Intercepting the digital divide


Let’s stop and think about what we have.
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In some parts of the world we have GPS-controlled drones, and in the rest we have about 3.6 billion people who do not have regular internet access. These are people who are finally failing to benefit from the internet as an economic driver.
The digital divide is a gap in the availability and access to information and communication technology (ICT) among individuals and communities. Numerically, this gap, ie. People who do not have / have limited access to a computer or the Internet is three times larger than the Indian population. The idea of ​​a digital revolution cannot be achieved when 50% of the world’s population is excluded. In other words, this population cannot compete equally in the labor market. The “optimistic path” assumed by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 9 and Agenda 2030 also envisions an avant-garde industrial revolution called Industry 4.0. As this industrial breakthrough largely depends on the adoption of technological innovations, the population separated from this technological network will be less informed and underrepresented in the capital and labor markets.

The ability to access computers and the Internet depends on many intertwined factors, namely the social and economic dimensions. Nevertheless, the digital divide can be easily bridged if these factors are divided into specific action plans. In addition to these obvious obstacles, the following would help reduce the gap:

Develop physical infrastructure: Mason’s analysis shows that the lack of adequate infrastructure suitable for Internet connection is more common in developing countries, especially in Africa. In this sense, key inputs such as the development of terrestrial connectivity between submarine cables, the development of training centers and the data module are necessary to overcome the induction barriers of digital sharing.

Promote investment and cooperation: The main element of the independent development of physical infrastructure is the liberalization of investment in public-private partnerships (PPPs). Such a measure would increase investor confidence and could maximize the efficiency of new investments suitable for financial and infrastructural resources. At this stage, a remedy is needed to reduce licensing costs and high taxes on equipment and services. At the same time, the integration of the Internet into the provision of government agency services and the use of communication infrastructure should also be a high priority.

Develop customized content: The development of physical infrastructure and the provision of training modules are not sufficient if local demand is not met. To welcome the next billion users, technologists need to get in deep contact with local communities to understand their requirements and ways to use this approach. In this way, the Internet and communication networks can be built to meet demand. Responding to real internet demand is just as important as devising new schemes.

Less dependence on social networks: Excessive enjoyment of social networks cannot help increase the penetration of the Internet due to its limited use. People can ignore the real power of internet penetration and the benefits of using it if they are limited to 140 characters on Twitter or in the square frames of a Facebook profile. The challenge of adopting and implementing different internet tools can be overcome if internet platforms and their hosting devices are used in a smarter way.

With its ubiquitous and inclusive presence, the Internet is the key to the next-generation technological approach. Realizing this, companies like Google and Facebook are assessing factors in the form of attracting more people online. Individuals, government and corporations are equally responsible for bringing the mass population into the internet. At the same time, the government should also have smart policy interventions to combat disability that bring usability divisions and any other upcoming barriers to digital sharing.


Can you Portmanteau?

I recently read an article in which the word satisfactory was used. The word intrigued me. According to the author, satisfaction is a combination of sufficient and satisfactory.
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This led me to explore whether there are other words expressed by combining the sounds and meanings of two existing words. I learned that such a complex word is called portmanteau. I’ve also found that there are a lot of portmanteaus we use on a daily basis, often not realizing it’s them.

A portmanteau is usually defined as a large trunk or suitcase that opens into two equal parts. However, Lewis Carroll gave it a new meaning in his book Through the Mirror, when Humpty Dumpty said, “Well,‘ slimy ’means‘ flexible and slimy ’and‘ mimsy ’is‘ fragile and miserable. ’It’s like portmanteau – two meanings are packed into one word. ”
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Some portmanteau words are very familiar and easy to deconstruct:

Background: back + acronym

Breathalyzer: breath + analyzer

Brexit: Britain + exit

Video camera: camera + recorder

Capsule: capsule + tablet

Glamping: glamorous + camping

Infomercial: information + advertising

Infotainment: information + entertainment

Inscape: interior + landscape

Internet: international + network

Malware: malware + software

Manscape: man + landscaping

Joint: melt + weld

Motel: motor + hotel

Motorcycle: motorized + bicycle

Netflix: internet + movements

Palimon: partner + alimony

Cork: plum + apricot

Simulcast: simultaneous + broadcast

Sitcom: situational + comedy

Between: teen + between

Wikipedia: wiki + encyclopedia

Some words of portmanteau are unknown, but they are still relatively easy to deconstruct:

Influenza: wealthy + flu

Prediction: anticipation + disappointment

Assumption: preventive + requiem

Screenager: screen + teenager

Some words are very familiar, but their expressions that can contribute can be surprising – at least they surprised me. For example, I never knew that the word blog consists of the web and a diary.
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Bit: binary + digit

Chortle: grin + snore

Cyborg: cybernetics + organism

Endorphin: endogenous + morphine

Twelve days: fourteen + nights

Gainsay: against + say

Garmin: Garry Burrell + Min Kao

Gerrymander: Gerry + salamander

Goodbye: God + be + with you

Groupon: group + coupon

Hassle: bargaining + arguing

Humongous: huge + monstrous

Incompetence: incompetent + attitude

Microsoft: microcomputer + software

Modem: modulation + demodulation

Muppet: puppet + doll

Pixel: image + element

Prissy: prim + curica

Skype: sky + peer-to-peer

Smog: smoke + fog

Taxi: taximeter + convertible

Travelogue: travel + monologue

Vitamin: vita + amine

WiFi: wireless + loyalty

There were some words I had never seen before. For example, I live in Wisconsin, where we have a lot of snow and ice, and I’ve never heard this word used in any weather forecast, snice: snow and ice.

Ambigram: ambiguous + gram

Automatic: automatic + magical

Flexitarian: vegetarian + flexible

Mizzle: fog + drizzle

Sporgery: spam + counterfeit

Stagflation: stagnation + inflation

And some words act like malapropisms when we first hear them, but they are actually real words; for example, refudiate: reject + refute.

I really wonder who originally came up with these words, why they felt the need to create them and how they were so smart!


How to be a leader who awakens innovation

I am not the first person to draw attention to the connection between the inclusion of diversity and innovation. What I am pointing out is that the obvious blind spot is the need for personal innovation by the leader that solves the problem with traditional diversity training. Before we get to that, let’s take a closer look at the issue of diversity and why it matters.
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In 2015, McKinsey published a report that surveyed 366 companies based on their diversity. Companies that had different quartiles by ethnic and racial diversity earned 35 percent more revenue than the market average.
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In a global analysis, 2,400 Credit Suisse companies showed similar results. Companies with at least one woman in the top position achieved higher revenue growth and return on capital than companies in which no woman was included at the top of the management hierarchy. Could recent discoveries about Microsoft’s struggle with an organizational culture that is consistently resilient to diversity inclusion shed light on the company’s market challenges over the past decade?
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In recent years, various studies have been conducted that reveal another significant benefit of diversity within teams: they are just smarter. Collaborating with people who are different from you challenges your brain to think in a new way. This requires stepping aside the natural propensity of most people to fear and resist change. The situation is more murky due to studies on thousands of trainings which show that traditional training for inclusion of diversity is not effective and that it can really encourage bias.
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More focused on facts and acceptance of thinking outside the box

People of different backgrounds can change the picture of what is considered normal within the social majority and create a new way of thinking within the group.
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In a study published in the American scientific journal Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 200 people were assigned to a fake jury of six people, all of whom were white or consisted of four white people and two non-white people. Together, they watched a video of the lawsuit with the black suspect and the white victims. They then had to decide if the suspect was guilty.
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It turned out that mixed juries were able to uncover more facts about the case and make fewer factual errors when discussing the issue. If errors occurred, they were corrected in the same discussion. A possible explanation for this was that the mixed chambers looked more closely at the evidence.
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Another study shows similar results. In a series of experiments from Texas and Singapore, scientists let people with economic studies go through a simulated supermarket and guess the price of the product. Participants were divided into ethnically differentiated or homogeneous teams. People who were part of a diverse group were more likely to guess prices at 58 percent than participants from the other group.
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Teams with diversity remain more objective in different situations. By creating more diversity, you make teams aware of their prejudices – something that can blind them to important information.

Personal innovation strategy

Different teams are more innovative, this is now a well-shown reality.
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To stay competitive, companies must look for ways to cultivate innovation. Research shows that one of the best ways to transform their product is to embrace diversity within the company.

The gender diversity of 4277 Spanish companies was researched within the research teams. Teams with more women managed to achieve a more radical renewal in two years than teams in which men were the majority.
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Another study suggests that cultural diversity is key to innovation. The researchers looked at data from 7,615 companies that participated in the London Annual Business Survey, a company performance survey. Companies that have noticed cultural diversity at their top have developed more new products than those with similar directors. Valuable events of advanced thinking and effective thinking outside the box can become the new normal with teams smarter better understanding the blind spots of innovation.
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Involving people of different genders, races, nationalities, backgrounds and nationalities can enhance a company’s ability to innovate. However, if it were that simple, it still wouldn’t be such a permanent problem. Here, personal innovations, especially in leadership development, are so valuable. Leaders should lead by example. Accepting a personal lifestyle that uses the pursuit of happiness to nurture personal courage and intensify it more often to achieve what is right.
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Exploiting personally significant goals is key to personal innovation strategies that circumvent the most common problems of diversity training and innovation capacity building programs. This means that there is no single solution per se. Instead, it calls for nurturing a strategy that will lead a lifestyle of inner growth, clarity, and wisdom.
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New innovative approaches to turn challenges into launching pads will help you become the leader needed today and grow an increasingly diverse workforce and market tomorrow. Reinforcement is the key to discovering your personal innovation path. Artistic solutions based on imagination as a method enable people to become aware of their prejudices, learn what they are based on and learn to make better decisions. This will make leadership more successful regardless of specific goals. Ultimately, smart leaders must find new courage, wisdom, and inspiration to get closer to these current and emerging challenges.
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Inventors, here’s why your invention was rejected

Many inventors trying to bring their product ideas to market are totally crushed by rejection. So I thought I would provide a list of some reasons why you might have been turned down. It doesn’t cover all the reasons you might be turned down, but I hope it will give you something to think about.
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You have to understand that fabrication is basically a numbers game! Yes, you still need to have a good idea, but you will realize that no matter how good an idea you think it is you can still be turned down. Many market ideas are constantly rejected. Even if it makes no sense for you to reject an idea they agree would be profitable. Here are some common reasons why even market ideas are rejected.
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1. The company may already have a complete product line and does not want to add more.

2. The product is outside their target market.

3. You sent your submission to the wrong person in the company – don’t assume they will automatically send it to the right person.

4. You submitted an unsolicited idea without first contacting the company to find out their submission policy, and it rejected it solely on that basis.
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5. You did not have the appropriate contact information in your submission. (This is one of the biggest mistakes inventors make. The company won’t bother to track you down.)

6. They have too many similar products and that market is flooded enough.

7. Your idea attracts a very small niche market and they want mass market items.

8. The cost of production versus return on investment is too high.

9. Your sales list is not WOW and did not have consumer benefits information or was overloaded with too much sorting information.

10. Your product has already been patented by someone and does not want to see if it can be bypassed or risked for copyright infringement.

11. Your product or idea is no better than what is already on the market. This tells them that you have not researched your idea well and have no idea who your competition is in the market.

12. You have sent a product that is completely similar to their current product and that current product is a marginal seller. So yours won’t go any better.

13. Your idea is outdated or declining compared to what comes out next year.

14. They already have a better solution than yours in the papers to publish that next year. (This is also the case when inventors can scream that a company has stolen their idea even when it has already invested in molds, engineering, samples, etc. before the inventor contacted the company because of their idea. It happens a lot. The only ones who invent.)

15. They have already received a similar idea from another inventor and are in negotiations with that inventor.

16. You posted your idea unprotected online at one of those invention sites where others vote on your product to see if there is interest. Your public disclosure indicates to the interested company whether any patent protection would be allowed and rejects it on that basis.

17. You posted your unprotected idea and video of the working prototype on YouTube and scored a significant number of hits. This again raises concerns about whether any patent will be possible due to your public disclosure.

18. You have stated that you have a patent issued, but when they perform a quick search of your patent, they see that it has expired due to non-payment of fees and that it has significantly expired after the due date. It makes the chances of him being returned unlikely.

19. You have a patent, but it is poorly written and does not cover the actual product. (This happens a lot)

20. You have a design patent, and designing your patent is a simple task, which means I can expect very little protection in the market.

21. Sometimes the company you approached simply does not look at external ideas and does not publish that fact. That way you’ll get a rejection, but that doesn’t explain that they just don’t look outside the company.

22. You sent them your product, but they have already decided on their line for that or next year and at that time they are not open to pick up anything else.

23. They only consider items with a sales history that they can review, and your item has never been in production, sold stores, or online. Therefore, they do not want to risk being the first company to place it on the market.

As I said above, these are just a few reasons why a company may reject your idea / product. Really take the time to explore and understand your market, your place in that market and do your part to make yourself as profitable as possible.

Self-driving cars: the future of authentication protocols

The search for fully autonomous cars is like a “holy grail”. The Biomater system and artificial intelligence have helped car manufacturers develop and develop self-driving and connected vehicles.

Self-driving cars promise future accident-free roads. Making the new mobility ecosystem resilient and secure means tackling a variety of cybersecurity issues, as various innovations expose service providers, car manufacturers and passengers to data breaches.

Data challenges

A large amount of data will be available that presents opportunities and challenges regarding privacy, data security, and data analytics. Secure authentication is required to resolve security issues.

Let’s go deeper into the challenges posed by new technology, ie. Self-driving cars.

Data security

Data security can suffer a variety of security threats when self-propelled vehicles will dominate personal mobility. Some hackers and authorized parties can capture data, incite attacks, and alter records. There are chances that they could provide drivers with false information or use denial-of-service attacks.

This shows that system safety will become the most important issue of transport systems, along with the successful implementation of sensor-based vehicle unification.

A security system that can protect against such threats includes data disinfection (deletion of identified data) and data suppression (reduction of sampling frequency). They can aggregate data probably in vehicles, instead of the vehicle transmitting large amounts of raw information to them. They could take advantage of vehicle authentication, hardware protected from unauthorized use, encryption and real-time restrictions.

Upcoming threats to personal privacy

With the increasing use of autonomous and connected vehicles, maintaining individual safety in the transport system has become more challenging. Although the increasing use of real-time monitoring, detection, and assessment of behavior creates new privacy issues, the benefits of in-vehicle communication technologies and sensors have made them an attractive search for stakeholders.

Data aggregation and analytics

The privacy of individuals is most likely to be compromised by collecting data on public locations, rather than by combining data with their personal data. Current laws are not adequately implemented to address new technologies and the data industry.

For privacy reasons, consumers can advocate for greater transparency among data intermediaries and the disclosure of collected data. Some of the issues that need to be addressed are:


Establish risk-oriented control on the most sensitive assets, with optimized costs.


Create monitoring solutions that can target critical business processes. Data integration can help them with alert rich contexts to create a simplified process.

A winning mindset for creative solutions under pressure

For fifteen years, part of my job has been to come up with creative ideas – every week, under extreme time pressure, with about a million people watching.

I was good at it.

Really good.

But I didn’t start being good at creating creative ideas under pressure. I had to learn.

In my case, creative ideas were necessary because I was the executive producer of a hit comedy TV show. In your case, creative ideas are necessary because the outcome of your situation may depend on them.

True, there are some situations under high pressure that do not require creativity – especially those that involve repeated physical actions. For example, shooting in the free throw that determines the game does not require much creativity. It is definitely under high pressure, but it is achieved more or less by heart.

It’s the same with landing planes. Take it from me, a private pilot. I’ve made hundreds of landings and, other than the first ones when I was just learning, they’re pretty routine. And they are even more routine for an airplane pilot, who has made thousands and thousands of landings. They don’t need a lot of creativity.

Until something goes wrong.

On July 19, 1989, United United Flight 232, en route from Denver to Chicago, lost all three hydraulic systems at an altitude of 37,000 feet above the ground. In layman’s terms, this means that all flight controls have become useless at the moment. Imagine you were driving on a highway and suddenly neither your steering wheel nor the brakes did anything. Now imagine you’re seven miles in the air, traveling 500 miles an hour, and there are almost 300 people in your car.

It’s pressure. And creativity was needed.

Together, the crew discovered that they could fly the plane, albeit roughly, by manipulating the gases on multiple engines. It wasn’t perfect. The right wing scraped the runway when it landed, and the plane caught fire. Almost half of the people on board died. But more than half lived. Why?

Because the crew came up with a creative solution, in the middle of one of the hardest possible situations imaginable.

Your high-pressure situations may not be so daunting, I feel pretty confident predicting it will never be. But unless you’re shooting that free throw of muscle memory, they’re probably going to need the same kind of creativity.

So here’s a key mindset you need to have in that situation: don’t rule anything out.

“These are crazy conversations – let’s get back to reality!”

“I’m not going to listen to an idea coming from a low trainee!”

“It won’t work because the engines aren’t meant to turn the plane!”

When pressure is exerted, does it matter how exaggerated the idea may seem or who came up with it?

Of course not. At that point, only a successful outcome matters.

So put your ego aside. Listen to all the ideas.

Because that idea you’re going to rule out … could save the day.

What way of thinking do you have?

It might seem as if several crooked balls have been thrown at you, any single of which could stop a person on its trail.

You may have experienced an almost total loss of income because your job was reduced or eliminated or you were fired through no fault of your own.

You may have had to completely invent your business to find new ways to provide customer service. I talked to a woman who deals with dog grooming. She created a safe environment for dog care during the recent abolition of health. Instead of several dog groomers working in the open room, she divided the room into 4 closed parts. Dogs that were admitted were placed at least 10 minutes apart. A dog groomer wearing a mask came to the car waiting at the front door. The dog handler took the dog to a closed area, where it was groomed and returned to the owner at a certain time.

You may be isolated from friends and loved ones and looking for new ways to stay connected. With dozens of ways to stay connected, it sounds weird that isolation is an issue. However, what is a quarantine issue is a change in freedom of choice. Therefore, the loss of freedom of choice encourages people to choose a sense of isolation as a way of coping as a mechanism.

Despite the unforeseen and unprecedented challenges that man faces in life, there may seem to be no end.

Some people stand up well. They’re adjusting to the revised schedule and the way things are done … and they’re making progress.

What is their secret?

And what is important …

How do you use this secret to make the dreams you love come true in the months and years ahead – no matter what surprises await around the corner?

Discover the secret – 5 steps to turn a fixed way of thinking into a way of thinking about growth

1. Do you think about what you “have to do” instead of what you will “achieve”.

A fixed negative way of thinking is based on your inability to change. He sees your qualities as fixed and unchanging. You’ve heard people (maybe even themselves) say something like “I’m a pessimist, I can’t help myself”. Well, guess what-you can! Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck says that by developing a way of thinking – believing that your traits are changeable through deliberate practice, they are set for success.

2: Learn to hear your fixed way of thinking “self-talk”.

When you decide on a new challenge, what is your self-talk? You can say, “Are you sure you can do that?” or “What if you fail?” “What will you do if you fail?”

If you run into an obstacle, you might hear, “I wish you had talent” or “I told you it was too risky.” Why me? “

Every life and business coach knows about it internal self-talker saboteur. It’s a self-talk that undermines so much of what we do; an internal critic who evaluates you and your work.

The inner saboteur of self-talk is a ‘fixed way of thinking’.

Once you learn that you have a fixed mindset, you can anticipate it saboteur for self-talk in advance. Then just listen. If you hear your saboteur talking, you can say, “Cancel.” “Stop.”

3: Recognize that you have a choice.

You can interpret self-talk in two different ways: Challenges, failures, and criticism can be a sign that you have a fixed talent and ability.

Or, they can be a sign that you need to challenge yourself, step up your efforts, change strategies, and keep evolving.

The first is obviously a fixed way of thinking; the latter is growth-oriented.

The key here is to move from the framework of judgment (fixed) to the arena of growth.

4: Talk to your negative inner critic with a voice thinking about growth.

As you approach the challenge:

A fixed negative mindset says “Are you sure you can do this? Maybe you don’t have the talent.”

The way of thinking about growth responds: “I’m not sure I can do it now, but I know I can learn with time and effort.”

Fixed mindset: “What if you fail – you will fail”

Way of thinking about growth: “The most successful people have had failures along the way.”

How to achieve failure:

Fixed negative mindset: “This would be great if you really had talent.”

Thinking about growth: “It’s so wrong. Basketball wasn’t easy for Michael Jordan, and science wasn’t easy for Thomas Edison. They had passion and they put in the effort.

As you face criticism:

Fixed negative way of thinking: “It’s not my fault. Something was wrong or someone else is to blame.”

The way of thinking about growth: “When I take responsibility, I can fix it. Let me listen – no matter how painful – and learn what I can do.”

Writing dialogue in a magazine is very efficient. There is something in writing that makes it easier to connect with the inner voice.

In addition, it provides a recording of conversations. You can then review the dialog later and identify common patterns.

5: Take action thinking about growth.

Once you hear the negative self-talk of fixed thinking and respond to it with the self-talk of growth thinking, then determine how to take the necessary actions that will lead to growth.

These can include accepting a new challenge, learning from failure, persevering without exception, tailoring your actions based on feedback, and so on.

No matter what challenges you face – relationship problems, lack of money, failure to work, health challenges …

Your success or failure lies in your beliefs and thoughts.

Some people have a way of thinking that traps them because of their self-perceptions or indoctrinated and conditioned limitations.

Other people have a way of thinking that helps them deftly cope with challenges and shake off failures or failures.


Einstein reminds us that if a clear and easy solution to any problem you face is not obvious, you need to change the frequency of your thinking.

In the final analysis, by adopting a way of thinking about growth, opportunities for more learning and success will become more visible, accessible, and ultimately more useful.

While this may not be completely natural at first, anyone can begin to adopt a way of thinking about growing and creating a meaningful and fulfilled life by taking consistent action.

You can make the decision to start a life of healthy growth today, when you begin to expand your awareness and notice any fixed mindset and / or mentality of scarcity that may arise.

By using the actions mentioned above, you will constantly travel towards success.

Can you break through without failures?

Breakthrough can be a wonderful turning point in someone’s personal life. Or it could be a key moment for the job.

As children, we made several discoveries by the age of five. Although these were monumental times, they were not walks in the park. Before we took the first step, we fell countless times. When we first tried to talk or eat, we failed. However, we were never discouraged. We got up and took another step until we made a breakthrough in each of them.

As adults, walking, talking, and feeding alone are so common that we think very little about it. Once we mastered them, we moved on to other discoveries, such as tying shoes, cycling, reading, writing, learning math to name a few. However, before we were able to take a walk or do anything else, we had many, many breakdowns.

Before we achieved anything significant, we experienced failures or failures. As children, we are not deterred by breakdowns. When we look at an infant learning to walk, failure does not seem to occur as a problem or malfunction. Every healthy baby gets up to take another step, even if he cries from the fall.

As we age and continue our careers, we strive for discoveries in salaries, titles and the prestige of the company that employs us. To achieve these career benchmarks, we apply for new tasks, take on new and more complex tasks, and some focus on managing others. We are stretched at first. In fact, our performance can be mediocre at best. During the learning curve, we do what are called mistakes. Except that these mistakes or failures are no different from the failures we experienced when we took the first steps. Like mastering walking, we too can master our careers.

Faced with mastering our careers, organizations are committed to making new discoveries that differentiate them in the marketplace. Most discoveries do not have a draft. If it happens, it is most likely an improvement on what already exists. Discoveries, on the other hand, require people to move through unfamiliar territory. There will probably be many breakdowns in that unknown territory. Some are directly related to a service or product. In other cases, it’s the result of either miscommunication, which exceeds budget and time, or simply missing the right answers on how to take the next step.

Whether it is personal or professional, it seems that human experience will never be without failures. Those who are brave enough to go through a breakdown are rewarded with discoveries at best. At worst, they will learn lessons that can only be learned through experience – striving for discovery.

While it may seem unintuitive to chase a breakdown, it seems almost impossible to avoid if you are committed to the discoveries. Yet no one is talking about the deliberate breakdown it will create.

Perhaps mastery in discovery has nothing to do with talent and intelligence. This may have more to do with people taking a stand for the outcome, even though they don’t know how to achieve it. Thomas Edison perhaps summed it up best: “I didn’t fail. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Edison seemed to master mastery in handling himself as well as others, despite multiple failures. It was as if he knew that failures were part of the process of making discoveries. If each of us has managed failures since childhood, technically speaking, we should be masters at going through failures to make discoveries. What kind of breakdown are you going to create today?

Puzzles and innovations – they don’t really work anymore

Well, I have a pretty large personal library with over three dozen books on innovation. It’s amazing how everyone reads about the same thing and everyone has almost the same advice, especially when it comes to “brain art”. However, because of all the new social norms that are taught today at the faculty, where every question of the professor is met, no matter how stupid it may be; “A great question,” followed by a torturous unregulated English; “Okay, well …”, followed by the correct answer – it causes the same nonsense in brain sessions.

The only chance today at brainstorming that brings a brilliant original solution would be that there is someone in the group who is already a creative genius who can speak up, defend their concept from politically correct and status quo bias and personally persuade the group to indulge their idea. Yet this type of person is a true ‘Thought Leader’ and a legitimate thought leader hardly needs a brain group or any group at all.

Puzzles no longer work for innovation, and these days you can get better creativity in YouTube Cat Video. Nor do corporate R&D departments produce much given the huge sums of money they spend on the innovation process. Those who predict the future so that they can look in the mirror are not much better using their methodologies.

Innovation for the future and anticipation of the future

Take the Futurists of the World Society of the Future (WFS) as an interesting case study. WFS has seminars that will teach you how to think like a futurist, symposia with a special focus on trend projections and innovation. Isn’t it interesting how all WFS members are always on the same page and how their predictions are almost always incorrect (90% of the time)? Why is this? Maybe it’s because when you teach people to think a certain way, they lose the creative advantage or ability of original thinking at a high level because your thought process is limited to logical thinking (left-brain thinking) when students who want to focus on innovation, must be both left and right thinkers of the brain.

How are we going to return to an America that is robust in its original thinking and overwhelmed with new ideas – a nation that is so innovative that we cannot sustain even the rapid changes of our society and civilization? How can we lead the world into the future if we can’t even innovate our way out of plastic bags? Please consider all of this and think about it.

How smart are our smart cars?

The prodigal child of the automotive industry

DON’T LOOK AT IT FAVORS confuse you with top performance on the modern road – the micro city coupe “ForTwo” is a little more than 8 feet long, less than 5 feet wide and 5 meters high. Weighing 818 kilograms and three meters shorter than the Mini Cooper, this Vikings has racing-like cages, anti-lock (ABS) brakes, advanced electronics, microprocessors and a premium powertrain that offer better stability, braking and overall comfort. It has luxury enhancements such as GPS navigation, reverse measurement, night vision, assisted parking, climate control, smart card and keyless voice control. Of course, the smartest car is one that is fully automated and self-driving.

The smart car is a mini-compact two-seater with advanced electronics and a microprocessor that are perfect for crowds and city driving. The first prototype known as the Micro Compact Car (MCC) was developed in 1994 by Swatch and Daimler-Benz, and this ‘Swatchmobile’ was exhibited at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1997. In fact, the word ‘Smart’ comes from a collaboration between Swatch and Mercedes: Swatch Mercedes ART. The updated Smart “ForTwo” was released in 2008 in the US.

What’s smart about that?

The idea to build a small car came with Nicolas Hayek, the inventor of Swatch watches. He wanted to make a small car that would be economical, environmentally friendly and easy to park indoors. Today, his descendants in DaimlerAG’s Smart division and other carmakers such as Renault and General Motors (GM) offer cars that have electric or hybrid engines and are fuel efficient and environmentally responsible.

Although initially people were hesitant to opt for Smart, now the term is changing. To date, more than 750,000 ForTwoes have been sold in Europe and Japan. Subcompacts also pay close attention to the trend. Waiting lists and pre-orders for Tesla and Chevrolet Volt show that people are more concerned about fuel economy and the environment. The Smart line has favorably positioned itself among the top design and technology segment targeting the urban upper middle class, especially the younger generation.

These micro cars are small in growth but economical. Compared to the 7-foot-wide Hummer H1, the ForTwo is only 5 feet wide. In real life, this means that the Smart Car can return straight to the curb, instead of parallel parking in line with other cars. Two or three smart cars can be parked that way in one parking space. In fact, Swatch initially wanted to make such a car for the US and the European market, where parking space and gasoline have a high price tag. Cars are extremely manageable and fast – they can even beat many supercars when it comes to speeding up city traffic. With its reduced length, the ForTwo can turn within a circle of 22.8 feet, compared to 35.7 feet from the Honda Civic.

With its Tridion protection cell at the front, the Smart also handled the security issue pretty well. This solid structure activates the crumpled zones of the vehicle in a collision creating a passenger safety balloon. The second generation ForTwo was awarded 4 out of 5 stars in Euro NCAP Adult Occupant Protection.

The ForTwo is one of the most efficient four-wheel drive vehicles with a conventional gasoline engine on the market. Obviously, it can’t compete with the hybrid when it comes to mpg numbers, but it has an artistic design and is certainly easier to park than the usual four-wheeler. It can snatch the last parking space practically anywhere and has a wide range of color options for its body and Tridion safety cell. In environmental terms, the Smart is the most promising four-wheel drive vehicle. As it is powered by electricity, it does not cause any environmental pollution.

However, in terms of price, Smarts is not that smart and never was. The base price of the ForTwo automatic drive is $ 20,640 and $ 19,650 in the European market, not to mention the $ 28,750 price of the all-electric ForTwo Cabrio (smart ED). Fuel-saving customers are also looking for bank account efficiency and can find a small conventional car with decent mileage for a few thousand dollars less than the price of ForTwo.

The power-assisted power steering offers very little haptic feedback from the road surface, making the ForTwo jump excessively on uneven roads. The disc and drum brakes also feel artificial in the hands of experts.

Smarts are also slow in terms of speed and mileage. Although fast, the latest ForTwos Cabrio can accelerate to 100 km / h in 10.2 seconds, compared to the 5-7 seconds required for most conventional sedans. Top speed is limited to just 81 mph, as excessive speed drastically reduces mileage and power range. The projected 70-80 miles of one range is also not practical when it needs 3 hours of charging through a 240-volt outlet or 16.5 hours through a 120-volt household plug.

Even smarter

DaimlerChrysler unveiled the all-electric version of the smart car, the ForTwo EV, at the British Motor Show in July 2006. Now, in 2018, if it offers ForTwo Electric Drive – an unusual compact with a price tag of $ 24,550 and a built-in, 80-hp electric motor that travels 70 kilometers with one charge. The latest ForTwo Cabriolet is the ‘convertible’ version of the most significant electric drive. Like its predecessor, the Cabriolet also comes with an electric propulsion system and a surprisingly spacious cargo room.

ForTwo is not the only one in the Smart line. Toyota’s Scion iQ was a worthy competitor that held most Smart car records before his death in 2015. Now ForTwo faces stiff competition from the Mitsubishi I-MiEV and Fiat 500e. The Honda Fit and Chevy Volt may not be the smallest cars on the market, but in terms of hybrid powertrain, automotive intelligence and fuel economy, these cars boast good competition in the Smart segment. The Mini Cooper is another challenge that offers sleek yet heavy performance. All of these cars are designed to maximize passenger space while reducing exterior length. ForTwo also has its cousins ​​from the Smart segment in Mercedes – Smart Roadster and Forfour. The latter is being refurbished to offer a 4×4 pint-sized SUV for the U.S. and Brazilian domestic markets. Hyundai is currently making complete self-driving cars for the next generation, and Samsung is developing an in-vehicle infotainment system. Both firms compete in the industry to introduce hyperintelligent cars.

While it’s obvious that this Smart is a great choice for city cars, what’s less clear is whether it will completely replace conventional gasoline-powered cars. The answer will only give us time. But with fuel prices at historic highs and environmental renewal a burning issue, it’s high time carmakers offered and consumers adopted a more economical and environmentally friendly smart car for everyday commuting.