How to reset your how-to geek trivia score (and feel less dumb)

Justin Pot has been writing about technology for over a decade, with work appearing in Digital Trends, The Next Web, Lifehacker, MakeUseOf, and the Zapier Blog. He also runs the Hillsboro Signal, a volunteer-driven local news outlet he founded. Read more.

My co-worker Jason is a jerk. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of his work and he’s probably the most agreeable person I could even hope to work with. But his trivia questions constantly make me feel like a moron. Even worse, the site keeps track of my failure, constantly reminding me of how many questions I’ve gotten wrong.

Being the intrepid computer geek that I am, I figured there must be a way to reset this. And there is! Your correct and incorrect answers are tracked using a cookie, which is easy enough to delete. Even better: if you’re using Chrome or Opera you can edit your score to say whatever you want.

Reset Your Trivia Score by Deleting Your How-To Geek Cookie

We’ve shown you how to delete cookies in most popular web browsers on Windows and in Safari on a Mac, so we won’t rehash that here. Just head to the cookie seeings for your browser of choice and search for cookies matching howtogeek.com. Delete them. Your score will reset to zero. (Note that this may also log you out of our discussion forum, if you’re a participant—but you can just log back in.)

Once that’s done, head to our trivia page and answer all of those previous questions correctly.

Edit Your Trivia Total to Impress Potential Dates

If you really want to take control of your trivia totals, you need Edit This Cookie, an extension for Chrome and Opera that lets you directly edit the contents of any cookie. Just install the extension, head to howtogeek.com, and click the cookie button.

There are two fields we care about here: triviatotal and triviacorrect . Change the value for both to whatever you want, making sure “correct” isn’t higher than “total.”

Click the green checkmark when you’re done and refresh the page.

That’s right, Jason: I’m perfect. Nothing you can say will prove otherwise.

Il mio collega Jason è un coglione. Non fraintendermi: sono un grande fan del suo lavoro ed è probabilmente la persona più gradevole con cui potrei anche sperare di lavorare. Ma le sue domande sui trivia mi fanno sempre sentire un deficiente. Ancora peggio, il sito tiene traccia del mio fallimento, ricordandomi costantemente di quante domande ho sbagliato.

Essendo l’intrepido fanatico del computer che sono, ho pensato che ci fosse un modo per resettare questo. E c’è! Le tue risposte corrette e sbagliate vengono tracciate utilizzando un cookie, che è abbastanza facile da eliminare. Ancora meglio: se utilizzi Chrome o Opera puoi modificare il tuo punteggio per dire quello che vuoi.

Ripristina il tuo punteggio Trivia eliminando il tuo How-To Geek Cookie

CORRELATO: Come eliminare i cookie in i browser Web più popolari su Windows

Vi abbiamo mostrato come eliminare i cookie nei browser Web più diffusi su Windows e Safari su un Mac, quindi non lo terremo in considerazione qui. Basta andare ai cookie per il tuo browser di scelta e cercare i cookie che corrispondono a phhsnews.com. Cancellali Il tuo punteggio verrà ripristinato a zero. (Nota che questo potrebbe anche disconnetterti dal nostro forum di discussione, se sei un partecipante, ma puoi semplicemente accedere di nuovo.)

Una volta fatto, vai alla nostra pagina dei trivia e rispondi correttamente a tutte quelle domande precedenti .

Modifica il tuo quiz totale per impressionare le potenziali date

Se vuoi davvero prendere il controllo dei tuoi trivia totali, devi modificare questo cookie, un’estensione per Chrome e Opera che ti consente di modificare direttamente i contenuti di qualsiasi cookie. Basta installare l’estensione, andare su phhsnews.com e fare clic sul pulsante cookie.

Ci sono due campi che ci interessano qui: triviatotal e triviacorrect . Cambia il valore di entrambi in base a ciò che vuoi, assicurandoti che “corretto” non sia superiore a “totale”.

Fai clic sul segno di spunta verde quando hai finito e aggiorna la pagina.

Esatto, Jason: I sono perfetto Nulla di ciò che puoi dire dimostrerà il contrario.

L’autenticazione a due fattori protegge gli account con il codice oltre alla propria password. Non puoi entrare senza il codice inviato al tuo telefono. Ma cosa succede se si perde o si ripristina il telefono? Se non pianifichi il tuo metodo di recupero prima del tempo, potresti perdere definitivamente l’accesso ai tuoi account.

Praticamente ogni router sul mercato ha la capacità di inoltrare le porte, e il sistema Wi-Fi Eero non fa eccezione, nonostante la sua interfaccia facile da usare. CORRELATO: Che cosa sono i sistemi Wi-Fi Mesh e come funzionano? Se hai trovato questo post di proposito, probabilmente sai già quale port forwarding è, come funziona e perché vorresti usarlo.

A Machine Learning model is defined as a mathematical model with a number of parameters that need to be learned from the data. By training a model with existing data, we are able to fit the model parameters.
However, there is another kind of parameters, known as Hyperparameters, that cannot be directly learned from the regular training process. They are usually fixed before the actual training process begins. These parameters express important properties of the model such as its complexity or how fast it should learn.

Some examples of model hyperparameters include:

1. The penalty in Logistic Regression Classifier i.e. L1 or L2 regularization
2. The learning rate for training a neural network.
3. The C and sigma hyperparameters for support vector machines.
4. The k in k-nearest neighbors.

The aim of this article is to explore various strategies to tune hyperparameter for Machine learning model.

Models can have many hyperparameters and finding the best combination of parameters can be treated as a search problem. Two best strategies for Hyperparameter tuning are:

• GridSearchCV
• RandomizedSearchCV

GridSearchCV
In GridSearchCV approach, machine learning model is evaluated for a range of hyperparameter values. This approach is called GridSearchCV , because it searches for best set of hyperparameters from a grid of hyperparameters values.

For example, if we want to set two hyperparameters C and Alpha of Logistic Regression Classifier model, with different set of values. The gridsearch technique will construct many versions of the model with all possible combinations of hyerparameters, and will return the best one.

As in the image, for C = [0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5] and Alpha = [0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4].
For a combination C=0.3 and Alpha=0.2, performance score comes out to be 0.726(Highest), therefore it is selected.

Following code illustrates how to use GridSearchCV

Tip: Learn more about Microsoft Forms or get started right away and create a survey, quiz, or poll. Want more advanced branding, question types, and data analysis? Try Dynamics 365 Customer Voice.

With Microsoft Forms, you can create a form (such as a survey or poll) or quiz (such as a math exam for students). Use form and quiz settings to specify deadlines, identify form responders, display correct answers for quizzes, and set other preferences for Microsoft Forms.

In Microsoft Forms, open the form for which you want to edit settings, and then select More form settings > Settings.

Setting options for forms and quizzes

In the Settings pane, you can select or clear options.

Note: Option for quiz setting is only available for quizzes.

Option for quiz

The default setting, Show results automatically, allows responders see the results of each question when they submit their quiz answers. Responders see green check marks next to each correct answer for the quiz questions and red message text displayed next to incorrect answers. Clear this setting if you don’t want to display correct and incorrect information next to each quiz question.

Note: Option for quiz setting is only available for quizzes.

Who can fill out this form

Anyone can respond – Anyone inside or outside of your organization can submit responses to your form or quiz.

Only people in my organization can respond – Only people that belong to your organization will be able to respond to your form or quiz.

Record name – Keep track of people that have responded to your form or quiz.

One response per person – Limit form or quiz responses to only one per person. This will prevent individuals from filling out a form or quiz multiple times.

Specific people in my organization can respond – Only people or groups in your organization that you specify can respond to your form.

Only people in my organization can respond and Specific people in my organization can respond options are only available for Office 365 Education and Microsoft 365 Apps for business users. Sign in with your work or school account to access these settings.

Specific people in my organization can respond option applies to individuals and groups only within your organization. You can designate a total of up to 100 individual names or group names. Of the 100 limit, you can designate up to 20 groups (each group can contain up to 1,000 individuals). For example, you can collect responses from 80 individuals and 20 groups for a total of 100.

Options for responses

Accept responses – If this setting is unchecked, you turn off the ability to collect any additional form responses. You can also customize the default message that recipients see when trying to submit their response after you turn off this setting.

Start date and End date – You can specify an exact date and time when you want to start and stop collecting form responses. Click Start date, then click the date text box and select a date from the calendar control. Select a specific hour from the drop-down list of hour increments. Do the same for End date

Note: You can’t select a date and time in the past.

Shuffle questions – When this is unchecked (default setting), questions are displayed to respondents in the same order you created them. When this option is checked, the order of questions displayed will be randomly shuffled. Each respondent sees the questions in a different sequence.

All questions – Shuffle the order of all questions in the form or quiz.

Lock questions – Shuffle the order of all questions except for those you designate (e.g. questions 3-5).

Note: If your form or quiz has multiple sections or pages, you will not be able to shuffle questions.

Show progress bar – Respondents will see a visual indicator of their progress while completing a form or quiz.

Note: The progress bar is only available on forms and quizzes that contain multiple sections or pages.

Customize thank you message – Display a thank you note upon completion of your form or quiz. Click in the text box to create a customized message.

Notification

Allow receipt of responses after submission – After completing the form, respondents will have the option to save or print a PDF of the form with their filled-in answers on the “Thank You” page. Note that selecting this setting still allows form respondents, internal to your organization, to ask for an email receipt of their form.

Note: This feature is currently rolling out and will be available soon.

Get email notification of each response – Get notified by email each time a response is submitted.

Feedback for Microsoft Forms

We want to hear from you! To send feedback about Microsoft Forms, go to the upper right corner of your form and select More form settings > Feedback.

Suzanne Humphries is the Commerce Editor for Review Geek. She has over seven years of experience across multiple publications researching and testing products, as well as writing and editing news, reviews, and how-to articles covering software, hardware, entertainment, networking, electronics, gaming, apps, security, finance, and small business. Read more.

@SuzDoesReviews
Updated Mar 1, 2022, 11:52 am EDT | 5 min read

Nothing’s better than enjoying a perfect cup of coffee, except maybe having delightful new kinds of coffee regularly delivered right to your doorstep! With these tasty coffee subscription boxes, you can try coffee flavors from all around the world.

With a weekly or monthly coffee subscription, you’ll never have to worry about running out of delicious coffee. Plus, it’s a great way to try tons of new flavors and roasts you might never have found otherwise. What’s not to love about that?

Update, 3/1/22: Updated pricing for each pick.

Personalized Picks: Trade Coffee

If you’re sick of drinking the same old coffee and want to brew up something new, check out Trade Coffee (starts at $12.50 per bag). When you first sign up, you’ll take a quick quiz that’ll point you towards your personalized pick from more than 400 choices. You’ll answer questions regarding what type of coffee maker you have, what you typically add to your coffee, and how adventurous you want to be with your new coffee to help ensure you end up with the most flavorful pick for your setup.

Once you’re done, you’ll see the first bag of coffee you’ll receive in your subscription. Now, your Trade Coffee depends on your feedback, so be sure to rate the coffee once you’ve tried it; Trade then tweaks your next bag accordingly (and the next one and so on), until you find your perfect roast and flavor profile.

Curated Cold Brew: Driftaway Coffee

Instead of sending you random bags of coffee each month, Driftaway Coffee (starts at $18 per month) lets you have a say in what you’re sent. Initially, Driftaway will send you a Cold Brew Explorer Kit with multiple flavors for you to try out. You’ll tailor your future coffee deliveries by rating and reviewing the ones you were sent, so Driftaway’s curators can get a better feel for what you liked and what you didn’t.

You can even opt to receive mesh bags for brewing, and you’ll specify how much coffee you want to receive and how often. Instructions for how to brew cold brew coffee are located on its website, in addition to information about how long it’ll stay good for.

For Decaf Lovers: Swiss Water

Whether you’re looking for a way to mitigate late-night coffee cravings or bypass coffee jitters without sacrificing altogether, sometimes you just gotta have decaf. Swiss Water (starts at $18 per bag) offers terrific weekly or monthly decaf options from roasters across the United States. Swiss Water removes the caffeine gently and without chemicals from green coffee sent by roasters, sends it back to the companies for roasting, then ships it to you so you can enjoy a variety of coffee flavors whenever you want without the buzz.

Perfect Coffee with a Perfect Price: La Barba Coffee

La Barba (starts at $13.50 per month) cares about every link in the chain when it comes to its coffee, from the farmers and suppliers to its employees and enthusiastic community. As such, its coffee is extremely high quality and perfectly roasted, and it tastes good regardless of whether you make it in your Chemex or your Mr. Coffee. La Barba offers single-origin coffees and blended choices in its subscriptions, and it has delectable flavors like Noche Oscura with notes of dark nut butter and rocky road; and the House Blend, with notes of milk chocolate, almond, and toffee. You can choose 5-ounce, 12-ounce, or two 12-ounce bags, and you can opt to receive coffee every week, two weeks, three weeks, or monthly.

Strong AF Coffee: Death Wish

If it’s more about the caffeine than the flavor or experience, Death Wish (starts at $14.50 per shipment) is the coffee subscription box for you. Death Wish is known as the world’s strongest coffee. Although there aren’t a variety of flavors, you can still get your caffeine fix while enjoying Death Wish’s smooth coffee, which has subtle notes of chocolate and cherry. When purchasing, you can choose from whole beans, grounds, or Death Cups (K-Cups), then select how frequently you want delivery, with options ranging from once a week to bimonthly. Death Wish says it will even refund you if it isn’t the strongest coffee you’ve ever had.

For K-Cup Users: Angelino’s

Keurig owners know how awesome it is to pop in a K-Cup and get a hassle-free cup of tasty coffee in minutes. With Angelino’s (starts at $24.95 per month for two boxes), you can get as many as 192 K-Cups delivered to your doorstep every month, or once every two or three months. A few options are available for preselected variety packs, or you can pick your own from more than 30 individual flavors of coffee, tea, cocoa, and cappuccinos.

It has tons of delicious flavors to choose from, from Sumatra Dark to Coconut Macaroon. If you’re not sure what to get, grab the sample pack of 14 single cups for $5.95 (and free shipping). It has options for a variety pack, all flavored coffees, decaf only, or a tea sampler. Angelino’s also lets you switch up what you receive each month whenever you want, so it’s easy to stick with something you love or try something new when the mood strikes.

Customize Your Caffeine: Crema

While receiving random bags of coffee each month is fun for some, it’s understandably not for everyone. Crema (starts at $16.25 per bag) gets that, so it lets you curate your own coffee “playlist,” wherein you choose every delicious-looking coffee, select your grind preference, then add it to your playlist. Once you’re done and you activate your subscription, Crema will work its way through your playlist, sending you one bag at a time.

With tons of amazing flavors like Teodoro’s Italian Roast, Chicago House Blend, Kenya Karimikui Peaberry, and Mexican Maya Vinic, Crema makes it easy to travel around the world one mug at a time. You can also rearrange the order of your playlist (and even add or delete coffees from it) whenever you want and control how frequently you receive a delivery, from as often as every three days out to once per month, so you’re always in control of your subscription.

This test is originally from Japan, where it’s named 精神年齢チェック. Please answer every question honestly. Nobody will see your answers.

The result has nothing to do with your Intelligence Quotient. For the purpose of this test, we define Mental Age as a measure of a person’s psychological abilities in comparison to the number of years it takes for an average child to reach the same level. For example, if your mental age is 10, regardless of your actual chronological age, you are mentally similar to a 10-year-old.

Tests you may want to take:

• Sexuality Test
• Gay Test
• Les Test
• Top Bottom Test
• Alpha Beta Omega Test
• BDSM Test
• Rice Purity Test
• Mental Age Test
• BMI Calculator (interactive chart)

• Feel free to keep your real age as a secret! 🙂 – Nov 5, 2016
• Added estimated year born to the quiz result page and improved the translation! – Nov 26, 2016
• Updated some questions for 2019/2020 by the original quiz designer. – Oct 16, 2019

• Can you give more background to this mental age test?

  Good question. Our mental age test was first released in Nov 2013 on my personal website. The original content was introduced to me by a friend who’s from Japan. However, I couldn’t find any online resource for it. It has now been translated into 32 languages and is one of the most shared webpages on Facebook and Twitter. Many famous people have taken this test. According to Google Analytics reports, more than 27,292,000 people from more than 156 countries have taken this test.

  In Feb 2014, I moved this webpage from my personal website to “arealme.com”, and the Mental Age Test became the first test to exist on arealme.com.

  Mental Age Test Result breakdown by country

  Country	Mental Age
  🇯🇵 Japan	27.91
  🇸🇬 Singapore	27.90
  🇳🇱 Netherlands	27.85
  🇬🇧 United Kingdom	27.75
  🇭🇷 Croatia	27.67
  🇺🇸 United States	27.61
  🇹🇷 Turkey	27.58
  🇲🇾 Malaysia	27.56
  🇯🇵 Japan	27.48
  🇫🇮 Finland	27.42
  🇨🇿 Czechia	27.36
  🇮🇱 Israel	27.34
  🇩🇪 Germany	27.34
  🇫🇷 France	26.99
  🇬🇷 Greece	26.75
  🇮🇹 Italy	26.73
  🇳🇴 Norway	26.73
  🇵🇱 Poland	26.70
  🇩🇰 Denmark	26.47
  🇷🇴 Romania	26.45
  🇧🇪 Belgium	26.44
  🇭🇺 Hungary	26.39
  🇸🇪 Sweden	26.27
  🇰🇷 South Korea	26.23
  🇨🇦 Canada	25.80
  🇪🇸 Spain	25.75
  🇧🇷 Brazil	25.66
  🇮🇩 Indonesia	25.58
  🇲🇽 Mexico	25.46
  🇮🇪 Ireland	25.37
  🇦🇺 Australia	25.32
  🇹🇭 Thailand	25.26
  🇮🇳 India	25.16
  🇵🇹 Portugal	25.00

  • Source: Anonymously from Google Analytics
  • Sampled from 300K visitors.
  • Some lines are hidden.

  Is this mental age test accurate?

  I believe so. We’ve improved our algorithm from time to time since its first launch in 2013. According to most of the users reactions, the quiz is very reliable. Almost 10% of people who completed this test have shared it on Facebook and Twitter.

  Jeet is a serial entrepreneur, digital marketing consultant, author, blogger, and public speaker. Read full profile

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  Everyone wants to become a better person, but some people just don’t know how.

  At the end of each day, I like to reflect and see what I can do to become a better person. Not only that, but I have a goal of leaving an imprint on the world for doing great things. By setting aside some time each day to reflect on what behaviors were good and bad, I have the opportunity to grow.

  Growing up, I wasn’t the nicest kid. I would make fun of others, I was selfish, and I thought the world revolved around me. Fast-forward a few years and I’ve grown tremendously. I’m no longer the annoying child I was because I have grown and learned what becoming a better person means.

  After learning what it means to be a better person, I’ve been able to develop my persona into someone I don’t mind being. I am a lot happier with who I am and I would have no problem telling my future kids the type of person I am.

  So, how to be a better person?

  Here are 9 ways to become a better person through self-development:

  1. Be Willing to Change

  In order to become a better person, you have to be willing to change.

  Change is the only way to grow and progress into the person you want to become. Many people are against change, which can make it very hard to grow.

  When you keep an open mind and are willing to change, you are able to grow into the person you want to become.

  2. Stop Making Excuses

  When I first started my company in high school, I made excuses every time something went wrong. I would blame others, blame the customer, or anyone else involved. However, I would never blame myself for things that went wrong.

  Instead, I learned that taking accountability for your own mistakes is extremely important. I stopped making excuses, took the blame when it was truly my fault, and was able to achieve so much more. By understanding that I made a mistake, I was able to use my mistakes to learn which in turn helped me become a better person.

  If you find it difficult to stop making excuses for yourself, take a look at this article: 7 Ways to Eliminate Your Excuses

  3. Stop Being Angry

  Many people let anger and rage alter their decision-making skills. I used to be an angry person growing up, but I only saw it damage relationships with people and increase my blood pressure.

  Controlling anger is an extremely difficult skill to master, but it is very beneficial. Instead of getting angry, I decided to find a way to change my negative emotion. Staying angry doesn’t help me or solve any problems, it only creates more of them.

  Find some way of relaxing your nerves when you’re angry, a stress ball was very helpful for me. Maybe one of these would work for you too: 40 Simple And Brilliant Ways To Relax and De-stress

  4. Be a Role Model

  Sometimes, you need to be a role model to someone to really get your act together. Once I became an entrepreneur and people started to look up to me, I became a lot more cautious about the way I behaved. I didn’t want to disappoint people by showing them I was immature or a bad role model.

  You can start small and be a “big brother” to someone, coach a kids’ team, or be a role model to your children. No matter what you choose to do, always make decisions that the person looking up to you will respect.

  5. Forgive Someone

  Forgiving someone who hurt you is very difficult to do. When I got upset at someone for doing something, I could never forgive them. Even if it was a petty thing, I would hold it against them for the rest of their lives which was not healthy.

  I quickly learned that humans are prone to making mistakes. Instead of holding mistakes against them for life, try to forgive someone. To become a better person, go through your past and forgive someone that did something to hurt you.

  If you’re struggling to forgive someone, take a look at this guide: How to Forgive and Live a Happy Life Again (A Step-By-Step Guide)

  6. Listen to People

  People are extremely busy with their careers, families, and lives. Everyone is in a rush, but people rarely ever have time to listen to what others have to say. I learned that listening to people and giving everyone a voice is one of the greatest things you can do.

  I got to meet some of the most amazing people, close some of the biggest deals, and develop connections that will last me a lifetime all because I took time to listen to people.

  Being a good listener can change your life in a positive manner. Try these tips: How to Practice Active Listening (A Step-By-Step Guide)

  7. Be Honest

  Honest people are hard to come by nowadays. However, honesty is the best remedy for any situation. Promise yourself that you won’t tell any lies for a month straight.

  Challenge yourself to be honest by developing good habits. If you’re a compulsive liar, start small by trying to be honest for 1 day. After you accomplish a smaller goal, increase the goal by 2 or 3.

  8. Do Something You Don’t Want To

  Keeping an open mind and trying things that you wouldn’t normally do is a very easy way to become a better person. Take a risk and challenge yourself to try something you’ve always been scared to do. You’ll only live your best life once you step out — here’s why.

  Growing up, I was terrified of roller coasters. However, I eventually gave in as a teenager and had the time of my life. I would have never experienced roller coasters unless I had been willing to get over my fear and give it a shot. That one experience has led me to try numerous other new things.

  9. Surprise Someone Special

  Do you have a loved one in your life? Whether it’s your spouse/romantic partner, your children, or a family member, plan a special surprise for them. If you know someone who deserves a nice vacation or a new gift, go buy it for them.

  One of the most rewarding feelings in the world are knowing that you made someone smile. Surprise the special someone in your life by doing something out of the ordinary for them!

  Hello there! I’m Dr. Vinifera, but you can call me Vinny. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the fine points of etiquette to the science of winemaking. And don’t worry, I’m no wine snob—you can also ask me those “dumb questions” you’re too embarrased to ask your wine geek friends! I hope you find my answers educational, empowering and even amusing. And don’t forget to check out my most asked questions and my full archives for all my Q&A classics.

  Is it possible that expert wine ratings would change favorably as wine ages over time in properly cellared conditions?

  —Anton, Manchester, Conn.

  Sure, and it’s possible that a wine rating could become less favorable over time as well. We occasionally do retrospective tastings, where we revisit a vintage of a particular category to see how the wines are progressing. We rate the bottles we feel have aged well and, compared with their original reviews, the results might be better, worse or the same.

  When our reviewers are scoring new releases, they take their experience with how wines age from these retrospective tastings and other research to not only score the wine, but also give their best recommendation for a drink window. That experience is also called upon when they are rating the vintage for a specific region and category.

  Intelligence reveals itself in many ways–be smart enough to recognize the variations.

  You can throw a stone in any direction and hit someone who is over-confident and thinks they’re smarter than they really are. But even more common are people who don’t realize they’re actually smarter than they think.

  Is that you? Here are nine science-backed signs that you’re not giving yourself enough IQ credit.

  1. You’re creative.

  Dr. Katie Davis, a clinical neuropsychologist, told Business Insider that creativity is a definitive sign of intelligence because it requires thinking flexibly/outside the box and necessitates the ability to shift and change your patterns of thinking from one way to another.

  I’ve worked with many ad agency creatives–they’re some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. Their ability to take an insight and translate it into a message that illuminated my brand’s benefits in a compelling, memorable way is a task few merely “book smart” people could do. I often walked away after a brilliant ad campaign presentation thinking, “Their brain just works differently.” Creativity is its own brand of smart.

  2. You’re messy.

  Kathleen Vohs from the University of Minnesota says the messier you are, the smarter you are. A study Vohs published in Psychological Science featured two groups asked to devise creative uses for Ping-Pong balls. One group worked in a messy, cluttered environment while the other worked in a tidy setting. The messy group brainstormed substantially more creative and interesting ideas.

  So before berating yourself for your perpetually cluttered desk, give yourself a few IQ points instead.

  3. You’re curious.

  If you love to learn, the more you’ll learn and the smarter you’ll get. Science backs this up. A study from Goldsmiths University of London found that “how people invest their time and effort in their intellect” (i.e. feeding their curiosity) plays a huge role in cognitive growth.

  But it’s not just learning more that makes you smarter, it’s wanting to learn more, which is a trait common in intelligent people. A study in the Journal of Individual Differences showed a correlation between people who scored high on IQ tests as a child and adults that were more curious and open to new ideas.

  Psychology research from Georgia Tech also showed that those with high curiosity are more tolerant of ambiguity, which requires a sophisticated thinking style.

  4. You talk to yourself.

  No, it’s not a sign you’re crazy–just the opposite. A study from psychologists Paloma Mari-Beffa and Alexander Kirkham of Bangor University showed that talking out loud to yourself improves self-control, an important form of intelligence. They gave study participants a set of tasks and accompanying written instructions, asking them to read the instructions silently or out loud. Measured concentration and performance from those who read out loud was far better.

  Talking out loud nets control, which is why so many professional athletes talk to themselves out loud during games. Which brings us to the next sign.

  5. You have high self-control.

  Whether you exercise self-control by talking to yourself out loud or just by willing it, it’s an overlooked sign of intelligence. A 2009 psychology study from Yale University gave participants IQ tests and offered them reward money they could receive immediately or later (for a higher amount). Those choosing to wait also had higher IQ scores, indicating that resisting making impulsive decisions and carefully weighing options correlates with intelligence.

  6. You’re good with being by yourself.

  If you like your own company and aren’t constantly in need of being around others, that’s a sign of intelligence. A study published in the British Journal of Psychology showed a correlation between contentedness with being alone and intelligence. I use alone time to think, prioritize, and plan, which reinforces self-control (sign No. 5).

  7. You’re funny.

  A 2011 University of New Mexico psychology study found that professional comedians and people who wrote funnier cartoon captions scored higher on verbal intelligence. This adds up, as some of the smartest people I know have a razor-sharp wit and sense of humor.

  8. You’re open-minded.

  A 2008 Yale University psychology study showed highly intelligent people tend to stay open-minded to others’ points of view, not formulating their own until hearing multiple voices. This doesn’t mean they’re fickle, though, as the study also showed open-minded people are more likely to be confident about their opinion once formed and less likely to be manipulated.

  9. You’re not convinced you’re particularly smart.

  Psychologists discovered the Dunning-Kruger effect, which says that people who are less competent or bright consistently overestimate their mental abilities while intelligent people are far more aware of their limitations.

  And knowing your limitations means you’re more likely to surround yourself with people to offset your limitations. It also makes you hungrier to learn more, which makes you smarter (sign No. 3). As Shakespeare said, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

  I recently coded an Android app. It’s just a simple app that allows you to keep score of a basketball game with a few simple counter intervals. I’m getting demand to add a save feature, so you can save your scores and then load them back up. Currently, when you stop the app, your data is lost. So what I was wondering is what I would have to add to have the app save a label (score) and then load it back up. Thanks guys sorry I don’t know much about this stuff.

  12 Answers 12

  You have two options, and I’ll leave selection up to you.

  This is a framework unique to Android that allows you to store primitive values (such as int , boolean, and String , although strictly speaking String isn’t a primitive) in a key-value framework. This means that you give a value a name, say, “homeScore” and store the value to this key.

  This, in my opinion, is what you might be looking for. You can store anything you want to a file, so this gives you more flexibility. However, the process can be trickier because everything will be stored as bytes, and that means you have to be careful to keep your read and write processes working together.

  Now, you can also look into External Storage, but I don’t recommend that in this particular case, because the external storage might not be there later. (Note that if you pick this, it requires a permission)

  OP is asking for a “save” function, which is more than just preserving data across executions of the program (which you must do for the app to be worth anything.)

  I recommend saving the data in a file on the sdcard which allows you to not only recall it later, but allows the user to mount the device as an external drive on their own computer and grab the data for use in other places.

  So you really need a multi-point system:

  1) Implement onSaveInstanceState() . In this method, you’re passed a Bundle, which is basically like a dictionary. Store as much information in the bundle as would be needed to restart the app exactly where it left off. In your onCreate() method, check for the passed-in bundle to be non-null, and if so, restore the state from the bundle.

  2) Implement onPause() . In this method, create a SharedPreferences editor and use it to save whatever state you need to start the app up next time. This mainly consists of the users’ preferences (hence the name), but anything else relavent to the app’s start-up state should go here as well. I would not store scores here, just the stuff you need to restart the app. Then, in onCreate() , whenever there’s no bundle object, use the SharedPreferences interface to recall those settings.

  3a) As for things like scores, you could follow Mathias’s advice above and store the scores in the directory returned in getFilesDir() , using openFileOutput() , etc. I think this directory is private to the app and lives in main storage, meaning that other apps and the user would not be able to access the data. If that’s ok with you, then this is probably the way to go.

  3b) If you do want other apps or the user to have direct access to the data, or if the data is going to be very large, then the sdcard is the way to go. Pick a directory name like com/user1446371/basketballapp/ to avoid collisions with other applications (unless you’re sure that your app name is reasonably unique) and create that directory on the sdcard. As Mathias pointed out, you should first confirm that the sdcard is mounted.

  I recommend simple CSV files for your data, so that other applications can read them easily.

  Obviously, you’ll have to write activities that allow “save” and “open” dialogs. I generally just make calls to the openintents file manager and let it do the work. This requires that your users install the openintents file manager to make use of these features, however.

  August 2, 2016 By: chloeburroughs 12 Comments

  We all have days where we don’t feel like studying. Sometimes that feeling can last a whole week. You’re tired, a bit grumpy and just want to relax. You’re jealous of all your friends who aren’t studying, who can come home from work and do nothing if they want to.

  But the most successful students are those that don’t wait until they feel great to study.

  These students know that it’s important to keep pushing the needle: doing a bit of studying every day. Just because you don’t feel like studying doesn’t mean you can’t get sh*t done and achieve something. In this blog post I share with you 15 things you can do when you don’t feel like studying.

  But first, sign up to my free resource library where you can download my bloomin’ awesome study session planner AND tons of other printables and worksheets to help you become a happier, more confident and more successful student.

  SIGN UP TO MY FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY

  There are two important caveats to the advice in this blog post.

  First, you must distinguish between feeling like you just can’t be bothered to study and feeling like you’re burning out. There’s a difference between feeling a bit tired, bored or unmotivated and actually feeling exhausted.

  If it’s the latter then take the night off. Allow yourself some time to relax guilt free as it’s important to look after yourself. Refuel with some good food, drink plenty of water, have a bath, watch some trashy TV, read a book, go to bed early…

  Take time for yourself and come back to it tomorrow.

  The second caveat is to either study or rest INTENTIONALLY.

  Either get up and do something productive or have some down time and relax. It’s of no use to anybody if you ditch studying to spend a few hours on Netflix but can’t relax as you feel guilty the entire time. I’ve done this before and the next day I also haven’t wanted to study as I didn’t feel like I really relaxed properly the night before…*cue vicious cycle*.

  The next time you feel like you probably should study but can’t be bothered make 1 of 2 choices.

  Take 1, 2 or 3 things from this list and kick some studying butt.

  Or, if resting tonight will leave you refreshed tomorrow, make the most of some down time and get back to it tomorrow.

  I’ve separated the lists with a guide to how long each might take you. When you have some spare time before bed, on the bus home, waiting for the washing machine to finish…pick something and get it done.

  When you have 10-20 minutes spare

  1. Tidy your desk

  2. Write a list of the most important 3-5 things to accomplish tonight or tomorrow

  3. Review your latest notes – do you understand them? Can anything be clarified? Could you add an example or note down a concept that links to it? Jot down any additional thoughts

  4. See if there’s any past exam papers you can download to get an idea of possible questions

  5. Any questions on your next assignment? Email your tutor for some quick guidance that could really help in a few days when you start your essay

  6. Look at the month ahead and see if any dates, appointments, events clash with your essay or exam dates. Make a plan to ensure your study fits in

  7. Read one of my highly-informative, best-information-around blog posts and learn some new study skills!

  When you have 30-45 minutes spare

  8. Look up your next essay question and make some quick notes on any ideas, concepts, examples that come to mind

  9. Create or adapt a diagram you want to use in your next essay. I use Microsoft Powerpoint

  10. File your notes

  11. Take notes from a topic and turn it into a 1 page revision mindmap

  12. Start some online research, bookmarking links to use later.

  When you have 1-2 hours spare

  13. Finish off taking notes on a section of the text

  14. Plan your next essay – set up the document, type out the question and guidance, list any key ideas you want to develop, define some of the key terms

  15. Take notes from a topic and create some flash cards of key points.

  Let me know in the comments below which tip you’re going to try out.

  And don’t forget to sign up to my resource library and grab alllll my best resources to help you save time each week, improve your study skills and achieve the grades you’ve always wanted.

  Are you transgender, or feel like your internal gender is in conflict with your physical sex? Take this quiz for some perspective! (This quiz is intended for MtF transgenders, read the paragraph below for more information.)

  Note: I created this quiz to give people who are questioning their gender some direction. I hope I have valid information (from the experience of a genderqueer male), also I have gone a bit extreme on the scoring system this time. This quiz is meant for male to female transgenders, if you wish to have a similar quiz for female to male, request one in the comments and I will create it.

  Remember to rate this quiz on the next page!
  Rating helps us to know which quizzes are good and which are bad.

  Related Quizzes:

  • Are ftm transgender. by Peyton
  • Gender Spectrum Quiz by The Geek
  • What Gender do you Act Like? (NON SEXIST VERSION) by nccarols
  • Are You Transgender (MTF)? by rye. king
  • How Feminine Are You? by Jeeshan

  What is GotoQuiz? A better kind of quiz site: no pop-ups, no registration requirements, just high-quality quizzes that you can create and share on your social network. Have a look around and see what we’re about.

  Quiz topic: Am I transgender (MtF)?

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  Find Help 24/7

  If you need help now, call a 24-hour crisis center at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) for free, private help or dial 911.

  Sometimes people who are feeling depressed think about hurting themselves or dying. If you or someone you know is having these feelings, get help now.

  The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)—a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—runs both crisis centers. For more information visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website.

  Para obtener asistencia en español durante las 24 horas, llame al 1-888-628-9454.

  Take the Quiz

  Do you think you might be depressed? Complete this quiz to find out if you’re showing signs of depression.

  Check one answer for each question that best describes you for the past 7 days.

  Source: The Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology 16-Item Self-Report (QIDS–SR16), University of Pittsburgh, Original Citation: Rush, A.J., Giles, D.E., Schlesser, M.A., Fulton, C.L.,Weissenburger, J.E. and Burns, C.T. The Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS): Preliminary findings. Psychiatry Research, 18:65-87, 1986.

  Results

  You aren’t having any major symptoms of depression. If you’re feeling down, you may just be having a few bad days or mood changes if you recently stopped smoking. These feelings should go away in a few days.

  If you are concerned about your feelings or are still feeling sad after 2 weeks, you might want to talk to someone about how you’re feeling.

  You have a few symptoms of depression. Right now, these symptoms may not be changing your daily life, but you’re probably aware of them. You might start looking for ways to help your mood.

  Manage Your Mood

  You could try talking to friends, family, or your doctor. You also might keep track of your symptoms. You could write down how you are feeling or take this quiz every 1 or 2 days. If your score goes up, your mood worsens, or the symptoms are causing problems in your life, talk to your doctor and get help.

  How you’re feeling now isn’t how you’ll always feel. People do get better. There are many good treatments for depression.

  Smoking and Mood: They’re Linked

  It’s common for smokers to use cigarettes to deal with emotions, but there are healthier ways to deal with these situations. Then learn how to boost your mood after you’ve quit.

  You have some symptoms of depression. Right now, these symptoms are likely causing problems in your daily life. These problems may be big, like making it hard for you to take care of everyday activities and enjoy the things you usually do. You should get help right away.

  Find Help

  When you’re feeling depressed, it can be hard to have energy to make a phone call. But having support from others can be helpful. Try talking to your doctor or a therapist. They can help you get treatment to deal with depression. You can also try telling family and friends how you’re feeling.

  How you’re feeling now isn’t how you’ll always feel. People do get better. There are many good treatments for depression.

  Smoking and Mood: They’re Linked

  It’s common for smokers to use cigarettes to deal with emotions, but there are healthier ways to deal with these situations. Then learn how to boost your mood after you’ve quit.

  You have many symptoms of depression. Right now, the symptoms may be causing big problems in your daily life. It is probably very hard for you to take care of everyday activities and enjoy the things you usually do. You may even feel like you’re carrying a heavy weight that makes it almost impossible to get through your day.

  Take This Seriously

  Even if you don’t feel weighed down by your symptoms, try to do something about them as soon as possible. When you’re feeling depressed, it can be hard to even do small things to take care of yourself. But you should call your doctor or a mental health professional today. And try to tell family and friends how you’re feeling.

  How you’re feeling now isn’t how you’ll always feel. People do get better. There are many good treatments for depression.

  Smoking and Mood: They’re Linked

  It’s common for smokers to use cigarettes to deal with emotions, but there are healthier ways to deal with these situations. Then learn how to boost your mood after you’ve quit.

  You have very significant symptoms of depression. Right now, the symptoms may be causing you big problems in your daily life. It is probably very hard for you to take care of everyday activities and enjoy the things you usually do. You may even feel like you’re carrying a heavy weight that makes it almost impossible to get through your day.

  Get Help Right Away

  Even if you don’t feel weighed down by your symptoms, it is important to do something about them right now. When you’re feeling depressed, it can be hard to even do small things to take care of yourself. But you should call your doctor or a mental health professional today. And try to tell family and friends how you’re feeling.

  How you’re feeling now isn’t how you’ll always feel. People do get better. There are many good treatments for depression.

  Smoking and Mood: They’re Linked

  It’s common for smokers to use cigarettes to deal with emotions, but there are healthier ways to deal with these situations. Then learn how to boost your mood after you’ve quit.

  This quiz is not meant to tell you if you have major depression. This information does not take the place of seeing a mental health professional for a diagnosis.

  Find Help 24/7

  If you need help now, call a 24-hour crisis center at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) for free, private help or dial 911.

  Sometimes people who are feeling depressed think about hurting themselves or dying. If you or someone you know is having these feelings, get help now.

  The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)—a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—runs both crisis centers. For more information visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website.

  Para obtener asistencia en español durante las 24 horas, llame al 1-888-628-9454.

  Empathy Quiz

  Empathy is the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. Research suggests that empathic people tend to be more generous and concerned with others’ welfare, and they also tend to have happier relationships and greater personal well-being. Empathy can also improve leadership ability and facilitate effective communication.

  But research also suggests that people differ in the extent to which they experience empathy. So how empathic are you?

  The following quiz will help you find out. It draws from three scientifically validated scales that researchers have created to measure empathy: the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, developed by Nathan Spreng and his colleagues; the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, developed by Mark Davis; and the Emotion Specific Empathy Questionnaire, developed by Sally Olderbak and her colleagues.

  The quiz contains a total of 28 questions. Please answer them as honestly as possible–there are no right or wrong answers. The first 22 will be used to measure your level of empathy; the last six will be used by our research team to understand how empathy relates to factors like gender, birth order, and political orientation.

  When you’re done, you’ll receive your empathy score, along with feedback interpreting this score and tips for strengthening your empathy skills.

  Any responses submitted here will never be shared with any organization outside the Greater Good Science Center under any circumstances, ever. All responses are anonymized and only used in aggregate for evaluation purposes.

  Tip: Learn more about Microsoft Forms or get started right away and create a survey, quiz, or poll. Want more advanced branding, question types, and data analysis? Try Dynamics 365 Customer Voice.

  To give your survey, quiz, or other type of form some visual flair, apply a theme, add your own background image, or customize the background color.

  In Microsoft Forms, open the form for which you want to apply a theme.

  Select Theme to choose a color or background image.

  Note: Depending on your form content, you may be presented with Theme ideas, which include different image backgrounds from which you can choose.

  If you don’t want to use any of the theme ideas, scroll to the bottom of the Theme pane to choose other colors and background images.

  Background image

  Add your own background image

  Select the Customize theme button , and then select Upload image.

  Search for images in Bing, a OneDrive folder, or your computer or device.

  Image Search – To search for pictures and images online, select Image Search. Enter the name of the image you’re looking for, and then select Search (magnifying glass icon). Pick the picture you want, and then select Add.

  OneDrive – To add a picture from your OneDrive folder, select OneDrive. Find the picture you want to add, and then select Add.

  Upload – To add a picture from your computer or device, select Upload. In the Choose File to Upload box, find the picture you want to add, and then select Open.

  Delete your background image

  Find your image in the Theme pane, and then select Edit (pencil icon).

  The icon on your image will change to a trash can icon. Select it to remove your background image.

  Background color

  Select the Customize theme button , and then select Customize color.

  Add the Hex value of the color you want to use.

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  Grantland Rice, an American sportswriter who lived from 1880-1954, once wrote, “For when the One Great Scorer comes, / To write against your name, / He marks – not that you won or lost – / But how you played the Game.” I’m sure we’ve every one heard that saying, probably in its shorter more succinct form.

  There’s no doubt that Rice’s saying has become a touchstone for competition of all sorts. But, that doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with his point of view:

  Grantland Rice, the great sportswriter once said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.’ Well Grantland Rice can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.
  —Gene Autry

  I have never had much sympathy for the point of view, “it isn’t whether you win or lose that counts, but how you play the game.”
  —Richard Nixon

  Winning isn’t the only thing; it’s everything.
  —Vince Lombardi

  However, Autry, Lombardi, and Nixon were from an older generation than I; for myself, Rice’s words were a simple tenet of life, to the point that I had no idea who might have first spoke them before I began to research this article. I was brought up to be gracious in defeat and polite in victory. Now, when I win a game, or even win a string of games, I’m almost embarassed to say so, online, in-person, or elsewhere. To do otherwise would be “gloating”, “vanity”, “poor sportsmanship” or other such bad things.

  The Flip Side

  Of course, there’s a flip side to this. I always try and win the games I’m playing. And I get annoyed in a game if there’s someone else who isn’t playing to win. Now, I’ve never encountered some of the truly frustrating elements that I’ve heard other people mention in their gameplaying, such as someone throwing a game so that their spouse can win, but I’ve had players give up, start pursuing terrible strategies, or push the end of the game even when it’s not in their best interest (or at least not in their best interest in-game, as their reasoning is sometimes, “Well, I’m going to lose anyway, and I just want to get it over as fast as I can”).

  That’s not right, any of it, and I don’t think people should be playing a game if they’re not trying to win it. Which at first seems to fly in the face of good ‘ole Grantland Rice’s axiom. Fortunately our very own Reiner Knizia comes to the rescue with a quote of his own:

  When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning.
  —Reiner Knizia

  Now there’s an idea that I can fully stand behind, and not just because I was indoctrinated with the axiom as a youth (as was the case with Grantland Rice’s famous saying). You do want to play to win, and that should be your goal, but if you end up losing, that should be OK too. Otherwise you end up with a bad experience when gaming as often as not, and what’s the fun in that?

  Defining Winning

  Of course every question of this sort raises new ones, and the obvious response here is, “what’s winning?” I always though I knew: it was coming in first, and if you couldn’t do that, second, and if you couldn’t do that, third. I always play to achieve the best position I can in a game.

  Of course this can wind up being a probabilistic exercise. If I have a 5% chance of achieving first place, a 20% chance of achieving second, and a 75% chance of achieving third, and the criteria needed to achieve first place and second place are different, which do I go for?

  In general I’ll try and go for the first if there’s a reasonable chance I can achieve it, even if it results in forgoing second, but if that chance for first diminishes sufficiently I might go for second instead.

  When a new player joined my regular review group a year or two ago now, I was surprised to hear that he had a different philosophy: always play for first, whether you have a decent chance at it, a dwindling small chance at it, or no chance at it. Never accept anything less.

  This has resulted in some entirely friendly disputes between us, and I think we both accept that we’ll play games differently. But it can result in some awkwardness in a king-making situation. If I’m in third-place in a game, and I have a last chance to make a difference in another player’s score, I’m likely to hurt the second-place player rather than the first-place one, unless the scores are very close. Hurting the second-place player can help me rise in position, but hurting the first-place does nothing .

  The other player would do the exact opposite, always.

  I feel like I’m vindicated somewhat by the fact that whenever I see a discussion of competitive ranking, inevitably the second place player is rewarded more than the third. I played Days of Wonder’s Gang of Four for a long time before I figured out how to play a hand to go out, but during that early time period my ranking slowly rose because I regularly came in second out of four. Likewise, if I was playing Survivor and I honestly felt like my chance was second place (earning $100,000) or third place (earning an estimated $65,000) you can bet I’d play for that additional $35,000.

  I’m a bit envious when I read about a game club designing their own ranking system (which inevitably rewards place), because it sounds like a neat way to recognize winning in exactly the way I think it should be recognized.

  So, that’s my definition of winning: achieving the best position I reasonably can, which may or may not be first.

  It’s not whether you win or lose? Perhaps not, and our society has definitely been sending that message for decades. But, nonetheless, I play to win, and I hope all the other players do too, whether they feel like winning is the only thing or not.

  Eric Suni , Staff Writer

  Medically Reviewed by

  Dr. Anis Rehman , Endocrinologist

  Our dedicated team rigorously evaluates every article, guide, and product to ensure the information is accurate and factual. Learn More

  Our dedicated team rigorously evaluates every article and guide to ensure the information is factual, up-to-date and free of bias.

  Do you often feel tired and groggy in the morning, even on nights when you’ve gotten enough sleep? It’s a frustrating experience, but there may be a simple explanation: you have poor sleep quality. Poor sleep quality can impair your focus, worsen your mood, and is even linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

  Figuring out that you’re not getting enough sleep is easy. Figuring out why that sleep isn’t restful is trickier, but certainly achievable. Read on to learn the signs of lack of sleep, what could be causing your poor sleep quality, and how to improve it.

  Signs Your Sleep Quality Needs To Improve

  If you think you’re getting poor sleep, consider whether you possess any of these tell-tale signs:

  • You take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep after you get into bed.
  • You regularly wake up more than once per night.
  • You lie awake for more than 20 minutes when you wake up in the middle of the night.
  • You spend less than 85 percent of your time in bed asleep.
  • You feel tired and have difficulty concentrating during the day. You may be drinking more caffeine to stay alert.
  • Your skin is breaking out and your eyes are puffy, red, or developing dark circles or bags.
  • You feel hungry more often, especially for junk food, and gaining weight.
  • You feel more stressed out, emotionally exhausted, and angrier than usual.
  • You’ve been diagnosed with insomnia.

  What Is Sleep Quality?

  Sleep quality is different from sleep quantity. Sleep quantity measures how much sleep you get each night, while sleep quality measures how well you sleep.

  Measuring sleep quantity is simple, as it’s quick to determine if you’re getting the recommended amount of sleep per night (usually defined as 7-9 hours for adults). Measuring sleep quality is a little more of an art than a science. Generally, good sleep quality is defined by the following characteristics:

  • You fall asleep soon after getting into bed, within 30 minutes or less.
  • You typically sleep straight through the night, waking up no more than once per night.
  • You’re able to sleep the recommended amount of hours for your age group.
  • You fall back asleep within 20 minutes if you do wake up.
  • You feel rested, restored, and energized upon waking up in the morning.

  Reasons for Poor Sleep Quality

  Any number of things could be contributing to your poor sleep quality. Some potential causes include poor sleep hygiene, stress, sleep apnea, or another chronic health condition or sleep disorder.

  Poor Sleep Habits

  Poor sleep habits, like having an irregular sleep schedule or consuming too much caffeine or alcohol, can interfere with your sleep quality. In a study of nursing students, smoking and daily coffee consumption were two of the largest factors associated with poor sleep quality. Alcohol also disturbs your sleep, even though it’s considered a sedative.

  Stress and Anxiety

  Poor mental health, whether from increased stress or a depression or anxiety disorder, also contributes to poor sleep quality. Problematically, sleep deprivation and the resulting insomnia worsen these conditions, creating a vicious cycle.

  Chronic Health Conditions

  Certain chronic health conditions are associated with poor sleep patterns and less sleep overall. These include chronic lung diseases, asthma, acid reflux, renal disease, cancer, fibromyalgia, and chronic pain. Unfortunately, as with stress and anxiety, poor sleep quality can exacerbate the symptoms and discomfort felt with these conditions.

  Sleep Apnea

  A person with sleep apnea experiences temporary lapses in breathing during their sleep, resulting in gasping, choking, and snoring sounds. Even if they don’t consciously wake up, their brain has to kick start breathing again, disrupting sleep quality. Sleepiness and lack of energy are two of the most common complaints of individuals with sleep apnea.

  Undiagnosed Sleep Disorder

  Because they occur in your sleep, some sleep disorders go undiagnosed until a person seeks care for other symptoms like poor sleep quality, or a sleep partner alerts them to the symptoms. For example, individuals with periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) experience involuntary jerking movements in their legs while they sleep, resulting in reduced sleep quality, and fatigue and poor concentration during the day. Individuals with narcolepsy likewise often suffer from poor sleep quality, and experience daytime fatigue.

  How To Improve Your Sleep Quality

  Fortunately, improving your sleep quality may be as simple as improving your sleep hygiene. Just like dental hygiene involves regularly brushing and flossing to maintain your teeth, sleep hygiene is all about practicing good habits that help you get good sleep consistently.

  1. Stop watching television and using your phone or computer for at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Electronic devices emit bright blue light that your brain perceives as sunlight, tricking it into delaying sleep and keeping you awake longer than you’d like.
  2. Transform your bedroom into a dark, quiet, and cool oasis. Set your thermostat to somewhere in the low- to mid-60 degrees Fahrenheit, and use blackout curtains or a white noise machine to further relax your senses.
  3. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Following a consistent sleep schedule trains your brain to recognize when it’s time to sleep and when it’s time to wake.
  4. Make sure your sleep schedule allows for enough time to sleep. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
  5. Create a relaxing bedtime routine. Select activities that relax and calm you, like taking a warm bath, listening to an audiobook, or journaling. Performing these activities in the same order every night creates a pattern for your brain to recognize them as the prelude to sleep.
  6. Limit your caffeine and alcohol intake. Both of these substances can stay in your system for some time and disrupt your sleep quality. Avoid drinking alcohol within three hours of bedtime, and caffeine within five hours.
  7. Get some sunlight in the morning. Just 15-30 minutes outside in the sun can help wake you up and reset your circadian rhythm.

  If you still have trouble sleeping after implementing these suggestions, talk to your doctor. They may recommend other lifestyle changes, therapies, or medications that can improve your sleep quality.

  Regression analysis is a technique we can use to understand the relationship between one or more predictor variables and a response variable.

  One way to assess how well a regression model fits a dataset is to calculate the root mean square error, which is a metric that tells us the average distance between the predicted values from the model and the actual values in the dataset.

  The lower the RMSE, the better a given model is able to “fit” a dataset.

  The formula to find the root mean square error, often abbreviated RMSE, is as follows:

  RMSE = √ Σ(P_i – O_i) 2 / n

  • Σ is a fancy symbol that means “sum”
  • P_i is the predicted value for the i th observation in the dataset
  • O_i is the observed value for the i th observation in the dataset
  • n is the sample size

  The following example shows how to interpret RMSE for a given regression model.

  Example: How to Interpret RMSE for a Regression Model

  Suppose we would like to build a regression model that uses “hours studied” to predictor “exam score” of students on a particular college entrance exam.

  We collect the following data for 15 students:

  We then use statistical software (like Excel, SPSS, R, Python) etc. to find the following fitted regression model:

  Exam Score = 75.95 + 3.08*(Hours Studied)

  We can then use this equation to predict the exam score of each student, based on how many hours they studied:

  We can then calculate the squared difference between each predicted exam score and the actual exam score. Then we can take the square root of the mean of these differences:

  The RMSE for this regression model turns out to be 5.681.

  Recall that the residuals of a regression model are the differences between the observed data values and the predicted values from the model.

  Residual = (P_i – O_i)

  • P_i is the predicted value for the i th observation in the dataset
  • O_i is the observed value for the i th observation in the dataset

  And recall that the RMSE of a regression model is calculated as:

  RMSE = √ Σ(P_i – O_i) 2 / n

  This means that the RMSE represents the square root of the variance of the residuals.

  This is a useful value to know because it gives us an idea of the average distance between the observed data values and the predicted data values.

  This is in contrast to the R-squared of the model, which tells us the proportion of the variance in the response variable that can be explained by the predictor variable(s) in the model.

  Comparing RMSE Values from Different Models

  The RMSE is particularly useful for comparing the fit of different regression models.

  For example, suppose we want to build a regression model to predict the exam score of students and we want to find the best possible model among several potential models.

  Suppose we fit three different regression models and find their corresponding RMSE values:

  • RMSE of Model 1: 14.5
  • RMSE of Model 2: 16.7
  • RMSE of Model 3: 9.8

  Model 3 has the lowest RMSE, which tells us that it’s able to fit the dataset the best out of the three potential models.

  Suppose that you have just completed your midterm for this class and you were told that you had a score of 55. How would you feel? The first question you might ask is how many points were possible? If you were told that 85 points were possible you might not feel too well since you correctly answered about 64% of the questions.

  Now let’s assume that the test was very difficult and the instructor didn’t expect anyone to have mastered all of the content on it. What other information might you wish to know? Perhaps you would like to know the average (mean) grade on the test. If you were to discover that it was 50, you might feel better about your performance because you were above average.

  You might be interested to know how the scores were spread above and below the average (mean). In particular, you are probably wondering how far above the mean you were compared to others in the class. Were most of the grades close to the mean, or were students’ grades far above or below the mean. One way to measure the dispersion or spread of scores is with the range (subtract the low score from the high score). Suppose the range were 30 points with the high being 75 and the low being 45. You might not feel to well about your grade even though it was above the average. The problem with the range is that one extreme score can influence it very much. In this case, maybe only one person earned 75 and the next high was 56 with everyone else falling between 46 and 56, a range of 10.

  Instead of using the range, we use the standard deviation when we talk about the spread of scores. In the midterm example, suppose you were told that 68% of the people who took the test has a score from 48 to 52. In other words, 68% of the people fell 2 points above or 2 points below the mean. In that case, we would say that the test scores had a standard deviation of 2. Assuming that the scores fell into a normal distribution, we would also know that 95% of the students would have scores within two standard deviations above or below the mean. In our case that would 4 points above (54) or 4 points below (46) the mean (50). You would feel rather good about your score of 55. Knowing the mean and standard deviation makes it possible to interpret raw scores and compare different individuals’ performances with each other or an individual’s performance on one test with his or her performance on another test.

  Without standardized scores, it is difficult to make comparisons. A raw score of 30 on one test and a raw score of 125 on another test don’t have much meaning until we know where each score is in relations to the mean. In order for the score to be meaningful, we need to know whether the score is above or below the mean and how far above or below the mean. Unfortunately, knowing that the first score is 2 points above the mean and the second score is 10 points above the mean still doesn’t help. Each test is different, so being 2 points above the mean may be better than being 10 points above the mean on another test. It is only when we know how many standard deviations each score is above or below the mean that we can compare the two performances. Standard scores allow us to make comparisons of raw scores that come from very different sources.

  A common way to make comparisons is to calculate z-scores. A z-score tells how many standard deviations someone is above or below the mean. A z-score of -1.4 indicates that someone is 1.4 standard deviations below the mean. Someone who is in that position would have done as well or better than 8% of the students who took the test.

  To calculate a z-score, subtract the mean from the raw score and divide that answer by the standard deviation. (i.e., raw score =15, mean = 10, standard deviation = 4. Therefore 15 minus 10 equals 5. 5 divided by 4 equals 1.25. Thus the z-score is 1.25.)

  Lay people are sometimes uncomfortable with z-scores for a couple reasons. First, they don’t like negative numbers and anyone who has a raw score less than the mean has a negative z-score. Second, they are uncomfortable with a z-score of 0 being average. Explaining to a parent that her child did average on an achievement test and has a z-score of 0 can be difficult. For this reason z-scores are often converted to a scale where negative value are not possible.. IQ scores, SAT scores, and T scores are examples of z-scores that have been converted.

  To convert a z-score to a T-score, multiple the z-score by 10 and add 50 to your answers (i.e., z-score = .5. .5 times 10 equal 5. 5 plus 50 equals 55. Therefore, a z-score of .5 converts to a T-score of 55.

  As a point of reference, IQs are calculated by multiplying the z-score by 15 (16 on some tests) and then adding 100. SAT scores are calculated by multiplying the z-score by 100 and then adding 500.

  (It’s All About Attitude #5)

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  DNFed at 49%

  Yeah, I know the premise was a bit nuts – woman decides to spice up her sex life because of bad results in Cosmo quiz? – but I was enjoying it until the woman decided to pursue the other guy for her career. You see I love plots where the unassuming guy is a real badass/dynamite in the sack (this is what I call the Clark Kent trope. quiet guy is really the man of steel underneath *wink, wink*) so this was working for me until the “heroine” sleeps with the guy (even though she decided DNFed at 49%

  Yeah, I know the premise was a bit nuts – woman decides to spice up her sex life because of bad results in Cosmo quiz? – but I was enjoying it until the woman decided to pursue the other guy for her career. You see I love plots where the unassuming guy is a real badass/dynamite in the sack (this is what I call the Clark Kent trope. quiet guy is really the man of steel underneath *wink, wink*) so this was working for me until the “heroine” sleeps with the guy (even though she decided he’s too nice for her) and then decides she should really hook up with another guy for ‘her career’. WTH? The whole premise of ‘write a screenplay of your attempt to sex up your neighbor’ so you can get a writing job didn’t make ANY SENSE at all to me. I thought reality TV was unscripted? (Yes, I know they ‘nudge’ the contestants to behave in certain ways but it’s not as if they actually write a script!)

  That’s when the author lost me and I stopped finding their antics funny. . more

  Reviewed by Marissa
  Book provided by the author for review
  Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

  Julie Kenner’s books are just such fun to read! I think the first book of hers I read involved superheroes on an other-worldly level (the Aphrodite series) and I enjoyed the frivolity and easy style of her writing. The Perfect Score brought me right back to that style.

  I found Mattie likable and I even felt a connection with her – dating all the wrong men only to settle down with someone who tur Reviewed by Marissa
  Book provided by the author for review
  Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

  Julie Kenner’s books are just such fun to read! I think the first book of hers I read involved superheroes on an other-worldly level (the Aphrodite series) and I enjoyed the frivolity and easy style of her writing. The Perfect Score brought me right back to that style.

  I found Mattie likable and I even felt a connection with her – dating all the wrong men only to settle down with someone who turned out to be in no way the right man. Getting back out there is not easy and I have to give her credit for doing it on her own terms. When faced with staying in her same old boring life or taking a chance on an upgraded sex life – and perhaps that career opportunity she’s been waiting for – she jumps on the chance to make those changes. It’s a struggle for her but with the encouragement of her best friend and her sister, she pushes herself past her normal boundaries.

  Mike is described as a geek but he has abs and he’s charming – not what I would normally describe as ‘geek-ish’ but it works here. There are several things that drew me to the character – he found Mattie’s slut search a challenge, he found the awkward things she did (like spilling a bag full of condoms and vibrators) endearing and, most importantly, he didn’t give up. Instead, he pushed on and fought harder. Yes, Mike is definitely a romance novel man.

  While it seems a little shallow to have sex with a male model just to raise a score on an internet slut test, I can see where it could be a consideration for a woman who finds herself recently out of a boring, go-nowhere relationship. Of course, as readers, we know how the story is going to end and I loved the way Kenner looped it back around to the beginning.

  So just for fun *ahem* I found a slut test on the internet. Okay, I found more than one and I took two different ones to weigh the results (and because the questions on the first one were just kind of dumb). On the first test I scored 58% – I’m not a full-blown slut but still a slut. The second one, which had more sex-oriented questions, brought my score up to 63%. According to the first site, the average slut score is 36% so I figure I’m double the average slut.

  Favorite Quote: Clearly, I was out with the quarterback, and a tiny part of me wanted to melt into the floor. Because I’m so not the homecoming queen. . more

  New research helps explain how we can manage our brains and achieve our goals.

  The only things we can control in life are our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. If we can manage those, we can achieve our goals and gain success in life.

  To have this level of control, we need to learn about the science-based patterns behind our emotions and thoughts, and how to manage them. If we know how our minds work, we can be intentional about influencing our thinking and feeling patterns. We can evaluate reality more clearly, make better decisions and improve our ability to achieve our goals. Thus, we gain greater agency and the quality of living intentionally.

  How do our minds work? Intuitively, our mind feels like a cohesive whole. We perceive ourselves as intentional and rational thinkers. Yet, cognitive science research shows that in reality, the intentional part of our mind is similar to a little rider on top of a huge elephant of emotions and intuitions.

  Roughly speaking, we have two thinking systems. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for his research on behavioral economics, calls them “System 1” and “System 2.” But I think the terms “autopilot system” and “intentional system” describe them more clearly and intuitively.

  The autopilot system corresponds to our emotions and intuitions. Its cognitive processes take place mainly in the amygdala and other parts of the brain that developed early in our evolution. This system guides our daily habits, helps us make snap decisions and reacts instantly to dangerous life-and-death situations (such as saber-toothed tigers) through the freeze, fight or flight stress response. While it helped us survive in the past, the fight-or-flight response is not a great fit for modern life.

  We have many small stresses that are not life-threatening, but the autopilot system treats them like tigers. This produces an unnecessarily stressful everyday life experience that undermines our mental and physical well-being. Moreover, while the snap judgments resulting from intuitions and emotions might feel true because they are fast and powerful, they sometimes lead us in the wrong, in systemic and predictable ways.

  The intentional system reflects our rational thinking and centers around the prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that evolved more recently. According to recent research, it developed as humans started to live within larger social groups. This thinking system helps us handle more complex mental activities, such as managing individual and group relationships, logical reasoning, probabilistic thinking and learning new information and patterns of thinking and behavior.

  While the automatic system requires no conscious effort to function, the intentional system takes deliberate effort to turn on, and it is mentally tiring. Fortunately, with enough motivation and appropriate training, the intentional system can turn on in situations where the autopilot system is prone to make errors, especially costly ones.

  Here’s a quick visual comparison of the two systems:

  The autopilot system is like an elephant. It’s by far the more powerful and predominant of the two systems.

  Our emotions can often overwhelm our rational thinking. Moreover, our intuitions and habits determine the large majority of our lives, which we spend on autopilot mode. That’s not a bad thing at all. It would be mentally exhausting to think intentionally about every action and decision.

  The intentional system is like the elephant rider. It can guide the elephant deliberately to go in the direction that matches that of our actual goals.

  Certainly, the elephant part of the brain is huge and unwieldy. It is slow to turn and change, and it stampedes at threats.

  But we can train the elephant. Your rider can be an elephant whisperer. Over time, you can use the intentional system to change your automatic thinking, feeling and behavioral patterns. In this way, you will become a better agent in terms of taking charge of your life and reaching your goals.

  I hope this information fills you with optimism. You can use these strategies to get what you want and achieve success in life!

  By Ditch the Label

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  So you think you might be bisexual? Or maybe you are just here for fun. Either way, questioning your sexuality is a completely normal thing to do and a lot of us do it.

  In fact, our research shows that over 50% of us don’t identify as fully heterosexual. And our research shows that most of us don’t identify as being 100% heterosexual. How cool is that?!

  A quiz can only do a bit of the work, and the truth is your sexuality is something that will evolve and it’s normal to explore and question your sexuality. Right now, you don’t need to rush through any firm decisions. When you know, you will know.

  This quiz is just for fun, and remember no internet quiz is going to be able to tell you who you are. Your sexuality is unique to you, and is a spectrum that everyone sits on.

  If you want to talk about this more, we have trained mentors ready to help you on our free anonymous community. You can start talking in seconds in our safe space.

  Am I Bisexual Quiz

  Thanks for taking the quiz!

  If you feel like you want to talk to someone about your result, or if you feel like the quiz got it wrong, reach out to the Ditch the Label Community here.

  There are trained Mentors that can offer you advice and support about this and loads of other stuff. You can also connect with other people going through similar things.

  Join the internet’s safe space

  How do you know if you’re bisexual?

  You’ve taken the quiz and want to learn more about bisexuality?

  Bisexuality is a sexual orientation where somebody is attracted to more than one gender. Some identify as bisexual, while others use pansexual, queer, fluid, or no label at all to describe it.

  This identity is so powerful. You’re ready to be open and honest about something you value. It’s ok to start off slow – you may not be ready to tell the whole world! We’ve written 13 different tips for coming out as bisexual to help you decide who, when, and how you might tell someone.

  We have lots of other guides and advice below. Check out these below for some more info on bisexuality:

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  Perfect SAT scores and #1 class ranks are so last millennium.

  I solemnly swear that I am about to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. (Woo, who’s been watching too much Law and Order this summer?)

  In my various unofficial capacities as a knower of MIT-related things, I have been asked many times how, precisely, one goes about getting into MIT. My first response is generally to spout one-liners about passion and hard work. I have been known to mention interviews and essays and extracurricular activities. This doesn’t always seem to put the anxiety of prospective students to rest; knowing you’re competing against 10,000 other people for spots in a class of 1000 tends to make people unsure of their own merits. But today, I realized that my own high school experience was so far removed from what most people judge to be MIT-worthy that it might be worth sharing.

  First, I’ve always been psyched about brains. When I was in 8th grade, my mom brought home a copy of How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker, who used to be a professor here in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. I’ve also always been a voracious reader, so I snuck it out of her room and read it. And loved it. On the back cover, it said that Pinker was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I liked the way that sounded. It had a lot of syllables.

  That’s not why I applied.

  Sure, it was part of it — I knew MIT had a Brain and Cognitive Sciences department, and I knew that’s what I wanted to major in, and, hey, if one of the professors in the department wrote awesome, popular books, it sounded like a good place to be.

  But more importantly, my freshman year in high school I briefly dated a senior boy whose only ambition was to attend MIT and major in aero/astro. We broke up. He didn’t get in. He was devastated.

  You may see where this is going. Yes, I applied to MIT just to see if I could get in, and then make sure my ex-boyfriend knew all about it. I am a terrible person, blah blah.

  Besides the terrible motivation for applying, I had a lot of other factors going against me. I was dead-set on attending Ohio State University, because I’m from the Columbus, Ohio, area and knew I could probably get a full ride. The best way to get a full ride at OSU is by being a National Merit scholar, so I knew I’d have to do really well on the PSAT. So — and feel free to admire the logic here — I took the SAT on October 14 my senior year as practice for the PSAT on October 17. No test prep, no studying vocab words. I didn’t even really care what I got on the SAT, since OSU accepted the ACT, and I wasn’t serious about applying to any east coast schools anyway. Good news: I aced the PSAT (80V, 74M, 80W) and got National Merit. Bad news: I got a 1430 on the SAT I.

  NOTE:I do not personally think that a 1430 SAT I (which I guess would be, say, a 2150 or so now) is a bad score. But there are a lot of people who think that it is a bad score, and there are certainly a lot of people who think you can’t get into MIT with a 1430/2150, especially if your math score is sub-700.

  The one thing I always had going for me was that I was very involved in the performing arts at my high school. I made all 8 shows in the extremely competitive drama department, and even had lead roles in 6 of the 8. I made the elite show choir as a junior — the only girl to make it her junior year. I was the captain of the 40-member color guard in a marching band which went to the Fiesta Bowl parade, Orange Bowl parade, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I did other stuff too: counseled 5th graders about drugs, NHS, quiz team, drama club, Latin club, all-Ohio choir, girls’ state… you would sort of suspect that I was doing it for my resume, except that I obviously wasn’t gunning for the Ivies. I just like(d) being insanely busy.

  So during fall of my senior year, between state band competition, show week for the fall play, the Macy’s parade trip, and Christmas shows for the show choir, I never got around to scheduling an interview with my EC. I didn’t really worry about it. I was going to OSU on a full scholarship.

  I should also mention that my school (which was a decent suburban public high school — not awesome, not terrible) had weighted grades. Band and choir were held during the day, so I got band and choir grades, which were obviously As. I had also taken regular geometry and algebra II, then switched to honors for precalculus and calculus. So even though I had almost straight As, I was ranked 11 in a class of 530 because some other kids had figured out that if they only took honors classes and had 4 or 5 study halls a day, they could get straight As and be at the top of the class. I didn’t really worry about it. I was going to OSU on a full scholarship with a stipend! Woo!

  My high school offered 8 AP classes, and I took 3 (Government, English, and US History). Although AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Physics were offered, I didn’t take them (physics and chemistry because I hated them; biology because there was a conflict with show choir. To my credit, I did cry.) I did take all the honors science courses offered (biology B, genetics, and meteorology/oceanography), except physics. I hate(d) physics.

  I have to admit that, looking back on this sorry history, it seems extremely unlikely that I was admitted into the class of 2006. You may also think that it seems extremely unlikely that I attended MIT, since I seemed so set on my scholarship and stipend at OSU… my friend Akhil (who has the distinction of being the smartest person from my high school ever to attend MIT — there have only ever been two people from my high school ever admitted here!) claims that I never really wanted to go to OSU, I was just telling myself that. Maybe he’s right. (He usually is.)

  Anyway. I hope this story has been at least somewhat informative… anecdotal evidence has its limitations, but clearly it is possible to get into MIT without being a super-genius, or slave to schoolwork, or world-renowned master of something frighteningly difficult. (Although I suppose that helps.) Real people get into MIT. Real people even go here.

  Mental health conditions are becoming increasingly prevalent. But what exactly is mental illness, and what can be done to treat it? Discover the most common mental conditions and options for treatment.

  Just DIY It

  Springtime gets everybody thinking about projects around the home — time to fix that broken window pane, or, finally, get rid of that ugly wallpaper in the guest bedroom! The one thing you don’t have to DIY is find helpful articles — we’ve done that for you!

  Wonder Women

  Here’s to the women who’ve made history — and to the ones making it now! Check out these articles on fantastic females throughout the years, as well as ways women can keep growing and thriving today through their careers and relationships.

  Making Things Grow

  There are so many benefits to gardening ― nutritious vegetables, beautiful flowers, physical exercise, and mental destressing, to name a few. In this collection, you’ll find gardening basics, help with common problems, and inspiration for stretching your skills.

  For the Exam-Season Crammer

  Calling all bookworms and teacher’s pets! The moment you’ve been stressing for so long is nigh. Get ready for exam season by learning how best to study for your tests, what foods to feed your overworked brain, and what to do to ease all of that stress.

  Have people told you that you’re intimidating and you just don’t know why? You may be giving off signals that say “don’t mess with me” without realizing it.

  Or maybe you wish you were more intimidating, in which case you can read this post and do everything it advises people not to do. Some of us want to intimidate, or at least seem powerful in certain situations. However, often power comes from seeming approachable—maybe even likeable! You might want to be able to adjust the vibes you’re giving off.

  Psychiatrist Grant Brenner writes for Psychology Today that intimidation is kind of a natural impulse:

  Being of the animal kingdom, it’s wired into us to use a variety of displays of power in order to ensure our safety and status in the pack and further our goals. Not everyone is an apex predator or an alpha dog. But we are all tuned into where we stand with one another, with scant exceptions

  Personally, I think if you’re aware of your abilities and are using them to bully others, you don’t deserve to compare yourself to an animal as wonderful as a dog. Brenner says that there are also a lot of people who are inadvertently intimidating because their perception of themselves is so different from what others see. Here’s what to look out for if you’re worried that’s your problem.

  Don’t hide who you really are

  If you have a specific persona you wear in public, for whatever reason, people can generally sense that. If it never shifts, Brenner says that gives others the impression that you’re invulnerable, which leads to feelings of “envy, admiration, and a sense of uncanny strangeness as something important but undefinable just seems off.”

  Father’s Day CBD Bundle

  Send Dad flowers
  Well, send him a bundle of calming CBD products made from USDA-certified organic, Kentucky-grown, whole-flower hemp oil, at least.

  That’s rather poetic, but it is a bit scary when you feel like you’re never seeing something genuine in someone. You can’t know where you stand with them, because you don’t know who they are. Be sure to show folks that you have different sides to your personality. You’re human, not a mask.

  Be less verbally aggressive

  You might be very smart. You might also be very funny. Try to assess if you use those abilities to shut people down, “win” in a conversation, or undermine other people’s emotions:

  Competition and the need to win no matter what the stakes make it easy to hurl a clever quip, to lash out verbally, cornering and trapping.

  That doesn’t mean being funny or smart is bad; just ask yourself if you’re always thinking of a quick comeback instead of really communicating. If people are afraid to tell you something because they might be mocked, that’s a problem.

  Go less hard on competition generally

  Sometimes we get so amped up on competition, we dehumanize other people. It’s all about us and there’s no room for them. You can think of it as being less competitive or you can think of it as being more “emotionally generous” with others:

  Often out of insecurity and unresolved emotional wounds, some people become emotionally stingy, without realizing it. They have great difficulty being generous with others, and with themselves, and this leads them to experience themselves as isolated from others.

  Being super competitive may be isolating you and discouraging others from engaging. While that could be helpful in certain settings, like work, it’s not how you make friends. Even at work, having allies is sometimes more helpful than constantly #winning.

  You’re too confusing

  Sometimes, when people are too wrapped up in their inner world, they have difficulty communicating. They might just be great bullshitters, but the feeling that a person knows more than you, stuff that you’re not smart enough to grasp, it is often overwhelming.

  It’s great to be able to find people who really get you, but if it seems like no one does, maybe work on your clarity in conversation. You don’t need to make everything a philosophical debate immediately; let people get comfortable before bringing up the heady ideas. Then they might not be afraid to respond.

  You’re really good-looking

  According to Brenner, some of us are just blessed with good looks and that will always be intimidating:

  Some people are born lucky—not that it doesn’t take hard work, too—or seemingly lucky because being very attractive, whether physically beautiful, intellectually gifted, famous, wealthy, sexy, talented, charismatic, or what have you, can indeed be a burden to those so touched.

  He doesn’t really have any recommendations for this particular affliction, but being warm and kind can help bridge the gap. And it’s probably best to consider all the other potential reasons people are intimidated by you first.

  You should have already guessed the content of this article. And you should probably be familiar with number guessing and looking for a way to built it using Python.

  Let’s learn to create a number guessing game from scratch.

  Number Guessing Game

  The game is simple. The user has to guess the randomly generated number that lies between the range from 1 to 100. That’s it.

  Is the game that simple?

  But, there is one thing that we have to provide to the users to guess the number. That’s hints. We have to provide a message to the user saying the current guessed number is less than the correct number or the current guessed number is greater than the correct number. So that users will know in which direction they have to go.

  We can make it more exciting by adding extra features like maximum number of chances to guess, increasing the range, setting a timer, etc.

  Creating the basic working game is mandatory. After it, we can add more features as discussed. So, we are going to create the basic version of the game in this section. And then we will move to add new features.

  I want you to try creating the game without blindly copying the code. So, I am going to explain the algorithm first. It will help you to code yourself or understand the code quickly.

  Let’s see the algorithm to create the Number guessing game.

  Algorithm

  Make sure you understand the algorithm before moving to the coding part.

  • Define the range of the numbers. By default, it’s 1-100 but you can change it as you prefer.
  • Generate a random integer from the above range ( 1-100 ).
  • Start the game by displaying the user a message saying “Guess the number from X to Y”. You may update the message as you wish.
  • Initialize a variable to 0 to count the total number of chances that the user has taken to guess the number correctly.
  • Write an infinite loop.
    • Ask the user to guess the number.
    • If the current guessed number is equal to the randomly generated number, then congratulate the user with a message as you like. An example would be “-> Hurray! You got it in 5 steps!”.
    • Break the loop after congratulating the user.
    • If the current guessed number is less than the randomly generated number, then give a message to the user saying “-> Your number is less than the random number” or a custom message having the same meaning.
    • If the current guessed number is greater than the randomly generated number, then give a message to the user saying “-> Your number is greater than the random number” or a custom with the same meaning.
    • Finally, increment the chances that the user has taken to guess.

  You would have got code in your mind after seeing the algorithm. Don’t worry even if you don’t get the complete code. But, make sure you understand the above algorithm.

  It’s time to get our hands to work with code. Get into the code without further ado.

  Did you try to write the code?

  If yes and completed it. It’s great. Check out the code and understand it to add more perspectives to your knowledge.

  Don’t worry even if you didn’t write the code. See the below code and understand it. Try to tweak and write it in your own way for better understanding.

  So, let’s see the code.

  There are some things that you understand from the code.

  • The range is defined inside the __init__ method so that it can be used across the class methods.
  • We can easily change it in one place that changes across the app accordingly.
  • There is a separate method to generate the random number which follows the principle of “separate the concerns”. Here, our method has little code, but it might increase in the future.
  • Finally, we have used class so that every method that’s related to the game will reside inside it. And it can be easily reused in some other apps.

  All the points that are discussed above are related to writing clean code. We should try to write the clean code that you understand even after some X years.

  The sample output of the game looks as follows.

  I assume you have Python installed to try the above code.

  Extra Feature

  We are going to add the maximum number of chances that a user gets to guess the number. If the user doesn’t guess the number within the number of chances, then the user loses.

  How do we add it?

  It’s a simple two-step process. Let’s see the steps.

  • Define the maximum number of chances that the user gets to guess the number.
  • Check whether the user has chances or not before asking for the input. And end the game if the user is out of given chances.

  The following code additional will complete the feature.

  • Add the following code inside the __init__ method.
  • Add the following condition before the user enters the next guess.

  Now, try the game without guessing the correct number. You should see a similar output as follows.

  Hurray! we have added an extra feature to our game. It’s not the end though. You can add some more features to make it more engaging to the users. It’s your time now. Go ahead and make it more beautiful :).

  Conclusion

  We have created a simple number guessing game. Now, it’s your turn to think of games that you were playing when you were young. Make them using programming language and share with your friends. We can digitalize most of our childhood games.

  Next, explore Python IDE and online compiler to run Python code.

  If you can’t get enough of viral word games, here’s how to do better at Wordle.

  Focus on the task, not how you feel about it.

  No matter how generally motivated you are, all of us have some tasks that we don’t want to do. Maybe we find them boring, pointless, draining, time consuming, annoying, or anxiety producing. So how do you get motivated in these types of situations? The first step is to recognize that getting motivated doesn’t mean that you have to experience a particular feeling. You can decide to do something without ever getting excited about it by finding a personally meaningful reason to do it. Next, you have to come up with a strategy. Try involving other people; positive social pressure can provide the impetus to get something done. It’s also helpful to pair unpleasurable activities with pleasurable ones to increase your overall mood.

  Focus on the task, not how you feel about it.

  No matter how generally motivated you are, all of us have some tasks that we don’t want to do. Maybe we find them boring, pointless, draining, time consuming, annoying, or anxiety producing. So how do you get moving in these types of situations?

  The first step is to recognize that getting motivated doesn’t mean that you have to experience a particular feeling, like excitement or anticipation. Instead, motivation is simply one or more reasons you have for acting in a certain way. You can decide to do something without ever getting excited about it by finding a personally meaningful why.

  For example, you could choose to do something because it will:

  • Lower your anxiety.
  • Benefit someone who you care about.
  • Lead to financial gain.
  • Avoid a negative consequence.
  • Make you feel good about yourself.
  • Clear your mind.
  • Align with your values.
  • Reduce stress.

  These reasons might sound something like this in your day-to-day life:

  “I don’t want to do _______. But if I do ________, then I will see a significant financial payoff both now and in the future and will feel good about my choices.”

  “I don’t want to do _______. But if I get ________ done, then it will make my boss happy and lower my anxiety every time I have a one-on-one meeting.”

  “I don’t want to do _______. But if I make progress on ________, then I will have so much less stress next week and be prepared for ________.”

  Even if we never feel particularly motivated by a task, we can find a reason to move forward by looking beyond the task to the results.

  The second step for success involves coming up with a strategy for getting tasks done when you have a low to non-existent emotional drive. Depending on the task and your work style, one or more of these strategies may help. You can consider these methods as tools in your toolbox when you’ve come up with a reason to take action on a task but still feel uncertain on how to complete it.

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  One set of action-taking methods includes involving other people in the process. This positive social pressure can provide the impetus to get something done. This could look like delegating part of the task, teaming up with someone else to complete the activity together, getting accountability, or simply being present with other people who are also working. In regard to the last point, for some of my time management coaching clients, this can look like sitting in a library where other people are also getting work done, or even having a virtual session where they work on a task while someone they know is on the other side of Skype also cranking away.

  Another set of action-taking methods revolves around how you structure your approach to the work. These types of strategies, each illustrated with an example, can help you to gain momentum when you have low drive to move forward:

  • Put a low-frequency activity ahead of a high-frequency activity. For example, I can’t open my email until I’ve filed my expense report.
  • Give yourself a standard time. Every Friday from 2-3 pm, I have time blocked in my calendar for weekly planning, and I honor that time as sacred for that activity.
  • Limit the time commitment. I need to work for 10 minutes a day on this task and then I can stop if I want to do so.
  • Set the bar low. I just need to take one action step a week on this activity.
  • Get ‘er done. I want to get this entirely off my plate so I’m setting aside a whole day to complete the task.

  A third set of action-taking methods involves pairing unpleasurable activities with pleasurable ones to boost your overall mood. This could involve giving yourself permission to do a more difficult task, like writing or putting together a presentation, in a location you really like, such as a cozy coffee shop or even a park if the weather’s nice. You can also try layering tasks, such as listening to music or a podcast while organizing your office. Even getting a little physical activity in during the process can help. I may have been known to practice speeches while going on walks. I probably look a little funny, but I get two activities done at once.

  When you employ one or more of these strategies, you may not make speedy progress or perfect progress. But you can move tasks forward, slowly but surely, and get the things done that you don’t naturally want to do.