Nigel C. (2001). Innovativeness in the plan procedure: Co-development of issue arrangement. Configuration Studies. 22(5): 425-437. Plattner H, Meinel C. Leifer L. J. (2011). Configuration thinking: comprehend, improve, apply. Getting advancement. Springer. Visser W. (2006). The subjective antiquities of planning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Crainer S. Des D. (2000). Age Entrepreneur. FT Press. p.202 Landstorm H. (2007). Pioneers in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. Springer. Ramoglou S., Tsang E. W. K. et al. (2016). A reasonable point of view of business: Opportunities as affinities. Institute of Management Review. 41(3): 409-434. Yetisen A. K., Volpatti L. R., Coskun A. F., Cho S., Kamrani E. et al. (2015). Business enterprise. Lab Chip. 15(18): 3638-60. Zhang S. X. Cuete J. (

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Reputation.com

Reputation.com INTRODUCTIONMartin: Today we are in Redwood City in the Reputation.com office. Hi, Michael. Who are you and what do you do?Michael: I am the CEO and Founder of Reputation.com. Until about two months ago when I became Executive Chairman of the company. I started Reputation.com in 2006. It has been almost 10 years. Reputation.com is the first and by far the largest company in the world that protects privacy on the internet and the reputation on the internet. Our customers include millions of subscribers globally for that individual consumer product as well as thousands of companies that protect the reputation with our technology, usually by focusing on collecting reviews from their customers.Martin: How did you come up with that idea and what did you do before?Michael: I was living in Louisville Kentucky for a year because I was working for a judge. I went to Law school. In the United States, if youre originally good law student you have a chance to become whats called a clerk. Clerk s ounds administrative but in the field of law in America, its a fancy job to be a clerk to a federal judge. The judge for whom I worked was the chief judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in United States, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. This is one of the few Silicon Valley companies you will meet that was founded in Kentucky. It was during the clerkship in Louisville Kentucky where they ran a Kentucky Derby, for example, and drink bourbon and mint juleps (it is a very charming city) I realized that MySpace, which was big at the time and Facebook and so forth and other trends on the internet were exposing our personal details and that something about that was potentially a problem that the machine was co-opting us that we were being opted into the machine simply by using the internet. The bargain was a blind bargain that users and consumers did not know what they were signing up for when they turned on their computer. It made me annoyed. I remember feeling pissed off about that and the feeling stayed with me.Probably like with a lot of entrepreneurs you come up with an idea probably every five hours. Most of them are not worth even repeating to your best friend. Then every month or two you talk about something with a friend and every few months you research one and then every few years you come up with something that you just know is good. This one I felt was good. There was something else about it because it’s privacy and speech online and data online. I had to understanding although it was chaotic at the time, it was not very well formed. I had an understanding that there is something about technology and there is something about law both things were required to do something about this and to tackle this problem. I had a background in both. We had to figure out that we had to do something about it. It turned into Reputation.com. Who knew?Martin: Did you start this company while you had been a clerk?Michael: Yes.Martin: At what point did yo u say okay, I would now focus 100% of my time on Reputation.com?Michael: Federal clerkship is one year. It is a one-year deal. I knew that there was a time when the one-year deal will finish. So I started the company in April of 2006 and my clerkship ended in roughly September of 2006. We did not launch the website until after my clerkship ended because I did not want to embarrass my judge. I was doing basic preparatory work with my colleagues at the time to prepare for the launch of the website. I remember we launched in October 2006. My mom was my first customer.There is an interesting story for your audience. I think that when you are speaking to a group of entrepreneurs and people who want to be entrepreneurs the kind of story we are about to tell you sometimes is exciting. To be clear, I was working on this company, which at the time was called Reputation Defender. We later changed it to Reputation.com. In this course of the summer while I was clerking, with the idea of launchi ng a website after I finished clerking and seeing what would happen. But I never expected this to become a company that I would go do. In fact, I did not move to California to build this company after I clerked. I moved to California for a girl, which is always the story but also I had a job in California that I signed for to work effectively at a hedge fund. It is not exactly a hedge fund. The easiest way is to say, “It is an investment company that was a hedge fund.” I was fired after five days working there. I showed up to work with this person and there were five or six people on this fund. And the agreement here we had and the understanding here was that I was going to be his junior partner. He was an intense micro manager. I found out that he was checking my work by logging into my documents every night to see how much work I have done. The next morning he would say you did not work enough on this or that. I said to him, it does not matter what his name is, Hey, so and so. I am supposed to be your junior partner. This is not really feeling like a trusted partnership. You are managing me very closely. He fired me and he ended up going out of business a couple of years later.It was only because I was fired from a job in a week I decided to run Reputation.com full time. You never know where the blessings are going to come from.Martin: The product was ready and you only needed to acquire some more customers, or did you still have to work on shaping your product once you left the hedge fund?Michael: I think that product is never ready. I understand that sounds obvious and maybe flip. But some companies are better at building and then shipping, some companies either are better at that or need to build and ship, build and ship. I would say the first product that we built was our consumer product took I would say five years to mature; maybe four years to mature and in many ways it is still maturing.There are barely two kinds of venture-backed companies. Ther e is faster, better, cheaper and there is brave new world. Faster, better, cheaper means that there is a market that you know about. There are people who have built companies that are satisfying a market demand that is known and understood. Those companies that are faster, better, cheaper companies are doing exactly what it sounds like. They are going to do a better search engine, a better social media thing, a better logistics thing, a better e-commerce thing. They are going to make it cheaper or make it faster.In that case, you have to sharpen your product before you launch because you are competing on the edge of the envelope based on what you know the customer already wants. In those cases, it is better to make your product as clean and polished as possible before you ship it. Without doing that, you might increase your chance of failure.In the case of a brave new world company there is no share of wallet, that you are attacking, it is a new wallet. There is no line item in the expense budget for the person or the enterprise that says: I need digital privacy. That did not exist ten years ago. There is no line item, which says, “I need online reputation protection and enhancement.” That did not exist ten years ago.In that case, you might have to build and ship, build and ship because you do not really yet know what the product market fit is. You do not really yet know if people are going to buy. The product that ended up building our business quickly over a period of the first three or four years was a product that I did not invent. It was a product that our customers told us they want it. It was a derivative of the products, which I invented. We launched that product in response to demand. We built that plane in flight.BUSINESS MODEL OF REPUTATION.COMMartin: Let’s talk about the business model. You said before that you have two types of product targeting two customer segments, which is one the consumer or individual and the other one business. Can yo u elaborate on the type of Reputation problems in both customers’ segments can occur?Michael: Sure. I would say it is unusual for a startup to have consumer and enterprise products and offerings. I am not sure if I could design a problem or design a company. I am not sure how I would do it. We started as a consumer business and it turned out there was a very big enterprise demand. We built two businesses at the same time. Doing that has tremendous advantages, which are the consumers are buying it very quickly and enterprises slow and then enterprises are buying faster and consumers slower. This is profitable and this is consuming cash, huge advantages damages. We have certainly advantages in Reputation.com because a lot of the underlying technologies learnings, intellectual property we built for this has application here and vice versa. Not all of it but a lot of it.On the other hand, there are disadvantages to doing it this way. They include disadvantages, which are obvious; the marketing budget for enterprise is different for the marketing message in budget for consumer. In addition, it is different for the kind of people you hire. When we were strictly Consumer Company we look like a fraternity house or in some ways of fraternity / sorority house where kids are showing up in t-shirts and flip-flops. Just like in the movies about Internet companies. When you do enterprise, all of a sudden, people are show up in colored shirts; there are people with haircuts that look more like yours than mine and people that wear sport jackets. It is a very different culture inside a company. You can have two different cultures inside the business. These things are not necessarily easy. They can be very powerful if you can get them well. But I think it is an extra hurdle of difficulty to do both at the same time. They have to go where the business needs to go. That is clear as an entrepreneur.As to the problems that they face they face the same kinds of problems differen t problems of scale. A person intends to get attacked and criticized sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly and usually it is unfair. It is unfair because it is not true or it is unfair because it is true but definitely not the whole story. If you went on a date and the only thing that the internet thinks about you is that you are terrible at dates because the one person you want to date with was negative and decided to attack you online. Well that is not the default dating history but thats what the internet thinks. Internet is not intelligent by itself it is intelligent because of a lot of content over a long period by many voices. It is not intelligent about you and the instance of what happened last Thursday. That is a humans challenge.A companys challenge is usually some version of that. They did a good job or a bad job at servicing a customer and providing a product to a customer. That customer is speaking loudly online in a way that is accurate or not but certainly not complete . These are two different kinds of problems but they are the same basic vector.Now, companies in particular tend to get reviews and reviews have a very big impact on commerce today. People do not tend to get reviews. They tend to get far more reviews which are your comments.Martin: How is your problem solving this kind of reputation risk that the consumer and the companies are facing? Can you walk me through really what you were doing and how is this helping solve the potentially inaccurate information that is published on the internet for an individual, for example?Michael: Individual people care a lot about their search results. That makes sense because if one person says: Hey, you are not a good husband. That is what people say about you in that one result and it might be the only thing people say about you online or the only thing that is visible about you online. Or someone who has your same name that that person is a bad husband that might be confusing. We call that the double -name problem. It comes from the German (Doppelgänger).What we had to do we had to find a way to publish content about you that is accurate and neutral, not glowing, laudatory. Just to make sure that it shows up above the other content online that is negative. It pushes the negative stuff down. It does not take it off the internet. That is important. The internet does not have a delete button. We just need to give you a more complete picture of yourself online that is more accurate.The second thing is about companies. Companies are not reviewed enough. Except for restaurants, bars, and nightlife nobody goes on home and says I want to review my accountant or I want to review my florist. What you need to do is make it easy for them to collect real reviews. Thats all. You dont incentivize reviews, you dont pay for reviews, you dont give discounts reviews, you don’t do favorites reviews â€" you just make it very easy for Mark and John and Sarah and Sally to give reviews and guess wha t? If you make it easy for them, they will. Then you get a more complete picture of what is out there about you and what people think. It is usually quite positive. Some are constructive. If your receptionist is a nasty person then that is going to have a very bad impact on the entire experience of your doctors office even if the medical care is good, the décor is good, the nurse is good, and the doctor is good. The receptionist can ruin everything. We should know that. We should tell the receptionist to shape up or leave. That is useful feedback. That is operating feedback.At the same time if someone comes to your doctors office with a broken knee, God forbid, and is waiting for 45 minutes, you see him and you fix his knee and now he can walk again. He leaves, and he says well they kept me waiting for 45 minutes, two stars out of five. That is a somewhat obnoxious in my opinion. It is also not accurate. It is not a truly representative point of view about what happened, you could not walk and now you walk and you waited 45 minutes â€"wasn’t it worth it?You at least watched two hours of stupid television last night. It is not like youre wasting time. Fine. Maybe you should not have been keeping someone waiting for 45 minutes that is true. But whether that should now make the doctor a two out of five stars doctor in the world of internet that does not make sense to me. What that doctor needs to have is a set of tools to make it easy to review her online so that her complete picture of feedback can come across.Martin: The complete picture is that somebody interested in this doctor would go to Reputation.com and check out the doctors profile. You aggregate all the data for a doctor or is it that you are trying to change or have an impact on the Google search results what is showing up, what is showing down.Michael: The doctor would buy our product and make it very easy for her patients to review her. Those reviews would show up on the doctors website and on a nother review websites that we plug into.This all comes back to a set of concepts that I published in my new book, which is published in January 2015. It is called The Reputation Economy, which was number seven on the New York Times bestseller list.Martin: Not too bad.Michael: Not too bad. One of the main ideas of the book is that everyone is going to have a reputation score in the future. That comes from a combination of three technologies that are coming together that I think will be impactful for every one of the people who are going to build a business after watching your website, after looking and researching entrepreneurship on your website. The thing for them to keep in mind is that there are three technologies right now. We see the Internet that is changing the world. We say that a lot in Silicon Valley and it is often not true. I do not think any rebirth changes the world. I do not think the iPad changes the world. We say many silly things in Silicon Valley. We pivot in Sil icon Value. We do not change our minds we pivot. It sounds more important.Martin: So, it is more Silly-con Valley.Michael: Like every place, we have our diseases. One of the diseases in Silicon Valley is that it has no sense of irony. It has no sense of humor about itself. It is a very sincere place. Everything is extremely earnest, which is annoying. Europeans are better about that question. Southern California is better about that, and New Yorkers are better about that. Silicon Valley has its own strengths and diseases, like any place.In this case, I think unlike in the case of Angry Birds I do think that these technologies will change the world. And by the way, I did not invent any of them. I just believe that these things around us are going to change the world.The first is infinitely powerful and free search. Google and its related progeny are making everything findable very quickly, first based on the text and then later on audio and visual search.Second, is a technology of ri ght now which is infinitely free storage. The Amazon, Cloud and so forth, those things are making storage basically free. Right now, at this moment in time for the first time in human history, not technology history but of human history, it is cheaper to store something forever than it is to delete it. Think about that. It is cheaper to store something forever than it is to delete it, to find and delete it. Therefore, we have a new default setting for humanity where we will keep everything like digital hoarders forever because it is cheaper and easier.The third technology is emerging now. It is the technology from five to ten years, which you can bucket under the name Hadoop or MapReduce. These technologies or protocols allow people who are educated but not especially skilled in the art of data analysis to do data analysis.You are a journalist and entrepreneur and you use Microsoft Excel. You are not an accountant or economist but you use Microsoft Excel.Martin: Yes. I am a trained accountant and economist. I have some experience with Hadoop and MapReduce.Michael: You are a trained economist?Martin: Yes.Michael: Okay. I did not realize that. Your brother is not a trained economist and he uses Microsoft Excel. The point is that Microsoft Excel, which probably every one of your viewers has used, has done for numbers what Hadoop and MapReduce will produce for analytics. I love the fact that you have already used Hadoop and MapReduce. Educated people who are not especially skilled in numbers unlike you are using Microsoft Excel. Educated people who are not special skilled in data analysis like you, are using Hadoop and MapReduce to do data analytics. In the next five to ten years, fifteen years everybody is going to be using Hadoop or MapReduce. Whether you call it, Hadoop or MapReduce is a different question.These three technologies when taken together, everything will be stored, everything will be findable and everything will be analyzed, will result in everythi ng being scored. Everything is getting scores. You as a person as a cook, as a babysitter, as a neurosurgeon, as a writer, as a reader will get scores and so will your business. This will result in what I call the reputation economy because everyone has a score. Everything will be understandable and assessed based on that score. Machines will increasingly make decisions about us without human intervention.What does that mean? Five years ago, when employers look for candidates for jobs they posted an ad. Employee candidates sent the resumes in, they look through the resumes, and they decided which one they should interview. Today those resumes are submitted electronically and then keywords like Yale or Stanford or University of Michigan and computer science and economics are extracted digitally and you have a manual process to review those resumes.Increasingly what is happening is those resumes are being scored by machines that connect the resume information to digital online informa tion that compares how Jonathan is doing compared to his cohorts in college. How Sarah is being compared to the people with whom she graduated at Yahoo at a certain date. How quickly are they progressing through the career development, are they progressing on average, faster or slower? Increasingly, and this is maybe more dangerous or more exciting, machines are going to be assessing the cultural fit between the employee candidate and the employer. Is this person someone who likes to work hard and play like us, is this someone who is very serious like us, is this someone whos very casual and social like us, is this someone who has a clear passion for activism like us, is this someone who is very professional like us? Does this person not only academically and credentially meet our success factors but does this person also cultural meet our success factors?That is important because we already know, if I settle a question, computers are better at interviewing people than humans are. C omputers are better at assessing whether someone will succeed in their job then human interviews are. They are more accurate. Not for every job; not for the most senior jobs, but they are better as predictors.What is going to happen is in some small number of years the recruiting manager is not going to look at thousand resumes or even a hundred. She is going to look at four or three. Those three or four are going to be chosen by a computer. If you are not on that pile of three or four you might not exist.Martin: You said about this reputation score. Would it be just that information that is out there you would just give it something like a trustworthy stamp or is it only a combination attached to individual? If you look at a specific history of some people, maybe at a restaurant with like 100 reviews â€" you can either give each of those reviews some kind of trustworthiness or you can just combine them, aggregate them somehow and then say for the restaurant is this the average rati ng with this kind of trustworthiness?Michael: That is a very sophisticated question. Let’s use your example of restaurants because I think its a good way to unpack the fact patterns that will lead to a revelation of what the new technologies will do.On one hand, lets say you have a hundred reviews for your restaurant. You have some sense after a hundred reviews over a period anyway whether the restaurant is basically good or basically bad. Now most restaurants end up being about three and a half to four stars out of five. That is not very useful because if everything is kind of 3.75 then can you really tell. What happens is if you observe human beings who read restaurant reviews what they do, they usually go through some form of the following human algorithm right now.The first thing they do is they look for geography and for cuisine or geography and quality. They do a quick scan of three and a half to four and change stars. Anything that is below that they take off the list. Easy . But, that includes a lot of stuff. Many restaurants are left in the list.Now, they start to look at the reviews individually. If you unpack what they are actually doing the psychologists, they are looking for reviews that could have been written by them. That is different for Jack as it is for Sarah. Jack might be someone who looks for atmosphere and emphasis on service and Sarah might be someone who is interested in the taste of the food. Someone who is a more careful writer or perhaps more sophisticated, more educated person might look for a high quality of writing. This is a subtle and maybe not even conscious step but it is a step that they take. They value reviews that are more careful that are less flamboyant that have fewer exclamation points that do not have many all caps. People who are maybe more passionate might look for the opposite.What is happening is more or less a rapid automatic manual mental scoring of each review; whether it could have written by me this is th e something that speaks to me. What a supple good reputation scoring system will do will understand what YOU respond to in terms of feedback versus I respond to. We will do a dynamic scoring system based on what it knows about you versus me.When you look at people who are buying cameras, they want a very good camera. Very experienced photo camera people will look for very specific user feedback. More beginners will look for broader themes but whats interesting about this is of course negative reviews can dissuade about eighty percent of the time, they can dissuade the purchase. In some cases, negative reviews can reinforce the purchase. Why? If you have a negative review from someone who is obviously extremely knowledgeable about the camera, who has a very specific need of photographs taken in the forest at night looking for certain kind of bird the beginner will actually say: Well, who cares about that review? Thats from some super camera nerd. I do not need that kind of detailed f eedback. I actually feel good about this camera purchase because I do not need to do another $1,000 camera investment, 500 bucks is enough for me.Good sophisticated scoring system will have a personal Google rank for you in the same way that you are already doing when you look for restaurant reviews yourself.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM MICHAEL FERTIK In Redwood City (CA), we meet Founder Executive Chairman of Reputation.com, Michael Fertik. Michael talks about his story how he came up with the idea and founded Reputation.com, how the current business model works, as well as he provides some advice for young entrepreneurs.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Today we are in Redwood City in the Reputation.com office. Hi, Michael. Who are you and what do you do?Michael: I am the CEO and Founder of Reputation.com. Until about two months ago when I became Executive Chairman of the company. I started Reputation.com in 2006. It has been almost 10 years. Reputation.com is the first and by far the largest company in the world that protects privacy on the internet and the reputation on the internet. Our customers include millions of subscribers globally for that individual consumer product as well as thousands of companies that protect the reputation with our technology, usually by focusing on collecting reviews from their customers.Martin: How did you co me up with that idea and what did you do before?Michael: I was living in Louisville Kentucky for a year because I was working for a judge. I went to Law school. In the United States, if youre originally good law student you have a chance to become whats called a clerk. Clerk sounds administrative but in the field of law in America, its a fancy job to be a clerk to a federal judge. The judge for whom I worked was the chief judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in United States, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. This is one of the few Silicon Valley companies you will meet that was founded in Kentucky. It was during the clerkship in Louisville Kentucky where they ran a Kentucky Derby, for example, and drink bourbon and mint juleps (it is a very charming city) I realized that MySpace, which was big at the time and Facebook and so forth and other trends on the internet were exposing our personal details and that something about that was potentially a problem that the machin e was co-opting us that we were being opted into the machine simply by using the internet. The bargain was a blind bargain that users and consumers did not know what they were signing up for when they turned on their computer. It made me annoyed. I remember feeling pissed off about that and the feeling stayed with me.Probably like with a lot of entrepreneurs you come up with an idea probably every five hours. Most of them are not worth even repeating to your best friend. Then every month or two you talk about something with a friend and every few months you research one and then every few years you come up with something that you just know is good. This one I felt was good. There was something else about it because it’s privacy and speech online and data online. I had to understanding although it was chaotic at the time, it was not very well formed. I had an understanding that there is something about technology and there is something about law both things were required to do so mething about this and to tackle this problem. I had a background in both. We had to figure out that we had to do something about it. It turned into Reputation.com. Who knew?Martin: Did you start this company while you had been a clerk?Michael: Yes.Martin: At what point did you say okay, I would now focus 100% of my time on Reputation.com?Michael: Federal clerkship is one year. It is a one-year deal. I knew that there was a time when the one-year deal will finish. So I started the company in April of 2006 and my clerkship ended in roughly September of 2006. We did not launch the website until after my clerkship ended because I did not want to embarrass my judge. I was doing basic preparatory work with my colleagues at the time to prepare for the launch of the website. I remember we launched in October 2006. My mom was my first customer.There is an interesting story for your audience. I think that when you are speaking to a group of entrepreneurs and people who want to be entrepreneu rs the kind of story we are about to tell you sometimes is exciting. To be clear, I was working on this company, which at the time was called Reputation Defender. We later changed it to Reputation.com. In this course of the summer while I was clerking, with the idea of launching a website after I finished clerking and seeing what would happen. But I never expected this to become a company that I would go do. In fact, I did not move to California to build this company after I clerked. I moved to California for a girl, which is always the story but also I had a job in California that I signed for to work effectively at a hedge fund. It is not exactly a hedge fund. The easiest way is to say, “It is an investment company that was a hedge fund.” I was fired after five days working there. I showed up to work with this person and there were five or six people on this fund. And the agreement here we had and the understanding here was that I was going to be his junior partner. He was an intense micro manager. I found out that he was checking my work by logging into my documents every night to see how much work I have done. The next morning he would say you did not work enough on this or that. I said to him, it does not matter what his name is, Hey, so and so. I am supposed to be your junior partner. This is not really feeling like a trusted partnership. You are managing me very closely. He fired me and he ended up going out of business a couple of years later.It was only because I was fired from a job in a week I decided to run Reputation.com full time. You never know where the blessings are going to come from.Martin: The product was ready and you only needed to acquire some more customers, or did you still have to work on shaping your product once you left the hedge fund?Michael: I think that product is never ready. I understand that sounds obvious and maybe flip. But some companies are better at building and then shipping, some companies either are better at that or need to build and ship, build and ship. I would say the first product that we built was our consumer product took I would say five years to mature; maybe four years to mature and in many ways it is still maturing.There are barely two kinds of venture-backed companies. There is faster, better, cheaper and there is brave new world. Faster, better, cheaper means that there is a market that you know about. There are people who have built companies that are satisfying a market demand that is known and understood. Those companies that are faster, better, cheaper companies are doing exactly what it sounds like. They are going to do a better search engine, a better social media thing, a better logistics thing, a better e-commerce thing. They are going to make it cheaper or make it faster.In that case, you have to sharpen your product before you launch because you are competing on the edge of the envelope based on what you know the customer already wants. In those cases, it is better to make your product as clean and polished as possible before you ship it. Without doing that, you might increase your chance of failure.In the case of a brave new world company there is no share of wallet, that you are attacking, it is a new wallet. There is no line item in the expense budget for the person or the enterprise that says: I need digital privacy. That did not exist ten years ago. There is no line item, which says, “I need online reputation protection and enhancement.” That did not exist ten years ago.In that case, you might have to build and ship, build and ship because you do not really yet know what the product market fit is. You do not really yet know if people are going to buy. The product that ended up building our business quickly over a period of the first three or four years was a product that I did not invent. It was a product that our customers told us they want it. It was a derivative of the products, which I invented. We launched that product in response t o demand. We built that plane in flight.BUSINESS MODEL OF REPUTATION.COMMartin: Let’s talk about the business model. You said before that you have two types of product targeting two customer segments, which is one the consumer or individual and the other one business. Can you elaborate on the type of Reputation problems in both customers’ segments can occur?Michael: Sure. I would say it is unusual for a startup to have consumer and enterprise products and offerings. I am not sure if I could design a problem or design a company. I am not sure how I would do it. We started as a consumer business and it turned out there was a very big enterprise demand. We built two businesses at the same time. Doing that has tremendous advantages, which are the consumers are buying it very quickly and enterprises slow and then enterprises are buying faster and consumers slower. This is profitable and this is consuming cash, huge advantages damages. We have certainly advantages in Reputation.com be cause a lot of the underlying technologies learnings, intellectual property we built for this has application here and vice versa. Not all of it but a lot of it.On the other hand, there are disadvantages to doing it this way. They include disadvantages, which are obvious; the marketing budget for enterprise is different for the marketing message in budget for consumer. In addition, it is different for the kind of people you hire. When we were strictly Consumer Company we look like a fraternity house or in some ways of fraternity / sorority house where kids are showing up in t-shirts and flip-flops. Just like in the movies about Internet companies. When you do enterprise, all of a sudden, people are show up in colored shirts; there are people with haircuts that look more like yours than mine and people that wear sport jackets. It is a very different culture inside a company. You can have two different cultures inside the business. These things are not necessarily easy. They can be ve ry powerful if you can get them well. But I think it is an extra hurdle of difficulty to do both at the same time. They have to go where the business needs to go. That is clear as an entrepreneur.As to the problems that they face they face the same kinds of problems different problems of scale. A person intends to get attacked and criticized sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly and usually it is unfair. It is unfair because it is not true or it is unfair because it is true but definitely not the whole story. If you went on a date and the only thing that the internet thinks about you is that you are terrible at dates because the one person you want to date with was negative and decided to attack you online. Well that is not the default dating history but thats what the internet thinks. Internet is not intelligent by itself it is intelligent because of a lot of content over a long period by many voices. It is not intelligent about you and the instance of what happened last Thursday. That is a humans challenge.A companys challenge is usually some version of that. They did a good job or a bad job at servicing a customer and providing a product to a customer. That customer is speaking loudly online in a way that is accurate or not but certainly not complete. These are two different kinds of problems but they are the same basic vector.Now, companies in particular tend to get reviews and reviews have a very big impact on commerce today. People do not tend to get reviews. They tend to get far more reviews which are your comments.Martin: How is your problem solving this kind of reputation risk that the consumer and the companies are facing? Can you walk me through really what you were doing and how is this helping solve the potentially inaccurate information that is published on the internet for an individual, for example?Michael: Individual people care a lot about their search results. That makes sense because if one person says: Hey, you are not a good husband. Tha t is what people say about you in that one result and it might be the only thing people say about you online or the only thing that is visible about you online. Or someone who has your same name that that person is a bad husband that might be confusing. We call that the double-name problem. It comes from the German (Doppelgänger).What we had to do we had to find a way to publish content about you that is accurate and neutral, not glowing, laudatory. Just to make sure that it shows up above the other content online that is negative. It pushes the negative stuff down. It does not take it off the internet. That is important. The internet does not have a delete button. We just need to give you a more complete picture of yourself online that is more accurate.The second thing is about companies. Companies are not reviewed enough. Except for restaurants, bars, and nightlife nobody goes on home and says I want to review my accountant or I want to review my florist. What you need to do is m ake it easy for them to collect real reviews. Thats all. You dont incentivize reviews, you dont pay for reviews, you dont give discounts reviews, you don’t do favorites reviews â€" you just make it very easy for Mark and John and Sarah and Sally to give reviews and guess what? If you make it easy for them, they will. Then you get a more complete picture of what is out there about you and what people think. It is usually quite positive. Some are constructive. If your receptionist is a nasty person then that is going to have a very bad impact on the entire experience of your doctors office even if the medical care is good, the décor is good, the nurse is good, and the doctor is good. The receptionist can ruin everything. We should know that. We should tell the receptionist to shape up or leave. That is useful feedback. That is operating feedback.At the same time if someone comes to your doctors office with a broken knee, God forbid, and is waiting for 45 minutes, you see him and yo u fix his knee and now he can walk again. He leaves, and he says well they kept me waiting for 45 minutes, two stars out of five. That is a somewhat obnoxious in my opinion. It is also not accurate. It is not a truly representative point of view about what happened, you could not walk and now you walk and you waited 45 minutes â€"wasn’t it worth it?You at least watched two hours of stupid television last night. It is not like youre wasting time. Fine. Maybe you should not have been keeping someone waiting for 45 minutes that is true. But whether that should now make the doctor a two out of five stars doctor in the world of internet that does not make sense to me. What that doctor needs to have is a set of tools to make it easy to review her online so that her complete picture of feedback can come across.Martin: The complete picture is that somebody interested in this doctor would go to Reputation.com and check out the doctors profile. You aggregate all the data for a doctor or is it that you are trying to change or have an impact on the Google search results what is showing up, what is showing down.Michael: The doctor would buy our product and make it very easy for her patients to review her. Those reviews would show up on the doctors website and on another review websites that we plug into.This all comes back to a set of concepts that I published in my new book, which is published in January 2015. It is called The Reputation Economy, which was number seven on the New York Times bestseller list.Martin: Not too bad.Michael: Not too bad. One of the main ideas of the book is that everyone is going to have a reputation score in the future. That comes from a combination of three technologies that are coming together that I think will be impactful for every one of the people who are going to build a business after watching your website, after looking and researching entrepreneurship on your website. The thing for them to keep in mind is that there are three techn ologies right now. We see the Internet that is changing the world. We say that a lot in Silicon Valley and it is often not true. I do not think any rebirth changes the world. I do not think the iPad changes the world. We say many silly things in Silicon Valley. We pivot in Silicon Value. We do not change our minds we pivot. It sounds more important.Martin: So, it is more Silly-con Valley.Michael: Like every place, we have our diseases. One of the diseases in Silicon Valley is that it has no sense of irony. It has no sense of humor about itself. It is a very sincere place. Everything is extremely earnest, which is annoying. Europeans are better about that question. Southern California is better about that, and New Yorkers are better about that. Silicon Valley has its own strengths and diseases, like any place.In this case, I think unlike in the case of Angry Birds I do think that these technologies will change the world. And by the way, I did not invent any of them. I just believe th at these things around us are going to change the world.The first is infinitely powerful and free search. Google and its related progeny are making everything findable very quickly, first based on the text and then later on audio and visual search.Second, is a technology of right now which is infinitely free storage. The Amazon, Cloud and so forth, those things are making storage basically free. Right now, at this moment in time for the first time in human history, not technology history but of human history, it is cheaper to store something forever than it is to delete it. Think about that. It is cheaper to store something forever than it is to delete it, to find and delete it. Therefore, we have a new default setting for humanity where we will keep everything like digital hoarders forever because it is cheaper and easier.The third technology is emerging now. It is the technology from five to ten years, which you can bucket under the name Hadoop or MapReduce. These technologies or protocols allow people who are educated but not especially skilled in the art of data analysis to do data analysis.You are a journalist and entrepreneur and you use Microsoft Excel. You are not an accountant or economist but you use Microsoft Excel.Martin: Yes. I am a trained accountant and economist. I have some experience with Hadoop and MapReduce.Michael: You are a trained economist?Martin: Yes.Michael: Okay. I did not realize that. Your brother is not a trained economist and he uses Microsoft Excel. The point is that Microsoft Excel, which probably every one of your viewers has used, has done for numbers what Hadoop and MapReduce will produce for analytics. I love the fact that you have already used Hadoop and MapReduce. Educated people who are not especially skilled in numbers unlike you are using Microsoft Excel. Educated people who are not special skilled in data analysis like you, are using Hadoop and MapReduce to do data analytics. In the next five to ten years, fifteen yea rs everybody is going to be using Hadoop or MapReduce. Whether you call it, Hadoop or MapReduce is a different question.These three technologies when taken together, everything will be stored, everything will be findable and everything will be analyzed, will result in everything being scored. Everything is getting scores. You as a person as a cook, as a babysitter, as a neurosurgeon, as a writer, as a reader will get scores and so will your business. This will result in what I call the reputation economy because everyone has a score. Everything will be understandable and assessed based on that score. Machines will increasingly make decisions about us without human intervention.What does that mean? Five years ago, when employers look for candidates for jobs they posted an ad. Employee candidates sent the resumes in, they look through the resumes, and they decided which one they should interview. Today those resumes are submitted electronically and then keywords like Yale or Stanford or University of Michigan and computer science and economics are extracted digitally and you have a manual process to review those resumes.Increasingly what is happening is those resumes are being scored by machines that connect the resume information to digital online information that compares how Jonathan is doing compared to his cohorts in college. How Sarah is being compared to the people with whom she graduated at Yahoo at a certain date. How quickly are they progressing through the career development, are they progressing on average, faster or slower? Increasingly, and this is maybe more dangerous or more exciting, machines are going to be assessing the cultural fit between the employee candidate and the employer. Is this person someone who likes to work hard and play like us, is this someone who is very serious like us, is this someone whos very casual and social like us, is this someone who has a clear passion for activism like us, is this someone who is very professional li ke us? Does this person not only academically and credentially meet our success factors but does this person also cultural meet our success factors?That is important because we already know, if I settle a question, computers are better at interviewing people than humans are. Computers are better at assessing whether someone will succeed in their job then human interviews are. They are more accurate. Not for every job; not for the most senior jobs, but they are better as predictors.What is going to happen is in some small number of years the recruiting manager is not going to look at thousand resumes or even a hundred. She is going to look at four or three. Those three or four are going to be chosen by a computer. If you are not on that pile of three or four you might not exist.Martin: You said about this reputation score. Would it be just that information that is out there you would just give it something like a trustworthy stamp or is it only a combination attached to individual? I f you look at a specific history of some people, maybe at a restaurant with like 100 reviews â€" you can either give each of those reviews some kind of trustworthiness or you can just combine them, aggregate them somehow and then say for the restaurant is this the average rating with this kind of trustworthiness?Michael: That is a very sophisticated question. Let’s use your example of restaurants because I think its a good way to unpack the fact patterns that will lead to a revelation of what the new technologies will do.On one hand, lets say you have a hundred reviews for your restaurant. You have some sense after a hundred reviews over a period anyway whether the restaurant is basically good or basically bad. Now most restaurants end up being about three and a half to four stars out of five. That is not very useful because if everything is kind of 3.75 then can you really tell. What happens is if you observe human beings who read restaurant reviews what they do, they usually go through some form of the following human algorithm right now.The first thing they do is they look for geography and for cuisine or geography and quality. They do a quick scan of three and a half to four and change stars. Anything that is below that they take off the list. Easy. But, that includes a lot of stuff. Many restaurants are left in the list.Now, they start to look at the reviews individually. If you unpack what they are actually doing the psychologists, they are looking for reviews that could have been written by them. That is different for Jack as it is for Sarah. Jack might be someone who looks for atmosphere and emphasis on service and Sarah might be someone who is interested in the taste of the food. Someone who is a more careful writer or perhaps more sophisticated, more educated person might look for a high quality of writing. This is a subtle and maybe not even conscious step but it is a step that they take. They value reviews that are more careful that are less fla mboyant that have fewer exclamation points that do not have many all caps. People who are maybe more passionate might look for the opposite.What is happening is more or less a rapid automatic manual mental scoring of each review; whether it could have written by me this is the something that speaks to me. What a supple good reputation scoring system will do will understand what YOU respond to in terms of feedback versus I respond to. We will do a dynamic scoring system based on what it knows about you versus me.When you look at people who are buying cameras, they want a very good camera. Very experienced photo camera people will look for very specific user feedback. More beginners will look for broader themes but whats interesting about this is of course negative reviews can dissuade about eighty percent of the time, they can dissuade the purchase. In some cases, negative reviews can reinforce the purchase. Why? If you have a negative review from someone who is obviously extremely knowledgeable about the camera, who has a very specific need of photographs taken in the forest at night looking for certain kind of bird the beginner will actually say: Well, who cares about that review? Thats from some super camera nerd. I do not need that kind of detailed feedback. I actually feel good about this camera purchase because I do not need to do another $1,000 camera investment, 500 bucks is enough for me.Good sophisticated scoring system will have a personal Google rank for you in the same way that you are already doing when you look for restaurant reviews yourself.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM MICHAEL FERTIKMartin: Michael, over the last years, what have been your major learnings and what is your advice that you would like to share to first entrepreneurs?Michael: One thing that I can say to entrepreneurs is when you are thinking of starting a company one talk I give is how to generate two lists that could be very helpful in determining which company to start.The first list is what do you love?The second is what you are good at?These are secret lists. It is important that I describe and emphasize the secret list because nobody ever has to read them except you. That is important because you have to be very critically honest with yourself about what you love and what you are good at. Why? Some of the answers might be embarrassing. It is tempting when you are confronted with this kind of exercise to do what you think you should which is I love leadership and I love delivering passionately develop products through organic and artisanal methodology of construction to where the customers for the betterment of local population. That may be true; however, it is not the actual thing you love. You may love the environment but nobody wakes up saying I love to deliver artisanal products to people to my local population. They love things about it that results in that conclusion.If you love basketball but you are not good at it that is not a company for you t o start. If you love basketball, you love talking, you love negotiating, you love keeping track of your teams, you love winning, you love socializing, you love talking on the phone. And you are good at critical thinking, following scores, staying up late and sleeping very little, then maybe there is a business to be built around online gaming involving basketball and your passion for basketball. I am making it up.Why are these lists so important? These lists are important because whatever you are going to do as an entrepreneur especially if it is not a lifestyle business, especially if it is a venture-funded type of business, you are going to be doing it a lot. You are going to be doing it all the time to the exclusion of other things in your life. If you will love it, you have a higher chance of surviving the times when things are going poorly, you are feeling bad about yourself, and your business and your prospects and they always happen. On the margin, loving the thing you do all ows you to get out of bed that morning or go to work and feel good and put on your game face.If you are good at it, you have a higher chance of success. That sounds obvious but there is a lot of truth in the Venn diagram overlap of what you are good at and what you love. Somewhere in there, your company exists. It doesn’t mean its going to be a good company, it doesnt mean its going to be a very profitable company, it doesn’t mean it is going to be the best of all possible companies but its probably going to be the company that you have the highest chance of succeeding in doing.It is just too hard. This is the first world somewhat hard. Lets acknowledge that. It is just too hard to start a company to add the extra risk of falling in love with it quickly because you do not really love in the first place.Martin: Great! Michael, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. It was a pleasure.Michael: My pleasure.Martin: Maybe if you just want to start a company, just go back to you r home, take a sheet of paper and a pen and write your two secret lists of what do you love and what you are good at. Maybe out of that you can combine and create a great and awesome company.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

How Infants Develop Their Language Or Communication Skills...

I am a firm believer in the idea that everything we learn, see, touch and experience can have a lasting effect on us. For my controversy paper I will be discussing how infants develop their language or communication skills from the way their parents talk to them. While talking to a baby who may not be able to talk yet or does not even seem to be responding to you may seem silly. But it actually has a lasting effect on their language development. Even from when they are so small something as simple as talking to them can make a difference in their lives. Parents need to talk to babies as soon as possible because it can make such a difference in their development. I strongly believe and my view is for the more interaction with infants. They need it to grow and develop into the best possible version of yourself. All though infants are usually known for not speaking, they do participate in communication in their own way. They do this hearing, gazing, babbling, looking and smiling throug h their auditory and visual senses.A newborn infant primary way of communication is by the turn of it head when hearing sounds. The voice of the child’s mother that they remember from the womb or the caregiver would get the most responsive communicational feedback.Which is why it is essential for parents to take time to communicate with their children even if their babies. This controversy is basically how the more parents speak to their infants it seems to correlate with how much vocabularyShow MoreRelatedThe Characteristics of Language Acquisition and Development1422 Words   |  6 PagesCharacteristics of Language Acquisition and Development ECE315: Language Development in Young Children Instructor: Kara Bullock 1-24-11 Language ability starts even before birth and happens in every area of the child’s life. 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Well, then again finding the articles that interested me the most in one of the following areas: co gnitive development, language development, social development, or memory and the brain in children and infants. Most students would say that this is easy, however, my situation is not like most students. I have a 6 year old little girl, named Racine, that is my true inspiration. She is the reason why I am here atRead MoreThe Importance Of Language Development934 Words   |  4 PagesAs children grow and develop, they’re developing their language skills. Some children learn to speak and comprehend faster than others. Language development is important because it is the way we communicate and exchange information with others in our everyday lives. If there are any language delays, issues with communication and relaying of information can occur. There are many different components of language development. Phonology is the use of sounds, semantics is the use of words and word associationsRead MoreChildren Benefit From Play By Developing Their Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Social And Moral Capacities1468 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction: Play serves many purposes. Children benefit from play by developing their physical, intellectual, emotional, social and moral capacities. Our understanding of child development is complicated because of the numerous and varied factors that impact it. These include social, linguistic, cognitive, socio-cognitive, and cultural aspects. However, it is clear that play is an extremely important and integral aspect of a child’s development as it creates and preserves friendships. There areRead MoreHow Babies Talks by Roberta Michnick Golink and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek831 Words   |  3 Pages How Babies Talk is a book written by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek. The book discusses how babies acquire language throughout various stages (The first three years of life) of their infant life. The chapter I chose to elaborate on was chapter 7, which outlines language and grammar between the ages of twenty-four to thirty-six months. Chapter 7 begins with the ways children develop more sophisticated grammar and vocabulary. Golinkoff states that the usage of â€Å"the† â€Å"-ing† â€Å"-s†Read MoreHow Do Humans Acquire Language?1332 Words   |  6 PagesHow Do Humans Acquire Language? Humans live in a world full of communication. Humans possess a native language that separates them from other animals. Language is developed within the first few years of a person s life. By the time one is a child; he can speak and understand almost as well as an adult. Children world-wide exhibit similar patterns of language acquisition even though they may be learning different languages. How humans learn even the most complicated languages has perplexed

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Why should the internet have more restrictions - 700 Words

Why should the internet have more restrictions? Violent websites or videos that are posted to the internet are becoming more popular and aggressive. In the past 12 months 5% of youth, 10-15 years of age, have reported engaging in seriously violent behavior such as aggravated and sexual assault, and 38% reported exposure to violence online and off-line were associated with violent crimes. (Ybarra 929) Tested websites included news related websites that showed terrorism, war, and death. As a teenage female living in a virtual world, I know for a fact that anyone has access to view pornography or violence at the click of their finger. Even relaxing on social media websites have become a danger to the minds of youth from all the inappropriate†¦show more content†¦History shows how cruel people can be to one another and if we don’t allow better restrictions to commence soon, we will be responsible for any damage brought to the world through the internet. The Neo-Naziâ€⠄¢s used low restrictions on the internet to their advantage in the early stages of website creations by using bulletin board systems already in the pre-World Wide web page (Eissens). Terrorist groups use the internet to promote their personal beliefs of how governments or people are undesirable. There are quite a few websites that terrorist have used to influence peoples choices and have encouraged that it is alright to impose crimes against their governments. Violence online is nothing to be taken lightly (Ybarra pg.) Today’s youth exposed to many kinds of violence, online have been reported exhibiting violent behavior. Websites that show war, dead bodies, and how to create weaponry such as bombs, have been some of the reasons youth have assumed violent crimes are alright as long as mentally justified. Studies show that youth that have visited websites where they show real people engaging in actual violence are more likely to exhibit violent behavior than youth that have not. Youth that have been exposed to violence on the internet believe that because someone else has done the crime and possibly gotten away with it, they will be able to commit the crime andShow MoreRelatedThe President and Internet Traffick996 Words   |  4 PagesResearch Paper 2: Do you think it is a good idea for the President of the United States to have the authority to limit or shutdown internet traffic to and from any compromised federal government or U.S. critical infrastructure information system or network? Why or why not? Yes and no. For the general public, I don’t think limiting the internet would be a wise idea. Our country was founded on freedom, and to infringe upon that would cause civil unrest. Frankly, the general public would assume thatRead MoreResearch Paper On Facebook Generation Marketing1657 Words   |  7 PagesKeely Stempien Western Carolina University Facebook Generation Marketing Imagining the changes within the online marketing world, on a daily basis, is challenging. It is even more challenging to imagine the digital marking world five years down the road. Seven years ago, no one would have ever imagined Donald Trump becoming the next leader of the United States; however, look at our world today. Donald Trump, with over 7.5 million Instagram followers and 38.5 million Twitter followersRead MoreEssay on The Pornography Debate809 Words   |  4 Pagesto filter it. The problem is its not that easy and making laws against it would pose a problem against the first amendment. There have many issues brought up on the grounds that it is demoralizing to women and is filth for the eyes of children. But, is pornography really that harmful? There are many reasons why the government is having trouble putting restrictions on pornography. As Cynthia Stark states in Social Theory and Practice, just because some find certain materials offensive is not aRead MoreNet Neutrality : Free And Open Internet895 Words   |  4 PagesNet Neutrality With the internet growing larger and larger each day, it has been a place where communication and the transfer of information happens within seconds. The internet is a place where the freedom of speech is shown and show the creativity of people. Net neutrality has caught the interest in many people in the United States. With this hot topic debate, President Barack Obama s position on the subject is wanting a â€Å"free and open† internet for fair access to any website (Net Neutrality:Read MoreInternet Censorship of Child Porngraphy Essay977 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.†- Benjamin Franklin. Technically speaking, internet censorship is difficult to achieve. Proponents of this measure seem to have neglected the fact that putting in place a system of surveillance requires the establishment of clear, unalterable rules. But often, such a task can be almost unfeasible since it is quite problematical to define precisely the information that is supposed to beRead MoreWhy Social Media Should Have Better Age Restrictions947 Words   |  4 PagesWhy social media should have better age restrictions In recent years the world has become very accepting; some might even go as far as to say overly accepting to the convenience of social media. There are a number of different applications, and websites that are available to us for example: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Snapchat, Kik, and Pinterest to name a few. These different venues provide a means of communication, reconnecting with long-lost friends and family, networking forRead MoreEssay on Global Village1288 Words   |  6 Pagesthat we have faced for centuries. Whether the advance was the printing press, the radio, the telephone, or the TV, all of these things affected us globally. In the past all of these new advances tend to change social and political policies. We are currently in a new era of technology, one that we have many names for: the internet, the web, cyberspace, information superhighway, and many more. All of these computer technologies affect the way many of us live, especially the use of the int ernet. ThereRead MoreGovernment Intervention And The Internet1094 Words   |  5 PagesGovernment Intervention in the Internet A growing concern over our privacy online is causing us to seek legislation to protect us. Although this may seem harmless and beneficial for all, there are many valid points as to why the government should not intervene. When it comes to privacy online, the responsibility should be left in the hands of the people that disclose such information in the first place. Government involvement should not be allowed for the sake of our privacy, because it may comeRead MoreAn Effective And Utilitarian Self Education1164 Words   |  5 Pagesunderstanding words found in a paper and being able to use received information to evolution and progress as a person (Dadzie, 2008). It includes understanding both printed and non-printed versions of tones of data. There are many various reasons and aims why people decide to read and these may include reading for enjoyment, spending free time, relaxing, getting new information or maybe for common knowledge. An effective and utilitarian self-education includes the custom of personal observationRead MoreWe Have Too Much Accessibility On The Internet1717 Words   |  7 Pages We have too much accessibility on the internet. The internet creates a beautiful platform for finding information and interacting with people around the world, but it has major downsides. The primary issue concerning the freedoms that come with online accessibility involves having too much freedom in regards to what you can search. If people wanted to search some form of mortifying material such as images of genocide, they could easily do so with a google search. In our current digital era, children

Management Case Analysis Free Essays

David, in which he needs to determine essentially whether the greater good of the business unit should outweigh the promotion of one of Its key members. This Is rather ironic due to the fact that managers typically have more difficulty Identifying promotional opportunities for their employees than Impeding them. David Is under significant pressure to perform and the obstacles are stack against him, poor market situation, safety issues at the plant, and rising fixed costs. We will write a custom essay sample on Management Case Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now The article, â€Å"When to Reward Employees with More Responsibility and Money,† states that more than often managers feel responsible for finding their employees the next career opportunity. Mangers should foster progression and skill development of their employees within the work environment; however should this be secondary to the overall health of the business unit or organization? Davit’s task is certainly an arduous one. This is his opportunity to prove to upper management that despite his age, he is capable enough to successfully manage his sales team. Furthermore, David implements the correct Annihilative by assigning the project to the business development engineer Initially. This decision yielded positive results and the case clearly presents the business development engineer as an Integral factor. The business development manager’s talent does not go unnoticed and shortly after he is offered a position two levels higher than his current role with a significant salary increase. This is a managerial success, considering David properly developed his employee for future opportunities; however performance of the business unit will foreseeable decline with the loss of its key member. It is suffice say that David will need think creatively to transcend his â€Å"rock and a hard place† situation. The article, â€Å"When to Reward Employees with More Responsibility and Money,† outlines challenges managers face and their corresponding solutions, the foremost being alternative forms of motivation, having to say no, and Job sculpting to prepare employees for the next step. These examples permeate the case study, In which David must construct a viable all-encompassing strategy. The key take-away Is that employees can be motivated by factors other than money. In fact an over reliance on money as a motivator could result in an organization’s culture becoming transactional and calculated. Also, Job sculpting sets realistic expectations regarding position related responsibilities for employees who want to take the next step, but currently lack the experience or skill set. David should not be deterred by the budgetary constraints ND view this scenario as an opportunity to execute an innovative method to satisfy all parties, without affecting production or the bottom line. The case only proposes two options for David, to let the business development engineer to move on or to block his promotion. We are proposing an alternative third option. David could plead his case to the hiring manager that the business development engineer will be needed until year end, simultaneously enabling the quota to be reached and affording the account manager time to be trained. As the article suggests, David loud create a hybrid role for the business development engineer to supervise the the process. Additionally, the business development engineer could use this time to take on some his new duties to appease the hiring manager and acclimate himself to his new position. Furthermore, this recommendation could result as an extrinsic reward to the business development engineer and account manager, buy conveying the message that they are both essential to the future success of this business unit and are both provided the opportunity to further develop their skills. How to cite Management Case Analysis, Essays

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Is Smart Technology making us Dumb Essays - Autism Rights Movement

Is Smart Technology making us Dumb? (Finding Common Ground) Over the last two decades, this has been a concurring topic and conflict. Many authors and journalist have had much to say about whether technology has made us "smarter or dumber" over the years. The first article is written by John Elder Robison, a man who grew up with Asperger's Syndrome (type of autism). After reading only the first paragraph of his article it is evident that his opinion was based on past experiences he encountered growing up as a child. Further along in his article, Robison made it clear right away that he was taught to learn the "old- fashioned way," by reading books all day long. He continued to refer back to how much his parents and their friends knew. As a result he became persistent on learning as much as he possibly could. He gained much of his knowledge by befriending people who knew much about the thongs he wanted to learn about. In paragraph six of his article he said "Any fool with a Blackberry or an IPhone can look up life's answers at the drop of a hat," and when he said this I could immediately tell that he was not very fond of technology or even the thought of being able to depend on sources like Google or Wikipedia for the answers to life's problems. Robison refers to navigation as a perfect example, of why it's important not to rely on technology. In paragraph ten of his article he says "Many motorists can't make sense of a basic road mapThey are lost if their machine loses touch with the satellites." Earlier in this paragraph he explains how his whole life he used maps to find his way around. Robison refers to people who depend on technology to make it in everyday as "slaves to machines" reiterating that this intellectual laziness makes them less smart . Robison makes it clear that he believes that technology has mainly affected our young people today. Robison concludes is article explaining why he thinks technology makes us "less smart" Although he used limited to no evidence from studies or research, he clearly show that he is a firm believer that the use of technology has made our population, but more closely our youth, dumber and less intellectually engaged over the last two decades. The second article is written Kaitlyn Wells, a woman who writes in the Family and Parenting news blog on a site called Techlicious. After reading her first paragraph, it appeared that her thoughts and opinion on this subject were neutral. Wells immediately starts to e laborate on her opinion based on research and studies. She states that "Pew Research Center reports that nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, with 19 percent relying on their smartphone for accessing information and staying connected to the world around them." While continuing to read her article, Wells begins to talk about how smart technology shrinks the brain. In paragraph six of her article she says that "In 2010, McGill University researchers determined that the people who rely on GPS navigation had les activity in the hippocampus, an area of the brain r elated to memory and navigation. " Moreover, McGill researcher, a neuroscientist, Veronique Bohbot believes that "GPS should only be used to find a new destination." Bohbot also said that "it is best to turn off GPS on the way back and use your memory and spatial skills in order to preserve and possibly improve hippocampal function", according to Pysch.org. Wells continues her article with more research and studies to further inform the reader on how technology negatively affects the brain and impacts our cognitive abilities . In paragraph nine, she talks about how the average American attention span has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds today, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. That is shorter than that of a gold fish whose attention span is nine seconds! Her article continues on to sh ow that King's College London University researchers also found out in recent studies that employees who multitasked while working had a ten-point decline in their

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Understanding The Bretton Woods System

Understanding The Bretton Woods System Nations attempted to revive the gold standard following World War I, but it collapsed entirely during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some economists said adherence to the gold standard had prevented monetary authorities from expanding the money supply rapidly enough to revive economic activity. In any event, representatives of most of the worlds leading nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944 to create a new international monetary system. Because the United States at the time accounted for over half of the worlds manufacturing capacity and held most of the worlds gold, the leaders decided to tie world currencies to the dollar, which, in turn, they agreed should be convertible into gold at $35 per ounce.​ Under the Bretton Woods system, central banks of countries other than the United States were given the task of maintaining fixed exchange rates between their currencies and the dollar. They did this by intervening in foreign exchange markets. If a countrys currency was too high relative to the dollar, its central bank would sell its currency in exchange for dollars, driving down the value of its currency. Conversely, if the value of a countrys money was too low, the country would buy its own currency, thereby driving up the price. The United States Abandons the Bretton Woods System The Bretton Woods system lasted until 1971. By that time, inflation in the United States and a growing American trade deficit were undermining the value of the dollar. Americans urged Germany and Japan, both of which had favorable payments balances, to appreciate their currencies. But those nations were reluctant to take that step, since raising the value of their currencies would increase prices for their goods and hurt their exports. Finally, the United States abandoned the fixed value of the dollar and allowed it to float- that is, to fluctuate against other currencies. The dollar promptly fell. World leaders sought to revive the Bretton Woods system with the so-called Smithsonian Agreement in 1971, but the effort failed. By 1973, the United States and other nations agreed to allow exchange rates to float. Economists call the resulting system a managed float regime, meaning that even though exchange rates for most currencies float, central banks still intervene to prevent sharp changes. As in 1971, countries with large trade surpluses often sell their own currencies in an effort to prevent them from appreciating (and thereby hurting exports). By the same token, countries with large deficits often buy their own currencies in order to prevent depreciation, which raises domestic prices. But there are limits to what can be accomplished through intervention, especially for countries with large trade deficits. Eventually, a country that intervenes to support its currency may deplete its international reserves, making it unable to continue buttressing the currency and potentially leaving it unable to meet its international obligations. This article is adapted from the book Outline of the U.S. Economy by Conte and Carr and has been adapted with permission from the U.S. Department of State.

Monday, March 2, 2020

5 of the Best Plays by Tennessee Williams

5 of the Best Plays by Tennessee Williams From the 1930s until his death in 1982, Tennessee Williams crafted some of America’s most beloved dramas. His lyrical dialogue drips with his special brand of Southern Gothic a style found in fiction writers such as Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner (but not seen too often upon the stage). During his lifetime, he created over thirty full-length plays, in addition to short stories, memoirs, and poetry. His golden age, however, took place between 1945 and 1961. During this time, he created his most powerful plays. Among those are five that will forever remain among the best dramas for the  stage. These classics were instrumental in making Tennesee Williams one of the best playwrights of modern times and they continue to be audience favorites. #5 – The Rose Tattoo Many consider this Williams’ most comedic play. Originally on Broadway in 1951, The Rose Tattoo tells the story of Serafina Delle Rose, a passionate Sicilian widow who lives with her daughter in Louisiana. The play explores the theme of newfound romance after a long period of loneliness. The author described The Rose Tattoo as â€Å"the Dionysian element in human life.† For those of you who don’t wish to run to your Greek mythology book, Dionysus, the God of Wine, represented pleasure, sexuality, and rebirth. Tennessee Williams’ comedy/drama exemplifies all of the above. Interesting Tidbits: The Rose Tattoo was dedicated to his lover, Frank Merlo.In 1951, The Rose Tattoo won Tony Awards for Best Actor, Actress, and Play.Italian actress Anna Magnani won an Oscar for her portrayal of Serafina in the 1955 film adaptation of The Rose Tattoo . #4 – Night of the Iguana When I was 12 years old, I stayed up late to watch what I thought was going to be a midnight monster movie about a Radioactive Iguana who destroys Japanese cities. Instead, I ended up watching an adaptation of Tennessee Williams play Night of the Iguana . There are no oversized lizard creatures, but there is the compelling main character, ex-Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon. Expelled from his church community, he has turned from a respected minister into an alcoholic tour guide who leads his disgruntled group to a small Mexican resort town. Shannon is tempted by the lustful widow, Maxine, who owns a seedy hotel. However, it seems his true calling is to emotionally connect with an impoverished, gentle-hearted painter, Miss Hannah Jelkes. They form a bond more complex and fulfilling than Maxine could ever offer. Interesting Tidbits: The original 1961 Broadway production featured Betty Davis in the role of the seductive and lonely Maxine.The 1964 film adaptation was directed by the prolific and versatile John Huston.Like the main character, Tennessee Williams struggled with depression and alcoholism. #3 – The Glass Menagerie Many argue that Williams’ first major success is his strongest play. To be sure, The Glass Menagerie exhibits the playwright at his most personal. The play is ripe with autobiographical revelations: The absent father in The Glass Menagerie is a traveling salesman – like Williams’ father.The fictional Wingfield family lived in St. Louis, as did Williams and his real-life family.Tom Wingfield and Tennessee Williams share the same first name. The playwrights real name is Thomas Lanier Williams III. The fragile Laura Wingfield was modeled after Tennessee Williams’ sister, Rose. In real life, she suffered from schizophrenia and was eventually given a partial lobotomy, a destructive operation from which she never recovered. It was a constant source of heartache for Williams. Considering the biographical connections, the regretful monologue at the play’s end feels like a personal confession. Tom: Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes... Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger anything to blow your candles out! For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow your candles out, Laura and so good-bye... Interesting Tidbits: Paul Newman directed the 1980s film adaptation which starred his wife Joanne Woodward.The film contains an interesting moment not found in the original play: Amanda Wingfield actually succeeds in selling a magazine subscription over the phone. It sounds trivial, but it’s actually presented as a heartwarming triumph for the character – a rare beam of light in an otherwise gray and weary world. #2 – A Streetcar Named Desire   Of the major plays by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire contains the most explosive moments. This is perhaps his most popular play. Thanks to director Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando, and Vivian Leigh, it became a motion picture classic. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you have probably seen the iconic clip in which Brando screams for his wife, â€Å"Stella!!!!† Blanche Du Bois serves as the delusional, often vexing but ultimately sympathetic protagonist. Leaving behind her sordid past, she moves into the dilapidated New Orleans apartment of her co-dependent sister and brother-in-law, Stanley – the dangerously virile and brutish antagonist. Many academic and armchair debates have involved Stanley Kowalski. Some have argued that the character is nothing more than an apelike villain/rapist. Others believe that he represents the harsh reality in contrast to Du Bois’ impractical romanticism. Still, some scholars have interpreted the two characters as being violently and erotically drawn to one another.   From an actor’s viewpoint,  Streetcar  might be Williams best work. After all, the character of Blanche Du Bois delivers some of the most rewarding  monologues  in modern theater. Case in point, in this provocative scene, Blanche recounts the tragic death of her late husband: Blanche: He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I was sixteen, I made the discovery love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, thats how it struck the world for me. But I was unlucky. Deluded. There was something different about the boy, a nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasnt like a mans, although he wasnt the least bit effeminate looking still that thing was there ... He came to me for help. I didnt know that. I didnt find out anything till after our marriage when wed run away and come back and all I knew was Id failed him in some mysterious way and wasnt able to give the help he needed but couldnt speak of! He was in the quicksands and clutching at me but I wasnt holding him out, I was slipping in with him! I didnt know that. I didnt know anything except I loved him unendurably but without being able to help him or help myself. Then I foun d out. In the worst of all possible ways. By coming suddenly into a room that I thought was empty which wasnt empty, but had two people in it ... the boy I had married and an older man who had been his friend for years ...Afterward we pretended that nothing had been discovered. Yes, the three of us drove out to Moon Lake Casino, very drunk and laughing all the way.We danced the Varsouviana! Suddenly, in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later a shot!I ran out all did! all ran and gathered about the terrible thing at the edge of the lake! I couldnt get near for the crowding. Then somebody caught my arm. Dont go any closer! Come back! You dont want to see! See? See what! Then I heard voices say Allan! Allan! The Grey boy! Hed stuck the revolver into his mouth, and fired so that the back of his head had been blown away!It was because on the dance floor unable to stop myself Id suddenly said I saw! I know ! You disgust me ... And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light thats stronger than this kitchen candle ... Interesting Tidbits: After debuting the role of Blanche on Broadway, Jessica Tandy was originally supposed to play the role in the film. It seems that she didnt have the star power to attract movie goers. Olivia de Havilland turned down the role and it was given to Vivien Leigh.Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for Best Actress in the film, as did supporting actors Karl Malden and Kim Hunter. Marlon Brando, however, did not win Best Actor though he was nominated. That title went to Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen in 1952. #1 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof This play blends elements of tragedy and hope, earning its place as the most powerful work of Tennessee Williams’ collection. The taciturn protagonist Brick Pollitt struggles with alcoholism, the loss of his youth, the death of a loved one, and several other inner demons, not the least of which might be his repressed  sexual identity.   Brick is devastated over the suicide of his friend Skipper who killed himself after he tried to discuss his feelings. When Brick and his father finally determine the source of his angst, the protagonist learns about self-forgiveness and acceptance. Cat represents the most headstrong of the playwright’s female characters. Like other women in Williams’ plays, she experiences adversity. But instead of verging on insanity or wallowing in nostalgia, she â€Å"claws and scratches† her way out of obscurity and poverty. She conveys unbridled sexuality, yet we learn that she is ultimately a faithful wife who lures her husband back to the marriage bed by the play’s end. The third major character in  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is Big Daddy, the wealthy and powerful patriarch of the Pollitt family. He exhibits many negative traits. He is gruff, callous, and verbally abusive. Yet, when Brick and the audience learn that Big Daddy is on the brink of death, he gains out sympathy. More than this, when he overcomes despair and bravely embraces the little remainder of his life, he earns our solemn respect. The inevitable death of the father awakens a long-overdue sense of purpose with the son. Brick decides to return to the bedroom with the ambition of starting a family. Hence Tennessee Williams shows us that despite the unavoidable losses throughout our lives, loving relationships can endure and a meaningful life can be attained. Interesting Tidbits: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955.The play was adapted into a 1958 film which starred Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, and Burl Ives, who originated the role of Big Daddy on Broadway.