Issue 27: What's the highest floor in the Pyramids of Meroe
Why can't we predict the future of the metaverses; Why Instagram has turned into a "shop on the couch"; Review of promt tips for the new Midjourney 4 and so much more!
Hello, dear readers! đź‘‹
In this issue, among other things:
- Review of promt tips for the new Midjourney 4
- Why can't we predict the future of the metaverses
- Why Instagram has turned into a "shop on the couch"
- Reviewing issues with popups and finding out how to solve them
- Huge animated isometric illustration that is constantly increasing
- Best data visuals nominees of 2022 have been revealed
- Special project from UNESCO + Google Arts & Culture
- A simple and convenient time tracker for Mac
- A set icons for AR, VR, space & cryptocurrencies topics
- Quotes from "No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work" book by Liz Fosslien & Molly West Duffy
Enjoy reading!
đź“š Book quotes
For this issue, I chose quotes from the book by Liz Fosslien and Molly West Duffy, "No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work" Read them and decide if the book deserves your attention.
Success depends on psychological safety. At Google, members of teams with high levels of psychological safety were less likely to leave their jobs, brought in more revenue, and were rated effective twice as often by executives. MIT researchers who studied team performance came to the same conclusion: simply grouping smart people together doesn’t guarantee a smart team. Online and off, the best teams discuss ideas frequently, do not let one person dominate the conversation, and are sensitive to one another’s feelings.
Work provides us with a sense of purpose and can offer instant gratification in the form of praise, raises, and promotions. But the more we tie who we are to what we do, the more we emotionally attach to our jobs.
Create psychological safety by encouraging open discussion, answering questions without condescension, and making it okay to take risks and admit mistakes. Don’t shy away from task conflict. Instead, create structures that prevent creative clashes from becoming personal. For relationship conflict, listen to the other person and calmly share your perspective. Get rid of (or if you can’t, contain) bad apples to preserve psychological safety on your team.
Constant happiness is unattainable (or at least we have yet to experience it personally). We usually describe ourselves as “happy” when we get more than we already had or when we find out we are a little better off than those around us. Neither of these are permanent states. Contentedness, on the other hand, can be more emotionally stable. The most content people craft their ups and downs into redemption stories: something bad happened, but something good resulted.
Every person on a team knows something that no one else knows. That’s why teams exist: you need more than one person’s set of ideas and skills to solve a problem.
You need to learn to navigate two main types of conflict: task conflict (the clash of creative ideas) and relationship conflict (personality-driven arguments). Task and relationship conflict are often related: it’s hard not to take disagreement over ideas personally.
A great way to make critiques generative is to ask people to share ideas that are either quick fixes, small steps that make a meaningful impact, or a way to rethink the entire thing.
Focus less on your own importance and more on those around you. Compassion helps us become resilient: it improves our immune response, reduces our stress levels, and is associated with the pleasure networks in our brains. One way to practice compassion is to ask a colleague, “What’s on your mind and how can I help?” Of course, if you consistently put someone else’s needs ahead of your own, you’ll eventually be utterly drained and resentful. Make sure you’re aware of your emotional limits to avoid compassion fatigue.
Caring too much about a job is unhelpful and unhealthy. It makes small problems seem exceptional and throwaway remarks feel appalling. And it’s not only leaders or women or Virgos who care too much: it’s possible to be overly attached to any job at any level. That’s why we came up with the first new rule of emotion at work: Be less passionate about your job.
Speaking
đź—ž News and articles
10 Incredible Prompt Styles to Try in Midjourney V4
Aitu Ma madea large review of the prompt tips for the new Midjourney 4, talked about improvements, and also visually compared the results with the third version. Inside the article there are many examples of generated images with promt hints that were used.
Aitu Ma
Ways to think about a metaverse
Benedict Evans writes about how people think about metaverses, what logical mistakes they make and why today the word "metaverse" does not carry any specific meaning. His key idea is that the metaverse is just a new raw technology, and we cannot know in advance what it will result in, and a technological breakthrough in itself does not mean that people will use it en masse. He cites game consoles as an example. Despite 40 years of their rapid development and continuous improvement of graphics, today only 175 million people play PlayStation 5.
He suggests not building castles in the air and not imagining what metaverse will be exactly, but accepting that this is probably the next big shift in technology, which means it's worth watching, absorbing, and experimenting.
Benedict Evans
⚡️ Briefly
10 problems of popups and how to solve them
Bruce Tognazzini
The Scary Future Of Instagram. Growth Design is criticized in detail by Instagram, which has turned into a "store on the couch" due to the fact that the team optimized the product exclusively for profit, scoring on the interests of the user
Louis-Xavier Lavallée
French McDonald's is switching to reusable dishes. Now potatoes are served in a plastic cup, and cola is poured in a glass without a straw.
absolutely *loving* the design of this reusable packaging that's being introduced at mcdonalds france pic.twitter.com/kDSsNS5Xnz
— juan (@juanbuis) November 19, 2022
New technologies
LG Display introduced the world's first 12-inch stretchable display with a resolution of 100 dots per inch. It is made of silicone for contact lenses and can stretch by 20%.
