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The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy

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The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy

This essay, by Isabel Hwang, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy

You might have a “messy” friend or family member. You can’t help but sigh at the chaos of their room — clean and dirty laundry mixed together. Odds are it’ll be difficult to walk two feet without encountering an empty chip bag. Gross? Yes. Bad? Not necessarily.

As a stereotypically “messy” person myself, I’ve received my own share of scorn. Living in a boarding school, I’m obligated to keep my room nice and tidy, ready for visitors and as a model to underclassmen. Monday room inspections are the norm, and faculty members have sometimes passively, sometimes aggressively, urged my roommate and me to clean up. For these purposes, I used to harbor a 24 x 24 x 24 cardboard box in which I’d stuff everything on Monday mornings and empty it out later that evening. Now, I just throw everything downstairs into the communal storage. Out of sight, out of mind.

As much judgment as we get for our clutter, research has shown that messiness can be a sign of creativity and openness. In the NYT article “It’s Not ‘Mess.’ It’s Creativity,” Kathleen D. Vohs’ study of messiness serves as a rare champion for us less-than-neat people. In her study, she gathered a group of subjects in a tidy room and another in a messy room. When each subject had to choose between a “classic” or “new” smoothie on a fake menu, the subjects in the tidy room chose “classic” while subjects in the messy room chose the “new” smoothies. This shows that “people greatly preferred convention in the tidy room and novelty in the messy room.” In addition, Vohs revealed that messy people were more creative. So, what does this mean?

Messy people are willing to challenge the conventional norm. They aren’t confined to the status quo. In a growing age where minimalism seems to be taking on the world by storm, we must remember that there is beauty in chaos. Although a University of Michigan study warns that some people might take one look at your messy desk and view you as “lazy” or “neurotic,” we must remember the people who challenge the old ways of being are some of our greatest innovators. After all, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg famously harbored hideously disorganized workplaces.

So, when you see a scatter of papers, laundry, and old food containers, don’t rush out to buy your child, friend, or roommate “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Instead, appreciate that your acquaintance might be “sparking joy” by channeling their creativity differently.

Works Cited

Eichenstein, Izzy. “Albert Einstein, Mark Twain & Steve Jobs: The Messy Desk Link.” The LAX Morning Minute, Word Press, 19 Oct. 2013.

Vohs, Kathleen. “Tidy Desk or Messy Desk? Each Has Its Benefits.” Association for Psychological Science, 6 Aug. 2013.

Lessons for 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates, From a Soon-to-Be First-Time Voter

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Lessons for 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates, From a Soon-to-Be First-Time Voter

This essay, by Nora Fellas, who is now 17 but was 16 when she wrote it, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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Lessons for 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates, From a Soon-to-be First-Time Voter

I am one of more than five million people too young to vote today, but who will be old enough in 2020. I am 16, I run a political blog with over 100,000 followers, and I am offering some free lessons to candidates on how they can earn our votes.

Given the slim margin in the 2016 election, our votes could make all the difference. So listen up.

While young people have diverse views, Democrats focus on issues that matter to many of us, like gun control and climate change, making them more attractive than the presumptive Republican nominee, President Trump. The challenge for Democratic candidates is to distinguish themselves to capture the youth vote.

So what actually matters to us? It’s simple, but elusive: authenticity.

When politicians force relatability, they seem fake. Prior to her bid, Elizabeth Warren Instagram livestreamed and began by announcing to the camera, “I’m gonna get me a beer,” and then thanked her husband for being there, in their own house, as if it hadn’t all been scripted. One Boston Herald analyst criticized the image of the “multi-million-dollar Cambridge law professor poppin’ a brewski.” It’s not credible that Warren opened Instagram and decided to livestream of her own volition.

In 2016, Secretary Clinton and Trump both tried to appeal to young people. Trump used Twitter, and his statements were so unfiltered that they could only have come from him. Clinton’s messaging, however, felt phony. In a particularly cringey video, Clinton said, “Pokemon Go to the polls,” referencing the tween-trending app of that summer, Pokemon Go. It was clear that she had been fed that line and it felt condescending, suggesting youth votes could be earned by name-dropping a game.

This isn’t to say candidates shouldn’t appeal to young people — they must, because our votes can’t be taken for granted. In 2016, 18-29 year olds had the lowest turnout of any age group. The key difference between our generation and our parents’ is that we belong to the “Bernie or Bust” generation. 2016 revealed that we won’t choose between “the lesser of two evils”; if no candidate inspires us, we will just stay home.

This is why politicians need to appeal seriously to youth voters. Take Sanders: he is nearly 80, yet he is incredibly popular among young people. Why? Not because of his Instagram skills, but because he’s perceived as genuine — his politics haven’t changed.

To the 2020 candidates: the key to earning our vote isn’t pandering to us. Rather, we want to see that you genuinely care about the issues that matter to us. If you do that, you won’t need to worry about spreading your message on Instagram. We’ll do it for you.

Works Cited

“Clinton Drops a Pokemon Go Reference at Rally.” YouTube, uploaded by CNN, 14 July 2016.

“Elizabeth Warren Drinking a Beer on Instagram Live Gets Mixed Reactions.” YouTube, uploaded by CBS News, 2 Jan. 2019.

Ember, Sydney. “Bernie Sanders Begins 2020 Race With Some Familiar Themes and a New One: Himself.” The New York Times, 2 March 2019.

Fellas, Nora (@nastyfeminism). Instagram.

Graham, Michael. “Elizabeth Warren Pours a Cold One — on Image of Authenticity.” Boston Herald, 4 Jan. 2019.

Khalid, Asma. “Millennials Now Rival Boomers As A Political Force, But Will They Actually Vote?” NPR, 16 May 2016.

Martin, Joyce A., Brady E. Hamilton, Paul D. Sutton, Stephanie J. Ventura, Fay Menacker, and Martha L. Munson. “Births: Final Data for 2002.” National Vital Statistics Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 Dec. 2003.

U.S. Citizens Are Dying and We Can Save Them

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U.S. Citizens Are Dying and We Can Save Them

This essay, by Eva Ferguson, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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U.S. Citizens Are Dying and We Can Save Them

I have a luxury that 27.3 million Americans don’t: health insurance. Without it, my family would be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt or I’d be dead.

In June of 2017 when my blood became dangerously acidic and my kidneys started to fail, I went to the ER. In June of 2017 when Alec Raeshawn Smith’s blood also became dangerously acidic, he died before anyone could save him. Alec didn’t have to die though; the insulin prescribed for his Type 1 diabetes could have saved him from the diabetic ketoacidosis that killed him. Alec, who had recently turned 26, could no longer afford his insulin because he was kicked off his mother’s health insurance plan. Unable to afford the $1,300 a month cost for his insulin, he turned to rationing the insulin and died within one month of becoming uninsured. In the weeks after both of our incidents with acidosis, I went back to hanging out with friends and enjoying my summer. Meanwhile, Alec’s family was left making funeral arrangements.

There is only one way to prevent innocent people like Alec from dying: adopt national health insurance. With a single payer-program where the government subsidizes the cost of treatment, any and all citizens would be able to receive and afford any medically necessary treatment. Many fear that this program would cost an exorbitant amount of money and it is true that U.S. citizens would have to pay more in taxes to support it. However, US families, would save more money because they are no longer paying as much for health care costs like co-pays, premiums and deductibles. According to some studies, Senator Bernie Sanders’s health care plan, which includes restrictions on drug markups, could save the U.S. government $2.1 trillion in the long run.

I have health insurance. Insurance that covers hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, but that coverage runs out in nine years. My life after 26 is uncertain. Will I have a job that provides health benefits or will I be left hoping I won’t get sick again? Health insurance can no longer be a political bargaining chip that gets thrown around as if people aren’t dying without it. To make nationalized health insurance a reality, people like you need to decide health care is no longer a partisan issue; it’s an American issue. If we adopt a nationalized health care system, I will no longer live in fear for the day I might not be okay; I’ll know my name will never be splashed across newspapers reminding politicians that they’ve killed one more citizen with their complacency.

Works Cited

Berchick, Edward. “Who Are the Uninsured?” The United States Census Bureau, 14 Sept. 2017.

Epstein, Randi Hutter, M.D., and Rachel Strodel. “Diabetes Patients at Risk From Rising Insulin Prices.” The New York Times, 22 June 2018.

Haavik, Emily. “Mother Calls for Lower Insulin Prices in Wake of Son’s Death.” 10NEWS, 13 May 2018.

Stanley, Tiffany. “Life, Death and Insulin.” The Washington Post Magazine, 7 Jan. 2019.

C3.ai Sets a Model for Talent Transformation with University of Illinois Degree Program

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C3.ai Sets a Model for Talent Transformation with University of Illinois Degree Program

I’m delighted to share that C3.ai, the leading enterprise AI software provider, will be expanding its enterprise partnership with Coursera, offering not only courses in critical skills but also online degrees. As of today, C3.ai is offering employees full paid tuition for the Master of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS) from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, available on Coursera.

C3.ai is also offering remarkable career incentives for the degree, including a 15 percent salary increase, a $25,000 cash bonus, and an additional C3.ai incentive stock option equity award for employees who complete the degree. In doing so, C3.ai is quickly becoming a leader for attracting, retaining, and growing computer science and data science talent, some of the most competitive fields in the market.

Through the Coursera platform, C3.ai employees can now access a variety of learning options to suit their diverse learning needs. They can pursue both skills-based training through the courses and Specializations available on our platform and/or achieve mastery level learning through this top-ranked Illinois degree.

C3.ai’s commitment to training employees in critical skills is commendable and they are leading the way. This model of stackable learning will become standard as more companies realize the value of providing a variety of flexible learning pathways for employees to acquire critical skills.

We look forward to working closely with companies to identify these opportunities and set the stage for talent transformation.  

Learn more about what this looks like in C3.ai’s exciting announcement below.

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C3.ai Provides Employees Access to a University of Illinois Master of Computer Science  Degree in Data Science

Industry-First Program Provides Free MCS Degree, with Guaranteed Bonus, Salary Increase, and Equity Upon Completion

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — June 5, 2019– C3.ai, a leading enterprise AI software provider for accelerating digital transformation, today announced a relationship with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to provide eligible C3.ai employees with a fully reimbursed professional Master of Computer Science (MCS) degree focused on data science.

Upon successful completion of Illinois’ MCS degree, a C3.ai employee will receive a 15 percent salary increase, a $25,000 cash bonus, and an additional C3.ai incentive stock option equity award. The degree program is part of C3.ai’s ongoing support of employees’ skills development. Employees who apply and are admitted by the University of Illinois to its rigorous program will have access to the MCS degree program on the Coursera platform.

“At C3.ai, we are assembling a team of inquisitive self-learners, motivated and properly trained to solve some of the world’s most challenging technology problems,” said Thomas M. Siebel, C3.ai CEO. “This program further enables our employees’ success by encouraging them to further develop their computer science and AI expertise at one of the world’s leading universities.”

“The fact is the best engineers, computer scientists, and other technical professionals need to continuously grow and develop their skills throughout their careers,” said Andreas Cangellaris, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost. “We are very pleased that they have chosen to put their confidence in us and the education we provide.”

Illinois’ Department of Computer Science is consistently ranked as one of the top computer science programs in the world. In 2018, it was ranked #5 on the U.S. News and World Report list of Best Computer Science Schools. The department’s Coursera-based MCS degree was launched in 2016. It opens access to a much larger and more diverse community of students worldwide. Nearly 700 hundred students are enrolled in the program.

“We are excited to partner with C3.ai to offer the University of Illinois’ world-class computer science degree to its employees,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera. “Helping employees develop master-level skills in data science will further increase C3.ai’s leadership in artificial intelligence.”

“This advanced degree program is provided as a fully paid benefit, in addition to the existing rich curriculum of Coursera AI, IoT, clouding computing, and advanced computing courses that are offered at no cost to all C3.ai employees, said Houman Behzadi, C3.ai Chief Product Officer.  “C3.ai employees receive significant recognition in addition to cash bonuses for course completion. This is a very popular program.”

C3.ai was recently recognized as a best place to work by Battery Ventures and by Glassdoor. In 2018, C3.ai CEO Thomas M. Siebel was named Glassdoor Top CEO in 2018 with a 96 percent employee approval rating and received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the third time.

“We are deeply committed to life-long education, and we believe that more and more companies will move in this direction in the future. C3.ai is showing real foresight, and they are putting an incredible amount of employee support behind that foresight,” said Rashid Bashir, Dean of The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. “New modes of delivering professional education are crucial to both companies like C3.ai and to universities like Illinois. We make a great team.”

About C3.ai

C3.ai is a leading AI software provider for accelerating digital transformation. The C3 AI Suite provides a comprehensive family of software capabilities for rapidly developing, deploying, and operating large-scale AI, predictive analytics, and IoT applications. C3.ai also provides configurable, prebuilt, high-value AI applications for solving a range of challenges, including predictive maintenance, fraud detection, sensor network health, supply chain optimization, energy management, anti-money laundering, and customer engagement.

 

Em breve: Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google em português

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Em breve: Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google em português

Estamos empolgados em anunciar que o Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google será disponibilizado em português ainda este ano. Lançado com o objetivo de fornecer aos alunos as habilidades essenciais para se ter uma carreira na área de TI, o Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google se tornou rapidamente uma credencial muito procurada em nossa plataforma. Mais de 70 mil pessoas se matricularam desde o lançamento. Agora, estamos trazendo essa oportunidade para alunos brasileiros.

Para receber notificações sobre o Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI e obter um mês de curso grátis, inscreva-se abaixo:

Cadastre-se! E ganhe um mês de Curso Grátis

**O Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google estará disponível no dia 16 de setembro de 2019.

O mundo da tecnologia está em constante evolução, o que exige que as empresas de vários setores adotem novas tecnologias e busquem talentos que tenham as habilidades necessárias. A demanda por funções de suporte em TI continua aumentando globalmente e estima-se que o Brasil, por exemplo, terá 420 mil vagas em TI disponíveis até 2024. A capacitação em habilidades essenciais de TI por meio de programas relevantes de formação profissional, como o Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google, será muito importante para preencher essas funções e superar a taxa de desemprego do país, que atualmente se encontra no patamar dos 13%.

O programa Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google foi feito para preparar os alunos para um cargo inicial, como especialista de suporte em TI, em cerca de 8 meses, sem a necessidade de experiência ou formação anterior em TI. O Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google ensina os conceitos básicos sobre TI, incluindo solução de problemas e atendimento ao cliente, redes, sistemas operacionais, administração de sistemas e segurança. O programa é inteiramente on-line e controlado pelo próprio do aluno. Além disso, oferece vídeos e laboratórios práticos, tudo desenvolvido pelo Google.

Ao concluírem o programa, os alunos poderão compartilhar seus currículos diretamente com as principais empresas que procuram contratar talentos para suas vagas de TI, como Adecco, Coca-Cola, Cognizant, Localiza, Magalu, Telhanorte, Tumeleiro e Rappi, inclusive o Google.

Os alunos que se matricularem no programa completo terão uma experiência de aprendizado muito interessante, que incluirá:

  • Cursos feitos pelos especialistas em TI do Google e traduzidos para o português
  • Experiências práticas por meio de atividades em um laboratório virtual
  • Outras avaliações interativas para testar o seu conhecimento
  • Um certificado de conclusão, para sinalizar que você está preparado para um trabalho de suporte em TI, em seu currículo
  • A opção de compartilhar suas informações com as empresas contratantes, após o término do programa
  • Estudar totalmente on-line e no seu próprio ritmo

Se quiser ser avisado quando o programa Certificado Profissional de Suporte em TI do Google estiver disponível, informe seu nome e endereço de e-mail no formulário que se encontra nesta página.

 

 

Free June Wallpaper

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Free June Wallpaper

Our June wallpaper features the Paris font.

Included in the free download are two desktop options – one with the calendar and one without the calendar. The others include one wallpaper per device.

Enjoy!

FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.




Free – Checkout Checkout




Added to cart




 

Shakespeare: Friend, Not Foe

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Shakespeare: Friend, Not Foe

This essay, by Angela Chen, age 15, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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Shakespeare: Friend, Not Foe

Now is the winter of our discontent. Or so Gloucester had said during the opening of “Richard III.” But whereas Gloucester’s winter has been made into a “glorious summer,” this metaphorical winter of our discontent is far from over.

Why is it winter, then? Why, pray tell, am I in such discontent?

It is in more sorrow than in anger that I wear my heart upon my sleeve to say this. We, as a society, are treating the playwright who wrote these lines like the great villain of English literature — when he’s far from it. For goodness sake.

Irrefutably, it’s a rite of passage in high school, dissecting Shakespeare’s long-drawn-out Elizabethan verses. These works all seem Greek to you, don’t they? Why make sense of them on your own at all? And because of this, Shakespeare’s reputation, good riddance, has seen better days.

Brevity is the soul of wit, said Polonius in “Hamlet,” so I will make my voice concise. Have you even noticed eight Shakespearean phrases so far in this article already? That is how vital a presence he has even in contemporary English. When you “gossip,” wait with “bated breath,” feel “gloomy” or “bedazzled” or “dead as a doornail,” you’re revitalizing the Bard’s memory. You “have not slept one wink” last night? Neither did Pisanio from “Cymbeline.” Did you ever think Rose and Jack “star-crossed lovers”? So were Romeo and Juliet.

How can we defame a man who has changed the very face of language? How can we dismiss him as irrelevant, the original harnesser of the nuanced thing that is human emotion, just because we cannot understand him word-by-word?

It is time that we banish the notion of Shakespeare’s works being highly academic, exclusive-to-scholars “scripture.” Why? Because Shakespearean plays are built from emotion. Complaints on not being able to understand his words, in fact, trace all the way back to when his plays were first performed. So what if everyone cannot understand every word of Hamlet’s dense, long-winding soliloquies? This is Shakespeare’s very genius: to portray the raw anguish and internal strife of a young prince’s lonely, grief-stricken heart. You need only follow the emotion, and the plays are lush with it.

As you read, acknowledge also the timelessness of this work. Motifs of racism and privilege in “Othello” and “The Merchant of Venice.” Ambition and female agency in “Macbeth.” Jealousy and unrequited love in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Blackened vengeance in “Hamlet.” These are ideas that transcend time, the things you relate to without having to understand every word on the page.

Shed your presumptions. Open your mind. Only then, pick up a play, and you will find within it a dish fit for gods.

Works Cited

Anderson, Hephzibah. “Culture — How Shakespeare Influences the Way We Speak Now.” BBC News, BBC, 21 Oct. 2014.

Brown, Stephen. “Why Shakespeare? Because It’s 2016.” TedXStMaryCSSchool, 13 May 2016, Oshawa, 656 Taunton Road East.

Gaze, Christopher. “Shakespeare Is Everywhere.” TedXVancouver, 21 Mar. 2012, Vancouver.

Shapiro, James. “Shakespeare in Modern English?” The New York Times, 7 Oct. 2015.

Limiting Science Education: Limiting Ourselves

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Limiting Science Education: Limiting Ourselves

This essay, by James Chan, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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Limiting Science Education: Limiting Ourselves

We’ve landed men on the moon, mapped out our genomes, and split atoms, but for the past 20 years, nobody knew why two grapes produced plasma in a microwave. Energy is conserved. Carbon’s atomic number is six. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell … Throughout my entire high school career, I’ve heard all of these facts presented to me, but never once have I felt as intrigued as I have from this bizarre phenomenon. Welcome to the world of high school science education.

Sadly, my experience mirrors that of others my age. In a New York Times article, when asked to name a change they would make to science classes, high school students across the nation replied, “I’d rather understand than just memorize formulas” and “I’d like more hands-on projects where I would learn something about what I’m doing instead of just memorizing things from a textbook.”

For certain, memorization has its uses; repetition can help students master fundamental skills and retain key pieces of information. “Students cannot apply what they understand,” William R. Klemm, a professor at Texas A&M University, notes, “if they don’t remember it.” But too often does repetition end up replacing more meaningful forms of learning. In science education especially, it ends up stifling curiosity and creativity, deterring people from science careers and opportunities.

The truth is that most students in today’s schools are rarely exposed to the limits of our knowledge. As a result, many are led to see science as a source of clear, well-defined answers, that every possible question has been solved. They see the rigorous process of inquiry, experimentation, and analysis as two-sentence lines in a textbook. Rote memorization discourages skepticism while encouraging blind, unquestioning acceptance of facts.

Yet these qualities are the opposite of what science embodies. Science is not complete, but ever-evolving. Science is not linear and static, but sporadic and dynamic. Most importantly, science is a process that embodies tackling uncertainty head-on, asking questions that push the boundaries of knowledge. Each answer is never final, but instead provokes new questions that demand new answers. If we never present these aspects of science, how can we excite our students and inspire curiosity? How can we expect innovation and discovery from our students if all we teach them is how to cram?

The solution? Schools must embrace and teach not only what is known, but what is unknown. The role of science teachers is not just to rattle off facts like a broken cassette player, but to challenge students to search beyond what is taught in class. If we continue to teach just memorization, we misrepresent science and ultimately fail to inspire the next generation of innovators.

Works Cited

Dreifus, Claudia. “Ideas for Improving Science Education.” The New York Times, 2 Sept. 2013.

Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence: Changing the Social Narrative About Policing in America

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Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence: Changing the Social Narrative About Policing in America

This essay, by Narain Dubey, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence: Changing the Social Narrative About Policing in America

As a child, I thought of police officers with veneration — if I saw a cop in the park, I felt safer. I told myself that when I got older, I would be wearing the badge too.

At 12 years old, I learned about police brutality. When I first saw the video of Eric Garner being thrown to the ground by police officers, I thought it was a movie. Despite knowing that the officers were at fault, I refused to change my internal rhetoric; I thought the media was only portraying the bad side of the people I saw as heroes.

Then on July 31, 2017, a police officer shot and killed my cousin, Isaiah Tucker, while he was driving. Isaiah wasn’t just my cousin. He was also a young, unarmed, African-American man. I no longer dreamt of becoming a police officer.

But the issue is much larger than what happened to Isaiah. As highlighted in The New York Times, the Center for Policing Equity found that African-Americans are 3.6 times more likely to experience force by police officers as compared to whites.

Despite this blatant disproportionality, there is still overwhelming ignorance about it. Just last August, a group of people marched in Philadelphia, countering Black Lives Matter protests with signs and chants of “Blue Lives Matter.” People are quick to challenge discussions of police violence with the idea that “not all cops are bad cops.”

But when we argue in defense of the morality of individual police officers, we are undermining a protest of the larger issue: the unjust system of policing in the United States.

When I met Wesley Lowery, a journalist from The Washington Post, he was adamant that the social narrative regarding police brutality in the United States needs to change. “Conversations about police reform and accountability are about systems and structures, not about individuals,” said Lowery.

It is not that some police officers aren’t doing admirable things in our communities, but revering police officers for not abusing their power is dangerous — it normalizes police violence and numbs society to these issues. The idea that “not all cops are bad cops” belittles attempts to uproot the system. When we go out of our way to controvert this fight, we are perpetuating the inherent problems with racialized policing.

So as you think about policing in America, think of Eric Garner. Think of Alton Sterling, my cousin Isaiah, and the families that were left behind.

We have a responsibility as citizens of this country to call out corruption in systems of power. Policing in America is rooted in racism, oppression and privilege — it’s time that we recognize that.

I learned to change my perspective. So can you.

Works Cited

Williams, Timothy. “Study Supports Suspicion That Police Are More Likely to Use Force on Blacks.” New York Times. 7th July, 2016.

Lowery, Wesley. (2018, August 2nd). Personal communication at Asian American Journalist Association’s JCAMP.

Reader Mail (Support, Rankings, etc.)

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Reader Mail (Support, Rankings, etc.)

Before diving into our semi-annual, readers question and answer, I’d like to talk about a subject near and dear to me – acquisitions.    In the past few months, many of you probably have noticed a slight uptick in to the number of vendors who have been acquired either by another vendor in the market, or outside of the e-learning space or even a Private Equity firm.

While from a global standpoint the percentage of acquisitions is still below .1%, the pr you see, seems to indicate a massive upheaval in the M&A angle, especially in the learning system space. 

Yet one of the items that is never mentioned are the customers and employees of the vendor who has been acquired.  On the customer side, if you are the client of said “been acquired” vendor you may be asking yourself, what can I do?

I can tell you, that you will face an uphill battle if you are trying to get out of your contract (if you have one).  Some vendors will be flexible with you, and allow you to leave if you so desire, others less so.  There have been plenty of horror stories where clients are stuck in a contract with zero recourse.

From my experience, vendors do have some options

1. They could be understanding and if you want out of your contract, they let you go. After all, word of mouth is still huge even in the digital world today, especially with social media.  Is bad mouthing something a vendor wants?

2.  See if there any loopholes.  Sadly, I often find consumers who really never look at the contract and just sign on the dotted line.  It happens way more than you might think.

3.  Just go forward and hope everything turns out okay.  Now, if it is a vendor you just dislike, this is not an ideal option, but look, I hate people ringing my doorbell, and so I let my dogs do the barking, err talking.

What can you do going forward?

Let’s say you are about to sign a contract with a learning system vendor or even an e-learning vendor with another product.  To safeguard yourself, in case the vendor is acquired, here is what you should do.

  • Have them put in an opt-out clause, so that you can get out of the contract.  You request it to be 60 days notice (as in you have to give them 60 days minimum if you plan to leave)
  • Make sure the opt-out clause states that you are not penalized either financially or on some other manner and that the vendor agrees to work with the new vendor to move over your data (if this is applicable)
  • If the vendor wants their own opt-out clause, go ahead.  I had a vendor who once wanted it, I said go ahead.  They never opt-out.

There will be vendors who will tell you they will never been acquired, but how do you know? And heck, how do they know – especially the salesperson.  Most of the times, they are kept in the dark.  There are systems today looking to be buy others (privately – i.e. not being made public).  There are some on the market.  Heck, there are some I wonder if they will be around by the end of 2020.   You just don’t know and so, the philosophy that you can trust the vendor is, well, a mistake. 

Some vendors will say, there isn’t a contract per se, and you can leave at any time.  If you signed something with them – i.e. a contract, that even says you can leave at any time, it is still a contract.   And the “leave” any time is misleading.  Sure you can leave, but any money you paid, you will not get back.  If you paid up-front, sorry Charlie (a famous Tuna), no refund for you.  

Now onto your questions

Steve

My company continues to have issues with support by X (vendor name withheld). They never return phone calls or e-mails.  Worse, when I am able to connect with them, I seem to go into some loop.  We are getting frustrated and I get the feeling they just don’t care. What should we do?

Demand less Muzak on the phone. I mean, the seventies, really?  In all seriousness though, there are somethings you can do.

  • Go on LinkedIn and find out who is head of customer support/tech support/services then reach out to them.  Explain at a very high level (you only have a few sentences) that you need to contact them.  Tell them you are a customer of theirs and you are considering leaving them.  Trust me, they will connect.
  • Ask the support person who is in charge of support and you want their contact information. Be polite. If they stonewall you, find out who is the CEO of the company – doable on LinkedIn, and contact them.  Similar to head of support, threaten to leave and express displeasure.   They will connect, but if not.
  • Make it known on LinkedIn in your own posting, that you are having issues with the learning system vendor as it relates to support – now you will get other learning system vendors telling you to come over to them, but you will very likely get someone from your said vendor.  I’d add the Twitter angle to, but make sure you do “.@vendorname” – when you put the “.” in front of the “@” this means it goes to everyone who is following that vendor, which likely includes their customers.  Nothing worse then being called out and it is seen by the customer base.
  • Stay focused.  It is easy to get frustrated.  If you are at your wits end, then look to jump ship.  Look at your contract and see what you can do.
  • The number one reason, people leave learning systems is due to poor support. Vendors know this, and some have fixed it, others have not.

I’ve seen the “we will respond in 24 hours” e-mail and that is utter baloney.  Worse, it is often comes from an e-mail address that you can not respond to, which only adds to the frustration.  Now, you could play the game of guessing, by seeing how they do their email address.  I’ve done it before, and you might get a win out of it.  But generally speaking, you might get a lose at it.

If you are concerned that they may not be opening up the e-mail, let’s say you have their email address, then subscribe to an e-mail tracker.  There are plenty out there.  The read receipt ones are worthless.  Some of the trackers will show you who else opened up that e-mail, beyond the person you sent it to.  I know it may sound squirmy, but hey, you are at the point where squirmy is the least of your concerns.

Brian

We are looking at some LMSs.  We want a system that is somewhat under the radar but one that you like or have on your map as potential.  Any recommendations?

There are always systems that I am in the “hmm, they have potential mode” and are on my radar.  In fact quite a few.  That said, here are some that you should explore, depending on your criteria. 

  • Spoke by Unboxed Technology – They have a built-in BI (business intelligence) component, which I really like.  The UI/UX is slick. Lots of very good functionality.  The gamification component includes some nice wins.  They also have a sales enablement platform too, called Hub 360.  And if you go into FindAnLMS.com, you can see schedule a demo with them, right within the system, and see price ranges, user ranges, functionality too. 
  • Bolt Learning – I think what really intrigues me about this system, is they are the first ones to use facial recognition specifically for logging into the system.  I repeat, only log-in to the system (some folks think it is for assessments, it isn’t).  Instead of the end user having to remember a user name/password, their face is solves that.  Could you log-in the old fashion way? Sure, but hey if you are using this via mobile  and concerned about security, your face is the way to go.  Unless you have stolen someone’s else face, like Cage and Travolta did in that weird movie about two decades ago.
  • CD2 Learning – They have been around for more than a decade but are really under the radar.  With a new management team in place, including a new CEO, I think they are about to turn the corner in a good way.  Not robust by any stretch, but has some nice feature sets.  Definitely on my “potential list”.  They are on Findanlms.com, too.
  • EthosCE – Another vendor who has been around for numerous years and yet, I am still surprised how many folks have never heard of them.  By far one of the best systems I have seen for the medical care industry and even healthcare. CE functionality is outstanding.  Definitely under the radar. Skip Healthstream (over-rated and average, and expensive) and check Ethos out. 

Claire

I attended ATD’s show and walked around the show floor talking to some vendors. They scanned by badge and said they would follow-up.  No one has so far.  Is this common?

Way too common.  I never understood why sales people or whomever is in that booth, scan badges and then never follow-up.  I can’t decide if it is because they are on some goal angle where they have to scan so many badges or if they are just lazy and couldn’t care a less.

I’d love to be the fly on the wall so to speak when they talk to whoever is running sales, and tells them, they got a lot of leads, but fails to mention they never contacted them.

I should note that there are some vendors who hire people to staff the booth, but who really do not work for them.  Is it lame? Absolutely.  But it does happen.

Plus, I have seen way too many salespeople who really need a crash course in how to work a booth.  Personal favorites include

  • Eating in the booth.  It is very easy to leave a sign, “back in 30 minutes” and go and eat or drink. 
  • Looking at their mobile phones.  You want do to that? Then wait until the show is over or you are on your break.  It tells me that you do not want to be there, so why should I stop by? 
  • Poor edict in your booth.  I’ve seen it all – nose picking (it is like a train wreck, you can’t turn away),  laying on a couch relaxing (as if you are at a home), reading e-mail which is visible on the monitors at your booth (it was seen at learning solutions show) and dozing off (really, get some sleep or uh, sleep on your break).

But by far, the issue I see most and you identified it – is scanning and ignoring.  Vendors pay a lot of money for a trade show, at a minimum about 10,000 USD and I know of vendors who have dropped over 100K for booth.  And to think that some one is just taking up space is offensive.  Unless they are sleeping on their own couch, then it is magical, in a lazy and exhausting kind of way.  As an added bonus, they had their shoes on.  Yeah!

Allison

If you were post your rankings today, who would be in your top three?

Good question.  Right now, I have the rankings split with LMSs being one, and LXPs being the other.  Unless otherwise indicated, all can be found on Findanlms.com, where you can search by filters, contact them, send them an RFP and schedule a demo.  Yes, I hype the site, but I have focused on having the best systems in the industry there and we continue to add them weekly.  So more are coming!!!

Top Three in Rankings as of today.

LMS (In no particular order)

LXPs (In no particular order)

Two vendors in the LXP space, very new to the market, I am keeping an eye on.  Both will be on FindAnLMS by July.

Bottom Line

There you have it.  The latest on readers Q and A along with insight into the acquisition component. 

One reader did ask me how many dogs I have and their names. They said they were a pet owner and noticed that I have included a name of my dog in the past.

Voodoo, Spirit and Cali are their names.  All rescues.

And all special.

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