The Cambridge Analytica saga has been going on now for more than a year. The long and the short of what we’ve learned thus far is that the company tried to hoover up as much user data as it possibly could. The brunt of these revelations, however, came from either Facebook or whistleblowers. The company itself has yet to give an honest account of how it accumulated millions of data points that it used for political ad targeting, or even how much it collected. We may learn a whole lot more in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, SCL–the U.K.-based parent company of Cambridge Analytica, which filed for bankruptcy last year–pleaded guilty to breaking British data laws. The case was brought to court by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), in response to a complaint filed by American professor David Carroll. Carroll, in 2017, had requested to have the data the company collected about him.

British law dictates that companies must comply and hand over the data when requested. SCL refused on the basis that Carroll is American and therefore outside of the U.K.’s legal purview. The courts disagreed. And now the company has admitted that it did not hand over the required data, and has thus been found guilty. It’s been fined £15,000 (around $19,100). Professor Carroll will receive a “victim surcharge” of £170 ($217).

So this was the basis of the guilty plea. I’ve got to say this does not smell good. There seems to be no intention to actually hand over @profcarroll‘s data. Was pleading guilty just easiest way of getting off hook & not answering qs in open court? pic.twitter.com/OdpbfOBMDf

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) January 9, 2019

SCL, mind you, has not yet given the data to Carroll. It has held out from doing so throughout this entire ordeal. But, as the Daily Beast reports, there is one important update with yesterday’s plea: SCL has allegedly now handed over its server passwords to the ICO. The news site writes: “The court was told Wednesday that Cambridge Analytica and its related companies had not provided the relevant passwords to the ICO to access that data, but the administrators had now done so.” This is perhaps one of the biggest developments in recent memory, in that it means investigators will finally be able to look at SCL’s back end and get a sense for just how much data it collected.

Now that the ICO has the passwords, we wait for its report. There is also another U.K. High Court date in March, where we may also learn more information from the company.

For now, we have the guilty plea and the knowledge that more may be disclosed down the line. Carroll, for his troubles, will get a couple hundred bucks. And, hopefully, his data soon.

An update to Tesla’s “Summon” auto-parking feature could roll out to some users within weeks, according to a tweet from Elon Musk. The Summon+ upgrade will enable a Tesla to not just park itself as it does now, but will be able to “drive to your phone location and follow you like a pet,” according to Musk when he announced the feature last November.

Going through final validation & regulatory approval. Probably releases to early access program owners in a few weeks. It’s trippy!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2019

Alhough today Musk confirmed Summon+ will probably release to early-access program owners “in a few weeks,” he also noted that the feature was “getting some regulatory pushback” and “may not be available in all regions.” However, Musk did not elaborate as to which regions Tesla was getting regulatory pushback from.

When Summon+ does launch in regions that approve it, it will be compatible with all Tesla vehicles made in the last two years.

Remember when Instagram was the fun, simple, non-toxic social network? I suppose it still is in some way, but only in comparison to the slavering hellmouth of Twitter and the democracy-poisoning Borg-cube that is Facebook. Judged on its own merits, I’d argue Instagram–which, in its mere eight years of operation, has spawned a pond-scum ecosystem of paid “influencers,” skewed the mental health of scores of teenagers, and made “Stories” a thing we all have to deal with–is a net-negative for humanity, too. Don’t you wish you could return to those just-a-feed-of-pretty-pictures days?

Thanks to a web app called Filtergram, now you can. It bills its self as being “for people who want to see some Instagram content, but aren’t too keen on the Instagram Experience itself.” Um, did it read my mind?

Filtergram is what anti-social social-network users like me call “read-only”: You can’t post, comment, or like, you can only follow. Everyone else’s comments are scrubbed out, too, as are ads and Stories. The interface design is minimal and stylish; the feed is chronological, the way God intended; you can even type in hashtags to filter out posts you don’t care about (like, say, anything #blessed). And you don’t even have to have an Instagram account in order to use it.

“Earlier this year she began training to become a personal trainer, and she asked me if there was a way to create an app that could filter Instagram posts intelligently—like, ‘I’d like to see someone’s workout, but somehow avoid their beach selfie,'” Howdle says.

At first, he didn’t think it was feasible. “She reluctantly created a private Instagram account and followed a few people relevant to her studying, and was immediately hit with all the social media annoyances,” Howdle says.

Howdle took a closer look, and decided that his wife’s request was actually doable without resorting to, as he puts it, “heavy machine-learning tech.” (He achieved the smart-filtering functionality by simply outsourcing it to users: type in a hashtag, and nothing with that metadata will appear in your feed.)

“From the initial response, it seems that other people have had similar wants: to browse some Instagram content, but not be forced into giving their information to Facebook or Instagram,” he says.

Granted, you could just Google any Instagram account you like in order to view the posts. But if you’re interested in browsing more than one account at a time–basically, having a social feed without actually being social about it–then Filtergram gives you a one-stop solution. Besides, Instagram makes the experience of browsing feeds on the web without an account intentionally terrible. “One-fifth of the content is covered by a login/sign-up banner,” Howdle says. “Also: comments. Nope. Filtergram is completely devoid of any sort of community. It’s the posts and captions. That’s all.”

If Howdle’s attitude toward social media sounds a bit like Clint Eastwood’s character from Gran Torino, you’re not wrong. “I hate it all,” he obliges. “However, it’s frustratingly useful.” Truer words never spoken: Whether it’s for work or simply to keep up with geographically distant friends and family, Instagram and its unholy ilk can maintain a hold over many people who might otherwise delete their accounts. For those users under duress, Filtergram offers a perfect escape hatch. (I deleted my Instagram years ago, but if I still had an account, I’d happily ditch it now.)

That said, as a software engineer himself, Howdle maintains a “don’t hate the player, hate the game” attitude toward Instagram. “I don’t believe they’re doing anything different to most other companies [by] continually expanding their software,” he says. Furthermore, “most prolific Instagram users actually do want these social features. I’ll just continue my pattern of building alternative experiences to popular social media platforms, like the anti-social curmudgeon I am.”

And this fellow curmudgeon says: God bless him for it.

Google just got a huge European legal boost. Maciej Szpunar, an adviser to the European Union’s top court, argued that search companies like Google should not have to enforce the “right to be forgotten” globally.

For years, Google has been fighting an order from a French regulator, which tried to force the company to follow the law beyond European borders. The legal framework demands that internet companies purge search results about people’s personal information. France argued that allowing results to remain in other locations made the law ineffective. Google and other technology advocates rebutted that allowing the law’s scope to expand globally would allow repressive regimes to essentially erase all dissenting online content about them around the world.

The EU adviser generally agreed with Google. Szpunar, writes the Wall Street Journal, argued that “if the EU ordered removal of content from websites accessed outside the EU, there was a danger that other jurisdictions would use their laws to block information from being accessible within the EU.” Which is to say, that the law could be used to suppress information beyond borders.

Szpunar’s opinion was nonbinding, so it’s not assured that the court will rule in Google’s favor. But this is certainly a big win for the company because it shows European legal authorities advocating on behalf of its argument. The official decision will be made by the EU’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg in the coming months.

A study of American Facebook users has found that older Americans are more likely to share fake news on the social network than its younger users. The study was conducted by researchers at Princeton University and New York University and published in Science Advances on Wednesday.

According to the study of around 1,750 American adults, American Facebook users over the age of 65 shared almost seven times as many fake news articles on the platform. So does this mean your grandma just happens to be a mean-spirited troll? Hardly. The researchers say the reason for boomers sharing fake news in greater quantity could come down to a lack of digital literacy skills in older generations:

It is possible that an entire cohort of Americans, now in their 60s and beyond, lacks the level of digital media literacy necessary to reliably determine the trustworthiness of news encountered online.

However, the researchers also give another possible reason–one to do with aging itself. “A second possibility, drawn from cognitive and social psychology, suggests a general effect of aging on memory,” the researchers note. “Under this account, memory deteriorates with age in a way that particularly undermines resistance to ‘illusions of truth.'”

Other findings from the study:

• Over 90% of people actually do not share fake news.
• But of those that do, conservatives were more likely to share fake news than liberals or moderates.
• And overall more Republicans shared fake news than Democrats.

Bad news for the new avocado toast coffee shop down the block: No one is buying avocados anymore. That’s what the farmers are saying, at least. Agriculture companies’ stocks are falling dramatically because avocado demand has gone markedly down, reports the Wall Street Journal. This is bad news for farmers, but also for millennials because it’s unclear what hip food is sustaining them now!

Lest we forget a few years ago when an Australian millionaire told 60 Minutes Australia that the reason younger people weren’t buying houses is because they were too busy purchasing expensive avocado toasts. It seems millennials maybe listened to him–or maybe found something else. (Either way, millennials still aren’t doing great financially because of a confluence of issues that have little to do with their frivolous spending patterns–a big one being that income inequality is only getting worse in the U.S.)

Millennial purchasing trends notwithstanding, avocado sales are on the decline, and this is hurting farming businesses. The Australian agriculture company Costa Group, for example, last year said avocados were its fastest-growing segment. Now, it’s warning investors that it may miss its targets as demand for tomatoes, berries, and avocados has declined. And the company’s stock is now down over 38%. Other companies are reportedly experiencing similar situations.

The good news, of course, is that this means avocado prices will continue to go down. And maybe an avocado toast that’s sub-$12 will entice more people to actually eat the fruit. In the meantime, who wants some guacamole?

You can read the full WSJ report here. 

Millennials may be the most stressed generation since humanity consisted of a small, squirrel-like population that hid from predators in trees. With an uncertain political, environmental, and economic climate, who can blame us?

Which is why the Decade Planner, designed by the studio Workhow, is absolutely terrifying to me. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a 10-year calendar, perfect for that meeting you should already have scheduled for 2027.

Now, it’s an impressive piece of planning equipment, to be sure. It mounts onto your wall with an aluminum milled frame. (Thats right, your calendar is built like a freakin’ Tesla.) And you can scroll through the years–years!–by simply turning a knob. In this info-dense layout, each month is depicted horizontally, so each year looks like 12 30-day weeks. If you like, you can set the calendar up to show one year at a time–but that sounds like easy mode to me. Pro users can stretch the display to its full, 71-inch height to plan a full two years at once. What will you do two years from today? Probably use this calendar, if you buy it!

The Decade Planner is available now for $199.99. But as Workhow points out, while the up-front cost is high, it only costs $19.99 per year. And that’s a pretty small investment in existentially induced insomnia.

Whether you love or hate networking, there’s no doubting the importance of face-to-face interactions. Even in our digital world, knowing the art of the conversation is key to building strong relationships. Being a good conversationalist can help you make a lasting impression. Whether you’re engaging in small talk at a networking event, or engaged in an intense negotiation, how you communicate with others will determine the outcome.

Follow these five tips to improve your conversations at your next event:

1. Change your mind-set going in

Going into a situation where you will need to speak with people can be nerve-racking. Mara Goldberg, a conflict management specialist and cofounder of Marigold Mediation, is no stranger to tense situations. She says setting an intention for your networking event can help you to become a better conversationalist. “Go into the event with the mind-set of, ‘I am curious and I want to learn more about other people,’ rather than going into it with the mind-set of, ‘Oh no, I’m going to have to talk about myself a lot.'”

2. Listen with intent

It may seem counterintuitive, but the best conversationalists aren’t those who always have witty things to say, but are those who are genuine listeners. Communications specialist Sasha Quintana, cofounder of Chatter Republic, says good listeners don’t just listen with their ears, but with their whole body. They lean into the conversation, establish eye contact, and provide their undivided attention to the person they’re speaking with.

Being a good listener also means that you’re not crafting your response as the person is speaking. “Too often we find ourselves thinking ahead to what we want to say next, not what the person we’re speaking with is saying,” says Quintana. Stay in the moment, giving the other person your full attention, and you’ll be sure to have a more meaningful conversation.

3. Ask open-ended questions

“Great conversationalists know that communication is a dance,” says Quintana. Look for commonalities between you and the person you’re speaking with. Open-ended questions, those that require more than a “yes” or “no” answer, are the best type of questions to ask if you’re looking to establish common ground. Asking, “Where are you from?” “How long have you been in the industry?” and “What did you think of that speaker?” are great starting points. Just be careful not to overdo your questioning. You don’t want the other person to feel like they’re being interrogated.

4. Avoid oversharing about yourself

While it’s important to share information about yourself in the conversation, speaking less than the other person allows you to learn more about them and engages them more in the conversation. Keep your personal anecdotes short and sweet, focusing more on the other person’s stories than your own. To find out if you’re speaking too much, try leaving out some details of the story, teasing the other person to see if they’re really interested in hearing more. If they don’t respond, turn the focus of the conversation to something else that might engage them more.

5. Check in with yourself

Know where you stand on the introvert-extrovert spectrum and regularly check in with yourself during the conversation. Goldberg says while introverts tend to be great listeners but struggle to share information about themselves, extroverts tend to overshare and not listen as well. Knowing your tendencies will help you to know what to look for. If you’re an extrovert, ask yourself whether there’s an imbalance in the conversation. If you’re talking too much, try to shift the focus on asking more questions. If you’re an introvert, ask yourself whether you’re speaking enough and giving the other person enough information about yourself to help them feel connected to you. A good conversation should be a give-and-take of information, like a ping-pong game. If the ball stays on one side of the court for too long, both parties will soon lose interest in the game and move on.

Despite fears that guns made with 3D printers will let criminals and terrorists easily make untraceable, undetectableplasticweapons at home, my own experience with 3D-manufacturing quality control suggests that, at least for now, 3D-printed firearms may pose as much, or maybe even more, of a threat to the people who try to make and use them.

One firearms expert suggested that even the best 3D-printed guns might only fire “five shots [before] blowing up in your hand.” A weapon with a design or printing defect might blow up or come apart in its user’s hand before firing even a single bullet.

As someone who uses 3D printingin his work and researches quality assurance technologies, I’ve had the opportunity to see numerous printing defects and analyze what causes them. The problem is not with the concept of 3D printing, but with the exact process followed to create a specific item. Consumer 3D printers don’t always create high-quality items, and regular people aren’t likely to engage in rigorous quality assurance testing before using a 3D-printed firearm.

Problems are common at home

Many consumer 3D printers experience a variety of glitches, causing defects in the items they make. At times, an object detaches from the platform it’s on while being made, ending up lopsided, broken, or otherwise damaged. Flaws can be much harder to detect when the flow of filament–the melted plastic material the item is being made from–is too hot or cold or too fast or slow, or stops when it shouldn’t. Even with all of the settings right, sometimes 3D-printed objects still have defects.

When a poorly made toy or trinket breaks, it can be hazardous. A child might be left with a part that he or she could choke on, for example. However, when a firearm breaks, the result could be even more serious–even fatal. In 2013, agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tested 3D-printed guns and found that the quality of materials and manufacturing determined whether a gun would fire multiple rounds successfully, or break apart during or after the first shot.

Home printing also presents risks that nefarious people might tamper with the design files on a website, publish intentionally defective designs or even create a virus that interferes with the operation of a 3D printer itself. Hackers may deliberately target 3D-printed guns, for ideological or other reasons, or inadvertently cause defects with more general attacks against 3D-printing systems.

Not up to commercial standards

Commercial manufacturers of guns double-check their designs, test models, and perform rigorous examinations to ensure their firearms work properly. Defects still happen, but they’re much less likely than with home-printed weapons.

Home printers are not designed to produce the level of consistent quality required for weapon production. They also don’t have systems to detect all of the things that could go wrong and make printed weapons potentially dangerous.

This is not to say that 3D printing itself is unsafe. In fact, many companies use 3D printing to manufacture parts where safety is critical. Printed parts are used in airplanes and for medical devices, patient-specific surgical instruments, customized time-release drugs, prosthetics, and hearing aids. Scientists have even proposed printing scaffolding to grow or repair human body parts.

Solutions to defects, but not ready yet

In time, improvements to popularly available 3D printers may allow safe production of reliable parts. For instance, emerging technologies could monitor the process of printing and the filament used. The group I work withand others have developed ways to assess parts, both during printing and afterward.

Other researchers are developing ways to prevent malicious defects from being added to existing printing instructions and secure printing, more generally.

So far, though, these advances are being developed and tested in research laboratories, not incorporated into mass-produced 3D printers. For the moment, most quality control over 3D-printed parts is left to the person operating the printer, or whoever is using the item. Most consumers don’t have the technical skills needed to design or perform the appropriate tests, and likely won’t ever learn them. Until the machines are more sophisticated, whatever is made with them–whether firearms or other items–isn’t guaranteed to be reliable enough to use safely.

Jeremy Straub is an assistant Professor of Computer Science, North Dakota State University 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

If one of your goals for 2019 was to advance your business or career (and maybe bump up your income) you’re likely angling for the best strategy to get it done. Advice at this time of year is plentiful and includes some fresh perspectives like writing a letter to your future self.

However, before you sit down with your supervisor, or a potential investor or client, it might be better to ask them out for a cup of coffee or tea instead of meeting in your office. That’s because your powers of persuasion may get a boost while they cradle a comforting cup of their favorite hot beverage.

This is all part of a larger area of study called “embodied cognition,” which is the concept that the brain is connected to the body and doesn’t act as if it is completely divorced from physical signals.

In the case of the warm cup, researchers such as John Bargh of Yale did a series of experiments to prove that touching different objects has the power to influence perception.

To prove the theory of the warm cup, participants in one study were briefly handed cups of coffee (either hot or iced) to hold while a research assistant recorded their names. They weren’t made aware that the cups were part of the experiment. During the experiment, participants were asked to rate a stranger’s personality.

A coauthor of the paper from this study said in an interview: “What we found was that there was a significant difference between the two groups, such that participants who held the hot coffee cup saw person A as being more generous, more sociable.”

Additional experiments showed that subjects who were handed jagged jigsaw puzzle pieces were more likely to rate an interaction between two people as charged, and those who held weighty clipboards rated the jobseekers they interviewed as more important.

These studies influenced the work of Thalma Lobel, a psychologist at Tel Aviv University. Lobel looked into how things we touch, smell, and feel unconsciously sway our minds, and published her findings in a book titled Sensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence.

The age-old conversation starter

Lobel points out that there are myriad ways to set someone on the path to be more easily persuaded by your pitch. Warm, pleasant weather, for instance, not only serves to brighten someone’s day, but that time-worn conversation starter can serve the same purpose.

“‘How about this weather?’ is actually polite code for ‘What’s going on with you?’ The answer to this seemingly innocent question may sometimes influence your judgements and decisions,” Lobel writes.

This would indicate that should you start the conversation about the weather, it may be best to stay on the sunny side of your assessment. If it’s cold and gray outside the window, better stick to commenting on how warm and cozy it is in the place you’re sitting.

Apply gentle pressure

Firm handshakes get all the attention, but when it comes to negotiating, a light touch may be all you need to sway the results in your favor. Lobel writes that touch can influence whether adults comply or take a risk. One study from the University of Minnesota showed that people who “found” money were more likely to give it to the person who was inquiring about losing it if that person touched their elbow when asking. Another study from Cornell University found that a when a server touched them on the shoulder, customers increased the amount of the tip they gave.

“Touching another human being increases trust and cooperation. It reduces our perception of threat, increases our sense of security, and relaxes us,” Lobel writes.

Choose the most comfortable chair

And then let your boss take it.

Research finds that people’s behavior differs when they sit in softer chairs. A group participated in a study that simulated negotiating the price of a car. Those “buyers” who snuggled down in a comfy chair were more likely to increase their offer by as much as 40%.

As most coffee shops and restaurants have a variety of seating to select from, scope the room and choose carefully. Keep your companion in the comfort zone and save the more straight-backed, less-giving option for yourself so you can stay firm on your pitch.

An invigorating scent

Those in the business of selling real estate know that there’s nothing quite like walking into a home that smells like fresh baked cookies. Now, there won’t be time and place to boil a cinnamon stick (the no-mess shortcut many realtors use to simulate baking) before you sit down and start talking, you can be sure that the olfactory powers of persuasion are in full effect inside a cafe. A French study shows that the smell of freshly baked bread brings out positive emotions and makes people more willing to help each other, while the scent of cinnamon improves attention and memory.

Of course, these studies (like the one with the clipboard) have been met with criticism from some researchers who haven’t been able to replicate the findings. However, that could have been in part because certain parts (like location) weren’t duplicated exactly like the original.

Regardless, it won’t hurt to try these tactics out when you’re ready to reach that next professional milestone. Choose to make it a warm cuppa at a bakery or cafe with comfy seating. Be sure to counter your firm handshake with a light touch on your companion’s shoulder. And don’t forget to talk about the promise of amazing weather.

Did your 2019 New Year’s resolutions include spending less time with your smartphone? You could activate Apple’s “Screen Time” functionality on your iPhone (or Google’s Android-based equivalent), but that’s kind of like asking your heroin dealer to help you kick. Luckily, a small cottage industry has sprung up within the past several years to get you off your smartphone by actually replacing the physical device itself. Punkt, Palm, Light–these hardware startups are all relying on thoughtful-but-aggressive design to accomplish one goal: unplugging you from the Distraction-Industrial Complex without turning you into a mobile-tech Luddite in the process.

It’s a tall order. Smartphones have enmeshed themselves so deeply into our day-to-day existence over the past decade that putting a physically redesigned phone into someone’s hand means asking them to redesign their lives. At least, that’s what we’ve all been led to believe. If you really do believe that your phone “owns” you, then the solution to that problem must necessarily assume an equally outsized role in your life. And that is what these hardware companies are really selling: the idea of positive self-reinvention (or just self-control), expressed in the form of a conspicuous objet d’art. After all, if what you really cared about was using your smartphone less, you could just… do that, without dropping several hundred dollars on a new gadget. Right?

I wanted to find out, so I embarked on a three-part test. I’d use Punkt and Palm’s devices for a week (Light Phone’s latest model isn’t yet available), and then undergo a week-long “control condition” where I simply used the smartphone I already had, but… less. Tech specs and feature designs wouldn’t be my focus. Instead, I’d “review” these companies’ real value proposition: Would changing my phone materially change my life?

Getting Punkt

I began with the Punkt MP02, a followup to the MP01, which was basically like a Jitterbug dumbphone dressed up in Dieter Rams-ian clothing.

Where the MP01 struck me as more of a virtue-signaling prop than a usable product–the phone equivalent of Instagramming your vegan meal deliveries–the MP02 seemed like Punkt’s attempt at designing something genuinely functional. Granted, it’s still a Swiss-styled dumbphone, if you’re into that sort of thing. (My wife scowled and said it “looks like something the people who made The Terminator thought a cell phone should look like.” Tomato, tomah-to.)

But I was more intrigued by the MP02’s under-the-hood design–specifically, the fact that the phone also works as a 4G wireless hotspot, so you can beam Bona Fide Internets™️ to your laptop or tablet if and when you really need it.

The MP02’s big idea is to force a distinction between two “uses” that our glass rectangles intentionally blur: meaningful utility and empty distraction. You can still talk, text, and get online with the MP02. But that last part is no longer effortless. You have to decide to do it, and deal with the friction of doing it on a separate device. In practice, that means button-punching through a couple of menu layers on the MP02’s teensy display to activate the hotspot, manually connecting to it from your other device (at least at first; after that, it should connect to the MP02 automatically), and then putting the phone down and getting down to whatever business you decided you really needed the internet, right now, to do.

It’s kind of a pain in the ass, and that’s the point. Going through this rigamarole is simply not worth bothering with just so you can dork around on Instagram.

So, after activating my Punkt in an AT&T store in downtown Portland, I shut down the iPhone and began using the MP02 solo.

I instantly felt different. Lighter. Free-er. Me-er! The Punkt felt rugged and capable in my hand, but disappeared into my coat pocket in a way my iPhone never seemed to. When I wasn’t touching the phone, it really felt gone. (I keep using the word “felt” because the experience really was that physically palpable.) The MP02’s paradoxical promise of disconnected connectedness–I had a phone, but also didn’t! I had internet, but also totally none!–seemed to be holding up.

Texting, of course, was ridiculous on this thing. It felt charming, at first, to tap out predictive-text messages like it was 1999 on the Punkt’s numeric keypad. But texting in a clipped, telegraph-esque shorthand while my wife and friends were still using their own rich iMessage “voices” felt strange. Within a day, I stopped bothering. If I wanted to talk to someone, I actually called.

This felt strange at first, too, but I can’t deny that it had an unexpected impact on the quality of my conversations. One day, my wife iMessaged me at work (I could still send and receive them on my laptop) that she was having a tough day, punctuated with her usual self-deprecating GIF. I pinged back in my usual way, too (heart emoji)—but then saw the Punkt sitting on my desk and thought, why not give her a call? As soon as I heard her voice, I could tell that she was feeling much lower than the GIF implied. Our call lasted only a few minutes, but I knew I wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t been nudged to by the Punkt. I told her I was glad I did, and she said she was too.

Granted, using the MP02 wasn’t all Hallmark cards. Calling multiple times from the grocery store with minor questions, instead of texting, got my spouse a bit exasperated. But I couldn’t deny that the Punkt was, in fact, “redesigning” certain ways of communicating that I had been doing on autopilot–or doing not at all. I made more phone calls to loved ones with the Punkt than I did without it, and not once did I wish I had texted instead. I didn’t even have to give up iMessaging–I could still do that from my laptop at work or my tablet on the couch at home. But in the same way that the Punkt’s design forced me to put specific temporal or physical “edges” on my mobile internet use, its texting limitations did the same thing for my conversations–which sharpened and sometimes deepened them.

I have to give Punkt credit: The MP02’s aggressive design constraints clearly helped to snap me out of some unthinking habits. But in just a matter of days, those same constraints felt like Procrustean-bed solutions that chopped away more than they enabled. Unlike Palm or Light Phone, Punkt wants its device to replace your smartphone, not just act as a secondary “sidekick” to it–and you’ve got to respect that kind of uncompromising commitment to a design principle. I genuinely hoped Punkt would make me chuck my iPhone into a desk drawer, but in the end I felt so frustrated that I did exactly that with the MP02.

Still, that may say more about me than about the device. The MP02’s tagline (“the best of both worlds”) may be overselling its capabilities, but there is no hedging or namby-pambiness in its value proposition: namely, placing a bunch of no-nonsense physical barriers between you and mobile distraction. This is a device that isn’t designed so much for mindful disconnection as it is for open rebellion against everything that smartphones have become. Using it is about as subtle as going on a crash paleo diet. I couldn’t see myself making that commitment in the long-term, but it did open my eyes.

Next week, I’ll report on what I learned using the Palm–a delicate, gentle little device that’s pretty much a complete 180 from Punkt’s hardcore approach to smartphone detoxing. Stay tuned.

After John Lennon’s assassination in 1980, artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd created a bronze sculpture entitled Non-Violence featuring a .357 Magnum revolver with the barrel tied in a knot.

Over the last 25 years, the nonprofit Non-Violence Project Foundation has helped that colloquially called Knotted Gun become iconic. Its oversize replicas are mounted in at least 30 civic places, including in front the United Nations building in New York. The proceeds of each commission go toward supporting NVPF’s larger mission of youth nonviolence prevention and conflict management education worldwide.

Now the group is partnering with the Dalai Lama to create a limited run of 150 small-scale Knotted Gun replicas from a material that drives the peace message home even more. They’re made from Humanium Metal, which is created from melted-down illegal firearms. One of those replicas, signed by the Dalai Lama, is expected to be auctioned at Sotheby’s later this year. The proceeds of the entire (yet-to-be-priced) line will benefit both NVPF and the maker of Humanium Metal, an international nonprofit called IM Swedish Development Partner.

Humanium Metal started in 2016 as the pro bono concept of two Stockholm-based creative agencies, which recognized that salvaging and repurposing confiscated weapons could create new value for goods that are most authorities otherwise dump or destroy. In 2018, upscale watchmaker TRIWA began using Humanium Metal to create custom watches. It’s also been converted into a lines of spinning tops  and wrist bangles. IM uses the proceeds from its sales to fund nonviolence initiatives in the areas it sources. The Humanium Metal Initiative was one of the winners of Fast Company’s 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards.

“The symbolic value of converting something negative that has been used for killing somebody else into a commodity that can help people, that’s the important thing,” says Peter Brune, a senior advisor for IM, who helped start the effort. In this case, the revenues from all sales will benefit both groups with their continuing missions.

So far, the Humanium Metal effort has converted about 3,500 government-confiscated firearms from El Salvador into roughly five tons of stainless steel powder, which can be reshaped into bars or used in 3D printing. The Dalai Lama has also committed to installing a large-format sculpture in Dharamasala, India, the city where he and the Tibetan government-in-exile reside. Some part or portion of that will be Humanium, although the exact amount is still being decided.

“Using illegal weapons to do a sculpture is of course absolutely the best scenario we could have,” adds Jan Hellman, the chairman of NVPF. “It gives added value to what we’re doing in the sense that illegal weapons are off the streets and we do something with them.”

In 2019, as in recent years, chief executives will certainly be wading into politics. This is, after all, the era of the activist CEO, be it Patagonia’s Rose Marcario or Chip Bergh of Levi’s. The public all but expects companies to take a stand: In a recent report, PR firm Weber Shandwick found that nearly half of Americans think CEOs can influence policy with their activism, while 77% believe CEOs should speak out when their company values are threatened. About 46% said they would be more inclined to buy from a company whose CEO is vocal on social issues they care about.

For some founders and executives, social responsibility is baked into their company mission. We asked CEOs and founders in a number of industries about the social issues they will pay most attention to in 2019, whether it influences their businesses or not.

Climate change

“In my view, climate change is the issue of our time—it underpins all other issues, including political instability and financial distress. We have seen an exponential increase in climate-related natural disasters in the last three decades, all of which have resulted in devastating economic and social impacts. The need to communicate in an emergency situation is, in part, what inspired me to create goTenna.”—Daniela Perdomo, CEO of hardware startup goTenna

Sustainability

“At Material, we constantly think about conscious consumption and how that ties in with sustainability. If we can create products that you will reach for daily that don’t constantly need to be replaced, we can reduce the amount of junk that is out there. We also are, and will continue to push, for as little excess as possible in our packaging. As much as people love the box-within-a-box experience, there’s a lot of waste that is created, so we want to continue to innovate on how to deliver the best experience that is sustainable and recyclable.”—Eunice Byun, CEO of cookware startup Material

“We really believe that the cannabis industry is a catalyst for social change in many areas. It is one of the only last relatively untouched agricultural products and, because of prohibition, we have an amazing ecosystem of small diversified farms that can provide the supply for this country’s cannabis demand. Many of the farmers that we work with cultivate cannabis alongside fruits and vegetables, as cannabis is the subsidy that allows the farms to stay afloat. In addition to distributing these independent farmers’ cannabis statewide [in California], Flow Kana has also begun to purchase the fruits and vegetables grown on these farms to provide our more than 215 employees with monthly CSA [community-supported agriculture] boxes as an employee perk. As a result, Flow Kana is the largest purchaser of local fruits and vegetables in Mendocino County. This is only the beginning of a much larger decentralized agriculture movement that the cannabis industry has the opportunity to lead.”—Michael Steinmetz, CEO of cannabis startup Flow Kana

Gun violence

“I will be stepping into the role of a mother in 2019, and the safety of my child will be one of my top priorities. I want my future daughter to feel safe and free from gun violence. Kids should feel comfortable going to a movie theater or playground, and school shooting drills should not be the norm. This next year I want to speak up to stop the senseless tragedies we experience all too frequently at the hands of automatic weapons.”—Ariel Kaye, CEO of bedding startup Parachute

Equal access to healthcare

“One of the biggest social issues of our time is that black women are dying at an alarming rate from doing something so natural and important—giving birth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The risk of pregnancy-related deaths for black women is three to four times higher than those of white women.” This is a national crisis that we must address with an overhaul of our healthcare system, as 50% of pregnancy-related deaths of black women are preventable. Black women have the right to live a full and dignified life, so change is needed to combat the implicit bias that is present in maternal health.”—Tristan Walker, CEO of health and beauty startup Walker & Company 

Social mobility

“The Sweeten platform we are creating is designed with social mobility in mind for our general contractors. There isn’t a clear upward career path for Uber drivers to ascend to management within the company—but we’re seeing, for example, small general contractor firms capitalize on their Sweeten business volume to grow their firms.—Jean Brownhill, CEO of renovation startup Sweeten

Workplace diversity

“We pride ourselves on the diversity of our teams, and that means not only having people from different ethnic backgrounds, but individuals born in different countries. We have immigrants with visas and even Dreamers. A personal and company focus in 2019 will be on how to support our team and future members who desire to truly do amazing work but are caught in the crosshairs in terms of immigration issues within this country.”—Jessica Matthews, CEO of energy company Uncharted Power

“The proportional representation of Black and Latinx people in tech is always the top social issue I pay attention to, not just because of Code2040’s work, but also because of how much we are collectively starting to understand the power that is being wielded in the tech industry. I’m curious to see if folks can help connect the dots about the dangers of tech’s power in the absence of a diverse workforce.”—Karla Monterroso, CEO of the diversity nonprofit Code2040

“Something I’m very attuned to because of my background working in female-driven entrepreneurial environments, and now in my own experience of being a female entrepreneur, is how to encourage young women professionally. In some ways I’m the poster child of ‘having it all’ because I’m a new mother and founder of a young, disruptive business. But I’m able to do these things in large part because I have an incredible support system surrounding me–from an amazingly involved partner in my husband, to an awesome nanny, to my team in New York that appreciates the value I bring to the business as a mother. Given the support I’ve received throughout my career, it’s important for me to do the same and contribute to an entrepreneurial ecosystem that empowers women at all levels.”—Nidhi Kapur, CEO of furniture startup Maiden Home

Sexual misconduct

“I’m focused on helping to end one of the most widespread forms of abuse against women: violence and harassment in the world of work. More than one-third of the world’s countries do not have any laws prohibiting sexual harassment at work, leaving a staggering 235 million women vulnerable in the workplace. With our #ThisIsNotWorking campaign, CARE has been pushing governments and employers to form an agreement with trade unions and adopt a strong International Labor Organization Convention (ILO)–the first of its kind–to end violence and harassment in the world of work. Since the campaign launched last March, we’ve gotten almost 100,000 signatures on a petition calling on the ILO to create the global treaty. We have seen the power of the #MeToo movement here in the U.S., and I hope that 2019 will be a year of increased mobilization for women to stand together around the world to end sexual harassment and gender-based violence.”—Michelle Nunn, CEO of humanitarian aid organization Care 

NBC has obtained a photo showing that the steel slat wall Donald Trump has been vigorously espousing can be cut with a saw. Clearly, the wall would not work as Trump envisioned it–nor would the other prototypes.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tested eight wall prototypes that Trump and his cronies are considering for the Mexico border. The test was simple: DHS asked the military to try to breach the wall using ordinary tools available at any hardware store.

Dept. of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype for border wall proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.

A photo obtained by @NBCNews shows the results of the test. https://t.co/SNxn6YneG9pic.twitter.com/UP9EgHGxDx

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 10, 2019

All the walls failed. Concrete, steel, steel and concrete–nothing held up. All these inexpensive materials can be breached as long as you have a cheap, commercially available electric saw. (And the prohibitively expensive alloys that can resist hardware tools can be jumped over anyway.)

The photo leaked to NBC is one of many that were redacted from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report first obtained by San Diego public radio KPBS following a Freedom of Information Act request. “The heavily redacted government documents reveal every mock-up was deemed vulnerable to at least one breaching technique,” the radio station story says. According to the report, the DHS even had to stop one of the breach tests because the entire wall was going to collapse. The report also showed that the government agency didn’t test for tunnels under the wall, which seems like a significant oversight, given that tunnels have been dug to smuggle in drugs and people in the past.

Obviously, the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see these images. What is clear now is that the wall is a failure in any of its designs or materials–a joke with a multibillion-dollar price tag that hopefully will never get made.

For most of this century, Apple has been known as the world’s preeminent hardware company. In the last 18 years, the company has given the world the iPod, the flat-screen iMac, the MacBook Air, and the iPad–products almost universally agreed to be the leaders in their fields. But Apple’s biggest product, from both a commercial and critical standpoint, has been the iPhone.

Over the last 11 years, the iPhone has become almost synonymous with “smartphone.” Its historic success is why Apple became the first public company in U.S. history to hit a trillion-dollar market cap. Since Apple hit that milestone last summer, its stock has taken a beating, and in November Microsoft became worth more than Apple (though not a trillion-dollar company) for the first time in eight years.

Apple’s stock was further hammered late last week when the company issued a rare guidance revision, lowering the current quarter’s revenue estimates by $9 billion. In an open letter to investors from Tim Cook, Apple primarily blamed the economic environment in China for sluggish sales. But Apple, and every other smartphone maker on the planet, knows there’s a bigger problem on the horizon: Twelve years after the first iPhone arrived, smartphones are a mature product category.

As a result, people don’t feel the need to upgrade their current iPhones–or other smartphones–as often as they used to. Hardcore fans who used to upgrade every year now may wait two or three years to do so. And other less-techie consumers find that smartphones have advanced so much they can get away with the one they bought four years ago. After all, even 2014’s iPhone 6 still emails, surfs the web, and takes photos just fine.

The problem for Apple is that the iPhone is such a large part of its business. If the company is going to continue to grow, what product could step up to take the place of lagging smartphone sales?

The answer from every Wall Street analyst, tech pundit, and even Apple itself seems to be: services. In order to continue its growth for the immediate future–short of breakthrough new hardware like AR glasses or a car–Apple will have to grow its subscription-based products, or create new ones. In essence, Apple needs to become a services company on the scale of Netflix, Spotify, and Dropbox.

Apple has already started to make serious moves in the direction of becoming a more service-focused company by allowing Apple Music to be streamed on Amazon Alexa and Echo devices last year, enabling the music streaming service to grow beyond only people with Apple or Android devices. Then this week Apple announced it will also bring iTunes movies and TV shows to smart TVs made by third parties, starting with Samsung. Having Apple’s video services accessible on non-Apple products is pivotal if the company wants its upcoming video streaming service to be able to compete with Netflix and other video services that are already available everywhere.

But if Apple really wants to become a services company of significance, it needs to up its game. Here’s how:

Apple must rethink its video content strategy

The worst-kept secret in Hollywood is that later this year Apple is going to launch a video streaming service to compete with Netflix and Hulu. However, the company may be getting off to a wrong start before the service even launches. If rumors are to be believed, it is planning to launch a “family friendly” streaming service. That means no original content with sex, too much violence, or heavy-hitting subjects. In other words, Apple is avoiding the type of original content services that Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are lauded for.

While the family-friendly angle isn’t to be dismissed outright, the problem for Apple is that the biggest player in family-friendly content–Disney–will also be launching its new Disney+ streaming service this year. With home budgets already stressed and subscription service fatigue setting in, who will households turn to for their family-friendly needs? Apple? Hell no. They’re going to join Disney+, because that’s the company that offers the most-beloved family-friendly content ever created.

So if Apple can’t grab the family-friendly crowd away from Disney, who is it going to attract with its family-friendly lineup? Certainly not current Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, and Amazon Prime Video subscribers, who enjoy the more adult-themed content. That would leave Apple’s service feeling like it’s the place to go if you want plain vanilla, middle-of-the-road, prime-time network programming. And we already have basic TV for that.

It should become a leading news platform

For what it’s worth, I believe Apple already has a product with great services potential. No, not Apple Music–I’m talking about Apple News. The app is found on all devices running the most recent versions of iOS and MacOS, and it’s the one source I go to to read most of my news. If Apple, as is rumored, builds this out into a full-blown paid-for news subscription service, I think people who appreciate good content from varied sources would sign up in droves.

Right now, the News app works by aggregating stories from various publications in one very attractive and user-friendly app. The app also allows users to subscribe to individual publications so they can read more articles from, for example, the New York Times. But if Apple could get the buy-in from major publications and websites and launch a news service that gives Apple News subscribers unlimited access from all of those magazines, papers, and sites, it could go a long way to becoming a healthy subscription business for Apple. It would also be another way for publications to earn a profit from their content.

Add in video news content from major networks and cable channels and it would be even more tempting to sign up.

It needs to make iCloud pricing more appealing

I’ll make this one quick, because there’s no shortage of cloud storage providers. I find Apple’s iCloud to be an incredibly easy-to-use cloud solution with prices similar to other cloud service providers. But that’s just the problem: Apple’s iCloud is at best on-par with the competition–no better, no worse.

While iCloud would never be the biggest part of all the services Apple offers, the company could probably double its user base overnight if it slashed its prices well below its competitors. How about 1TB of iCloud storage for $1.99 a month? Dropbox would be shaking in its boots. Apple could open up iCloud storage to Android users–but is that such a stretch? iCloud has long been available on Windows PCs, and Apple already offers Apple Music on Android devices.

It ought to bring iMessage to Android

Speaking of Android . . . it’s time to bring the iMessage service to the world’s largest computing base. I know, I know, putting iMessage on Android would destroy one of the main reasons people stick with their iPhones. However, with iMessage unavailable on Android, iPhone users with Android friends often have to switch to other apps, such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, to chat with their buddies. These cross-platform apps pull iPhone users out of Apple’s ecosystem, making it easier for them to switch to Android. But the converse would be true with iMessage on Android: Get Android users addicted to the simplicity of iMessage, and it makes it easier for them to jump ship to the iPhone when they buy their next smartphone.

But how would bringing iMessage to Android help Apple, the new services company? Simple: It could do what WhatsApp used to and charge Android users an annual $4.99 fee to use the app. Five bucks times a few hundred million Android users on an annual subscription plan brings in a lot of services dough for Apple.

It could turn the iPhone into a service

Believe it or not, the “iPhone as a service” is a real thing already. Apple offers the iPhone Upgrade Program, which allows people to get a new iPhone every year for as low as $37 a month. The problem is the service is underused and outsourced to a third party, Citizens Bank, making it less user friendly than it could be.

Instead of continuing down this route, Apple could scrap the current iPhone Upgrade Program altogether in favor of launching a true iPhone subscription service. Imagine a flat $30 monthly fee for the latest Apple flagship–and you get a new flagship every year? Thirty bucks a month over three years is $1,080. Considering people are hanging on to their smartphones that cost less than that for three years or more, wouldn’t it benefit Apple to make a guaranteed grand plus change off of every iPhone owner every three years?

And suddenly Apple’s flagship would go from being one of the most expensive phones to own to one of the cheapest (spread out over three years, of course). Allowing subscribers to access the latest flagship for only 30 bucks a month would also mean these new iPhone subscribers would have the latest tech built-in, which would more likely make them buy the latest apps that take advantage of the tech, and subscribe to other services that go along with the tech–all provided by Apple.

And if you think consumer hardware as a service is an odd thing, major companies are already doing it, such as Microsoft with its Xbox. Realistically, I think it’s unlikely Apple would turn the iPhone into a service, but if the company is serious about combating falling smartphone sales and becoming a services behemoth, it should give it serious consideration.

The second season of Donald Glover’s Atlanta featured a memorable middle-school flashback episode revolving around a possibly fake Fubu shirt. Now, Goodwill is enlisting artificial intelligence to try to make sure that every luxury item sold in its online stores is authentic.

Goodwill is implementing Entrupy’s artificial intelligence-based solution to guarantee the authenticity of luxury accessories sold through the nonprofit’s auction site, shopgoodwill.com. Entrupy’s program uses machine learning algorithms and computer-vision technology to verify items with a 99.1% accuracy rate.

According to a press release, the company’s ever-growing database includes millions of data points from real and fake goods for 100 years of styles from brands including Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Celine, Chanel, Chloe, Coach, Dior, Fendi, Goyard, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and YSL/Saint Laurent. They hope to add more product categories for authentication in Q1 2019.

When they see a luxury item of questionable origin–say, a Burberry plaid “Bottega Veneta” handbag–Goodwill employees will use a proprietary scanner and mobile app to verify the item. If it passes the AI’s authentication process, it will get listed on the site and earn some much-needed revenue for Goodwill’s good deeds. Each verified item will receive an Entrupy Certificate of Authenticity and financial guarantee, making it easier for shoppers to trust that the Fubu or Gucci or Louis Vuitton that they are buying on shopgoodwill.com is not just a piece of plastic printed with interlocking LVs.

It’s all in the hopes of returning trust to the secondhand luxury marketplace, which is not known for consumer confidence (and for good reason). Feel free to spend your free time trolling shopgoodwill.com to see if some billionaire has donated an Hermès Kelly bag—or some guaranteed real Fubu—to the nonprofit.

More than 10 million people visited the Louvre in 2018–a boost of 25% since 2017. But the booming numbers aren’t necessarily due to the museum’s collection at all. Instead, the Louvre credits superstars Beyoncé and Jay Z for drawing visitors after the couple shot a music video for the song “Apeshit” in its halls.

The music video depicts Beyoncé and Jay-Z singing, rapping, and dancing in front of some of the museum’s masterpieces, like the MonaLisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Coronation of Napoleon. Their casual demeanor in the museum’s storied galleries is a statement of cultural dominance, displaying their wealth and power with one of the world’s greatest monuments to art as a backdrop.

According to the Louvre’s recent press statement, the music video helped set a global attendance record in 2018–though the museum also credits an exhibition focused on the works of French artist Eugène Delacroix as well as the opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi for boosting the number of visitors and the museum’s global reputation.

To capitalize on the “Apeshit” video’s global audience, the Louvre added a 90-minute tour of the galleries and paintings included in the music video for visitors. After all, it’s not every day that some of the world’s most successful recording artists turn your museum into a stage for their art.

What more can you say about Disney? They’ve got the Marvel Universe. They’ve got galaxies far, far away. They’ve got Mickey Mouse. It’s an entertainment business juggernaut of gargantuan proportions–nothing sentimental about that.

But now Disneyland Paris comes around with an ad that’s equal parts nostalgia, Disney magic, and criminally cute animals.

I mean, C’MON.

Created by agency BETC Paris, the spot follows the familiar journey of a child who falls in love with the magic of comic books, and then sees their imagination come to life. Except in this case, that child is a duckling.

Look, raise the prices all you want. It’s this kind of tearjerking manipulation that makes people scream, “Tais-toi et prends tout mon argent!”

Translation:

If, like many, you are searching for your calling in life–perhaps you are still unsure which profession aligns with what you most care about–here are five recent research findings worth taking into consideration.

First, there’s a difference between having a harmonious passion and an obsessive passion. If you can find a career path or occupational goal that fires you up, you are more likely to succeed and find happiness through your work–that much we know from the deep research literature. But beware–since a seminal paper published in 2003 by the Canadian psychologist Robert Vallerand and colleagues, researchers have made an important distinction between having a harmonious passion and an obsessive one. If you feel that your passion or calling is out of control, and that your mood and self-esteem depend on it, then this is the obsessive variety, and such passions, while they are energizing, are also associated with negative outcomes such as burnout and anxiety. In contrast, if your passion feels in control, reflects qualities that you like about yourself, and complements other important activities in your life, then this is the harmonious version, which is associated with positive outcomes, such as vitality, better work performance, experiencing flow, and positive mood.

Secondly, having an unanswered calling in life is worse than having no calling at all. If you already have a burning ambition or purpose, do not leave it to languish. A few years ago, researchers at the University of South Florida surveyed hundreds of people and grouped them according to whether they felt like they had no calling in life, that they had a calling they’d answered, or they had a calling but had never done anything about it. In terms of their work engagement, career commitment, life satisfaction, health and stress, the stand-out finding was that the participants who had a calling they hadn’t answered scored the worst across all these measures. The researchers said that this puts a different spin on the presumed benefits of having a calling in life. They concluded: “Having a calling is only a benefit if it is met, but can be a detriment when it is not as compared to having no calling at all.”

The third finding to bear in mind is that, without passion, grit is “merely a grind.” The idea that “grit” is vital for career success was advanced by the psychologist Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania, who argued that highly successful, “gritty.” people have impressive persistence. “To be gritty,” Duckworth writes in her 2016 book on the subject, “is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.” Many studies certainly show that being more conscientious–more self-disciplined and industrious–is associated with more career success. But is that all that being gritty means? Duckworth has always emphasised that it has another vital component that brings us back to passion again–alongside persistence, she says that gritty people also have an “ultimate concern” (another way of describing having a passion or calling).

However, according to a paper published last year, the standard measure of grit has failed to assess passion (or more specifically, ‘passion attainment’)–and Jon Jachimowicz at Columbia Business School in New York and colleagues believe this could explain why the research on grit has been so inconsistent (leading to claims that it is an overhyped concept and simply conscientiousness repackaged). Jachimowicz’s team found that when they explicitly measured passion attainment (how much people feel they have adequate passion for their work) and combined this with a measure of perseverance (a consistency of interests and the ability to overcome setbacks), then the two together did predict superior performance among tech-company employees and university students. “Our findings suggest that perseverance without passion attainment is mere drudgery, but perseverance with passion attainment propels individuals forward,” they said.

Another finding is that, when you invest enough effort, you might find that your work becomes your passion. It’s all very well reading about the benefits of having a passion or calling in life but, if you haven’t got one, where to find it? Duckworth says it’s a mistake to think that in a moment of revelation one will land in your lap, or simply occur to you through quiet contemplation–rather, you need to explore different activities and pursuits, and expose yourself to the different challenges and needs confronting society. If you still draw a blank, then perhaps it’s worth heeding the advice of others who say that it is not always the case that energy and determination flow from finding your passion–sometimes it can be the other way around and, if you put enough energy into your work, then passion will follow. Consider, for instance, an eight-week repeated survey of German entrepreneurs published in 2014 that found a clear pattern–their passion for their ventures increased after they’d invested more effort into them the week before. A follow-up study qualified this, suggesting that the energising effect of investing effort arises only when the project is freely chosen and there is a sense of progress. “Entrepreneurs increase their passion when they make significant progress in their venture and when they invest effort out of their own free choice,” the researchers said.

Finally, if you think that passion comes from doing a job you enjoy, you’re likely to be disappointed. Consider where you think passion comes from. In a preprint paper released at PsyArXiv, Jachimowicz and his team draw a distinction between people who believe that passion comes from doing what you enjoy (which they say is encapsulated by Oprah Winfrey’s commencement address in 2008 in which she said passions “bloom when we’re doing what we love”), and those who see it as arising from doing what you believe in or value in life (as reflected in the words of former Mexican president Felipe Calderón who in his own commencement address in 2011 said “you have to embrace with passion the things that you believe in, and that you are fighting for”).

The researchers found that people who believe that passion comes from pleasurable work were less likely to feel that they had found their passion (and were more likely to want to leave their job) as compared with people who believe that passion comes from doing what you feel matters. Perhaps this is because there is a superficiality and ephemerality to working for sheer pleasure–what fits the bill one month or year might not do so for long–whereas working towards what you care about is a timeless endeavour that is likely to stretch and sustain you indefinitely. The researchers conclude that their results show “the extent to which individuals attain their desired level of work passion may have less to do with their actual jobs and more to do with their beliefs about how work passion is pursued.”

This is an adaptation of an article originally published by The British Psychological Society’s Research Digest. This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.

This post originally appeared on The Creative Independent, a resource for creative people with a deep archive of how-to guides and interviews.

If you’re a creative person living in the world today, people will expect to be able to find some examples of your work online. How you choose to put it there, though, is completely up to you.

I got started on the web in the early aughts when I created a gallery for my creative work. I call it a gallery because it was just that: a blank space with images in a row that linked to some projects I wanted to share with friends. Since then my site has evolved, disappeared, come back, and spawned other sites that express my ideas and identity online. Each evolution was a chance to share new work in a way that reflected how I wanted people to experience it.

I work on the web everyday. I help designers, artists, and galleries discover and create their online presence. And for seven years, I designed and led teams at Etsy, a platform that helps millions of creative humans around the world use the web to make an income from their craft. In all of my work, I’ve learned that every person brings their own body of knowledge and point of view when they create their own space online. The unique approaches that each individual brings to the experience are what make the internet an interesting place to explore.

Before digging into this guide, I recommend reading Laurel Schwulst’s essay, “My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be?” It’s a great sister piece to this more practical guide, and provides many poetic explorations of the website format. Like Laurel mentions in her essay, “Artists excel at creating worlds.” I hope this guide will help you start creating yours.

Start with “why”

Consider your end goal

Begin planning your online presence with an end goal in mind, i.e. what you hope to accomplish by putting your work online. This goal can be as simple as, “share my best pieces of writing with friends and acquaintances,” or, “make the internet a bit weirder and more wonderful by documenting my creative process daily.” It can also be more ambitious and specific–“I’d like to sell enough ceramics to be able to hire a studio assistant,” or, “I’d like to show off my best curatorial work to help me win more grants and residencies than I did last year.”

Goals can feel intimidating, especially when they’re applied to a creative practice. As you start considering the end goal for putting your work online, you might find yourself asking, “Won’t having a goal just make me feel constrained, or cause my site to end up feeling contrived?” The answer is no. Just like with designing something or making a work of art, using a constraint can help you be more focused and inventive. It will also ensure you plan your site in a way that’s attainable, sustainable, and helpful to your practice.

Getting started: It ain’t that hard

Starting can be hard. Trust me, I know from years of experience. So I’m going to offer you a six-step mini-guide for getting what might feel like a daunting task off the ground. To complete this short process you’ll need a blank sheet of paper, something to write with, a timer (you can create one by searching google), your intuition, the ability to temporarily avoid critiquing yourself, and about 30 minutes.

Mini-guide to create a goal for your creative web presence:

1. Take a deep breath. Chill out.
2. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Then, free-write some ideal outcomes (aka potential goals) you have for sharing your work online. Hold off on judging these outcomes–just write what pops into your mind. Try to write down five to 10 ideas. The more specific you can be, the better. If you feel stuck on one, simply move on to the next.
3. Once you’ve completed your list, use a one-minute timer to review and circle the two outcomes/goals that resonate most deeply on a gut level. This is your moment to tune into your inner guide.
4. Spend five minutes expanding each of your circled goal ideas. You can do this by writing a long and more specific description that gives the goal more color. This should take about 10 minutes in total. You can use the SMART goals framework if you’re like me and find frameworks helpful. This will ensure your two draft goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
5. Use the final five minutes to review both goals and make a decision about which one resonates most with why you want to create a space for your creative work online. You can also take pieces from one and add them to the goal you’re more excited about, or you can merge both together if it makes sense.
6. Voila, you’ve narrowed down your reasons for making a website into one specific goal. Read your final goal out loud. How does it feel? Make tweaks if necessary.

Note: If you reach the end of this process unsatisfied with your goal, feel free to take a break for a bit and then replay it.

Congratulations! You’ve officially started the process of creating your online presence. Writing your goal down means you’re 33% more likely to get your site up. Putting it in a spot where you can see it everyday is even better. So, take a moment to celebrate.

Who is this thing for, and what should it look like?

Identify your website’s audience

When you put work online, you’re adding it to a public space. This is the case even if you design your website to be a small collection of images and links held together by a few lines of code. Because of this, it’s crucial to consider the needs and wants of your future website’s visitors. As with your site’s goal, being specific about your audience will help you to focus precisely on how your site’s content and form should take shape.

Spend some time imagining your website’s ideal visitor, and write out a list of things that might be important for their experience. Ask yourself: Who are you creating this website for? What kind of experience is that person looking for? Where are they coming from? Are they friends, artists, curators, potential clients, or someone else?

To get even more specific about your audience, it can be helpful to think about people in your existing community who match the profile of your ideal visitor. Then you can imagine that person’s wants, needs, and motivations for visiting your site.

Once you’ve created this ideal visitor profile, feel free to give them a name. Then, keep them in mind alongside your goal as you continue work on your website.

Inspire yourself by researching other websites

Chances are you’ve visited some other creative people’s websites and can easily remember a few of your favorites. It’s worth your time to revisit those sites to see what makes their site successful. What does their web presence look and feel like? Can you interpret their end goal from their site’s design?

As you explore different websites for inspiration, keep your goal and audience in mind, and take notes on what you do and don’t like. You’ll likely find a remarkable amount of similarities and differences between all the sites you visit. The similarities are usually focused on meeting common expectations for any site visitor regardless of their profile. The differences are what make the experience of visiting an artist’s site memorable, and usually relate to their specific practice, technical abilities, and creative sensibilities.

As you brainstorm some of your favorite creative websites, I’ll share a few of mine:

• Visual artist, curator, writer, and teacher Morehshin Allahyari uses a customized WordPress site that works well for both desktop and mobile viewing, and for screens of all sizes. She keeps content organized into logical sections that match how she works: artworks, curatorial, writing, teaching, contact.
• Visual artist Petra Cortright creates an expressive experience with an early-web vibe. The arrows point you toward an intentional 30-second scroll to finally reach the links to her work.
• Visual artist American Artist uses SquareSpace with a minimalistic, monochromatic aesthetic. The stark black background creates focus for the large images of their work while keeping the navigation, links, and writing crispy clear across the site.
• Artist and writer Ingrid Burrington keeps her site’s experience simple by relying primarily on text. She shares what she’s up to in a way that shows both self-awareness and a sense of humor. Note that her navigation is created by a sentence that describes her work.
• Visual artist and programer Damon Zucconi resists common navigational buckets by creating a sprawling and immersive portfolio that can be filtered by “Not Everything” and “Mostly Everything.”
• Visual artist and writer Jenny Odell uses a custom splash page (a page that loads before the site’s main content appears). Once you’re past the splash page, she uses a grid layout to make it easy to navigate her projects and writing.
• Creative director and designer Seokhoon Choi creates a graphic, single-page site that works more or less like a business card. It has all the key information needed to get in touch, while expressing his personal aesthetic.
• Early tech pioneer and artist Tom Jennings uses his site to share an unassuming 25-year-old archive with 30,000+ pages of content, all written in basic HTML with a simple CSS setup. A line near the bottom of the homepage points out that the site has “no trackers, no ads, no javascript.”
• Designer Carly Ayres uses a public Google Doc for her site. The title, “[Carly Ayers] Website FINAL,” is a wink at file naming practices, because few digital files are ever final. The doc is open to comments and editing from anyone online, making her site a true public space–graffiti and all.

Now that you’ve run through some folks on my list, you can head off and explore people that inspire you. Most everyone will share their website links in their social media profiles, so browsing Twitter or Instagram can be a good place to start your research. As you browse, take notes and make sketches of the layouts and ideas you like. Once you’ve gathered enough inspiration, it’s time to put it to good use.

Think strategically about what will live on your site

The way you choose to balance and contextualize your past, present, or even future work on your website is completely up to you. Ultimately, this gives you the power to say exactly what you want to say about yourself and your practice–without feeling obligated to be completely comprehensive. It’s totally up to you to decide what you want to share, and how you want to share it.

Basic organization

As you’ve researched other sites, you’ve likely noticed these four basic types of pages:

• Work/projects: A portfolio-style presentation of the things you’ve made or done that together create a good representation of you, what you do, and what you want to do. This could be a more thorough archive, or just a few highlights–it’s up to you.
• About: A page sharing a short statement about who you are and what you do, plus (if you want) a longer paragraph detailing your more recent work, the specifics of your practice, or anything else you’d like to share. Some people include a link to a more detailed CV here, but you don’t need to.
• Contact: A simple page sharing how your site’s visitors can get in touch with you, be that through email, social media, or a contact form. Sometimes this is combined with the About page.
• News: If you plan to post frequent updates, it’s a good idea to have a section on your site that’s just for announcements. You can also use this section to create pages about new projects, before those projects are ready for your “Work/projects” portfolio section.

Start sketching your site out on paper

Your first instinct for getting started might be to buy a domain or sign up for a platform. However, starting by sketching with a paper and pencil is helpful because it’s much easier to play around and try out multiple approaches. Doing this initial work will help you better understand what capabilities your site will need when it comes time to choose a platform or framework, or even domain name.

With your content in mind, take some time to make a few wireframe drawings of what your site might look like. As you start sketching, consider these questions:

• What are the key pages you need?
• How can someone navigate around?
• How frequently will you be updating your site with new projects?
• Where will you share news or other updates?
• How will someone sign up for a mailing list (if you have one), or find your social media profiles?
• Where can visitors find info about how to get in touch?
• What will be unique about your site’s overall look and/or experience?

As you sketch, keep referring back to your end goal. Be playful at first, then revisit what you’ve drawn with a more critical eye. At some point, consider your site from the perspective of the ideal site visitor who you identified earlier. From their perspective, what might be missing? What information won’t be helpful or relevant to them? Which elements will make them feel a connection to your work, and to you as a person?

Once you’ve reached a point where you’re feeling good about your sketches and you know the basic pages and components you want to include, that means you’re ready to get started in the virtual space.

Technically speaking

To code or not to code

Now you may be asking, should I code my own site? To answer this question, simply acknowledge your existing coding skills (or lack thereof), assess what you’ll need to learn to create a site you’re excited about, and then think about whether or not it makes sense for you to spend the extra time it takes to build a site from scratch. Know that there is no need to code your own site these days, as there are tons of flexible, easy-to-use platforms out there.

If there are web skills you’re looking to develop, coding your own site can be a great learning opportunity. Plus, there are lots of great courses and guides out there. Just keep in mind that learning to code while you create your site can add significant time to the project.

Quick-start platforms

The site-building platforms listed below will let you customize themes to meet most of your design needs. Additionally, extensive documentation and support are available with each platform. With the exception of Squarespace, each of the below also offers a free version. Paying for the platform will you get more features and options, including the ability to register a custom domain name, which I highly recommend. With this in mind, here are the most commonly used platforms:

• WordPress.com: This is the most common platform on the web for building and maintaining small sites. It has plenty of templates and plugins to meet most of your needs. WordPress.com also offers fairly low pricing compared to other options.
• Squarespace: This platform offers a wide array of beautifully designed templates that work responsively across all screen sizes. It also provides plenty of customization options. They have 24/7 customer support that is responsive and helpful.
• Wix: This platform is easy to use and flexible, and includes automatic site backups. They have a wide array of templates with a clever algorithmic helper called ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to guide you through setup. Unfortunately there is no live support (just email), so when you encounter a problem, it can take a bit longer to resolve.
• Weebly: This platform is similar to Squarespace and Wix in many ways–including the setup, features, and pricing. They have a more limited theme selection, but they do work on all screen sizes. Themes can’t be edited as much as you like.

DIY frameworks

If you are technically adept, exploring these DIY options can be rewarding, and will make your site feel more unique. Keep in mind that these options will require more steps, skills, and time than the platforms listed above–even if you already know how to code. Also note that if you plan to sell things from your site, you will have even more work to do here.

All of these frameworks are free, but require you to pay for your own site hosting and domain registration. I’ve listed the DIY approaches in order of complexity, with the simplest options towards the top:

• Basic HTML: If you’re good with the basics of coding, but have the desire to do something technical, this option is a great place to start. Seth Price‘s site is a good example of a notable artist with a basic HTML site.
• WordPress.org: This is the free and open-source version of WordPress. Most companies that offer website hosting and domain registration have one-click installation options for this version of WordPress. You get a lot of the perks similar to the paid WordPress.com platform mentioned in the previous list, but play a bigger role in maintenance, upgrades, and security. Note that without certain plugins, these sites can be vulnerable to security threats.
• Indexhibit: Developed by other creatives, Indexhibit is the first framework I used to create my site in graduate school. It’s free, flexible, and simple, but does require that you know how to create databases, use FTP, and change permissions on files. They have helpful tutorials for getting things set up quickly.
• Github Pages: For the most technically adept, this is a great option. You will still need to register your domain with another service. This offers speedy static sites, version control, and free hosting. The templates that come with this setup are very basic, and you’ll likely want to make bigger changes to them. If you choose this route, I recommend using Siteleaf to make editing content easier.

Your name dot com

Once you’ve chosen a platform or framework, you’re ready for one of the most exciting steps: buying a top-level domain name. This is essentially buying an address on the internet.

Now, if you have a fairly common name, there is a good chance that yourname.com may already be taken. If it is, fret not: this gives you one more opportunity to be creative. Domain names have become more plentiful in the past few years, with the introduction of many alternatives to “.com.” If you can’t get yourname.com, try to choose something memorable that relates to your creativity, personality, or audience. A personal favorite domain name was John Michael Boling’s now defunct http://www.gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com/. There are also plenty of fun alternatives to “.com,” including “.pizza,” “.club,” and “.info.” You can browse available domain names related to your own name here.

Note: iwantmyname.com is a good tool for exploring available domain names, however I highly recommend buying your domain name through the platform or web hosting service you’ll be using. It will make managing your site over the years much easier. More on this below…

Once you have a domain name picked out, how do you buy it?

If you chose to go with a quick-start platform, each one will have its own guide to buying a domain, and it will likely automatically connect it to your site after you’ve purchased it.

If you chose the DIY framework route, there are dozens of sites that will register a domain for you. To keep your setup simple, it’s good to buy a domain with a company that can also host your site. The service that I’ve personally used for this purpose is Dreamhost. They have reliable uptime, affordable pricing, and are completely carbon neutral. If you want to dive deeper into the options for registering and hosting services, you can read this list of reviews.

Building and versioning

Some basic steps to follow as you start to build your website:

1. Gather all the content you plan to publish on your site, and organize it based on where it will live. If you have images or articles, bring them together within one file. (A nerdy note about those large images you’re probably using: eventually, you’ll want to run them through TinyPNG before uploading them. This is a free service that will compress large images to help your site load efficiently for visitors.)
2. Using your earlier sketch as a guide, and with either a quick-start platform or from scratch, dive into building an initial version of your website. Think of what you’re making as a prototype, or “minimum viable product,” that will change and get better as you experiment and get feedback. At this stage, don’t worry about getting every single image or article up–you’ll have time to do that later.
3. Share your prototype with a few people you trust, who also know you and your practice well. You can do this by simply emailing a link, or better yet, by sitting with them and having them explore your site while you watch. Tell them your goal, and then ask for their feedback. Note: You will get something extremely valuable in this moment. In the future, when people on the internet view your finished site, you will not be sitting with them. This means you’ll have no idea how people will perceive your site, and therefore, how they’ll perceive you. Use this time with your trusted friends to see what their first impressions are, what they think the site says about you, and whether or not they think the experience will work to help you reach your main goal.
4. Based on the feedback you get, you may want to tweak some things, or even rearrange your site entirely. (Remember: how your site comes to life is up to you, so it’s ok to cherry pick the feedback you agree with.) If you do make edits, ask for a second round of feedback–from the same friend, and maybe a new one, too–to see how your newer version lines up to your goal. Hopefully after a few rounds, you’ll have confidence that your new site is accomplishing what you want it to accomplish.
5. Finally, add the rest of your content and put on all the finishing touches. (This is the moment to process your large images using TinyPNY, as I mentioned in the nerdy side note earlier.)
6. Once your site is complete, send it to another trusted friend (preferably someone who is good at catching typos and details), and ask them to do a quick review.

Launch day

Congratulations, you’ve put the finishing touches on your site and now it’s time to launch it into the world! Just like how you built a site that suits your style, you can launch it in your own style as well. I have some friends who like to keep their announcements more intimate by sending around an email note with the people they want to share it with BCC’d. Some other friends would go for a wider audience by using Instagram and/or Twitter to share news like launching a new site. Any way you want to share your new home on the web is great, as long as it feels right to you and keeps your goal and audience in mind.

For more tips on thoughtful approaches to promoting your work, read A creative person’s guide to thoughtful promotion by Kathryn Jaller.

If you’ve made it this far and successfully launched a site, that’s a big deal. Please do me one final favor and celebrate all your hard work. Treat yourself to something special, and admire what you’ve accomplished.

Appendix: Maintenance mode

Here is a checklist of recommendations for keeping your site running smoothly once you’ve got it up:

• Make sure your domain and hosting account is set up to auto-renew. If you can afford it, invest in a multi-year contract from the outset to save some money in the long haul, and make things easier on your future self.
• Use a password manager, and/or create a private and secure document that has all of your account information and login details. The more complex your setup is, the more important this documentation will be when something goes awry, or when you finally need to renew that hosting contract three years from now.
• Annually log into your account manager and backup your site to your computer or a thumb drive. This archive will be nice to look at years from now when your site has evolved and changed. It also comes in handy in rare moments when content is lost or a service goes down. (Note: If you’re on a platform like SquareSpace, backups can be a little trickier)

In summary . . .

Creating a space for yourself online with your own domain and style is one of the most important things you can do to share your work. As you think about how to present yourself and your work online, don’t obsess over getting everything perfect. Keep your setup simple, and focus on your goal and audience. Once it’s up, pause to celebrate your effort and accomplishment. Then, get back to making the work you’ll be excited to share in your next site update.