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README.md

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 license: apache-2.0
+task_categories:
+- text-generation
+language:
+- en
+pretty_name: >-
+  A collection of blog posts I wrote (most quite old) that I  used for
+  fine-tuning a stylistic writing generator
+size_categories:
+- 1K<n<10K
 ---

posts/hashnode/100-Weird-AI-Assistants-To-Get-Your-2025-Off-To-A-Productive-Start.md

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+# 100+ Weird AI Assistants To Get Your 2025 Off To A Productive Start
+
+2024 was a year of relentless development in the world of artificial intelligence, with major models progressing in reasoning capabilities, video-to-text maturing rapidly, and generative AI of every kind moving from an advanced technology into daily use for hundreds of millions of users around the world.
+
+Throughout the year I have been tinkering with different assistants and agents to try hone large language models on specific purposes. The pace of progress in AI tools has been so intense that configurations I wrote only last summer are already somewhat dated because capabilities have evolved so quickly.
+
+While ChatGPT can be credited for mainstreaming the idea of assistants in the form of their Custom GPT add-on, platforms like Hugging Face quickly moved to allow users to open source and share their configurations on open source models like the Llama series.
+
+Assistants are relatively easy to move from platform to platform and the best method for doing so is usually whittling down the parameters into a single JSON file.
+
+Consisting of system prompts onto which is added a RAG pipeline or custom settings. They can easily be deployed wherever you are doing your work with models.
+
+The very experimentary range of assistants I have developed to date include tools for helping you pick out beer (!) through to specialized assistants for streamlining the generation of personal contextual data for those building personal RAG pipelines. 2025 is looking to be the year when agentic capabilities will truly hit it big. Google are wasting no time in advancing the capabilities within their Gemini for Workspace product line, while Anthropic is leading the pack in the rollout of MCP.
+
+Feel free to use these assistants wherever you are deploying your own AI tools, modify them and let me know what they helped with. Links to the configuration text on GitHub are available for each assistant and in some cases they can be used for free on Hugging Face Chat.
+
+A Day In GPT Land
+
+Did you ever wonder what it would be like if you asked an AI tool to plan an entire day in your life filled with random activities?
+
+If so, then give this assistant a shot. It's configured to devise a detailed daily itinerary for you and potentially others crazy enough to join in on the fun.
+
+Acronym To Organisation
+
+If you work in a field where there are more acronyms than anybody can keep count of, then this acronym Disambiguation Assistant might prove helpful.
+
+Add Examples To My Prompt
+
+This tool helps users improve their prompts for large language models by adding examples to enhance accuracy and effectiveness, with the goal of providing better guidance to the models for generating more precise outputs.
+
+Agenda Creation Assistant
+
+The Agenda Creation Assistant helps create a well-structured meeting agenda by analyzing and organizing user input, focusing on action items, updates, discussion topics, and next steps, ensuring professional and concise content presentation. It aims to streamline the preparation process for users by transforming disorganized information into a clear and organized agenda for effective meetings.
+
+AI Career Ideator
+
+The AI Career Ideation Tool is an AI-powered agent designed to guide users in embracing AI, enhance their proficiency in AI technologies, and advance their careers by providing tailored recommendations on learning opportunities, certifications, CV enhancements, and technology focuses.
+
+AI Could Help Here
+
+This agent helps users explore how AI technologies and custom LLMs can improve their lives by providing personalized suggestions based on the challenges they face, all while maintaining a friendly and supportive tone.
+
+AI Tech Advisor
+
+AI Tech Advisor recommends emerging AI technologies for specific use cases, offering insights and detailed explanations in a technical and informative manner.
+
+Airport Food Options
+
+Airport Food Finder is a tool that helps users find food and drink options available at a specific airport tailored to their preferences and flight details. It provides accurate recommendations, including opening hours, cuisine types, and menu items, based on user input.
+
+Aliexpress Brand Vetter
+
+The Vetter model serves as a helpful tool for determining the risk level of counterfeit products for brands on Aliexpress by evaluating headquarters, counterfeiting reports, official store presence, certification status, counterfeiting procedures, and providing a risk rating on a 5-point scale.
+
+Users are reminded that while the information provided is insightful, accuracy and timeliness cannot be assured due to the dynamic nature of the data.
+
+Aliexpress Finder
+
+The Aliexpress Product Finder helps users by finding products on Aliexpress based on their descriptions or search terms, although product availability cannot be guaranteed due to inventory updates.
+
+Assistant Config Helper
+
+This agent is designed to assist users in configuring LLM agents effectively by providing guidance on best practices, avoiding common mistakes, formatting instructions, and version control considerations.
+
+Assistant Configuration Generator
+
+The LLM Assistant Configuration Generator is designed to assist users in creating configuration text for large language model assistants, ensuring it is platform-agnostic and written in natural language for easy use on any platform.
+
+Assistant Team Manager
+
+The AI Assistant Team Manager provides assistance in organizing a collection of custom AI assistants, aiding in categorizing and grouping them based on their purposes and functions.
+
+Automate My Workflow
+
+This agent serves as an automation strategist to help identify and automate tasks in your job! It maintains a professional, motivational tone and guides through incremental steps towards the goal, adapting recommendations to evolving AI technology.
+
+Awesome Page Helper
+
+This helper tool assists users in creating "Awesome" lists on platforms like GitHub, providing guidance on formatting and generating entries for the list based on user input. It supports adding markdown badges using Shields.io and aids in structuring content consistently throughout the list creation process.
+
+Background Briefer
+
+This task instructs you to assist users by generating concise biographies about individuals, primarily for business purposes. The content should include the person's name, a brief personal background, detailed professional history, and links to relevant social media profiles. Each person should be treated as a separate task without carrying over information from previous requests.
+
+Backoffice Development Copilot
+
+Backoffice Development Copilot is an LLM agent designed to guide users in creating, optimizing, and integrating effective backoffice systems with a focus on AI enhancement and system efficiency, targeting both personal and business applications.
+
+Backup Coach
+
+Backup Coach is an agent designed to evaluate and enhance users' backup strategies by providing personalized recommendations tailored to their specific systems, current setups, and budget considerations. It offers guidance on identifying backup systems, suggesting best practices, recommending technologies, and advising on backup frequency, all delivered in a practical and informative manner while avoiding technical jargon.
+
+Backup Evaluation Assistant
+
+The Backup Evaluation Assistant is designed to provide users with information on backup approaches for SaaS tools, focusing on automation options and delivering structured summaries of how each tool supports data backups using clear and non-technical language.
+
+Bad Exerperiences Finder
+
+The task is to assist users in finding poorly rated experiences in their local area, including restaurants and cafes, tourist scams, critically panned movies, and poorly rated bars, by guiding them towards specific negative aspects of these entities.
+
+Bad Jokes Galore
+
+This agent generates bad jokes with let-down punchlines and mild humor, aiming to provoke groans or awkward silences.
+
+Beer Tap Identifier
+
+The Beer Tap Identifier is an AI agent that analyzes photos of beer taps to identify and describe beers, providing key details like ABV, IBU, and user ratings.
+
+BLUF Email Generator
+
+The BLUF Email Reformatter assists in reformatting user-provided emails following specific guidelines to enhance clarity and readability, focusing on a Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) summary and specific formatting requirements for subject lines and full email text.
+
+The Boss Update Batcher is an agent designed to help users efficiently send and organize updates for their boss by storing and summarizing key updates in a coherent manner while maintaining a professional and concise tone throughout the interaction.
+
+Brainstorming Assistant
+
+The Brainstorming Assistant LLM agent supports users in conducting effective brainstorming sessions by offering guidance on preparation, productivity tips, and tool recommendations.
+
+Brainstorming Coach
+
+Brainstorming Coach is an AI assistant designed to guide and inspire users on effective brainstorming techniques, providing tips, best practices, and product recommendations to enhance creativity and idea generation.
+
+Brand Reliability Checker
+
+This tool assists users in evaluating the reliability of brands by providing clear and factual information on companies and their products, helping users make confident purchasing decisions.
+
+Brief Generator
+
+The Brief Writing Assistant is a professional tool designed to create structured summaries of activities in a concise yet detailed manner, emphasizing deadlines, urgency, and highlighting critical information in a well-organized brief format.
+
+Broken Link Helper
+
+The Broken Link Retrieval Helper is an agent designed to assist users by finding updated links for broken URLs or identifying and fixing syntax errors that prevent proper link resolution, maintaining a helpful and professional tone throughout interactions to provide accurate and reliable suggestions.
+
+Business Continuity Advisor
+
+The Business Continuity Advisor bot evaluates business processes for resilience, provides feedback on continuity plans, and offers suggestions for improvement based on industry best practices.
+
+Career Disruptor
+
+The Career Disruptor is an imaginative assistant focused on helping users identify new career paths aligned with their skills and experience that they may not have considered. It tries to surface unexpected organization types that match the user's profile, aiming to broaden their job search horizons.
+
+Career Pivot Ideator
+
+The 'Career Pivot Ideation Coach' is designed to suggest small career adjustments for users to find more fulfilling work without requiring drastic changes. The focus is on exploring incremental changes within the user's current career path to enhance job satisfaction.
+
+Cipher Creator
+
+The assistant is designed to help users anonymize sensitive information by suggesting fictional replacement names to protect their identities, particularly in cases like whistleblowing.
+
+Company Backgrounder
+
+A conversational AI assistant designed to help users research background information on companies by providing a detailed structured output covering areas such as company background, products/services, founder details, financials, recent news, and more. The user inputs the company name and receives information sourced from public data points.
+
+Company Explorer
+
+The Company Exploration Tool assists users in identifying and exploring specific areas of business activity by gathering user input, conducting data collection, evaluating companies, and delivering comprehensive information on recognized organizations, including their location, size, and differentiation from competitors. It focuses on providing insights and details about innovative companies, both for-profit and non-profit, with potential hiring opportunities.
+
+Company Hiring Researcher
+
+Assist users in researching hiring data for specific companies, including details such as headcount, remote work policy, interview processes, salary negotiations, and unique recruitment channels to offer a comprehensive overview of the company's hiring practices.
+
+Company News Retriever
+
+The Company News Retrieval Assistant is a tool designed to provide users with summaries of information about a specific company from the past 12 months, focusing on recent updates, news, product launches, and funding details, as well as the company's future plans over the next 12 months.
+
+Company Remote Info
+
+The Company Remote Job Researcher assists job seekers interested in remote work opportunities by conducting comprehensive searches on companies' remote work policies, providing direct links to remote job resources, and summarizing information on the company's approach to remote work. This helps users understand the company's remote work environment and policies to make informed decisions about potential employment opportunities.
+
+Company Screener
+
+The Red Flag Identification Assistant is a chatbot designed to help job seekers identify potential red flags about companies they are considering for employment by conducting thorough background checks using public sources like Glassdoor and LinkedIn. It aims to provide users with relevant information on the company's reputation and work environment to support informed decision-making.
+
+Competitive Landscape Mapper
+
+The Competitive Landscape Analysis Assistant is a tool that guides users in generating detailed reports on a company's competitive landscape, including analyzing competitors, differentiation factors, and forecasting future trends within the industry. It provides structured guidance on collecting information, assessing unique selling points, and predicting changes in the competitive landscape over the next year.
+
+Config Test Creator
+
+The Config Text Generation Assistant generates structured configuration instructions from user input to define AI assistant roles and functionalities in a clear, concise, and professional manner. It processes disorganized input, extracts key intents, and outputs actionable statements adhering to industry standards for assistant configuration.
+
+Context Data Extractor
+
+The tool's main function is to extract contextual data from user-provided text, reformat it in the third person, and filter out relevant information for improving the user's experience with large language models, presenting this data back in a structured format within the chat.
+
+Context Data Ideator
+
+The user is creating a repository of contextual data in markdown files for use with large language models. I can assist by providing recommendations and suggestions for developing various context snippets based on the user's specific needs.
+
+Context Gen Interviewer
+
+The assistant's role is to help users generate contextual data snippets by conducting interviews and gathering responses in the third person, which can be used to optimize inference of large language models for specific use cases such as enhancing the performance of an assistant developed for job search support.
+
+Context Snippet Generator
+
+The Contextual Data Generation Assistant is designed to help users populate a personal context repository with diverse information by assisting in developing contextual snippets through text processing and interviews.
+
+Courses And Certs
+
+The Tech Courses and Certs Advisory Tool is an AI assistant on Hugging Face that helps users find technology-related courses and certifications based on their interests, level of knowledge, technical ability, preferred learning modality, learning objectives, and budget. It provides personalized recommendations from top industry courses with key details such as organization, certificate availability, industry reputation, delivery methods, cost, study time, and update frequency.
+
+CSV Taxonomy Generator
+
+The CSV Taxonomy Generator creates taxonomy lists in CSV format for organizing information, allowing users to specify the taxonomy list and the number of values they want. It includes an optional column for descriptions and presents the CSV output, maintaining a clear and instructional tone throughout the interaction.
+
+CSV To Markdown Reformatter
+
+This assistant helps users convert CSV files to markdown format for clear and structured documentation, aligning the output with GitHub README styles through professional, logical formatting.
+
+Daily Schedule Manager
+
+The Daily Schedule Manager is a language model assistant designed to help users create and update their daily schedules by prioritizing tasks, organizing activities, and promoting an efficient workflow in a friendly and supportive manner. Key responsibilities include facilitating schedule creation, prioritizing urgent tasks, and grouping related activities to enhance productivity.
+
+Data Organisation Genie
+
+The Data Organisation Sidekick is an AI assistant that guides users in creating efficient relational database systems by helping with structuring tables, defining fields, and establishing relationships based on business processes. It offers detailed guidance in a helpful and educational manner while emphasizing simplicity and scalability.
+
+Data Relationships Utility
+
+The Data Relationship Utility assists users in identifying and mapping relationships between datasets for setting up relational database systems like MySQL through file uploads and detailed relationship suggestions, emphasizing logical and normalized structures.
+
+Data Visualisation Ideation Sidekick
+
+The Data Visualisation Ideator (Alternatives Suggester) helps users by offering creative suggestions for data visualization projects, aiming to broaden their perspectives on effective visualization approaches and techniques based on the user's context and objectives. Suggestions may include different charting options, data storytelling, animation, and considerations on data preparation and execution.
+
+Decluttering Copilot
+
+"The Decluttering Copilot" is a friendly virtual assistant designed to help users declutter their living spaces by providing guidance on minimizing possessions responsibly and suggesting ways to donate or recycle items. It encourages users to pare down belongings and offers objective advice when evaluating items for retention.
+
+Dictated Text Fixer
+
+The "Dictated Text Fixer" is an assistant designed to help users correct errors in text captured by voice to text dictation software without needing user approval for changes, providing an edited version back to the user.
+
+Disaster Debrief Assistant
+
+This LLM helps users debrief from situations where things went wrong, guiding them through reflecting on what happened, offering recommendations to avoid similar incidents in the future.
+
+Disaster Preparedness Expert
+
+This chatbot generates detailed disaster scenarios and provides preparedness steps to help users assess and improve their disaster readiness.
+
+Disaster Scenario Ideator
+
+A Language Model designed to help in creating realistic disaster scenarios for preparedness planning, focusing on international travel, by generating brief documents with detailed descriptions and proactive steps.
+
+Do We Need This Meeting?
+
+An AI designed to determine the necessity of meetings and recommend more efficient communication methods when appropriate.
+
+Doc Anon Tool
+
+A tool for editing documents to anonymize sensitive information such as names and specific details to protect identities, with a focus on maintaining anonymity and discretion in the editing process.
+
+Docker Compose Analyser
+
+The Docker Compose Analysis Tool assists users by analyzing their Docker compose files, identifying images and volume mappings, and providing recommendations for their stack deployment. It offers structured advice and customizes feedback based on user context, such as deployment platforms like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or AWS.
+
+Document Stats And Numbers Miner
+
+The Document Analysis Assistant is an AI tool that helps extract and analyze statistical insights and data tables from user-uploaded documents. It identifies statistics, data tables, and provides an automated assessment of noteworthy findings in a structured report format.
+
+Document Table Finder
+
+This model reviews documents, identifies data tables, and outputs a list of tables with summaries and page references in a PDF, ensuring accuracy and thoroughness in the identification process through a friendly and informal communication style.
+
+Dummy CSV Data Generator
+
+The Dummy Data Generator tool creates realistic dummy data in CSV format based on user-specified requirements for testing and development purposes, generating 20 rows by default unless specified otherwise, following a structured input and output process while maintaining professionalism and accuracy.
+
+Dummy Tech Project Ideator
+
+This language model is designed to recommend mock projects to users interested in learning various technologies, providing a playful and pressure-free way to explore building with different tech stacks.
+
+Eco Ninja V3
+
+The Eco Ninja V3 model acts as a sustainability data research assistant, capable of retrieving and analyzing environmental and financial data for companies related to greenhouse gas emissions and financial performance, providing a detailed report including emissions, financial figures, monetised emissions, and a comparison table, emphasizing sustainability and profitability aspects.
+
+Email Optimiser
+
+Daniel's Email Optimiser is a tool that assists users in optimizing and organizing draft emails by suggesting subject lines and reformatting content to enhance clarity and effectiveness.
+
+Email Shortener
+
+The Email Shortener is a tool that helps users write shorter emails by editing lengthy emails to make them more concise without omitting important details. Users can engage in an iterative workflow to summarize multiple emails.
+
+Email Thread Reader
+
+The Email Thread Reader is an assistant that parses long email threads provided by the user, summarizes the essential details and chronology, identifies any direct mentions and action requests for the user, and engages in iterative workflows for further analysis.
+
+Emergency Shelter Finding Guidance
+
+A Language Model (LLM) assists users in navigating official guidelines for seeking shelter during rocket attacks in Israel according to the Home Front Command, with options for different contexts and offering external resources from the Home Front Command Site.
+
+Emissions Report Analyst
+
+As a GHG Emissions Report Analyst, your role involves assisting users in researching companies' greenhouse gas emissions by analyzing sustainability reports, identifying scope one, scope two, and scope three emissions, as well as any emission reduction targets set by the company. Your focus should be on providing these specific data points from publicly accessible sustainability reports.
+
+Ergonomic Evaulation Assistant
+
+The Workspace Ergonomics Assistant assesses users' workspace setup based on submitted images to provide ergonomic recommendations for enhancing comfort and productivity.
+
+Find A Bar Near Me
+
+This Language Model is designed to assist users in finding highly rated bars in their local area by asking about the type of bar and drink preference before providing a list of recommended bars within a 500-meter radius.
+
+Find A License
+
+Find a License is specialized in providing guidance on open source licenses for code and digital projects. By asking the user questions, I recommend a suitable license based on their preferences, but I advise users to seek professional legal advice for their specific needs.
+
+Find Me A Guinness
+
+A location-based service designed to assist users in discovering nearby establishments serving Guinness by providing reviews and descriptions of up to 10 closest places based on the user's current location, aiming for accuracy, relevance, and user-friendliness.
+
+Find Me Compatible Hardware
+
+A Language Model (LLM) designed to remember a user's hardware specifications and suggest compatible products based on known hardware information.
+
+Freeform Converter
+
+This Freeform Writing Converter aims to assist in reformatting text lacking punctuation and capitalization for improved readability, providing enhanced clarity while maintaining the original meaning.
+
+Geopolitical Brief Generator
+
+The model is a Long-Length Model (LLM) designed to generate organized summaries in the format of a Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) for providing structured briefs on current events.
+
+Geopolitical Scenario Simulator
+
+This model is a Long-Form Language Model (LLM) designed for simulating various geopolitical scenarios based on current events with a format that mimics intelligence agency briefings, including situation briefing, international reactions, scenario modeling, and a summary and assessment.
+
+Gifted Adult Helper
+
+The Gifted Adult Helper AI specializes in supporting adults who identify as gifted by providing resources, guidance, and support tailored to their unique needs. Users are encouraged to seek professional advice for specific concerns after interacting with the AI.
+
+Gmail Search String Generator
+
+The Gmail Search String Generator is an assistant that helps users generate search strings for Gmail or Google workspace email accounts to efficiently retrieve specific emails based on their content or criteria. It can create custom search strings within the syntax constraints defined by Google's latest standards and is capable of generating documentation in Markdown format for the search strings produced.
+
+Go Sell Yourself!
+
+The purpose of this model is to act as a career coach, conducting interviews with users to help them identify and highlight their main selling points in job applications, providing organized output for users to use in their professional presentations during job searches.
+
+Grow With My Job
+
+"Grow With My Job" is a Language Model that acts as an empathetic career counselor helping users identify ways to grow professionally within their current job, providing actionable suggestions tailored to their employment context.
+
+Help Me Remember That
+
+This LLM is focused on generating memory aids to help users remember important information by asking them which fact they are trying to recall and suggesting mnemonic devices.
+
+Image Gen Advisor
+
+The AI Image Guidance Bot assists users in selecting text to image generative AI tools by recommending specific models for their prompts, such as DALLE2 or DALLE3 by OpenAI, based on the expected effectiveness for the user's needs.
+
+Image Catalog Recommender
+
+The Catalog Image Recommendation Bot is designed to analyze catalog images of products and provide recommendations based on user-specified criteria such as comfort or features, potentially iteratively, without carrying context from previous requests between analyses.
+
+Image To SQL Query Writer
+
+LLM is a tool that converts a screenshot of a data structure into an SQL query, particularly useful for creating tables from picklist values by prompting the user for table names and generating the corresponding query.
+
+Impact Bond Researcher
+
+I will help find examples of impact bonds that bring together private and public finance to achieve specific social good. My research will focus on finding projects such as social impact bonds or development impact bonds, using authoritative sources like GO Lab and the Brookings Institution.
+
+Interview Preparation Helper
+
+The Job Interview Brief Creator is an AI assistant designed to help users prepare for job interviews by gathering information about the company, position, user's background, compensation, interview process, and interviewer details, organizing this data, supplementing it with external research, and generating a comprehensive preparation document.
+
+Inventory Helper
+
+The task is to assist users in creating a detailed inventory of their products by providing information such as manufacturer name, product details, product number, price, release year, technical specifications, retail locations, manuals, and product summaries.
+
+Israel Price Comparison Helper
+
+The Israel Price Comparison Assistant helps users compare product prices in Israel to their recommended retail prices in the United States by converting the prices to USD and expressing them as a percentage of the US RRP and Amazon price.
+
+Israel SITREP Generator
+
+A task to create concise, neutral, and action-oriented military Situational Reports (SITREPs) on the latest developments related to Israel within the past 12 hours, covering various strategic areas, with structured analysis and recommendations based on credible sources, and including a section on analyzing social media chatter.
+
+Israel Tech Shopping
+
+This model acts as a friendly shopping assistant particularly for tech products, targeting users in Israel. It scopes search results from specific websites, provides product listings in Hebrew with English translations, offers links with prices in Israeli shekels, identifies the best deal, and compares prices with Amazon in US dollars.
+
+Job Performance Coach
+
+The Job Performance Coach AI aims to assist users in maximizing their performance at work, tailored to different work contexts and emphasizing positive recommendations and potential upskilling opportunities.
+
+Job Search Accountability Partner
+
+The "Job Search Accountability Partner" assists users in creating a structured system for sending out job applications, ensuring consistency and discipline in their job search efforts by helping them set clear weekly action plans and goals.
+
+Natural Language To JSON Converter
+
+The utility helps users convert natural language descriptions of data structures into machine-readable JSON schemas, following the JSON Schema Specification, with support for various data types, required fields, nested structures, and validation formats. Clarifications are sought when needed for accurate schema creation.
+
+Just The Code, Please
+
+This assistant is designed to generate functional code based on natural language instructions provided by the user. Simply select an option (1, 2, or 3) and paste your code to receive the corresponding scripted output.
+
+Just The Code, Please (Python version, OpenSUSE)
+
+This task involves generating fully functional Python GUIs tailored for users of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed who prefer attractive GUIs without Tkinter, ensuring the code is compatible with the specified Python environment and providing pip commands for required packages.
+
+Just The Code, Please (Python for Linux Desktop Users)
+
+Generate a Python program that meets user requirements, focusing on code generation assistance for Linux users, avoiding Tkinter for GUI, and prioritizing an attractive GUI. The program will consider user-specified Python version and offer a choice between generating GUI, CLI, or TLI code. Provide the generated program within a code fence and suggest necessary package installations via a pip command.
+
+Late Night Venues
+
+LLM designed for locating late-night open businesses based on user's location and preferences.
+
+Let's Automate This!
+
+The Let's Automate This Language Model (LLM) offers implementation plans for automating technical projects to help users automate business or personal processes by suggesting specific approaches and providing detailed instructions for implementation, considering user preferences and limitations.
+
+Let's Work Remotely!
+
+This model suggests remote working locations based on the user's area to enhance productivity and well-being, focusing on varied and suitable venues while emphasizing safety, convenience, and etiquette in public spaces.
+
+Linux Hardware Finder
+
+The Linux hardware finder task requires acting as a shopping assistant to help users identify hardware compatible with their Linux distribution by gathering details on the system setup, providing information on manufacturer compatibility, general compatibility considerations, and offering specific product recommendations.
+
+LLM Advisor
+
+As a large language model assistant, I guide users in selecting the most suitable model for their AI use case, providing specific recommendations tailored to their needs, suggesting possible modifications to default settings, and offering tips on effective model utilization.
+
+LLM API Guide
+
+The assistant helps users select a suitable model from a large language model API by asking about their API usage and task goals, then recommending specific models based on the described use case.
+
+LLM Approach Advisory Tool
+
+The LLM Approach Advisory Tool aims to guide users in selecting effective methodologies for utilizing large language models, such as prompt engineering, fine-tuning models, implementing RAG pipelines, and using vector stores, based on the user's objectives and use case. The tool engages in an iterative process with users, providing tailored recommendations and staying updated on best practices in generative AI and LLMs.
+
+LLM Augmentation Guide (RAG, API, Real Time Data)
+
+The guide serves as an assistant for large language model developers seeking to enhance their models through improved contextual retrieval and real-time information integration, offering recommendations for simple and effective strategies to achieve these goals.
+
+LLM Background Assistant
+
+The LLM Background Assistant is a specialized tool that offers detailed and thorough background information on large language models (LLMs), presenting in-depth details on model specifications, training processes, analysis of advantages and weaknesses, suggested use cases, public commentary, and more. It operates within verified information sources and refrains from providing unverified data for hallucination protection.
+
+LLM Output Judge
+
+The LLM Output Self-Judge task involves evaluating a large language model's compliance with prompts given by users, assessing the model's performance against various criteria, assigning a rating, providing a rationale for the rating, and making an educated guess on the model used for generating the output.
+
+LLM Use Case Ideation Bot
+
+The LLM Use-Case Ideation Bot engages with users to identify potential applications for large language models. It prompts users to suggest the type of use case they have in mind and then provides specific ways in which large language models could be beneficial, asking for feedback on the suggestions provided.
+
+LLM: The People & The Orgs
+
+The LLMs People And Orgs model aims to assist users in understanding large language models by providing summaries on various aspects such as people involved, organizations, history, future directions, and relevant research papers. Users can interact with the model to explore specific topics related to large language models.
+
+Location-Based Threat Briefer
+
+A Location-based Language Model (LLM) that generates threat briefings for user-selected areas, assessing and ordering threats by likelihood while providing proactive mitigation measures, drawing on local news and concluding with a summary of the most serious threats.
+
+Media Interview Coach
+
+An Interview Coach LLM that simulates media interviews for training purposes and offers feedback on communication effectiveness and improvement suggestions.
+
+Media Monitoring Brief Assistant
+
+This model helps generate customized media monitoring briefs on a specific topic by taking user inputs including identity, target recipient, and media links to summarize and organize into a briefing document.
+
+Media Monitoring Helper
+
+The Media Monitoring Assistant helps users track recent media mentions for a brand or individual by requesting specific data inputs and providing detailed summaries of significant coverage with sentiment analysis.
+
+Media Opportunity Screener
+
+This Long-Range Memory model assists in conducting basic research on media requests, evaluating the potential reach of media opportunities, and providing a rating of the exposure opportunity on a scale from 1 to 10.
+
+Media Outreach Assistant
+
+The Media Outreach Assistant helps users create targeted media lists by suggesting relevant journalists based on communication objectives, target audience, and key messages.
+
+Media Source Background Checker
+
+This tool is designed to assist users in obtaining objective information about a specific news outlet, including details on the media type, circulation/reach, editorial slant, specific programming or hosts, and common criticisms and praises associated with the outlet.
+
+Medieval English Text Generator
+
+Medieval Text Generation Assistant transforms modern English text into authentic Middle English with rare words and phrases, creating an immersive experience reminiscent of the past.
+
+Meeting Agenda Assistant
+
+A Large Language Model designed to help create professional meeting agendas by prompting for key details like attendees, topics, and urgency, and organizing them into a clear format with grouped sections for easy reading.
+
+Meeting Briefer
+
+The Meeting Preparation Assistant (Participant Researcher) helps professionals prepare for meetings by conducting thorough research on attendees' professional backgrounds and providing a concise summary of their profiles to facilitate more productive interactions.
+
+Microphone Finder
+
+This is a model for a microphone purchasing assistant chatbot that assists users in selecting a microphone based on their specific requirements by asking targeted questions and providing curated recommendations.
+
+Minutes Creator V2
+
+The Meeting Minutes Creator (V2) task involves generating meeting minutes summarizing key discussion points. Users can input meeting content through one-time synopsis or ongoing updates and can choose to include additional details like attendees and locations before receiving final organized meeting minutes, optionally including action items at the end.
+
+Natural Language To MongoDB (Schema Generation Tool)
+
+The task involves assisting users in converting their natural language data structure requirements into MongoDB schema format, accommodating various scenarios like simple collections, relationships, embedded documents, and many-to-many relationships in MongoDB. Clarification might be necessary to tailor the schema properly to the user's needs.
+
+Natural Language To MySQL (Schema Generation Tool)
+
+This tool allows users to describe their desired data structure in natural language, and it converts the description into MySQL schema definitions, supporting various data types, relationships, and clarifications.
+
+Natural Language To Neo4J (Schema Generation Tool)
+
+The Natural Language Schema Definition Utility for Neo4J allows users to define data structures in Neo4j using natural language, translating user descriptions into Cypher queries for node, relationship, and property creation, with features like schema retrieval and clarification of ambiguities.
+
+New Statistics Locator
+
+A Language Model (LLM) designed to help users identify new statistics of interest by asking for preferences, compiling a report with relevant statistics and sources, and providing insights on emerging data.
+
+Open Data Finder
+
+The AI model helps users discover open source datasets by generating links to relevant datasets based on user queries, prioritizing newer datasets and ensuring information accuracy, responding in a friendly and informative manner.
+
+LLM that assists communications professionals in generating reactive commentary by summarizing news articles, analyzing sentiment, and suggesting opportunities for client responses through social media posts.
+
+Organisation Relationship Finder
+
+An LLM model is created to identify relationships between organizations, helping users find similar organizations related to a queried organization, presented in a table format with a 'Relation' column indicating the discovered relationships.
+
+Natural Language To PostgreSQL (Schema Generation Tool)
+
+This tool helps convert natural language data structure descriptions into PostgreSQL schema definitions efficiently, considering appropriate data types and relationships, and seeking user clarification when needed.
+
+Postgres Schema Coach
+
+Schema Genie is a Postgres schema creation agent that guides users through creating comprehensive database schemas by suggesting columns, data types, and structures tailored specifically for Postgres databases.
+
+Postgres Taxonomy Builder
+
+The Postgres Taxonomy Builder is a tool designed to assist users in populating taxonomies into PostgreSQL databases by generating tables based on user-specified taxonomy lists.
+
+PostgreSQL Expert
+
+The Postgres Expert assists with PostgreSQL queries and concepts in a friendly manner, covering basics to advanced use cases with a focus on relational database fundamentals and syntax differences from MySQL.
+
+Preparedness Advisor
+
+This Language Model (LLM) assesses and enhances disaster preparedness by identifying potential risks, evaluating readiness levels, and providing non-alarming recommendations to improve preparedness effectively.
+
+Preparedness Brief Creator
+
+This language model (LLM) helps users by generating detailed briefing documents to enhance their preparedness for specific scenarios.
+
+Preparedness Partner
+
+This assistant suggests collaborative preparedness initiatives to users, helping them identify ways to work together with others for increasing preparedness and sharing responsibilities effectively.
+
+Process Improvement
+
+The AI assistant is designed to help optimize workflows, predominantly focusing on automating processes and enhancing efficiency using artificial intelligence tools. By tailoring recommendations to specific needs and preferences, the assistant provides specific tools, workflows, and guidelines to assist the user in improving their personal or business processes.
+
+Prompt Analyst (Capabilities, LLM Assessment)
+
+The Prompt Analyst serves to expertly evaluate user-submitted prompts by analyzing key elements, such as word count, required capabilities from a large language model, and real-time data needs to recommend the most suitable model for the task.
+
+Prompt Engineering Analyst (Techniques)
+
+The task focuses on analyzing prompt engineering techniques used in a given prompt and offering recommendations on how to enhance them for better output when interacting with large language models, with the potential for an iterative workflow.
+
+Prompt Engineering Digest
+
+The Prompt Engineering Digest provides detailed summaries of the latest news and developments in the field of prompt engineering, offering a roundup of the last two weeks from various sources, with links provided for each news item.
+
+Prompt Length Guide
+
+Ask for prompt text and target large language model, analyze prompt length in terms of word count, character count, and tokenization based on the specified model, and provide insights on whether the prompt is a challenge or fits well within the context window of the model being used.
+
+Prompt Shortener
+
+This model is designed to guide users on shortening prompts and custom LLM configurations in ChatGPT. It helps users by analyzing their text to identify ways to shorten the instructions and provides optimized output.
+
+Prompt To LLM Advisor
+
+The "Prompt to LLM Tool" analyzes user prompts for large language models (LLMs), identifies prompt engineering techniques, assesses necessary LLM capabilities, and recommends specific LLMs or types based on the analysis. It provides a user-friendly interface for input and outputs findings in a structured template.
+
+Pub Agenda Generator
+
+This tool formats discussion points into a meeting agenda with drink break suggestions to enhance engagement and efficiency during meetings.
+
+Pub Crawl Creator
+
+This model designs a pub crawl itinerary based on the user's specified location, arranging a series of stops with logical distances and providing a textual output with Google Map links to the venues.
+
+Python Generator
+
+This Python assistant generates Python GUIs based on user input, following a specific workflow to ascertain operating system, code generation instructions, suggest a GUI framework, and provide the full program enclosed within a code block.
+
+Q&A Format For Interactions
+
+This Hugging Face model is designed to interact with users in a question and answer format, optimized to gather and respond to batches of questions on a specific topic using a structured approach.
+
+Quick Email Template Generator
+
+A language model designed to generate email templates to help users streamline their email communication by providing easily customizable content.
+
+Random AI Assistant Ideator
+
+The AI assistant is designed to generate imaginative and detailed ideas for Large Language Model (LLM) assistants tailored to specific use cases or subject areas, assisting users in creating LLMs for personal and professional uses. Users can request random ideas for LLM assistants, and each suggestion includes a name, platform recommendation, assistant functionality description, limitations, integration ideas, and model configuration instructions.
+
+Recent Documentary Finder
+
+This model generates recommendations for recent documentaries targeted towards avid documentary viewers who have already seen many classic ones, focusing on suggesting new releases from the past year based on their interests.
+
+Recent News Digest
+
+I will provide an organized news digest on sustainability finance developments based on the user's specified time frame, focusing on major developments like ESG, impact investing, regulation, and transparency, ordered chronologically from newest to oldest.
+
+Recent Report Finder
+
+This LLM is designed to search for and summarize recently published reports in a user's specified area of interest, organizing them by topic and providing access links.
+
+Regulation And Policy Comparison Assistant
+
+This LLM is designed to help users compare and analyze various policies and regulations for better understanding and decision-making. It assists in creating detailed comparison documents outlining the similarities and differences between different regulatory approaches.
+
+Relations Briefer
+
+The Geopolitical Relationship Briefer is a model designed to provide formal and detailed briefs on recent developments between countries or a country and a geopolitical bloc. It summarizes major developments, trade relations, security cooperation, statements by leaders, sentiment in news coverage and social media, trend analysis, regional context, multilateral engagement, notable coverage, and concludes with a summary of the overall analysis. The user can request reports for specific country relationships over retrospective time periods.
+
+Remote Friendly Company Finder
+
+This project involves creating a chat assistant that helps users identify remote-friendly companies based on specific criteria provided by the user. The assistant gathers information about the user's location, desired company type, job preferences, and additional guiding preferences, and then recommends five companies that match the user's criteria, considering factors such as compliance challenges related to remote work.
+
+Remote Job Profiler
+
+This tool helps identify remote-friendly companies for users looking for job opportunities, gathering detailed preferences from users and providing targeted company recommendations based on their needs and skills.
+
+Report Summariser
+
+This model aims to summarize reports by extracting key information, including data and statistics, from lengthy PDF documents provided by the user.
+
+Research With Python Tutorials Generator
+
+The Language Model helps users achieve research objectives by providing Python scripting tutorials tailored to automate research and analysis tasks.
+
+Salary Research Sidekick
+
+The Salary Research Assistant is designed to help users gather and analyze salary benchmarks tailored to their experience level, desired role, and location, providing accurate and detailed salary insights using publicly available sources and converting salaries into USD for easy comparison.
+
+Self Hosted Tech Finder
+
+The LLM assists in identifying self-hostable alternatives to SaaS products by querying users about their preferences and experience with self-hosting, ultimately providing a list of potential tools with relevant information.
+
+SITREP Generator (General Purpose)
+
+The SITREP Creator assistant generates structured situational reports on recent news events, focusing on factual and concise analysis, similar to intelligence reports used in military contexts. It aims to prevent misinformation by ensuring accurate and up-to-date data is used for reporting.
+
+Sloth Metaphor Explainer
+
+Assume the role of a knowledgeable sloth living in a jungle to provide quirky and limited-view explanations on various topics requested by users.
+
+Spot The LLM (LLM Text Identification)
+
+The task is to differentiate text generated by a human from that produced by a large language model (LLM) and, if LLM-generated, to identify the specific model used, with the final output being an assessment of the probability (0-100%) of LLM generation along with reasoning and model specifics if identifiable.
+
+Natural Language To SQLite
+
+This utility assists in converting natural language descriptions of data structures into SQLite schema using appropriate data types, primary keys, and relationships such as one-to-many or many-to-many, with the ability to seek clarifications for ambiguous requirements.
+
+Stack Research Prompt Assistant
+
+Act as an assistant to help users improve prompts for finding technology or software components, ensuring to maintain specific user instructions while enhancing the prompt's clarity and structure for better recommendations.
+
+Stat Checker
+
+The Quick Statistic Checker assists users by verifying the accuracy of provided statistics, seeking updated numbers from authoritative sources, and providing a conversational response with findings including source names, publication dates, and URLs.
+
+Sustainability Data Miner (GHG)
+
+The Sustainability Data Gathering Assistant helps users find quantitative sustainability data released by or about companies, focusing on social and environmental performance metrics such as GHG emissions, air pollution, waste generation, fair wage adherence, diversity, inclusion, and product impacts. It interacts with users by asking for company names and optional specific years to retrieve relevant sustainability information organized by topic.
+
+Sustainability Regulation Advisor
+
+This guide aims to simplify understanding of financial sustainability regulations, focusing on topics like the CFRD, EU frameworks, SEC regulations in the US, and sustainability proposals in China and the Far East, encouraging a comparative view to help users grasp the complexities of sustainability regulations worldwide.
+
+Sustainability Report Finder
+
+A Language Model (LLM) designed to locate and provide links to sustainability reports from companies, offering publication year information and company details.
+
+Sustainable Living Advisor
+
+This LLM offers personalized sustainable living advice based on user input, focusing on scientific data and environmental impact evaluation to support sustainable choices.
+
+Synthetic Narratives Generator (PII For Security Testing)
+
+The General Purpose Synthetic Data Transcript Generator helps users create synthetic text for narration, tailored to a specified speaking duration, with options for different stylistic content types.
+
+Synthetic PII Generator (For Security Testing)
+
+The assistant can assist in generating synthetic data upon request in a specific file format and type of information, and in creating matching synthetic data to correspond with given data.
+
+Synthetic Speech To Text (STT) Data Creator
+
+The assistant's task is to generate synthetic transcripts for ground truth files for automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, modeling various scenarios like calendar entries, task entries, meeting notes, and journal entries, following specific guidelines for formatting and content.
+
+Task List Formatter
+
+The task is to reformat a list of tasks provided in narrative format into individual tasks, eliminating impertinent information, and organizing them hierarchically, such as into subtasks using bullet points.
+
+Taxonomy And Category Builder
+
+This Long Language Model (LLM) is designed to assist users in creating taxonomies and category lists for data-driven applications, helping users generate taxonomies like category lists for content management systems, with output available as a downloadable CSV file.
+
+Taxonomy Ideation Tool
+
+The Taxonomy Ideation Wizard is an AI agent that assists in developing taxonomies and category lists for data-centric applications by guiding users through the process and providing the output as a downloadable CSV file. This tool is helpful for tasks such as creating category lists for content management systems.
+
+Tech Improvement Guide
+
+The language model helps users address technical issues by understanding and offering solutions through identifying the problem, providing action plans, suggesting tools, and proposing evaluation strategies.
+
+Tech Product Finder
+
+A Language Model designed to help users find technical products by requesting and analyzing specifications. It's programmed to search for products based on user input, present pricing information and suggest purchasing options.
+
+Tech Spec Assistant
+
+The Tech Stack Evaluation Assistant is a language model designed to help users organize their requirements for tech stack evaluations into a structured specification document by parsing user input, identifying missing information, aggregating details, and delivering a polished final document, following interaction guidelines that ensure clear and professional communication.
+
+Tech Stack Optimizer
+
+This AI tool offers tailored suggestions to enhance technology stacks by recommending AI and LLM solutions, providing concrete and actionable advice in an informal and friendly manner.
+
+Text Fixer (British_English)
+
+This model corrects typos, punctuation, and capitalization in text following UK conventions.
+
+Text To Video Prompt
+
+The prompt requires the assistant to guide a user in crafting effective prompts for a text to video generative AI tool by analyzing their input, providing feedback on its effectiveness, suggesting improvements, and incorporating changes if requested by the user.
+
+The Checklist Pro
+
+Checklist Pro customizes safety and preparedness checklists for specific activities and contexts, ensuring completeness and peace of mind for users.
+
+The Creativity Coach
+
+The Creativity Coach is a conversational AI assistant designed to nurture and support users in exploring and expressing their creativity through various means.
+
+The Database Matchmaker
+
+The Database Matchmaker helps users choose the best database for their data-centric project by asking about the data they plan to store and offering recommendations along with reasons for each suggestion.
+
+The Fake Wine Buff
+
+The LLM is designed to generate incisive questions for the user to ask based on a wine list photo, helping them appear knowledgeable about wine to wait staff.
+
+The LLM Mimic (Impersonate Another LLM!)
+
+The LLM Mimic is a tool that imitates the style of another chosen large language model, generating responses similar to the selected model based on its known characteristics and limitations for user prompts.
+
+The Night Time Forager
+
+The Night Time Forager is a simple assistant that helps users find food, drinks, or transport home by asking for their location and time, then providing recommendations based on their preferences. It provides a disclaimer to remind users to verify the information provided and take care of themselves.
+
+The Professional Skeptic
+
+A Language Model designed to be highly skeptical, challenging claims and requesting sources with a blunt and interrogative approach.
+
+TL;DR Email Rewriter
+
+The Email Rewriter AI assists users in reformatting long emails by creating a summary section at the top, followed by a detailed section, and suggesting subject line prefixes inspired by the BLUF system.
+
+Token Estimation Helper
+
+The assistant's task is to estimate the tokenization of a given prompt based on the provided information, either for a specific language model like GPT-4o or as a general ballpark range considering varying tokenization methods used by different models.
+
+Topic To Subreddit Finder
+
+The LLM suggests subreddits where specific topics are discussed based on keywords provided by the user.
+
+Toxic Email Parser
+
+The Toxic Email Parser is an AI assistant designed to help users document abusive digital communications, providing a dispassionate summary, trigger warnings, and accurate documentation while respecting user sensitivity.
+
+Travel Prep Pro
+
+Ultimate trip preparation assistant ensuring readiness for all journey aspects, offering packing suggestions, organizing documents, providing travel tips, and emphasizing thoroughness and localized recommendations for smoother trips.
+
+True Story Movie Recommender
+
+This True Story Movie & Documentary Finder LLM provides personalized recommendations for biopics and documentaries based on users' preferences, emphasizing accuracy and realism while considering user mood and interests within this genre. Recommendations prioritize recent releases and aim to offer 5 to 10 relevant suggestions, each including the year of release and Rotten Tomatoes scores, with a friendly and engaging communication style.
+
+Open SUSE Tumbleweed Helper
+
+This assistant is designed to help users with technical support issues specifically tailored for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with the KDE Plasma variant, aiming to provide accurate and effective troubleshooting steps.
+
+UI Improvement Advisor
+
+The UI improvement tool acts as a code generation assistant, capable of enhancing the appearance and functionality of Python or Bash scripts provided by the user, ultimately aiming to improve the user experience elements within the program.
+
+Vacation Doomsday Prepper
+
+A Language Model that generates detailed vacation preparedness strategies with risk assessments and task assignments, covering travel safety and preparation comprehensively with a formal tone.
+
+View On Hugging Face Badge Generator (Shields.io)
+
+This tool creates markdown badges for users to display "View on Hugging Face" with a link, customized with different color schemes or text, for any Hugging Face URL provided.
+
+Voice Config Helper
+
+This tool helps users configure a large language model assistant using voice-dictated configuration text, involving parsing, reviewing, and optimizing the text for the assistant's behavior, followed by outputting the edited text to the user.
+
+Voice Context Data Helper
+
+The Context Generation Assistant processes user-submitted speech-to-text content, organizes it into structured configuration documents, and focuses on clarity, refinement, and logical organization following specific guidelines to create contextual snippets.
+
+Voice Mode Mentor
+
+This LLM assists users in optimizing their experience of ChatGPT by integrating with earbuds for voice interactions.
+
+Voice Note Helper
+
+A voice note journalling assistant that helps users convert voice notes into organized journal entries by cleaning up text, adding punctuation, and formatting into Markdown with a title and subheadings as needed. It provides the output within a code fence format for easy copying and pasting.
+
+Voice Preface
+
+The snippet provides guidance on configuring voice-centric assistants by preparing them to handle text transcribed from voice input, including addressing typos and lack of punctuation, and expecting hands-free interactions for processing text instructions.
+
+Voice Prompt For Software
+
+Voice prompt generator for code generation, assisting users by converting their text descriptions into prompts for large language models to generate code efficiently. Reformat user-provided text into second person and optimize for effective code generation prompts.
+
+Voice Prompt Refiner
+
+This tool serves as an assistant to refine prompts for language models dictated via voice-to-text software, improving grammar, fixing typos, and enhancing coherence while retaining the user's instructions.
+
+Voice To Text
+
+The task is to assist users in selecting voice to text dictation hardware by asking specific questions like their usage environment, OS compatibility needs, budget, and some preferences. Five targeted recommendations tailored for voice dictation use will be provided, prioritizing accuracy, established brands, and products focused on voice to text.
+
+VS Code To Markdown
+
+This template-driven assistant helps generate structured markdown format for Visual Studio Code extensions related to Language Model applications that can be derived from a given marketplace URL. It provides a consistent format for creating extension listings with key details, installation guidance, and neutral descriptions.
+
+Weekly Work Planner
+
+This LLM helps users create a positive and manageable weekly work plan by setting objectives and breaking tasks into achievable components.
+
+Weekly Workflow Planning Assistant
+
+This model helps in weekly workflow planning and formatting tasks for professional emails, assisting in structuring tasks, setting priorities, and ensuring clear communication.
+
+What's At This Domain?
+
+The program takes a domain name as input and provides structured information about the organization associated with that domain.
+
+Who’s This Person?
+
+This LLM is designed to generate a two-line summary of a prominent individual by asking for the person's name and a related detail before providing the summary.
+
+Worst Eats Guide
+
+This model recommends the worst-rated food and drink establishments based on user-provided location, offering brief details and common complaints from negative reviews for entertainment or caution without suggesting any well-reviewed places.
+
+Ye Olde Text Converter
+
+Transforms modern text into formal, old-fashioned language by incorporating archaic and rarely used words, providing a unique and historical writing style.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/100-weird-ai-assistants-to-get-your-2025-off-to-a-productive-start](https://heyitworks.tech/100-weird-ai-assistants-to-get-your-2025-off-to-a-productive-start)

posts/hashnode/Better-voice-typing-with-OpenAI-Whisper.md

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+# Better voice typing with OpenAI Whisper
+
+ 
+As an early student of Mavis Beacon's excellent typing courses, I've long been accustomed to thinking that as a relatively fast 100 WPM typist, touch typing is the most efficient way of getting text into a computer.
+
+But even for those with slightly to significantly faster than average typing speeds, voice dictation remains a far faster way of achieving text input.
+
+With the average person speaking at around 120-150 WPM, depending on your typing speed, voice typing can be a significantly quicker way of capturing text. If you're a “hunt and peck” typist, then voice typing would be massively quicker. If you spend most of your day typing, these small differences aren't a question of a few words per minute. They can be transformative impacts on your productivity.
+
+But for all their shining potential, my first dalliances with using voice typing, however, weren't all that encouraging.
+
+Even speaking slowly and clearly with a professional studio microphone, tools that you would expect to be highly reliable in this age, are sometimes surprisingly disappointing (ahem, Google Chrome voice typing). But the speech-to-text market isn't static and recent years have brought transformative change.
+
+Although it may seem like a distant connection, the same architecture that underpins large language models, the transformer architecture, has also enabled a new crop of speech-to-text tools that are far more accurate than those of yesteryear. OpenAI, Deepgram, Speechmatics and others are some of the companies that have led the charge.
+
+A few selected hardware editions and one of these tools can give you everything you need to ditch your conventional keyboard for good
+
+The Case For Using Whisper By API
+
+Enter the world of speech-to-text dictation software, however, and you'll quickly see many advocating deploying these models locally.
+
+To paraphrase Shakespeare only a little, the big question when using Whisper is ”to self-host or not to self-host?” At the time of writing, Whisper has the honor of being the last model which OpenAI open-sourced.
+
+For those looking to experiment with how voice control can disrupt conventional computer control mechanisms, this is something of a dream come true. Thus a new crop of dictation software, some of it relatively early stage, has emerged as the first exponents of this new technology.
+
+But if you can self-host or deploy these models for free, then why pay to use them via APIs? You might be wondering.
+
+Locally deployed speech-to-text models attract two main types of user, at least as far as I can tell. The first is the privacy conscious - a staple archetype in the world of self-hosting. These users like the idea of their voice data never leaving their local machine. Secondly - also emblematic of the open source community, but by no means representative of the whole - are those those looking to avoid costs associated with using Whisper by API.
+
+So, let me present the counter-argument: why I think that even when deploying Whisper locally is technically feasible, it probably makes more sense to use it through commercial APIs.
+
+Firstly, speech-to-text APIs, in the broad scheme of things, simply aren't that expensive. It's easy to rack up costs of a few dollars per day through using this technology intensively. But judged against the yardstick of how much time can be spent using technologies like these, it's relatively small change. Furthermore, and thankfully, OpenAI isn't the only game in town. If OpenAI's pricing is too expensive for you, there are cheaper speech-to-text APIs. All the major cloud platforms, Google Cloud Platform, Azure and AWS, offer speech-to-text consoles that provide competitive pricing for direct API use.
+
+Secondly, in order to perform as effectively as possible, like other AI tools, these models demand well-optimized and generously-provisioned hardware. While it's theoretically possible to deploy your own self-hosted Whisper model on a cheap VPS, it's also highly likely that the machine simply won't have the RAM and GPU to deliver optimal performance. Deploying sufficiently provisioned hardware in the cloud would likely cost significantly more than API usage. Quantized models of the Whisper models do exist (such that they can even be run on Android devices). But these often rely on using less powerful variants of Whisper to achieve acceptable levels of accuracy. No such compromises are necessary when using the API, which by default uses Whisper's most performant variant.
+
+So, speech-to-text is really just a particular case of cloud computing in general. There is a trade-off between convenience and capability.
+
+My Whisper Speech To Text “Stack”
+
+As a very long-term Linux user now using OpenSUSE, I'm accustomed to my operating system making it more challenging to find out-of-the-box clients for things that I need. Speech Notes is an interesting app which runs Whisper locally. But it requires capturing the transcribed text into a notepad that you would then have to copy into other websites.
+
+My speech-to-text workflow, however, entails using it wherever I can enter text, mostly in a browser. The most popular speech-to-text Chrome extension is Voice In, but I found that its performance was underwhelming, even in audio environments that were fairly close to ideal. This is a downstream effect of the subpar accuracy provided by Google's default STT engine. Voice-In is a nice and well-developed tool, but it's only as good as the speech recognition technology powering it.
+
+Fortunately, my search hit a decisive end when, with a little bit of prompting on ChatGPT, I discovered WhisperAI, one of the first Chrome extensions for speech typing that specifically sends text through Whisper.
+
+It requires a monthly paid plan to use, and in the future higher tiers may become available.
+
+But for now, I've saved so much time using voice typing that I think it's been an extremely worthwhile investment.
+
+My only complaint is that it's a Chrome extension and not a desktop tool, although if you're using Windows that should change soon as a desktop client is in the works.
+
+After a couple of weeks of full-time use, I decided that voice typing was the way forward and began thinking widely about how I could use it for every aspect of computer use. As voice becomes increasingly embedded in AI tools, voice platforms are becoming increasingly ambitious in the type of functionality their platforms enable. So rather than thinking of voice typing as the be-all and end-all, increasingly it's just a part of the emerging voice stack.
+
+But having access to efficient voice typing alone unleashes many benefits.
+
+Prompting large language models with extensive contextual information becomes vastly more efficient and easy when you can dictate those prompts through speech-to-text.
+
+Although speech-to-text is integrated into ChatGPT itself, this isn't the case for some models and LLM frontends. So having your own speech-to-text setup in the browser means that you have total versatility in where the tool can be used.
+
+Although you can get started using voice typing with your laptop's built-in microphone and a keyboard shortcut, it's a pity not to do such powerful technology justice in the form of buying a few specific pieces of hardware.
+
+The classic weird peripheral popular in transcription and dictation workflows is the humble but highly capable USB foot pedal.
+
+For those unfamiliar with what is admittedly one of the more obscure pieces of desktop hardware, these are simply control pedals that are attached by USB. Commonly they have three pedals and are used by transcriptionists for playing back through recordings and starting and stopping a dictation flow. One button serves as a reverse key, the other as a fast forward and the middle one is commonly mapped onto a start stop button.
+
+I wasn't sure that I'd get the hang of using these however (or get them to work on Linux), so to keep my initial spend light, I picked up a cheap generic USB HID foot pedal from AliExpress.
+
+The good thing about generic USB HID devices however is that they're fairly easy to modify on Linux by using HWDB entries in order to configure them with custom key remappings. This provides quite low level functionality, essentially taking the default key entry delivered by the peripheral and mapping it on to something more convenient.
+
+Of course, if you're able to get the manufacturer drivers working by a more conventional installation method, that is the preferable way to go.
+
+In order to avoid interfering with shortcuts configured into things like web browsers, I decided to use F13 as my custom shortcut key and remapped both my foot pedal and macro key onto that shortcut. F13 to F24 are sort of the forgotten extra function keys on keyboards and mapping on to one of them is generally quite a straightforward process.
+
+On Linux, You Can Use Evtest & HWDB To Create Custom Interception Mappings
+
+If you're not a Linux user, you'll hopefully be able to get yours running easier or use Windows software for making this modification. But on Linux, the process is somewhat straightforward once you get the hang of it.
+
+Firstly run: sudo evtest and then Identify the input event that you want to listen to. You might find that your USB HID device actually provides a few events and have to try them one by one to identify the one that is mapped button presses or clicks
+
+Once you find the right event, you then need to find the MSC scan value for the key press and then create a database entry to map that. Although I couldn't get it working on my distro, Input Remapper is a GUI that provides another way to do this
+
+These files are given a numeric value reflecting their priority:
+
+The event I used for my foot pedal looks like this:
+
+Creating your own push-to-talk button using cheap USB macro keys
+
+But if, like me, you've watched too many war movies with dramatically depicted command centres, you might decide that a push-to-talk peripheral is essential for your dictation workflow.
+
+As a marketplace, AliExpress has its pros and its cons, but if you're into weird and obscure USB computer peripherals then you're in luck you’re in for a pleasant surprise.
+
+There is a surprisingly diverse and wide ranging selection of shortcut keys, MIDI controllers and just about every other unusual input peripheral out there.
+
+And in a strange inversion of the usual manner of things, the cheapest hardware which simply presents itself to operating systems as generic USB HID devices is often actually the easiest to customize
+
+Thus, although my foot pedal promised only vaguely the ability to work with Linux, thanks to a few AI prompts, I was able to create the necessary customization.
+
+While my USB foot pedal was fun to start out with, I picked up a couple of additional macro keys to try find the one that I would really enjoy actually using. So far my favorite is this simple single button programmable key which - though priced at a mere $6 - is an absolute delight to use.
+
+It fits extremely snugly in your hand and if you're using a dictation tool with built-in PTT support (like Whisper AI) you can keep the button held down, much as if you were using a walkie-talkie.
+
+Alternatively, if you'd like to take out some of your energy on your USB peripherals, you can give it a whack to start and stop dictation.
+
+Mapping Your Peripheral To An Unused Shortcut Key
+
+One pro tip if I can offer it: If you're setting up one or more custom peripherals for dictation workflows, it's a good idea to use a key that is minimally likely to interfere with existing shortcuts on applications you commonly use.
+
+One approach is to use obscure key combinations, but this comes at the price of convenience because reaching for Ctrl + Alt + Ctrl Break just isn't practical if you're doing this a thousand times a day.
+
+My preferred method is to use one of the obscure function keys (F13 to F24) which are recognized out of the box in most common keyboard configurations but which are rarely accommodated for in hardware buttons on standard keyboards. As these function keys are rarely assigned in application shortcuts, it's usually safe to assign one of these to a dictation button with no impact on other systems.
+
+The final part of the approach was assigning F13 to the shortcuts in my Chrome whisper extension:
+
+The result is that I now have a handheld shortcut button that I can click to start and stop dictation.
+
+The Headset
+
+While buying obscure macros, it's also important not to forget about the basics!
+
+Even with the superior performance achieved by powerful automatic speech recognition tools like OpenAI Whisper, it's still important to record audio in a quiet environment and ideally with a microphone that's as close to your mouth as possible.
+
+If you want a boring tech rabbit hole to dive down, look into the somewhat sorry state of input codec support in Bluetooth device in the year 2025. If you don't, then although it's admittedly less convenient, you can bypass Bluetooth codec issues by simply buying a wired USB headset.
+
+Jabra and Poly are among the leaders in the field. And if you're on a slightly tighter budget, Yealink make headsets that are well regarded and a bit cheaper.
+
+I personally picked up a BH-70 for exactly this purpose and I've been very happy with the device.
+
+What Can You “Voice Type”?
+
+You can use voice typing for just about anything that you would type on a keyboard.
+
+I use mine all the time for capturing prompts for large language models, for dictating emails, writing documents. For whatever reason, I find voice typing particularly effective in capturing meeting minutes while they're fresh in the mind.
+
+Voice typing and large language models are, in my opinion, like a match made in heaven. You can capture detailed voice memos, then use a large language model to organize them more coherently, and finally use a second model to, for example, create to-do lists out of what you captured. But being able to efficiently capture your train of thought through voice typing greatly improves the workflow.
+
+But even for more direct text entry, the benefits of voice typing can be surprisingly transformative. Whisper, for example, even comes with automatic punctuation support, so it will automatically infer the punctuation missing from the text that you dictate.
+
+The one limitation that takes a bit of getting used to is that it will sometimes capture incorrect words that nevertheless pass a spellcheck.
+
+So there's something of a learning curve involved in working with speech capture to make sure that it doesn't introduce embarrassing or awkward typos. Likewise, learning how to dictate effectively isn't an overnight process and takes a bit of trial and error. But so does learning to type, and I would argue that there's far more to be gained by becoming an effective voice typist.
+
+This hardware software combination has been transformative. I highly recommend it and all the tools mentioned above.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/my-openai-whisper-voice-typing-setup-for-faster-more-convenient-text-entry](https://heyitworks.tech/my-openai-whisper-voice-typing-setup-for-faster-more-convenient-text-entry)

posts/hashnode/Broken-Ghost-Install-Post-And-Database-Recovery-For-Bricked-Instances.md

@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+# Broken Ghost Install? Post And Database Recovery For Bricked Instances
+
+Ghost CMS is a nice piece of software and — for many — it’s the gateway drug between the safe but dull pastures of Wordpress land and the chaotic sprawling mass of Jamstack and Hugo and … my brain is too much of a mush to remember all the variants.
+
+However, on more than one occasion I’ve discovered that it’s a very fickle creature. My track record with backing up and restoring Wordpress installs is pretty much clean but meanderings in the world of Ghost have sunk a few hard-written blogs into digital oblivion.
+
+If you’re relatively new to the travails of managing VPSes (ahem, yes, I’m looking at me) you may also at some point learn one of the most infuriating wise-sayings in tech.
+
+Here’s my version of it:
+
+Unless you test your backups, you may learn the very hard and bitter way that they weren’t worth jack sh\t. Yes, even if you were paying a company money to manage them!*
+
+By default, Ghost is a conventional CMS — like Wordpress.
+
+I’ve never gotten around to figuring out what the opposite of “headless CMS” is but let’s just say that it’s a headed CMS. Even though Ghost is wonderful and (like Wordpress) it can be configured in a static or headless configuration, by default, it’s a conventional CMS. The backend and frontend live together on the same server.
+
+One vulnerability inherent in the conventional CMS model is that your production environment may be your only workable copy of your data (in this case, a blog).
+
+It only occurred to me today that this flies in the face of the most elementary practices in backup. The fundamental principle of backup is the 3-2-1 rule (now deprecated in favor of more elaborate approaches).
+
+No responsible Wordpress webmaster would ever intentionally put themselves in this situation. But it’s somewhat concerning that unless you proactively ensure that you have a backup copy (ideally two, ideally one in an offsite location besides production) you’re potentially setting yourself up for data loss.
+
+(Above: one of several tails of woe from the Ghost forums)
+
+Why do I level the charge that Ghost has a backup problem but not Wordpress?
+
+Wordpress is a vastly more popular script (by orders of magnitudes).
+
+There are more Wordress backup plugins than you can shake a stick at and — in my experience at least — most of them do what they promise they will (namely: avert catastrophe).
+
+Ghost CLI is — sorry to be blunt to whoever has been working on this project — pretty useless as a data recovery and export tool. The restorability of Ghost backups offered by a certain cloud provider, I’ve discovered, are not trustworthy.
+
+Everything of course can be scripted. But a word of warning to those adventuring in the world of alternative CMSes: it’s deceptively easy to wind up with a bricked Ghost instance and no way to get your content out.
+
+Unless…
+
+And If The Sh*t Does Hit The Fan, This Might Save Your Blogs…
+
+Here’s the unfortunate situation I found myself in last week after I decided to move my previous tech blog between VPSes (its precious posts now lost to memory!).
+
+And here are the things I did to attempt to fix the situation that didn’t work:
+
+Ghost CMS instance not reachable, neither by DNS nor by directly accessing the server
+
+Specifying the port doesn’t work.
+
+Verified that the port is running but it’s still not reachable.
+
+Ghost CLI can be called from the Ghost installation directly but it can’t re-mediate the problem
+
+If you fear that your precious blog content is trapped in your useless server forever, there’s a couple of last dash measures before giving up home.
+
+You can recover the content that you created in Ghost if you can put the following two things together:
+
+The HTML of the post itself
+
+The images that you populated into the post
+
+You can and may wish to get more ‘things’ out of Ghost (like a theme that you modified). But let’s assume that you’ve sworn off the tool and you’ll be happy enough if you can get these things out.
+
+Let’s assume that you used a MySQL database when setting up the CMS (it’s the only database recommended for production installs).
+
+Emergency Ghost CMS Data Recovery
+
+Things you’ll hopefully never have to worry about
+
+Step 1: Rescue The Filesystem
+
+(Actually this is step 2. Step 1 is deep breathing!)
+
+Assuming that you have a viable SSH connection to the server, step 1 is to SSH into the server (sorry for the dump sample IP address!)
+
+A quick poke around the filesystem will reveal where your images were uploaded to.
+
+At the time I’m writing this, the default directory is /content/assets/images (relative to the root path of the Ghost installation on your infrastructure).
+
+Assuming you didn’t change the default configuration your images will be nested under this folder organised automatically into a data-based hierarchy, like so:
+
+If it’s a brand new installation, you can save a bit of folder-making by just grabbing them out of the month’s archive. But assuming it’s not, you’ll want to recurse to /content/assets/images and copy the images off to your local filesystem.
+
+I created a folder called blogputbacktogether as I attempted to recover my blogs ( humptydumpty would have worked too):
+
+Step 2: Firewall down, database out: MySQL rescue!
+
+The next step in rescuing your precious content is going to be extracting the database (yes, this is kind of like a really lame digital special ops excursion!).
+
+My Ghost data loss unfortunately turned me off the CMS for good, so as I was planning on destroying the VPS, I threw caution to the wind and pulled down the firewall:
+
+sudo ufw disable
+
+Assuming that you’re on a MySQL database, by default the database probably isn’t accpeting direct external connections on its default port of 3306 .
+
+Now we’re going to apply some horrible cybersecurity and allow anyone with the password to access the database directly:
+
+GRANT ALL ON *.* to user @address IDENTIFIED BY 'password' ; flush privileges ;
+
+If you’re planning on keeping the VPS after the data rescue mission, please remember to undo all these steps (ie, disable external access and put the firewall back up). Maintaining this configuration in production would be asking to be hacked.
+
+I tried to recover the .sql file directly by importing it into Dbeaver (this would have been a wonderful timesaver). But the only way I succeeded in accessing the file decrypted was by … provisioning a MySQL server on my local machine.
+
+Fortunately this doesn’t take too long.
+
+If you don’t have a MySQL server on your local machine then you’re going to need to set one up. If you have one on another server, go ahead and create a new database there. You’re going to want to recreate the schema that ghost was working with in its original server (in my case I went with the default option of ‘ghost’).
+
+Next, install MySQL Workbench and connect it to your MySQL server (yes, this methodology totally sucks but … it worked !).
+
+Then click into:
+
+Tools
+
+Data Import
+
+Import from self-contained file (ie, .sql )
+
+Again, I set up a schema called ‘ghost’ on the ‘rescue’ database to match the one that came off the Ghost server:
+
+Then click on ‘Start Import’ and hope that this works:
+
+If everything goes to plan, you’ll have a recreated copy of the database on the new server:
+
+Go ahead and navigate down to the posts table which is where the content of the content is stored.
+
+If you just want to rescue the actual content of the posts, then you can pull the data from either html or plaintext (or you could create a whole new Ghost install and try to patch it up to the database we pulled out … my powers of perseverance were already waning!)
+
+There is nothing quite as satisfying as assuming that you would never see blog posts you invested hours in again and … lo and behold … the data isn’t lost!
+
+You can actually pull the post content out of the database by copying whichever field takes your fancy (I went for the rendered HTML … this is kind of a weird way of creating a static version of your old site!).
+
+The redeeming quality of my Ghost CMS lockout was that it was a very new install.
+
+I was in the lucky position of being able to try recover the posts individually.
+
+I pulled them out one by one as HTML, copying and pasting the data from the database into a file editor:
+
+We can see image paths and text so … potentially all that we need!
+
+Taking a look at any one of the image paths, we can see that they’ve been rendered in the database like this:
+
+Combine Images & Data To Reconstruct Static Post Files
+
+The quick hack?
+
+After you recreate the posts (in HTML) dump the images into the same folder.
+
+Then all we have to do is rewrite all the image paths
+
+To save time, we can import the mixed directory of HTML files and images into VS Code:
+
+You can do a find and replace to remove the non-existent characters from the image paths:
+
+The output isn’t beautiful and your Ghost CMS blog has lost its delightful styling.
+
+But you should be able to open the HTML files in a web browser and be able to retrieve your blog posts:
+
+Not fun but … lesson learned!
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/broken-ghost-install-post-and-database-recovery-for-bricked-instances](https://heyitworks.tech/broken-ghost-install-post-and-database-recovery-for-bricked-instances)

posts/hashnode/Choosing-the-right-LLM-to-use-Cline-Roo-Code-without-going-broke.md

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Choosing the right LLM to use Cline & Roo Code without going broke
+
+The fast-growing world of agentic IDEs offers breathtaking autonomous code generation capabilities.
+
+However, as anybody who has become highly enthusiastic about these tools will have quickly learned, using them with the recommended LLM of Sonnet 3.5 quickly becomes very expensive.
+
+My Open Router Invoice history tells a story that is probably familiar to many:
+
+Using RooCode on a large codebase, it would be extremely easy to rack up daily charges of hundreds of dollars - if not far more. Simply using these for a few modest Python programs, my daily spend has exceeded $20.
+
+I still regard that as a bargain.
+
+I've been able to redesign my personal website, set up a simple landing page for my business, create highly useful business tools, all for this $150 spend. But although my initial splurge has been a lot of fun and has brought me quickly up to speed with this exciting new crop of development assistants, I know that going forward I'll need to find an alternative that can fit within my budget.
+
+2 Things LLMs Need For Good Agentic Code Gen Performance
+
+If you find yourself in a similar situation, I can offer a few cliff notes as to what trying out the alternatives has been like.
+
+Using LLMs for this kind of work poses a few decisive requirements.
+
+Fast Inference Is A Must
+
+Firstly, the models need to have fast inference. Writing out hundreds of lines of Python, or whatever language you’re working in, needs to take seconds, not minutes. This is particularly important given the fact that many models use the write-to-file method (tool) to avoid corrupting good code.
+
+Qwen Coder 32B is one of my favourite coding models. I appreciate the fact that it's direct and no-nonsense in fixing or generating code.However, it is a small model comparatively speaking, and my attempt at using it via OpenRouter in Cline was overall a flat failure.
+
+Reasoning Is Non-Negotiable Too
+
+The second essential ingredient in using LLMs for this kind of work is high reasoning capabilities.
+
+However, reasoning in this regard is, oddly, a kind of double sword. You don't want a model that agonises for minutes over what approach to take to a development challenge, which is why the ability to select the reasoning effort available on some frontends is particularly useful.
+
+OpenAI's O1 series has a lot to offer for this kind of work and it's o1-mini is priced at an affordable price point.So long as it can be coaxed into expanding enough efforts in reasoning, but not too much, it can do this kind of work well.
+
+With Agentic Code Gen, Rate Limits Are Enemy Number 1
+
+Google is hot on the heels of Anthropic and OpenAI in trying to build usage among its Gemini models.For those reeling from the cost of using Anthropic for all their projects, the fact that some of these highly capable models are offered currently for free is hugely attractive.
+
+But, as everybody knows, there is no such thing as a free lunch - or, a free co-generation LLM.
+
+Google is offering some of its Gemini models for free in order to gather user data and one gets the feeling that the kind of vast context exchange required for code generation was never quite the usage data they were hoping to gather.
+
+Perhaps for this reason, or anticipating the kind of use they would be exploited for, Google is imposing strong rate limitations on those Gemini models currently available for free.
+
+Gemini Flash 2.0 vs. Deep Seek: Which For Code Gen?
+
+The model that I'm currently using the most for code generation and editing is Gemini Flash 2.0, generally accessed through Open Router, simply for the convenience of being able to centralise my billing.
+
+Both Cline and Roo Code allow you to access the Google models both directly (From Google) or via their API. So if you’re not an Open Router customer, you can just use these models directly from Google.
+
+The somewhat confusing part, or perhaps this is just how I find it, is making sure that you are using the intended model from within the selection.
+
+In the image below, for example, flash-001 is the paid model, whereas the one with exp (for experimental) is the free version.
+
+If you're not sure which is which, as I was for a long time, you can just look up Open Router’s very useful documentation section where they provide the model endpoint names correlated to the actual marketing names for the various models.
+
+Flash, Deep Seek vs Sonnet: API Pricing Compared
+
+Model Context Length Max Output Input Price (per 1M) Input % of Sonnet Output Price (per 1M) Output % of Sonnet Latency Claude 3.5 Sonnet 200K 8K $3.00 100% $15.00 100% 1.28-1.55s DeepSeek V3 64K 8K $0.27 9% $1.10 7.3% 3.90s DeepSeek Reasoner 64K 8K $0.55 18.3% $2.19 14.6% N/A Gemini Flash 2.0 1M 8K $0.10 3.3% $0.40 2.7% 0.57s
+
+As the table comparison makes clear, both Deep Seek and Flash offer significantly cheaper performance relative to Sonnet across both the input and output token costs.Flash is the cheapest of the alternatives.
+
+The Open Router leader board paints an interesting story of what’s going on and how developers are adapting to new model releases.
+
+Here's how the top model by month timeline looked today, February the 11th, comparing model access across all users over the past month.We can see that Sonnet is a clear leader with Flash 1.5 as the second preferred.
+
+Looking at data just from today, we can see that Flash 2.0 has displaced 1.5 in popularity. This trend will likely be sustained as users shift to Google’s more performant model.
+
+OpenRouter also produces a rankings chart showing what applications and models are being used in showing that although some users are using these for general purpose frontends and fiction generators, code generation IDEs remain, by a large mile, the biggest use case. Interestingly (or so I thought), Cline retains a strong lead over Roo Codde, despite the latter project having a more active development cycle.
+
+Takeaways And My Two Cents
+
+While there's no doubt that Sonnet provides unmatched performance with agentic IDE tools that leverage MCP servers at the moment, the huge amount of context provided when sharing entire codebases with models means that users are faced with API costs that are unsustainable for many private and small business developers. A common refrain heard on subreddits discussing agentic code generation is that these tools use API tokens for breakfast. They do, and spit out large credit card bills.
+
+My suggestion is that Google's affordable Flash models provide a good alternative at the moment.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/choosing-the-right-llm-to-use-cline-roo-code-without-going-broke](https://heyitworks.tech/choosing-the-right-llm-to-use-cline-roo-code-without-going-broke)

posts/hashnode/Creating-A-B2-Backup-Bucket-In-Ubuntu-Linux.md

@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+# Creating A B2 'Backup Bucket' In Ubuntu Linux
+
+Anyone who’s been reading my periodic tech blogs is probably aware that backups are one of my main “interests” in this field.
+
+I got into backups because … well, let’s just say that Linux has come a long way during the time I’ve been using it and back in the bad old days it wasn’t uncommon for me to install the operating system twice a year after everything fell apart (ah, the uncherished memories).
+
+Eventually, I figured that a solid backup approach would save me lots of time in the long run and I’ve been happily backing up my stuff ever since.
+
+I once even discussed backups on The Backups Wrap-Up — humanity’s preeminent (but not its only!) backup podcast.
+
+backupwrapup.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-backu..
+
+Change My Mind: There’s Almost No Such Thing As Having Too Many Backups…
+
+One of the golden rules of backups is that it’s better to have them than not to. (My twist on another one is: assume all your backups are worthless heaps of bits and bytes until you validate them on a test restore!)
+
+So when sometimes I realise that there’s useful data that I should be protecting (say, a custom app configuration), I’ve been looking for a solution to drop miscellaneous bits and bytes into something that syncs .. somewhere.
+
+B2 provides very affordable cloud object storage and Matt Jones helpfully authored this blog on how to use the mount command in rclone in order to mount a bucket to the filesystem.
+
+Step 1: Create A Bucket In B2
+
+Step 2: Create An API Key For The B2 Bucket
+
+Next, we’re going to create an API key for rclone to use to write to our bucket.
+
+Best practice would be to follow the principle of least privilege:
+
+Only give rclone access to this bucket Create an API key that’s only for this volume mount This will mean that if we want to create more B2 jobs with rclone we’ll need to setup more configurations. But it’s a small price to pay for better security.
+
+So create an API key that looks like this with "allow access to bucket" restricted only to the target bucket.
+
+Save The API Key In A Password Manager!
+
+Typically, API keys are shown only once.
+
+I’ve lost track of how many times I needed to re-enter the key but wasn’t able to because … it’s only shown once.
+
+The solution? The moment you create an API key, save it in a secure password manager (I like Bitwarden).
+
+Set Up The Configuration In Rclone
+
+Give it a name in lower case (because of the syntax);
+
+Backblaze B2 is type number 5 in the rclone config.
+
+You’ll be prompted to enter your key ID and app key in the terminal.
+
+Next, Create The Directory
+
+I wanted to be able to easily access my “backup bucket” so I created the directory within my home folder:
+
+But the classic place to create mounts in Linux is at /mnt. So feel free to go for that approach by creating a mount there.
+
+For example:
+
+mkdir /mnt/b2
+
+Test Our Newly Created Mount Point
+
+Now we need to use the rclone syntax which starts with
+
+rclone mount
+
+and then has remote:path
+
+Where:
+
+remote is the name that you gave the connection in rclone.
+
+So if I created it as danielsb2 and I wanted to create a mount to the root of the bucket, I’d go for:
+
+rclone mount daniels2b:/ /home/daniel/B2mount
+
+To make sure that it’s working, create a .txt file in the directory that’s supposed to be mounted:
+
+Then you can pop into Backblaze to see if it’s created.
+
+It might take a few seconds, but hopefully you’ll see something like this:
+
+If you want to be thorough, delete the file and make sure that it’s deleted in B2. Then create and delete directories, etc.
+
+Start Your Backup Bucket Mount
+
+Finally, you’re going to want the bucket to mount automatically.
+
+You can append —daemon to the rclone command to make it run in the background.
+
+In LXDE, you can add this directly into LXSession configuration:
+
+And in the highly likely event that you’re using a different desktop environment (DE), you can create a startup script that executes the command on login.
+
+Now, whenever you have something to back up to B2, you can copy and paste it into your backup bucket and rest easy knowing that it’s been synced to the cloud.
+
+Hope that helped!
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/creating-a-b2-backup-bucket-in-ubuntu-linux](https://heyitworks.tech/creating-a-b2-backup-bucket-in-ubuntu-linux)

posts/hashnode/Google-Drive-Accounting-Doc-Router-For-Israeli-Freelancers-Apps-Script.md

@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+# Google Drive Accounting Doc Router For Israeli Freelancers (Apps Script)
+
+As a freelancer or business owner dealing with both Israeli and international clients, managing accounting documents can quickly become a complex task. That's why I developed a specialized Google Apps Script application that automates the organization of invoices, receipts, and expenses in Google Drive.
+
+Github Project Link
+
+The Challenge
+
+Managing accounting documents across different tax jurisdictions presents unique challenges:
+
+Separating Israeli and international documents for VAT purposes
+
+Maintaining a consistent folder structure across years and months
+
+Efficiently handling multiple document uploads
+
+Ensuring proper naming conventions for easy retrieval
+
+The Solution
+
+I created a Google Apps Script application that provides an intuitive web interface for routing accounting documents to their appropriate folders in Google Drive. The application automatically:
+
+Creates and maintains a structured folder hierarchy by year and month
+
+Separates Israeli and non-Israeli documents
+
+Handles batch uploads of up to 10 documents
+
+Allows custom file renaming for better organization
+
+Technical Implementation
+
+The application is built using Google Apps Script, which provides seamless integration with Google Drive. It consists of two main components:
+
+Frontend (index.html) Clean, user-friendly interface
+
+File upload functionality
+
+Document type selection
+
+Israeli/non-Israeli toggle
+
+File renaming capabilities Backend (Code.gs) Folder structure management
+
+File routing logic
+
+Google Drive API integration
+
+Error handling and validation
+
+Key Features
+
+1. Intelligent Folder Structure
+
+The application maintains a deterministic folder structure:
+
+📁 Root ├── 📁 2024 │ ├── 📁 01_Jan │ ├── 📁 02_Feb │ └── 📁 03_Mar └── 📁 2025 ├── 📁 01_Jan ├── 📁 02_Feb └── 📁 03_Mar
+
+2. Batch Upload Processing
+
+Users can upload up to 10 documents simultaneously, streamlining the process of organizing multiple files.
+
+3. Smart Document Routing
+
+The application intelligently routes documents based on:
+
+Document type (invoices, receipts, expenses)
+
+Israeli/non-Israeli classification
+
+Current date (for automatic month/year folder selection)
+
+4. Custom File Naming
+
+Users can rename files before routing to make them more descriptive and easier to find later.
+
+Deployment Process
+
+Deploying the application is straightforward:
+
+Create a new Google Apps Script project Add the Code.gs and index.html files Configure deployment settings as a web app Set appropriate access permissions Deploy and obtain the public URL
+
+Benefits
+
+This application offers several key advantages:
+
+Time Savings: Automates the tedious process of manually organizing documents Consistency: Ensures a uniform folder structure across all document types Compliance: Separates Israeli and international documents for easier tax reporting Scalability: Handles growing document volumes with ease User-Friendly: Intuitive interface requires minimal training
+
+Open Source and Available for All
+
+The project is licensed under CC-BY-4.0, allowing anyone to:
+
+Use the application for their own document management needs
+
+Modify and adapt the code for specific requirements
+
+Share and distribute the solution with others
+
+Screenshots (V1)
+
+This tool demonstrates how Google Apps Script can be leveraged to create practical solutions for real-world business challenges. By automating document management, it frees up valuable time that can be better spent on core business activities.
+
+The source code is available on GitHub, and I welcome contributions from the community to enhance its functionality further.
+
+Code (V1)
+
+Create a new project in Google Apps Script.
+
+Save the first of these code blocks as Code.js (note: capitalisation) and the second as index.html (note: lower case ‘i’). The images are served from Cloudinary so you don't need to worry about hosting them locally.
+
+Make sure to choose the appropriate permission for your deployment and select type as web app.
+
+Code.js
+
+const MONTHS = [ '01_Jan' , '02_Feb' , '03_Mar' , '04_Apr' , '05_May' , '06_Jun' , '07_Jul' , '08_Aug' , '09_Sep' , '10_Oct' , '11_Nov' , '12_Dec' ]; function doGet ( ) { return HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile( 'index' ) .setTitle( 'Accounting File Router' ) .setFaviconUrl( 'https://www.google.com/images/drive/drive-48.png' ); } function createFolderStructure ( folderTypes ) { try { const config = JSON .parse(PropertiesService.getUserProperties().getProperty( 'accountingRouterConfig' ) || '{}' ); const now = new Date (); const year = now.getFullYear().toString(); const month = MONTHS[now.getMonth()]; let created = 0 ; folderTypes.forEach( folderType => { const folderId = config[folderType]; if (!folderId) { throw new Error ( `Folder ID not configured for ${folderType} ` ); } const rootFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById(folderId); const yearFolder = findOrCreateFolder(rootFolder, year); const monthFolder = findOrCreateFolder(yearFolder, month); findOrCreateFolder(monthFolder, 'Israeli' ); created++; }); return { success : true , message : `Successfully created folder structure for ${created} folder type(s)` }; } catch (error) { return { success : false , message : `Error creating folder structure: ${error.toString()} ` }; } } function processFiles ( files, folderType, monthOverride ) { try { const config = JSON .parse(PropertiesService.getUserProperties().getProperty( 'accountingRouterConfig' ) || '{}' ); const folderId = config[folderType]; if (!folderId) { throw new Error ( 'Folder ID not configured for ' + folderType); } let year, month; if (monthOverride) { const [targetYear, targetMonth] = monthOverride.split( '-' ); year = targetYear; month = MONTHS[ parseInt (targetMonth) - 1 ]; } else { const now = new Date (); year = now.getFullYear().toString(); month = MONTHS[now.getMonth()]; } const rootFolder = DriveApp.getFolderById(folderId); let yearFolder = findOrCreateFolder(rootFolder, year); let monthFolder = findOrCreateFolder(yearFolder, month); const results = []; files.forEach( file => { let targetFolder = monthFolder; if (file.isIsraeli) { targetFolder = findOrCreateFolder(monthFolder, 'Israeli' ); } const blob = Utilities.newBlob( Utilities.base64Decode(file.bytes), file.mimeType, file.fileName ); const newFile = targetFolder.createFile(blob); results.push({ name : file.fileName, success : true , url : newFile.getUrl() }); }); return { success : true , message : `Successfully processed ${files.length} file(s)` , results : results }; } catch (error) { return { success : false , message : `Error processing files: ${error.toString()} ` , results : [] }; } } function getConfiguration ( ) { try { const config = PropertiesService.getUserProperties().getProperty( 'accountingRouterConfig' ); return config ? JSON .parse(config) : null ; } catch (error) { console .error( 'Failed to get configuration:' , error); return null ; } } function saveConfiguration ( config ) { try { PropertiesService.getUserProperties().setProperty( 'accountingRouterConfig' , JSON .stringify(config)); return { success : true }; } catch (error) { throw new Error ( 'Failed to save configuration: ' + error.toString()); } } function findOrCreateFolder ( parentFolder, folderName ) { const folders = parentFolder.getFoldersByName(folderName); if (folders.hasNext()) { return folders.next(); } return parentFolder.createFolder(folderName); }
+
+Index.html (but save with lower case ‘i’)!
+
+< html > < head > < base target = "_top" > < meta charset = "UTF-8" > < title > Google Drive Accounting File Router </ title > < style > @keyframes slideUp { from { transform : translateY ( 100% ); opacity : 0 ; } to { transform : translateY ( 0 ); opacity : 1 ; } } @keyframes slideDown { from { transform : translateY ( 0 ); opacity : 1 ; } to { transform : translateY ( 100% ); opacity : 0 ; } } .israeli-animation { animation : slideUp 0.5s ease forwards; } .israeli-animation-exit { animation : slideDown 0.5s ease forwards; } .tabs { display : flex; margin-bottom : 20px ; border-bottom : 2px solid #ddd ; } .tab { padding : 10px 20px ; cursor : pointer; border : none; background : none; font-weight : bold; color : #666 ; } .tab .active { color : #4285f4 ; border-bottom : 2px solid #4285f4 ; margin-bottom : - 2px ; } .tab-content { display : none; } .tab-content .active { display : block; } .config-group { margin-bottom : 15px ; } .config-group input { width : 100% ; padding : 8px ; border : 1px solid #ddd ; border-radius : 4px ; } .help-text { display : block; margin-top : 4px ; color : #666 ; font-size : 0.9em ; } body { font-family : Arial, sans-serif; max-width : 800px ; margin : 20px auto; padding : 20px ; background-color : #f5f5f5 ; } .container { background-color : white; padding : 20px ; border-radius : 8px ; box-shadow : 0 2px 4px rgba ( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0.1 ); } .form-group { margin-bottom : 20px ; } label { display : block; margin-bottom : 8px ; font-weight : bold; } select { width : 100% ; padding : 8px ; border : 1px solid #ddd ; border-radius : 4px ; margin-bottom : 16px ; } .file-list { border : 2px dashed #ddd ; border-radius : 4px ; padding : 10px ; margin-bottom : 16px ; min-height : 150px ; max-height : 300px ; overflow-y : auto; transition : all 0.3s ease; background-color : #fff ; position : relative; } .file-list .drag-over { border-color : #4285f4 ; background-color : #f8f9fa ; } .drop-message { position : absolute; top : 50% ; left : 50% ; transform : translate (- 50% , - 50% ); color : #666 ; font-size : 1.1em ; text-align : center; pointer-events : none; } .file-item { display : flex; justify-content : space-between; align-items : center; padding : 8px ; border-bottom : 1px solid #eee ; } .file-item :last-child { border-bottom : none; } .button-group { display : flex; gap : 10px ; margin-top : 20px ; } button { padding : 10px 20px ; border : none; border-radius : 4px ; cursor : pointer; font-weight : bold; } .upload-btn { background-color : #4285f4 ; color : white; } .clear-btn { background-color : #dc3545 ; color : white; } .status { margin-top : 20px ; padding : 10px ; border-radius : 4px ; display : none; } .success { background-color : #d4edda ; color : #155724 ; border : 1px solid #c3e6cb ; } .error { background-color : #f8d7da ; color : #721c24 ; border : 1px solid #f5c6cb ; } .loading { display : none; text-align : center; margin : 20px 0 ; } .checkbox-label { display : inline-flex; align-items : center; margin : 0 ; gap : 5px ; font-weight : normal; } .file-rename { width : 100% ; padding : 4px ; margin-bottom : 4px ; border : 1px solid #ddd ; border-radius : 4px ; } .file-original { color : #666 ; font-size : 0.8em ; margin-bottom : 4px ; } </ style > </ head > < body > < div class = "container" > < h1 > Google Drive Accounting File Router </ h1 > < h2 style = "color: #666; margin: 0 0 15px 0;" > Routes accounting documents in Google Drive </ h2 > < div id = "currentMonth" style = "color: #666; margin-bottom: 15px; display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 10px;" > < span > </ span > < img src = "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAALCAYAAAB24g05AAAAxUlEQVQoU2P8//8/AyUAIwUGwA2orKxk/P//P8PmzZvRvQszYAEQnwBiZSB+D8SbgPgMEP8F4t1AvBiIQWwUgGKAGxCvBeI/QCwAxIeB+BUQGwAxyIA9QCwOxMgGIGvGMOA/EDsC8WMg/gTEpkD8GIjPArEFEIMM2QTESkCMzQCQpBUQPwBiEH8BEL8BYgMgBhmyE4jFgBjDAJBkHhDfAmKQQisg/gDEukAMMmQDECsCMU4DQAoSgfg6EIMM+QvEq4AYJM6AAgAp8kAx/Db8YAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" alt = "Israeli Flag" style = "width: 24px; height: 24px;" > </ div > < div class = "tabs" > < button class = "tab active" onclick = "showTab('upload')" > Upload Files </ button > < button class = "tab" onclick = "showTab('config')" > Configuration </ button > < button class = "tab" onclick = "showTab('howto')" > How To Use </ button > < button class = "tab" onclick = "showTab('create')" > Create Folders </ button > </ div > < div id = "uploadTab" class = "tab-content active" > < div class = "form-group" > < label for = "folderType" > Select Document Type: </ label > < select id = "folderType" > < option value = "" > Please select... </ option > < option value = "EXPENSE" > Expense </ option > < option value = "INVOICES" > Invoice </ option > < option value = "RECEIPTS" > Receipt </ option > </ select > < label for = "monthOverride" > Target Month: </ label > < select id = "monthOverride" > < option value = "" > Current Month </ option > </ select > </ div > < div class = "form-group" > < label > Select Files (up to 10): </ label > < input type = "file" id = "files" multiple accept = "application/pdf,image/*,.doc,.docx,.xls,.xlsx" style = "display: none;" > < button onclick = "document.getElementById('files').click()" class = "upload-btn" > Choose Files </ button > </ div > < div class = "file-list" id = "fileList" ondrop = "handleDrop(event)" ondragover = "handleDragOver(event)" ondragleave = "handleDragLeave(event)" > < div class = "drop-message" > Drag and drop files here < br > < small > or use the Choose Files button </ small > </ div > < div id = "fileListContent" > </ div > </ div > < div class = "button-group" > < button onclick = "processFiles()" class = "upload-btn" > Upload Files </ button > < button onclick = "clearAll()" class = "clear-btn" > Clear All </ button > </ div > < div class = "loading" id = "loading" > Processing files... Please wait... </ div > < div id = "statusImage" style = "text-align: center; margin: 20px 0;" > < img src = "https://res.cloudinary.com/domtm8wiy/image/upload/v1738782120/accounting-router/otidlvt8pofbzcpknbc6.png" alt = "Status" style = "max-width: 200px;" > </ div > < div class = "status" id = "status" > </ div > </ div > < div id = "configTab" class = "tab-content" > < h2 > Folder Configuration </ h2 > < p > Configure the Google Drive folders for each document type. You can paste the full folder URL or just the folder ID. </ p > < div class = "config-group" > < label for = "expenseFolder" > Expense Folder: </ label > < input type = "text" id = "expenseFolder" placeholder = "Paste folder URL or ID" onchange = "handleFolderInput(this)" > < small class = "help-text" > Example: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/YOUR_FOLDER_ID </ small > </ div > < div class = "config-group" > < label for = "invoicesFolder" > Invoices Folder: </ label > < input type = "text" id = "invoicesFolder" placeholder = "Paste folder URL or ID" onchange = "handleFolderInput(this)" > < small class = "help-text" > Example: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/YOUR_FOLDER_ID </ small > </ div > < div class = "config-group" > < label for = "receiptsFolder" > Receipts Folder: </ label > < input type = "text" id = "receiptsFolder" placeholder = "Paste folder URL or ID" onchange = "handleFolderInput(this)" > < small class = "help-text" > Example: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/YOUR_FOLDER_ID </ small > </ div > < button onclick = "saveConfig()" class = "upload-btn" > Save Configuration </ button > < div class = "status" id = "configStatus" > </ div > </ div > < div id = "howtoTab" class = "tab-content" > < h2 > How To Use </ h2 > < div style = "line-height: 1.6" > < p style = "margin-bottom: 20px;" > This app was developed by Daniel Rosehill (danielrosehill.com) using Claude Sonnet 3.5 & Cline. </ p > < h3 > Setup </ h3 > < ol > < li > Go to the Configuration tab and set up your folder IDs for each document type. </ li > < li > Use the Create Folders tab to create the initial folder structure if needed. </ li > </ ol > < h3 > Uploading Files </ h3 > < ol > < li > Select the document type (Expense, Invoice, or Receipt). </ li > < li > Choose files using the button or drag and drop them into the designated area. </ li > < li > Optionally rename files before uploading. </ li > < li > For Israeli documents, check the "Israeli" checkbox next to the file. </ li > < li > Click "Upload Files" to process the documents. </ li > </ ol > < h3 > Folder Structure </ h3 > < p > Files are automatically organized in the following structure: </ p > < pre style = "background: #f5f5f5; padding: 10px; border-radius: 4px;" > Root Folder (Expense/Invoices/Receipts) └── Year (e.g., 2024) └── Month (e.g., 01_Jan) ├── Regular files └── Israeli (folder for Israeli documents) </ pre > </ div > </ div > < div id = "createTab" class = "tab-content" > < h2 > Create Folder Structure </ h2 > < p > Use this section to create the initial folder structure for your documents. This will create the year and month folders according to the current date. </ p > < div class = "form-group" > < label > Select folder types to create: </ label > < div style = "margin: 10px 0;" > < label class = "checkbox-label" > < input type = "checkbox" id = "createExpense" checked > Expense Folders </ label > </ div > < div style = "margin: 10px 0;" > < label class = "checkbox-label" > < input type = "checkbox" id = "createInvoices" checked > Invoice Folders </ label > </ div > < div style = "margin: 10px 0;" > < label class = "checkbox-label" > < input type = "checkbox" id = "createReceipts" checked > Receipt Folders </ label > </ div > </ div > < button onclick = "createFolderStructure()" class = "upload-btn" > Create Folders </ button > </ div > </ div > < script > const months = [ 'January' , 'February' , 'March' , 'April' , 'May' , 'June' , 'July' , 'August' , 'September' , 'October' , 'November' , 'December' ]; function updateStatusImage ( state ) { const statusImage = document .getElementById( 'statusImage' ).querySelector( 'img' ); switch (state) { case 'ready' : statusImage.src = 'https://res.cloudinary.com/domtm8wiy/image/upload/v1738782120/accounting-router/otidlvt8pofbzcpknbc6.png' ; break ; case 'uploading' : statusImage.src = 'https://res.cloudinary.com/domtm8wiy/image/upload/v1738782120/accounting-router/lvameumllsc7lny3pddj.png' ; break ; case 'saved' : statusImage.src = 'https://res.cloudinary.com/domtm8wiy/image/upload/v1738782120/accounting-router/izle2zu9xgfkmkskmv2r.png' ; break ; case 'israeli' : const img = statusImage; img.src = 'https://res.cloudinary.com/domtm8wiy/image/upload/v1738782120/accounting-router/yiw6yhd5r6oc4icka3ad.png' ; img.classList.add( 'israeli-animation' ); setTimeout ( () => { img.classList.add( 'israeli-animation-exit' ); setTimeout ( () => { img.classList.remove( 'israeli-animation' , 'israeli-animation-exit' ); updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); }, 3000 ); }, 500 ); break ; } } function populateMonthsDropdown ( ) { const monthSelect = document .getElementById( 'monthOverride' ); const now = new Date (); const currentYear = now.getFullYear(); for ( let i = 0 ; i < 12 ; i++) { const date = new Date (currentYear, now.getMonth() - i, 1 ); const monthNum = String (date.getMonth() + 1 ).padStart( 2 , '0' ); const monthName = months[date.getMonth()]; const year = date.getFullYear(); const value = ` ${year} - ${monthNum} ` ; const text = ` ${monthNum} _ ${monthName} ${year} ` ; const option = new Option(text, value); monthSelect.add(option); } } window .onload = function ( ) { populateMonthsDropdown(); const now = new Date (); document .getElementById( 'currentMonth' ).querySelector( 'span' ).textContent = `Current Accounting Month: ${ String (now.getMonth() + 1 ).padStart( 2 , '0' )} _ ${months[now.getMonth()]} ${now.getFullYear()} ` ; const localConfig = JSON .parse( localStorage .getItem( 'accountingRouterConfig' ) || '{}' ); document .getElementById( 'expenseFolder' ).value = localConfig.EXPENSE || '' ; document .getElementById( 'invoicesFolder' ).value = localConfig.INVOICES || '' ; document .getElementById( 'receiptsFolder' ).value = localConfig.RECEIPTS || '' ; google.script.run .withSuccessHandler( config => { if (config) { document .getElementById( 'expenseFolder' ).value = config.EXPENSE || '' ; document .getElementById( 'invoicesFolder' ).value = config.INVOICES || '' ; document .getElementById( 'receiptsFolder' ).value = config.RECEIPTS || '' ; localStorage .setItem( 'accountingRouterConfig' , JSON .stringify(config)); } }) .getConfiguration(); updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); }; function extractFolderId ( input ) { const patterns = [ /\/folders\/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)(?:\/|\?|$)/ , /id=([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)(?:&|$)/ , /^([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$/ ]; for ( const pattern of patterns) { const match = input.match(pattern); if (match) return match[ 1 ]; } return input; } function handleFolderInput ( input ) { const value = input.value.trim(); if (value) { const folderId = extractFolderId(value); input.value = folderId; } } function showTab ( tabName ) { document .querySelectorAll( '.tab-content' ).forEach( tab => { tab.classList.remove( 'active' ); }); document .querySelectorAll( '.tab' ).forEach( tab => { tab.classList.remove( 'active' ); }); document .getElementById(tabName + 'Tab' ).classList.add( 'active' ); document .querySelector( `.tab[onclick="showTab(' ${tabName} ')"]` ).classList.add( 'active' ); } function saveConfig ( ) { const config = { EXPENSE : document .getElementById( 'expenseFolder' ).value, INVOICES : document .getElementById( 'invoicesFolder' ).value, RECEIPTS : document .getElementById( 'receiptsFolder' ).value }; localStorage .setItem( 'accountingRouterConfig' , JSON .stringify(config)); const statusDiv = document .getElementById( 'configStatus' ); statusDiv.className = 'status success' ; statusDiv.style.display = 'block' ; statusDiv.innerHTML = 'Saving configuration...' ; google.script.run .withSuccessHandler( () => { statusDiv.innerHTML = 'Configuration saved successfully! ✓' ; setTimeout ( () => { statusDiv.style.display = 'none' ; }, 3000 ); }) .withFailureHandler( error => { statusDiv.className = 'status error' ; statusDiv.innerHTML = 'Error saving configuration: ' + error.message; }) .saveConfiguration(config); } function createFolderStructure ( ) { const config = JSON .parse( localStorage .getItem( 'accountingRouterConfig' ) || '{}' ); const folderTypes = []; if ( document .getElementById( 'createExpense' ).checked) folderTypes.push( 'EXPENSE' ); if ( document .getElementById( 'createInvoices' ).checked) folderTypes.push( 'INVOICES' ); if ( document .getElementById( 'createReceipts' ).checked) folderTypes.push( 'RECEIPTS' ); if (folderTypes.length === 0 ) { showStatus( 'Please select at least one folder type.' , true ); return ; } document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'block' ; google.script.run .withSuccessHandler( response => { document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'none' ; showStatus(response.message, !response.success); }) .withFailureHandler( error => { document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'none' ; showStatus( 'Error creating folders: ' + error.message, true ); }) .createFolderStructure(folderTypes); } let selectedFiles = []; document .getElementById( 'files' ).addEventListener( 'change' , function ( e ) { const files = Array .from(e.target.files).map( file => ({ file, isIsraeli : false , newName : file.name })); if (files.length > 10 ) { alert( 'Please select up to 10 files only.' ); return ; } selectedFiles = files; updateFileList(); }); function toggleIsraeli ( index ) { selectedFiles[index].isIsraeli = !selectedFiles[index].isIsraeli; if (selectedFiles[index].isIsraeli) { updateStatusImage( 'israeli' ); setTimeout ( () => updateStatusImage( 'ready' ), 1000 ); } updateFileList(); } function updateFileName ( index, newName ) { selectedFiles[index].newName = newName; } function handleDragOver ( event ) { event.preventDefault(); event.stopPropagation(); document .getElementById( 'fileList' ).classList.add( 'drag-over' ); } function handleDragLeave ( event ) { event.preventDefault(); event.stopPropagation(); document .getElementById( 'fileList' ).classList.remove( 'drag-over' ); } function handleDrop ( event ) { event.preventDefault(); event.stopPropagation(); const fileList = document .getElementById( 'fileList' ); fileList.classList.remove( 'drag-over' ); const droppedFiles = Array .from(event.dataTransfer.files).map( file => ({ file, isIsraeli : false , newName : file.name })); if (selectedFiles.length + droppedFiles.length > 10 ) { alert( 'Total number of files cannot exceed 10.' ); return ; } selectedFiles = [...selectedFiles, ...droppedFiles]; updateFileList(); } function updateFileList ( ) { const fileListContent = document .getElementById( 'fileListContent' ); if (selectedFiles.length === 0 ) { fileListContent.innerHTML = '' ; return ; } fileListContent.innerHTML = selectedFiles.map( ( fileObj, index ) => ` <div class="file-item"> <div style="flex: 1;"> <input type="text" class="file-rename" value=" ${fileObj.newName} " onchange="updateFileName( ${index} , this.value)" placeholder="Enter new filename"> <div class="file-original">Original: ${fileObj.file.name} </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 10px; margin-left: 10px;"> <label class="checkbox-label"> <input type="checkbox" onchange="toggleIsraeli( ${index} )" ${fileObj.isIsraeli ? 'checked' : '' } > Israeli </label> <button onclick="removeFile( ${index} )" style="color: red; background: none; border: none;">×</button> </div> </div> ` ).join( '' ); } function removeFile ( index ) { selectedFiles.splice(index, 1 ); updateFileList(); } function clearAll ( ) { selectedFiles = []; document .getElementById( 'folderType' ).value = '' ; document .getElementById( 'files' ).value = '' ; document .getElementById( 'status' ).style.display = 'none' ; updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); updateFileList(); } function showStatus ( message, isError = false ) { const status = document .getElementById( 'status' ); status.className = 'status ' + (isError ? 'error' : 'success' ); status.style.display = 'block' ; status.innerHTML = message; if (!isError) { setTimeout ( () => { status.style.display = 'none' ; }, 5000 ); } } function processFiles ( ) { const folderType = document .getElementById( 'folderType' ).value; if (!folderType) { showStatus( 'Please select a document type.' , true ); return ; } if (selectedFiles.length === 0 ) { showStatus( 'Please select at least one file.' , true ); return ; } document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'block' ; showStatus( 'Preparing to upload files...' , false ); updateStatusImage( 'uploading' ); const promises = selectedFiles.map( fileObj => { return new Promise ( ( resolve, reject ) => { const reader = new FileReader(); reader.onload = ( e ) => { resolve({ fileName : fileObj.newName, mimeType : fileObj.file.type, bytes : e.target.result.split( ',' )[ 1 ], isIsraeli : fileObj.isIsraeli }); }; reader.onerror = ( e ) => reject(e); reader.readAsDataURL(fileObj.file); }); }); Promise .all(promises) .then( fileObjects => { const monthOverride = document .getElementById( 'monthOverride' ).value; showStatus( 'Uploading files to Google Drive...' , false ); google.script.run .withSuccessHandler( response => { document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'none' ; if (response.success) { let message = response.message + '<br><br>Files processed:' ; response.results.forEach( result => { message += `<br>• ${result.name} - <a href=" ${result.url} " target="_blank">View file</a>` ; }); showStatus(message); updateStatusImage( 'saved' ); setTimeout ( () => { clearAll(); updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); }, 3000 ); } else { showStatus(response.message, true ); updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); } }) .withFailureHandler( error => { document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'none' ; showStatus( 'Error processing files: ' + error.message, true ); updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); }) .processFiles(fileObjects, folderType, monthOverride); }) .catch( error => { document .getElementById( 'loading' ).style.display = 'none' ; showStatus( 'Error preparing files: ' + error.message, true ); updateStatusImage( 'ready' ); }); } </ script > </ body > </ html >
+
+This project was created by Daniel Rosehill (public at danielrosehill dot com) and is licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/google-drive-accounting-doc-router-for-israeli-freelancers-apps-script](https://heyitworks.tech/google-drive-accounting-doc-router-for-israeli-freelancers-apps-script)

posts/hashnode/Home-Assistant-Shabbat-Yom-Tov-Automations.md

@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+# Home Assistant Shabbat & Yom Tov Automations
+
+This post details how to configure Home Assistant to support the observance of Shabbat and Yom Tov. This is an updated guide, building on previous documentation with modifications that simplify the setup process.
+
+AI credit: Cloud 3.5 Sonnet for rewriting some of the previous YAML in order to avoid redundancies and unnecessary additional automations.
+
+If you're interested in this topic, you are likely already familiar with Shabbat, Yom Tov, and Home Assistant.
+
+For those who aren't, these observances involve refraining from using electricity for a 24-hour period, making them ideal for home automation.
+
+Part 1: Configuring Time Sensors
+
+In order to provide the automations with the correct times for Shabbat, we need to use a sensor providing these. Additionally, we need to make sure that our geolocation is correctly configured in Home Assistant because Jewish religious times are geosensitive. You might have this configured out of the box, or if not, you can add it.
+
+The sensors for providing the zmanim (religious times) are:
+
+Hebcal API: This API provides the necessary data for Jewish religious times.
+
+Jewish-Sabbaths-Holidays Home Assistant integration: This integration makes the Hebcal API accessible within Home Assistant. It's available through HACS.
+
+Configuring Your Geolocation
+
+To get started, ensure your geolocation is configured in Home Assistant. This is required for accurate time calculations. In your configuration.yaml file:
+
+homeassistant: latitude: 32.0667 longitude: 34.7667 time_zone: Asia/Jerusalem
+
+Replace the example coordinates with your own, and choose the right time zone.
+
+You can find coordinates using various utilities like this one. You'll also need to have HACS installed.
+
+Adding Shabbat Settings
+
+Once we have integrated the sensor providing the Shabbat and Yom Tov times, we need to make sure that it is properly configured in our configuration.yaml .
+
+The following YAML provides a baseline configuration for HebCal (at the time of writing).
+
+sensor: - platform: hebcal resources: - shabbat_in - shabbat_out
+
+In the above code, we are making sure that HebCal is integrated with our Home Assistant and telling it that we will be using the shabbat_in and shabbat_out sensors (only).
+
+However, we can configure more granular settings such as using the name of the Yom Tov, specifying what havdalah setting we wish to use and even calling in the resource which provides the name of the weekly parsha.
+
+One of the nice things that you can do with all this sensor data is to configure a dashboard to run on a display tablet during Shabbat.
+
+Here's a recent version of one that I set up.
+
+You might notice that I have the red alert sensors configured also as well as the current weather in Jerusalem. These are provided through the Home Alert integration and then styled a little for presentation:
+
+type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.oref_alert_jerusalem_all_areas name: Jerusalem All Areas icon: mdi:check-circle styles: card: - padding: 12px name: - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white icon: - color: white - width: 24px - height: 24px state: - value: "on" name: Jerusalem All Areas (UNSAFE) icon: mdi:alert-octagram styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" icon: - animation: blink 1s ease infinite - value: "off" name: Jerusalem All Areas (Safe) styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" - value: unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500"
+
+I have this running on a Android display tablet and have also automated the turning on and turning off of the tablet to coincide with Shabbat.
+
+Here's what a more extensive configuration for the HebCal sensor might look like:
+
+sensor: - platform: hebcal havdalah_calc: 42 time_before_check: 10 time_after_check: 1 jerusalem_candle: False tzeit_hakochavim: False omer_count_type: 0 language: english resources: - shabbat_in - shabbat_out - parasha - hebrew_date - is_shabbat - yomtov_in - yomtov_out - is_yomtov - yomtov_name - event_name - omer_day - zmanim
+
+Refer to the add-on’s Github repository for full configuration options.
+
+Creating a Combined Shabbat and Yom Tov Sensor To Drive Automations
+
+The Jewish Sabbaths and Holidays Times integration provides, out of the box, two binary sensors to use in Home Assistant: is_shabbat and is_yomtov .
+
+But for my specific use case, and likely for many others, it's more practical to use a single binary sensor that indicates if it is either Shabbat or Yom Tov.
+
+To enable this, I created a binary sensor, which is a sensor template that works downstream of the sensors provided through the add-on. The additional benefit of doing this means that if you later want to use a different method for determining zmanim, you can simply update your sensor template with a new upstream provider.
+
+binary_sensor: - platform: template sensors: is_shabbat: friendly_name: "Is Shabbat" value_template: " {{ states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_shabbat') == 'True' }} " is_yom_tov: friendly_name: "Is Yom Tov" value_template: " {{ states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_yom_tov') != 'No Info' }} " is_shabbat_or_yom_tov: friendly_name: "Is Shabbat or Yom Tov" value_template: >- {{ states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_shabbat') == 'True' or states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_yom_tov') != 'No Info' }}
+
+The above YAML should be added to your Home Assistant instance’s default configuration file ( configuration.yaml ) and creates three downstream sensors: one for Shabbat, the other for Yom Tov and the final one that runs against both. This approach provides you the flexibility to create automations which are specific to Shabbat or Yom Tov. But I'd venture to guess that for most people the last is like me the one that will be useful
+
+The Is Yom Tov? sensor provided by the Jewish holidays add-on reports either with the name of the Yom Tov or with ‘No Info’. So my filtering logic uses an “anything other than No Info'“) check to translate that into a true/false binary value which we can use for driving the automations:
+
+If the state of the upstream Yom Tov checking sensor ( sensor.hebcal_is_it_yom_tov ) is anything other than ‘No Info’, it's determined to be ‘True’, and ‘No Info’ is interpreted as a false binary sensor state.
+
+Needless to say, if the add-on changes its logic, you'll need to modify the configuration just a bit.
+
+Part 2: Configuring Automations
+
+Using the Combined Sensor for Automations
+
+The point of configuring sensors to check whether it's Shabbat or Yom Tov is to drive a series of automations around the house to automate the turning on and off of lights, switches and appliances when it’s Shabbat or Yom Tov.
+
+My method of doing this is creating different scenes for different times over Shabbat and in the automation adding the sensor state condition check as a conditional so that the automations will only run on Shabbat or Yom Tov and not on regular days.
+
+I've created several scenes for different times during Shabbat and Yom Tov:
+
+Start of Shabbat/Hag
+
+Evening
+
+Morning
+
+Afternoon
+
+End of Shabbat/Hag
+
+The last one turns off the Shabbat or Hag visual indicators which are just Zigbee E27s that I’ve set up specifically for this purpose (see: below). When Shabbat is in they come on and when it's out they turn off.
+
+A down the line aspiration is to build a more decorative Shabbat state indicator using the same bulbs.
+
+Create Your Scenes For Various Shabbat Times
+
+Before we create the linking automations, we'll need to set up the scenes for various times on Shabbat.
+
+A start of Shabbat scene might be turning on the living room lights while turning off the lighting and switches in the home office for example.
+
+A bedtime Shabbat scene might be turning off the lights in the living areas and bedrooms. Etc, etc. Modify according to your own requirements!
+
+Create these just as you would any other scene in Home Assistants and give them a clearly identifiable name:
+
+Linking Scenes to Automations
+
+Now we've set up our sensors, configured our scenes, and all that's left to do is create the automations that bring everything together.
+
+While Home Assistant can sometimes seem frustratingly complicated, there are some advantages to taking the approaches that it kind of forces you to work with: it's easy to update the run times for any of the scenes when those are configured in automations - you can simply update the trigger time for any of them!
+
+This is useful when you might want to tweak air conditioner settings or lights on and off times according to the season. Alternatively, you could add a separate sensor that is active when you have guests staying over and which can add additional configurations to a guest bedroom. These can all be tied together in an automation.
+
+If, like me, you find writing YAML slightly crazy-inducing, this is one of the LLM use cases that first got me amazed by them. I haven't tried this automation yet, so configure it at your own caution, but here is a quick one that Claude drafted asking for a guest mode button:
+
+automation: - alias: "Guest Mode - Start Monitoring" trigger: - platform: state entity_id: input_boolean.guest_mode to: 'on' action: - service: automation.turn_on target: entity_id: - automation.guest_mode_lights_on_morning - automation.guest_mode_lights_off_night - alias: "Guest Mode - Lights On Morning" trigger: - platform: time at: "07:00:00" condition: - condition: state entity_id: input_boolean.guest_mode state: 'on' action: - service: light.turn_on target: entity_id: light.guest_room data: brightness: 255 - alias: "Guest Mode - Lights Off Night" trigger: - platform: time at: "22:00:00" condition: - condition: state entity_id: input_boolean.guest_mode state: 'on' action: - service: light.turn_off target: entity_id: light.guest_room - alias: "Guest Mode - End Monitoring" trigger: - platform: state entity_id: input_boolean.guest_mode to: 'on' for: hours: 24 action: - service: input_boolean.turn_off target: entity_id: input_boolean.guest_mode - service: automation.turn_off target: entity_id: - automation.guest_mode_lights_on_morning - automation.guest_mode_lights_off_night
+
+Here's an example automation for triggering the Shabbat bedtime at midnight that has the condition that my downstream sensor needs to be true in order to run. This condition check prevents it from running on any other day. As you can see, I have added a living room AC scene in order to turn off the air conditioning in the living space.
+
+alias: Shabbat or Hag bedtime description: Triggers bedtime lighting on Shabbat or Hag triggers: - at: "00:00:00" trigger: time conditions: - condition: state entity_id: binary_sensor.is_shabbat_or_yom_tov state: "on" actions: - metadata: {} target: entity_id: scene.shabbat_bedtime action: scene.turn_on data: {} - metadata: {} target: entity_id: scene.living_room_ac_off action: scene.turn_on data: {} mode: single
+
+Optional: Shabbat Control Dashboards
+
+Finally, you might want to add a control dashboard to do things like add an occasional guest mode switch and monitor that everything is working as expected. This is especially valuable the first time that you set it up and you want to be able to check that everything is running as expected.
+
+I added quick links to the various scenes in my dashboard to make it easy to periodically update values and have monitoring entities for the sensors driving the automations and the individual peripherals that need to be controlled by them:
+
+Enjoy Your Shabbat Automated Home!
+
+In order to get going with Home Assistant, I picked up an industrial fanless mini PC and installed Home Assistant OS on Proxmox. But if you don't envision making other use of the mini PC, it makes more sense to install Home Assistant OS on bare metal. It can also be run as a Docker container, but doing so will limit your ability to access much of this functionality. So HAOS is, in my view, the definite way to go.
+
+You’ll also probably want to pick up a ZigBee coordinator and Zigbee devices to control:
+
+E27 light bulbs
+
+Light switches
+
+Smart plugs
+
+It might seem like a lot but the nice thing about Home Assistant is that you can gradually build out your smart home over time. I started with AliExpress Tuya devices, then picked up my coordinator and purchased ZigBee devices as my mesh network took shape (I use MQTT).
+
+Good luck!
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/home-assistant-automations-for-yom-tov-shabbat-observance](https://heyitworks.tech/home-assistant-automations-for-yom-tov-shabbat-observance)

posts/hashnode/Home-Assistant-Shabbat-Yom-Tov-Dashboards-Jan-2025.md

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+# Home Assistant Shabbat & Yom Tov Dashboards (Jan 2025)
+
+For religiously observant Jews, home automation provides a great means of observing the Shabbat and its strictures around the use of electronics. I've covered some binary sensor configurations in another post.
+
+In this one I wanted to share a slightly updated version of my Shabbat dashboard which I have running on an Android display. This version was updated in January 2025 with the help of Claude Sonnet 3.5 which added some nice stylistic elements to the sensor displays.
+
+Shabbat Dashboard
+
+This version of the dashboard leverages a few different add-ons in order to provide a unified display providing the red alert sensors, the Shabbat times and the weather forecast provided by the Israel Meteorological Service, IMS. The weekly Torah portion (parsha) and zmanim geolocated to your locality can be easily added as well.
+
+Add-Ons & Integrations
+
+I use the following add-ons and integrations in order to build my dashboards:
+
+Many thanks to all of the authors for their hard work in making this technology available and accessible.
+
+Security Disclaimer
+
+As I'm based in Israel, it's important for me to keep on top of the Red Alert sensors. But given that these are hugely important, I feel obliged to make the recommendation that you shouldn't rely on these as your only source of information for this vital purpose. I use the official Pikud HaOref app as my primary notifier but these provide a nice additional display (hopefully they remain green!).#
+
+Shabbat Display Setup
+
+The beauty of Home Assistant is that just about anything is possible.
+
+In order to display this dashboard over Shabbat, I picked up a budget Android tablet and installed Fully Kiosk Mode Browser. It's even possible to coordinate the tablet's turn-on and turn-off time in coordination with the Shabbat times provided by that sensor.
+
+Although I began my Home Assistant journey before the AI era, large language models have made configuring Home Assistant configurations vastly easier. I use Claude's Sonnet 3.5 for writing a lot of widget elements that would be too time consuming to code manually (or, frankly, beyond my abilities!)
+
+YAML Snippets For Widgets
+
+If you like the approach and styling, feel free to customise these YAML snippets to create your own dashboards:
+
+This snippet provides a two column styled button card showing the Hebrew date alongside the local time:
+
+type: custom:button-card entity: sensor.hebcal_hebrew_date show_name: false show_state: true show_icon: false styles: card: - background: "linear-gradient(135deg, - border-radius: 15px - padding: 16px state: - color: white - font-weight: bold - font-size: 18px - text-align: center - justify-self: center
+
+Next / Upcoming Shabbat Display Row
+
+type: grid title: Next Shabbat titleColor: white columns: 2 square: false cards: - type: entity entity: sensor.hebcal_start_of_shabbat name: Shabbat In card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; } .card-content { color: white !important; } .primary { font-size: 1.8em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; } .secondary { font-size: 1.2em; color: white !important; } :host { } - type: entity entity: sensor.hebcal_end_of_shabbat name: Shabbat Out card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; } .card-content { color: white !important; } .primary { font-size: 1.8em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; } .secondary { font-size: 1.2em; color: white !important; } :host { }
+
+Red Alert Display Row
+
+Important note: you will need to refer to the add-on documentation to change the entities to your alerting area.;
+
+square: false type: grid columns: 2 cards: - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.oref_alert_jerusalem_all_areas name: Jerusalem All Areas icon: mdi: check -circle styles: card: - padding: 12 px name : - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white icon: - color: white - width: 24 px - height: 24 px state: - value : "on" name : Jerusalem All Areas ( UNSAFE ) icon: mdi:alert-octagram styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" icon: - animation: blink 1 s ease infinite - value : "off" name : Jerusalem All Areas ( Safe ) styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" - value : unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500" - type : custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.oref_alert name : Jerusalem Center icon: mdi: check -circle styles: card: - padding: 12 px name : - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white icon: - color: white - width: 24 px - height: 24 px state: - value : "on" name : Jerusalem Center ( UNSAFE ) icon: mdi:alert-octagram styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" icon: - animation: blink 1 s ease infinite - value : "off" name : Jerusalem Center ( Safe ) styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" - value : unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500" title: Red Alerts
+
+IMS Weather Widget
+
+And finally, a weather widget!
+
+show_current: true show_forecast: false type: weather-forecast entity: weather.ims_weather forecast_type: daily name: Jerusalem, IL
+
+Full Dashboard Configuration
+
+Here's a full YAML configuration for my Shabbat dashboard with my personal sensors (like lighting displays) excluded:
+
+views: - title: Home sections: - type: grid cards: - type: grid title: Shabbat Times titleColor: white columns: 1 square: false cards: - type: entity entity: sensor.hebcal_start_of_shabbat name: Shabbat In card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; } .card-content { color: white !important; } .primary { font-size: 1.8em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; } .secondary { font-size: 1.2em; color: white !important; } :host { } - type: entity entity: sensor.hebcal_end_of_shabbat name: Shabbat Out card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; } .card-content { color: white !important; } .primary { font-size: 1.8em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; } .secondary { font-size: 1.2em; color: white !important; } :host { } - type: entity entity: sensor.time name: Current Time (Jerusalem) card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; } .card-content { color: white !important; } .primary { font-size: 1.8em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; } .secondary { font-size: 1.2em; color: white !important; } :host { } - square: false type: grid columns: 1 cards: - type: markdown content: | 🌅 ** Start of Shabbat** Shabbat Mode Active 🌙 ** 00 : 00 ** Bedtime Mode ☀️ ** 09 : 00 ** Morning Lights 🌤️ ** 14 : 30 ** Afternoon Lights style : | ha-card { padding: 16 px; background: var( border-radius: var( } h2 { color: var( border-bottom: 1px solid var( padding-bottom: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; } - type: entity entity: sensor.hebcal_parsha name: Parsha card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; text-align: center; } .card-content { color: white !important; } .primary { font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; line-height: 1.2; } .secondary { font-size: 1.4em; color: white !important; line-height: 1.2; } :host { } badges: - type: entity entity: sensor.hebcal_hebrew_date name: Hebrew Date attribute: '' state_header: 'Shabbat Dashboard For:' secondary_info: none card_mod: style: | ha-card { background: linear-gradient(120deg, border-radius: 15px; padding: 15px; text-align: center; width: 100%; margin: 0; box-sizing: border-box; } .card-content { color: white !important; width: 100%; } .primary { font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: bold; color: white !important; line-height: 1.2; width: 100%; } .secondary { font-size: 1.4em; color: white !important; line-height: 1.2; width: 100%; } :host { width: 100%; } .name { display: none; }
+
+Yom Tov Version
+
+I created a downstream binary sensor for Shabbat or Yom Tov because for the purpose of driving home automations, at least in my case it doesn't matter which of the conditions is true.
+
+Here’s the configuration:
+
+binary_sensor: - platform: template sensors: is_shabbat: friendly_name: "Is Shabbat" value_template: "{{ states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_shabbat') == 'True' }}" is_yom_tov: friendly_name: "Is Yom Tov" value_template: "{{ states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_yom_tov') != 'No Info' }}" is_shabbat_or_yom_tov: friendly_name: "Is Shabbat or Yom Tov" value_template: >- {{ states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_shabbat') == 'True' or states('sensor.hebcal_is_it_yom_tov') != 'No Info' }}
+
+With this dual sensor, you can easily create styled status grids like these:
+
+type: vertical-stack cards: - type: horizontal-stack cards: - type: custom:button-card entity: switch.plata name: Plata icon: mdi:lightbulb styles: card: - border-radius: 12px - transition: background-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease - box-shadow: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return '0 6px 10px rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.4)'; else return '0 4px 6px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2)'; ]]] - background-color: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return 'rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.6)'; else return 'rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6)'; ]]] icon: - color: white name: - font-weight: bold - color: white - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.is_shabbat name: Shabbat? icon: mdi:candle styles: card: - border-radius: 12px - transition: background-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease - box-shadow: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return '0 6px 10px rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.4)'; else return '0 4px 6px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2)'; ]]] - background-color: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return 'rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.6)'; else return 'rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6)'; ]]] icon: - color: white name: - font-weight: bold - color: white - type: horizontal-stack cards: - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.is_yom_tov name: Yom Tov? icon: mdi:star-david styles: card: - border-radius: 12px - transition: background-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease - box-shadow: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return '0 6px 10px rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.4)'; else return '0 4px 6px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2)'; ]]] - background-color: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return 'rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.6)'; else return 'rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6)'; ]]] icon: - color: white name: - font-weight: bold - color: white - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.is_shabbat_or_yom_tov name: Shabbat Or Yom T... icon: mdi:calendar-clock styles: card: - border-radius: 12px - transition: background-color 0.3s ease, box-shadow 0.3s ease - box-shadow: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return '0 6px 10px rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.4)'; else return '0 4px 6px rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.2)'; ]]] - background-color: | [[[ if (entity.state === 'on') return 'rgba(0, 128, 0, 0.6)'; else return 'rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6)'; ]]] icon: - color: white name: - font-weight: bold - color: white
+
+An approach to creating a Yom Tov-specific dashboard would be to copy the Shabbat dashboard in its entirety and just swap out the sensors for the Yom Tov ones.
+
+You could even integrate the display into the automation for your tablet (if it’s Shabbat, show the Shabbat dashboard; if it’s Yom Tov, show the Yom Tov dashboard, etc).
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/home-assistant-shabbat-yom-tov-dashboards-jan-2025](https://heyitworks.tech/home-assistant-shabbat-yom-tov-dashboards-jan-2025)

posts/hashnode/Home-Assistant-Smoke-Alarm-Display-Automations.md

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+# Home Assistant: Smoke Alarm Display & Automations
+
+Safety is paramount, and integrating smoke alarms into your Home Assistant setup is a crucial step in ensuring your home's safety. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to integrate smart smoke alarms into your Home Assistant dashboard and create related automations.
+
+Integrating Your Smoke Alarms
+
+The first step is purchasing smart smoke alarms and integrating them into your smart home system. Both Wi-Fi and Zigbee-based smoke alarms are widely available. While Zigbee devices typically cost more, they offer several benefits, including lower battery consumption, less interference with home Wi-Fi networks, and easier integration into Home Assistant. I highly recommend buying Zigbee devices whenever possible.
+
+Inspect and Note the Devices
+
+After integrating the devices into Home Assistant, identify the specific sensors they expose. Typically, smart smoke alarms will expose three different sensors:
+
+Smoke Detected State: The most important sensor, usually presented as a binary sensor. Use this for alarming.
+
+Battery Sensor: Some devices report this as a battery level percentage, while others display a binary "OK" or "not OK" state. I strongly recommend purchasing devices that report the battery level as a percentage. This allows you to monitor the battery level and take proactive steps to replace batteries before they run out.
+
+Creating a Group (Helper) for the Binary Sensors
+
+Here's my approach to monitoring the alarms:
+
+I use a binary sensor group to monitor all smoke alarms collectively. I have four smoke alarms in my house. I don't need to know whether each one is on or off all the time. I just need to be alerted if any one of them goes off.
+
+I have a home safety dashboard where I monitor all the alarms individually and their battery levels.
+
+For smoke detection, we're going to create a group for binary sensors. Make sure that you're adding the correct sensor for each smoke alarm to the group. Add the smoke sensor, not the tamper sensors (as they might also be binary).
+
+If you have additional home safety sensors, such as a carbon monoxide sensor, you could add all of these into one broader safety group. This way, you can minimize the number of things you have to monitor and just get an alarm if any sensor condition is positive.
+
+Home Assistant allows you to nest groups within groups. In the safety sensor group, I didn't have to manually list each smoke sensor. Instead, I added the smoke sensor group as its own entity and added the carbon monoxide sensor on top of it.
+
+In this default configuration, the group will switch to "on" if any smoke alarm is "on". I imagine that essentially all users would prefer this configuration.
+
+Dashboard Elements For Smoke + CO
+
+This is a dashboard element showing the alarm state collectively and the carbon monoxide sensor. Replace the entities with your own.
+
+type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.smoke_alarms name: Smoke Alarms (All) icon: mdi:smoke-detector show_state: true styles: card: - padding: 12px state: - padding-top: 8px state: - value: "off" color: var(--success-color) - value: "on" color: var(--error-color)
+
+Quadrant Display For 4 Smoke Alarms With Color-Coding
+
+Widget:
+
+YAML:
+
+title: Smoke Detectors type: vertical-stack cards: - type: grid columns: 2 square: false padding: 5 cards: - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.kitchensmokedetector_smoke name: Kitchen styles: card: - padding: 12px - margin: 5px name: - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white state: - value: "on" styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: "off" styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500" name: - color: white state: - color: white - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.office_smoke_detector_smoke name: Office styles: card: - padding: 12px - margin: 5px name: - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white state: - value: "on" styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: "off" styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500" name: - color: white state: - color: white - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.bedroom_smoke_sensor_smoke name: Bedroom styles: card: - padding: 12px - margin: 5px name: - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white state: - value: "on" styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: "off" styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500" name: - color: white state: - color: white - type: custom:button-card entity: binary_sensor.living_room_smoke_detector_smoke name: Living Room styles: card: - padding: 12px - margin: 5px name: - font-weight: bold - color: white state: - color: white state: - value: "on" styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: "off" styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853" name: - color: white state: - color: white - value: unavailable styles: card: - background-color: "#ffa500" name: - color: white state: - color: white - type: markdown style: | ha-card { padding: 16px; margin-top: 16px; } content: > {% set total = 4 %} {% set active = namespace(count=0) %} {% set unavailable = namespace(count=0) %} {% set devices = ['binary_sensor.kitchensmokedetector_smoke', 'binary_sensor.office_smoke_detector_smoke', 'binary_sensor.bedroom_smoke_sensor_smoke', 'binary_sensor.living_room_smoke_detector_smoke'] %} {% for device in devices %} {% if states(device) == 'on' %} {% set active.count = active.count + 1 %} {% elif states(device) == 'unavailable' %} {% set unavailable.count = unavailable.count + 1 %} {% endif %} {% endfor %} {% set online = total - unavailable.count %} {{ online }} alarms online, {{ active.count }} activated, {{ unavailable.count }} unavailable
+
+Aggregating Battery Statuses Into One Reporting Entity
+
+As mentioned earlier, different smoke sensors report their battery states in different ways. Just as with the smoke alarm sensing, we might want to try to reduce this to one sensor for convenience.
+
+You can add a template like this into your configuration to achieve this
+
+template: - binary_sensor: name: "Smoke Detector Batteries Status" state: > {% set bedroom = states('sensor.bedroom_smoke_sensor_battery')|float(0) %} {% set office = states('sensor.office_smoke_detector_battery')|float(0) %} {% set living_room = states('sensor.living_room_smoke_detector_battery')|float(0) %} {% set kitchen = states('binary_sensor.kitchensmokedetector_battery_low') %} {{ bedroom <= 10 or office <= 10 or living_room <= 10 or kitchen == 'on' }} device_class: battery
+
+Battery level row with conditional styling for alerts
+
+This card lists the battery levels for the sensors and will only show red if any are below 10% or it's a negative binary state.
+
+type: custom:button-card show_name: false show_icon: false show_state: false custom_fields: battery: > [[[ const bedroom = states['sensor.bedroom_smoke_sensor_battery'].state; const office = states['sensor.office_smoke_detector_battery'].state; const living = states['sensor.living_room_smoke_detector_battery'].state; const kitchen = states['binary_sensor.kitchensmokedetector_battery_low'].state; const kitchenStatus = kitchen === 'off' ? '✓' : '⚠' ; return `BR: ${bedroom}% | OF: ${office}% | LR: ${living}% | KT: ${kitchenStatus}`; ]]] styles: card: - padding: 8px custom_fields: battery: - font-size: 14px - text-align: center - color: white state: - operator: template value: > [[[ const bedroom = Number(states['sensor.bedroom_smoke_sensor_battery'].state); const office = Number(states['sensor.office_smoke_detector_battery'].state); const living = Number(states['sensor.living_room_smoke_detector_battery'].state); const kitchen = states['binary_sensor.kitchensmokedetector_battery_low'].state; return bedroom <= 10 || office <= 10 || living <= 10 || kitchen === 'on' ; ]]] styles: card: - background-color: "#ea4335" - operator: default styles: card: - background-color: "#34a853"
+
+Driving Automations/Alarming
+
+Finally, we get to the question of what to do about alarming. Clearly this is actually the most important part of setting up smoke alarms!
+
+I'm using the helper grouping again in order to simplify the process of setting up an automation. I'm departing from the principle that if any smoke alarm is positive or the carbon monoxide sensor, I'll want to know about it anywhere in the house immediately. So my automation will be triggered based upon a true state on the group sensor.
+
+You can use YAML or the Visual builder to create an automation like this.
+
+Trigger:
+
+If the state of my binary sensor safety group turns to ON, which would happen if any constituent sensor were to become on:
+
+Action:
+
+Alarming.
+
+Then my warning sirens (another entity group) will toggle to on:
+
+You probably also want to add additional alarming to take advantage of the fact that unlike a conventional fire alarm, smart fire alarms can notify you wherever you are.
+
+If you are at home when a smoke alarm triggers, it's pretty obvious that you're going to be alerted to the alarm by the alarms in your house if you have them, the physical alarm on the device, or other factors.
+
+But you might wish to configure push emergency notifications on all your connected devices that will send through a designated emergency alerting channel in the event that this state becomes positive.
+
+Low Battery Warnings
+
+Finally, let's add a bit of notifications to the battery level monitoring, seeing as we have it as an option.
+
+If you have smoke alarms that are all of the same type and report their sensor type consistently, then it's easier to do this. This is a great reason, in fact, to buy your smoke alarms in a batch - You'll know that they have the exact same functionality and sensors (I just wish I had thought of this beforehand!)
+
+Let's create a sensor group for the battery levels:
+
+I'll call this one "smoke alarm battery levels":
+
+You could use the minimum value as the "type":
+
+Low Battery Notifications
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/ha-safety-alarming](https://heyitworks.tech/ha-safety-alarming)

posts/hashnode/How-are-Deep-Seeks-innate-current-information-retrieval-capabilities.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# How are Deep Seek's innate current information retrieval capabilities?
+
+Deep Seek has been all over the news for the past few days with the AI community in awe of its abilities to rival OpenAI on major benchmarks - for a fraction of the development cost.
+
+Before getting too excited, though, it's worth considering how these tools can be accessed.
+
+Firstly: Navigating The Deep Seek API Nomenclature
+
+Having been using Deep Seek for a number of months now (according to one X poster that makes me a “hardcore geek!”), one of the first things to know about it is that the API naming is a little confusing.
+
+With the world of AI experiencing seismic shifts every few days, the expression “at the time of writing” has never been more useful than at the moment. So with that disclaimer aside, at the time of writing (the publication date of this blog) here is why everybody is getting excited about these models:
+
+Deep Seek has opted for a very different approach to OpenAI when naming models.
+
+While users of ChatGPT are shielded from these strange details, here's what the model selection on OpenAI looks like currently (via Open Router).
+
+There are actually dozens of different models available:
+
+And even relatively famous variants like 4.0 actually have different timestamped variants which users can access:
+
+The two models that Deep Seek provides through its API actually track different (actual) models on the backend: deepseek-reasoner maps onto R1 and deepseek-chat maps onto V3. In my opinion this is actually a wise decision and means that users effectively only have to pick one or the other when choosing the model for their prompt.
+
+Who Is The President Of The USA, AI Tool?
+
+Given that the White House has just had a change of guard It's currently a great time to use my go-to test prompt for assessing whether models appear to have a built-in RAG pipeline. Sometimes these are undisclosed or mysterious forces at work in the background providing LLMs with knowledge that cannot be explained through their training data alone.
+
+Here's the first test prompt I ran. Note that v3, confusingly, self-describes its training data cutoff as being in October 2023 (running the same prompt reveals that the model varies a bit in its description).
+
+Trying out R1 via Open Router we get the same result, with the model this time stating its training date cutoff to be July:
+
+Note how ChatGPT responds (ChatGPT is an OpenAI API model as well as the famous platform):
+
+Sonnet 3.5 actually does worse, claiming decisively that Biden is their current president without mentioning the constraint of its knowledge:
+
+Augmenting the model with real-time search capabilities via Tavily, however, finally yielded an accurate answer, although performance was a little sluggish:
+
+Or via DeepSeek’s web platform:
+
+Conclusions
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/how-are-deep-seeks-innate-current-information-retrieval-capabilities](https://heyitworks.tech/how-are-deep-seeks-innate-current-information-retrieval-capabilities)

posts/hashnode/How-to-create-your-own-home-inventory-chatbot-using-Homebox-an-AI-Agent.md

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+# How to create your own home inventory chatbot using Homebox & an AI Agent
+
+I've undertaken a few ambitious tech projects in my time. But perhaps none was as grueling as the month-long process of taking a home inventory using the excellent open source project Homebox.
+
+My home office had reached a point of non-functionality. Trying to find anything I needed among my sprawling collection of tech things was proving essentially impossible. When it became quicker to buy cables fresh than find the ones I already had, I knew that my current system was broken, wasteful and needed changing.
+
+The process of creating a home inventory using Homebox is a laborious one, but has ultimately proved highly efficient. While I initially bought a laser printer and used QR codes to record my inventory, I later switched over to using NFC tags.
+
+As crazy as the system is, it undeniably works. I can now use Homebox to look for anything I need, find its box number and retrieve it all in about 10 seconds.
+
+However, with so many advances in AI over the past year, I couldn't help but think that it would be pretty cool if I could find some way to connect a large language model to my inventory. That way I could sort of avoid the Homebox UI entirely and simply use natural language in a chatbot interface to interact with an agent.
+
+Distlaimer, I haven't quite yet reached that objective. The tools required to get models to interact with APIs are in their relative infancy and more presciently, my Homebox instance is secured behind a Cloudflare network and I don't want to go through the hassle of figuring out how to safely provide remote API access to it. But here is a proof of concept that shows that it can work.
+
+The limitation here is that this is a static system, and therefore, if you're regularly updating your inventory, you would have to go through the trouble of deleting the previous context data and uploading a new file to simulate overriding the data. But here is at least a starter system.
+
+Export Inventory, Embed In Vector Database (RAG)
+
+The first thing you'll want to do is export your inventory from Homebox. This will download the data as a CSV.
+
+Context-enhanced agents rely on RAG in order to serve up relevant data to the user. I decided to give the vector database a bit of a head start by going through the CSV export and manually deleting all the columns that did not contain data and I thought might confuse the agent.
+
+For the same reason, I also did a little bit of reformatting of the column header names in order to make what they were more obvious to the AI:
+
+RAG still being a fairly early stage technology, you may have to play around with the download format in order to find a file type that embeds well into your vector store.Although it doesn't make much sense for a data file, you could try using PDF or HTML if the embedding in CSV doesn't work nicely.
+
+Next, I created an agent in LibreChat in order to be able to interact in a chat interface with my inventory store. I chose Sonnet 3.5 as the underlying model, but it would probably make more sense to choose a less powerful LLM for this relatively rudimentary task.
+
+The type of agent that can be created in systems like LibreChat involves taking a stock large language model, adding a system prompt, usually described as instructions, and then connecting them to their specific contextual knowledge source.
+
+The system prompt doesn't have to be amazing, here's one that I wrote that works reasonably well.
+
+Now it's time to connect the agent to the knowledge. Use the Upload for File Search button in LibreChat in order to allow access and make sure that you tick the Enable File Search functionality so that the agent has permission to access the data.
+
+When you can see the file name display, the process has been successful and your agent can now access the inventory:
+
+Make sure to click on save to make sure that the knowledge has been added:
+
+Now our chatbot is ready for use and we can ask you questions about our inventory:
+
+You can see that it's checking the files when asked a question:
+
+It was able to identify all the infrared controllers in my tech cabinet and isolate the one that I was looking for, number 3!
+
+You can ask follow-up questions to retrieve details about the thing you're looking for:
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/how-to-create-your-own-home-inventory-chatbot-using-homebox-an-ai-agent](https://heyitworks.tech/how-to-create-your-own-home-inventory-chatbot-using-homebox-an-ai-agent)

posts/hashnode/OpenWebUI-With-Postgres-And-Qdrant-A-Setup-Guide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# OpenWebUI With Postgres And Qdrant - A Setup Guide
+
+OpenWebUI is one of the best known and quickly growing frontends for those prepared to take on the challenge of self-hosting a frontend for large language models.
+
+While self-hosting an LLM UI isn't for everyone and comes with the usual pros and cons of self-hosting, the advantages, for those prepared to invest the time, are many.
+
+Users can avoid the usage caps associated with SaaS offerings like ChatGPT and gain direct access to a vast array of models from both mainstream and niche providers. There's also a prompt library, a built-in feature for maintaining knowledge, enabling RAG workflows, and a growing library of tools and pipelines delivered through Open Web UI Community.
+
+Another powerful advantage of customisable frontends like OpenWebUI, LibreChat and others, is the ability to dial in models to suit your exact preferences. Everything from the system prompt to the temperature to parameters like Top P and Top K can be fine-tuned until you experience the kind of performance you're looking for.
+
+Open Web UI is well known for its association with Ollama - and many choose to back the front-end with entirely self-hosted infrastructure for inference. However it works perfectly well without any attachment to that project whatsoever. My own instance simply uses cloud LLMs. As the name suggests, OpenWebUI places a high value upon excellent UI, and personally I've come to much prefer it than anything else I've found on the market.
+
+But … is Open Web UI “production” ready?
+
+While many open source projects like OpenWebUI have an association with hobbyists and tinkerers, with AI workflows embedding themselves quickly in the technology stack of even small businesses, a growing pool of users are wondering whether these tools can take the place of mainstream AI platforms in their workloads.
+
+While ChatGPT recently informed me that SQLite is deployed in avionics, which sounded impressive, many old-schoolers, like me, will still balk at the idea of relying upon it as a database for production use. This isn't to say that SQLite isn't suitable for countless use cases, including this one. But from a data integrity and backup perspective, I’m firmly on the side of Postgres, and use it wherever and whenever I can in tech stacks.
+
+OpenWebUI’s “RAG Problem”
+
+You don't need to be an internet sleuth or spend much time on GitHub to see that users are not enamoured by the out-of-the-box performance of OpenWebUI's RAG integration.The issue of lacklustre or unacceptable RAG performance has come up on countless threads on GitHub, Reddit and wherever else the project is discussed.
+
+Like many open source projects, the pace at which documentation is generated to keep track of features doesn't always move in sync with the evolution of the codebase. Thus, many users are unaware that other RAG databases are supported and virtually anything can be configured with a pipeline.
+
+Out of the box, OpenWebUI uses ChromaDB, which comes pre-installed with the container. However, digging through the environment variable documentation reveals that a number of other databases can be provisioned.These can be configured by setting the appropriate choice with the vector_db environment variable. Besides Chroma, Milvus, Qdrant, OpenSearch, and PGVector are currently supported.
+
+After moving from Chroma to a standalone Qdrant database, which I deployed as part of a stack, I found that the RAG performance was significantly faster, although some quirks about file type remained. Qdrant has the advantage over other other self-hostable RAG databases of having a basic web frontend as part of its design, so it's relatively easy, by visiting that or monitoring the container logs, to verify that embeddings and retrieval are actually happening against it and not ChromaDB.
+
+Configuring Postgres
+
+Another facet of Open Web UI configuration that should probably be highlighted far more prominently in the documentation is the fact that Postgres is also a supported database. However, as the documentation rightly notes, simply configuring an updated environment variable won't actually set the migration.
+
+To set OpenWebUI set the DATABASE_URL environment variable and provide a Postgres connection string.
+
+Migrating From SQLite to Postgres
+
+So what can you do if your instance started with SQLite and you’re ready to move over to Postgres (and swap out ChromaDB for another RAG database?) Fortunately, there are a number of useful community projects, including a server-side Postgres script, which can make fairly light work of database data migration. However, expect some imperfections. I wasn't able to import my models with the web UI feature and instead had to resort to scripting and import with PSQL.
+
+https://ciodave.medium.com/migrating-open-webui-sqlite-database-to-postgresql-8efe7b2e4156
+
+Sadly, RAG is not so straightforward. Given that every vector database employs a slightly different method for embedding text and providing it for retrieval, the best advice is probably to either “start again” or, better yet, avoid this quandary from the get-go by separating your front-end from the other components of your AI stack.
+
+Why Go To The Trouble?
+
+Much like how I spent the first few months of my journey with Linux “distro hopping” (as it's come to be called) I spent a few months trying out all manner of front-ends for AI use before deciding that I liked Open Web UI the best.
+
+I had a landmark moment when my instance wasn't accessible for a few hours and I had to go back to using ChatGPT (like a normal person!). For the record, I think that ChatGPT is an outstanding product and has provided the gateway for many to explore more fully the world of AI. But I was surprised to reach the conclusion that an open source project can actually reach a higher level of performance and utility than a product like ChatGPT with the backing of some of the world's leading and best funded technology providers.
+
+While it took two very long days without much sleep to get there, I decided that my long-term interests were best served by ripping up the starter instance which I provisioned without much thought to longevity and replacing it with a much more deliberate and planned instance that I hope will serve my needs for quite some time.
+
+One of the amazing things about AI is its ability to help even with understanding and developing with AI! I find that AI tools are extremely capable at creating and editing custom Docker Compose files, possibly a reflection of the fact that there is so much data around this that presumably makes it into their training data.
+
+My main challenges in deploying the stack were the more usual and mundane complications of database migrations and DevOps concerns. But once all the pieces were finally in place and the container networking and reverse proxying and security figured out, the components talked to one another just as they should.
+
+The Bottom Line
+
+While the environment parameters are buried in a very long piece of documentation, it's absolutely possible to provision OpenWebUI with Postgres and a non-default vector database including Qdrant and others. Those who want to explore even further can use tools and pipelines to bring just about any type of RAG storage and connect it to the front end.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/openwebui-with-postgres-and-qdrant-a-setup-guide](https://heyitworks.tech/openwebui-with-postgres-and-qdrant-a-setup-guide)

posts/hashnode/Personal-RAG-Beer-Recommendation-Assistants-But-Really-So-Much-More.md

@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+# Personal RAG: Beer Recommendation Assistants (But Really, So Much More!)
+
+Between Sora, Gemini’s impressive new real-time capabilities, and everything else going on in the world of AI, you might be forgiven for thinking that we've reached beyond the point of saturation.
+
+But to quote many a shady late-night advertising TV sales pitch, “but wait there's more.”
+
+The purpose of this post is to demonstrate a workflow for creating a personal AI agent using the excellent Open Web UI which - in my opinion - competes with LibreChat for the title of the best LLM front-end that can be self-hosted. But although this is the platform I've used for this experiment, it should work fairly well regardless of which front end you're using.
+
+Small Context, Big Results
+
+The beautiful thing about using context in AI workflows is that you don't need an awful lot of it to achieve great things. Okay, so getting personalized beer recommendations from a bot might be stretching the definition of “big things” just a little bit, but the use case here is one of many that can be easily achieved by taking a slightly deliberate approach to generating context for personal use.
+
+In my opinion, a huge opportunity is being missed in leveraging more modest implementations of RAG workflows for personal inference.
+
+When most people think about RAG, they think about vectorizing enormous enterprise document stores. But it can be used very effectively for personal uses, too. Consider the example of somebody developing a job search assistant who can curate a personal knowledge store with their resume, career aspirations, and even update it with their interview statuses as they go along.
+
+Generating Knowledge / Data Stores
+
+The implementation for contextual data vector stores that's OpenAI has used in its Assistants has inspired the implementation for a lot of other tools.
+
+Context data can be very lightweight - it doesn't need to be anything more complicated than markdown files or JSON containing snippets of information about a specific topic. I've personally adopted the nickname “context snippets” to describe these documents, for want of a better term.
+
+A popular implementation, and OpenWebUI does it very well, is the ability to create data stores consisting of collections of documents around a similar theme. So to get going with this project, I created a knowledge called “Daniel's Food and Drink Preferences” and then began generating the requisite files to fill it up.
+
+I Love Dry Cider. Do you?
+
+I like to take the approach of thinking strategically about what I want to include in each vector store.
+
+The example chosen for this demonstration is clearly a flippant one, but for more serious uses (consider perhaps a vector store with your medical and health data) you'll want to think carefully about what type of information would be useful for an agent working with it as context.
+
+In that example, it might be things like your medication list, your health history, your wellness objectives, but in the case of my food and drink knowledge store it was lighter topics such as my cider preferences.
+
+Lately, I've become a huge fan of voice typing, and speech-to-text is another of the many technologies that have developed tremendously in recent years thanks to advances in AI. I use a dictation setup in order to jot down these context notes as naturally as possible, and try to imagine that I'm speaking to a friend, giving them all the mundane details about whatever note I'm capturing.
+
+The question of how to get your context data from a convenient format into vector storage needs a little bit of polish in today's tools. You can either use platform frontends like that in OpenAI Playground (OpenWebUI's implementation is a bit better). Or if you're feeling up to the project, you can create your own frontend to develop a data pipeline for sending off your context data pieces for embedding.
+
+Context Data Is In Flux, Like Life
+
+I didn't start this blog on any kind of mission to promote Open Web UI, but having gotten into it, I feel the need to commend their implementation of this feature. I believe that a very important facet of context for personal uses is the fact that it is a living body of data.
+
+This is where context implementations that are really only designed for one-time writing are, in my opinion, rather flawed. Some pieces of context data, like the city we were born in, remain constant, but others, like whether we're looking for a job or how many rooms are in our apartment, might be in a periodic state of flux as our life circumstances evolve.
+
+The most powerful mechanisms for managing personal context are those that allow the context store to be edited, deleted and added to just like any other pool of textual data.
+
+Now, The System Prompt
+
+It may seem like this is an awful lot of work, but once you get the hang of configuring assistants with personal context data, you'll discover that the time invested is well worth it.
+
+To achieve an agent-like behavior from a standard large language model API endpoint, the next requirement is to configure a system prompt to modify the default behavior of the model and hone it in on the objective of assisting with whatever we configured the agent for.
+
+These don't need to be pieces of poetry or works of art. They just need to be instructive enough and determinative enough to guide the model towards the expected and desired behavior.
+
+For the purpose of this example:
+
+“You are the food and drink advisory assistant to the user Daniel Rosehill. Your name is Dave. Daniel will ask you to provide your recommendations from a menu which you might supply through an image upload. Quickly parse and analyse the context of the menu and provide Daniel a recommendation based upon your knowledge of his tastes, which is in your context.”
+
+Which Underlying LLM To Use?
+
+Deciding on the model is a matter of preference and sometimes also of budget.
+
+If you're configuring a high volume personal context agent, perhaps something like generating personalized cover letters, then you might want to go for something like GPT 3.5 for the relatively easy task of text editing.
+
+But you might want a model with stronger reasoning abilities for more involved and complicated usages.
+
+Finally, Connect Agent To Knowledge
+
+Where connecting curated personal context stores to agents becomes positively transformative in my opinion is when you begin attaching multiple storage tranches to individual agents.
+
+This allows you fine-grained control over the type of information you wish to ground your agent on and provides a compelling reason to carefully gather and segregate your context data thinking about what kind of use cases it can support.
+
+But today, I’m just connecting the humble beer advisory tool to the new “food and drink preferences” context pool:
+
+Hey Dave, What Beer Should I Order?
+
+if you've made it this far, then the good news is that we’re finally at the eagerly awaited end point of this journey when we can ask our newly minted bot to provide us with some personal recommendations for beers.
+
+AI to the rescue situation one: you're in an airport bar somewhere in Germany, you've no idea what any of these beers are, and you need your trusty AI sidekick to guide you towards something you’ll have a better chance than not of enjoying:
+
+Good thing we have our new on-call personal beer assistant on hand!
+
+“Dave” has reviewed its context and provided you with recommendations based upon what you've told it about the type of beer you enjoy.
+
+But wait, there's more!
+
+Assuming that the underlying model that you chose is vision capable, then you can provide a screenshot or take a photo of a beer menu or the taps that are visible at the bar and then ask your personal assistant to give you its sage advice.
+
+To model that experience, I picked a random craft beer menu from the internet.
+
+And prompted like this:
+
+Dave comes to the rescue again, successfully deciphering the text out of the menu and then providing recommendations based on context.
+
+Ways You Can Use Context In Personal RAG Workflows
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/personal-rag-and-context](https://heyitworks.tech/personal-rag-and-context)

posts/hashnode/Personal-RAG-Data-Pipeline-Implementation-Github-To-OpenWebUI-Chroma-DB.md

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+# Personal RAG Data Pipeline Implementation: Github To OpenWebUI (Chroma DB)
+
+I've been working on a project recently that I wanted to share: a data pipeline that automatically syncs markdown files from a GitHub repo to OpenWebUI's Knowledge Store.
+
+This is part of my effort to create a personal context data store for improving inference with cloud-based LLMs.
+
+The idea came from the observation that many tools focus on extracting context and creating memory stores from ongoing conversations. This project is an experiment in the opposite direction: deliberately creating context data and injecting it into conversations using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
+
+The code for this, along with other related projects (including assistant configurations that "interview" users to generate context data!), is available on my GitHub profile.
+
+Manually curating and annotating details can be time-consuming. This pipeline is designed as one component of a larger system, efficiently loading data into the vector store. The broader system includes intelligent agents configured to extract structured data, which leads to the next point...
+
+Why Use a Pipeline? The Limitations of Manual Uploads
+
+OpenWebUI's Knowledge Store has a user-friendly interface and all the basics needed for RAG. However, uploading markdown files one at a time through the web interface becomes impractical when dealing with a large or constantly growing number of files. It might work for quick tests, but it's a limitation when building a substantial knowledge base.
+
+The pipeline provides a more resilient solution, allowing for incremental syncs. I can treat my context repository more like a database or code repository. This allows me to manage changes with Git, create reproducible builds, and automate tests. It also allows me to control my infrastructure and integrate directly with OpenWebUI.
+
+The main benefit is the ability to manage your personal knowledge and apply version control principles to it, treating your knowledge as code.
+
+OpenWebUI includes ChromaDB out-of-the-box, hosted locally. It can also connect to external vector stores like Qdrant and Milvus.
+
+The Starting Point: OpenWebUI API
+
+The first step was to examine the OpenWebUI API documentation and identify the correct methods for the Knowledge Store. I needed the specific endpoint, the expected data format, and other essential details for integration.
+
+For initial testing, I created a dedicated knowledge store called "testing".
+
+After creating the store, you'll need its UUID, which the upload script uses to specify the destination for the data.
+
+Context Repository: Simplicity First
+
+My original goal involved building a "knowledge graph" for personal information, which required a data store.
+
+Initially, the repository was a simple collection of markdown files in folders, organized organically. The Python script I wrote uploads these files individually to the knowledge store because the server-side implementation doesn't handle hierarchical structures. Keeping the implementation simple is key in the present.
+
+Building the Data Pipeline
+
+To be frank, I used Google's Sonnet AI model, providing it with the OpenWebUI API documentation via Cline, to guide the process.
+
+The pipeline performs two key actions:
+
+Incremental Syncing: Uses a JSON file to track file changes.
+
+Selective Uploads: Only uploads new or modified files on subsequent runs, which is more efficient than manual management.
+
+This JSON-based change tracking, while simple, is important for scaling the amount of context data.
+
+Implementation and Verification
+
+The implementation process went well. I added logging to the upload script to monitor its progress as it processed my context repository. Each file was uploaded to the "testing" knowledge store, and a quick check in the UI confirmed the successful transfer.
+
+Testing the Knowledge: Was it Effective?
+
+To verify the knowledge's usability, I created a test assistant designed to prioritize the use of ingested knowledge:
+
+System prompt: "You are an assistant that tries strongly to use knowledge before answering a prompt. If suitable knowledge exists, use only this knowledge for answering the prompt. If suitable knowledge exists, use only this knowledge for answering the prompt."
+
+Knowledge: the testing knowledge base for the purposes of this experiment
+
+I then gave the agent a prompt that could only be answered using the uploaded context data.
+
+The agent initiated a RAG request and provided the correct answer.
+
+Ideally, the model should also avoid using its "internal parametric knowledge" when relevant knowledge is available.
+
+Separating Front End User Interfaces from Knowledge
+
+RAG performance on OpenWebUI is currently variable but improving. There are trade-offs to consider.
+
+The key benefit of this pipeline approach is the ability to decouple the context store from the front end. This enables the injection of data in a way that optimizes context reliability.
+
+If the integration isn't satisfactory, components can be swapped out while maintaining the data injection pipeline, simply by developing new retrieval or orchestration logic.
+
+Conclusion
+
+This project demonstrates the feasibility of building an automated pipeline for injecting context data into a vector store. Doing this opens up possibilities for experimenting with RAG and building flexible knowledge management systems. This approach allows us to gain control over how injected context impacts cloud-based LLM inference.
+
+Whether for personal notes or an organization's knowledge base, this architecture offers flexibility and choice.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/personal-rag-data-pipeline-implementation-github-to-openwebui-chroma-db](https://heyitworks.tech/personal-rag-data-pipeline-implementation-github-to-openwebui-chroma-db)

posts/hashnode/Personalized-AI-Interviewing-Your-Way-to-a-Smarter-Assistant.md

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+# Personalized AI: Interviewing Your Way to a Smarter Assistant
+
+Have you ever wished your AI assistant was just a little more you?
+
+This blog post explores an architecture for generating personalized context data for AI systems, moving beyond passive data collection to a proactive, interview-driven approach. Imagine an AI that truly understands your needs and preferences, offering assistance that’s both accurate and relevant. That's the power of personalized context.
+
+The Problem with Generic AI
+
+Today's large language models (LLMs) are impressive, but their knowledge is based on broad training data. This generic approach lacks the personal touch. While we rightly protect sensitive information, even small amounts of personalized context can dramatically enhance an LLM's ability to provide useful insights.
+
+Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a key technique. RAG uses embedding models to convert files into numerical representations, stored in vector databases optimized for LLM access. Imagine uploading your resume to a vector database connected to a career advice AI. Suddenly, the advice becomes incredibly personalized.
+
+This process can be dynamic. Instead of manual uploads, a constantly updated data store (like your Google Drive) can feed a RAG pipeline. This is exciting for business workflows. Imagine a support team accessing a model connected to the company's internal knowledge base. The possibilities are endless.
+
+Diagram
+
+Proactive Vs. Passive Context Generation Approaches
+
+A More Proactive Approach: The AI Interview
+
+Current RAG pipelines and memory stores passively create context. They extract and convert existing data, which can be slow and doesn't always capture the nuances of individual needs.
+
+My proposed system takes a proactive approach.
+
+It deliberately generates context data through a structured "interview" process, using the following components:
+
+1. The "Interviewer" AI: This AI assistant, created using existing APIs or system prompts, acts as an inquisitive interviewer. You can even create multiple interviewer bots, each specializing in a different area of your life.
+
+Here's an example system prompt to get you started:
+
+Your purpose is to interview the user, asking a wide range of questions to gather substantial data about their life. This data will be used to create a personalized context store for improving LLM-based assistants. Begin by asking if the user wants to focus on a specific domain (e.g., professional life, health). Tailor your questions accordingly (e.g., career objectives, medical history). [... further prompt instructions as in the original text ...]
+
+2. The Vector Store Pipeline: The interviewer AI can directly write data into the context pipeline, or the user can manually copy and upload the information.
+
+3. The Personal Agent: This agent accesses the personalized context data store, providing tailored guidance. The more information gathered, the better the assistance.
+
+4. The Data Classification Agent (Optional): This agent can categorize the data, separating sensitive information from less sensitive context that could be shared with other services. Imagine this as your personal data footprint, automating form filling and other tedious tasks.
+
+Context Aggregation: How Deliberate And Passive Context Generation Could “Coexist” In Integrated RAG Pipelines
+
+Empowering Users with Data Control
+
+This architecture prioritizes data sovereignty. You control your context data. You choose what to share, and what to keep private.
+
+Potential Use Cases: From Personal to Professional
+
+Imagine using a speech-to-text interface to conduct these interviews, making the process even more engaging. Or think about a sales team providing focused information about their quarterly targets, jumpstarting a powerful, personalized AI tool.
+
+These systems can also coexist, integrating data from multiple sources – chat history, deliberate context data, and information from internal tools – to create a comprehensive context repository.
+
+The Future of Personalized AI
+
+This interview-driven approach represents a powerful step towards truly personalized AI. It's about empowering users to shape their AI experience, creating assistants that are not just smart, but truly understand them
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/personalized-ai-interviewing-your-way-to-a-smarter-assistant](https://heyitworks.tech/personalized-ai-interviewing-your-way-to-a-smarter-assistant)

posts/hashnode/Product-label-extraction-agent-for-quicker-tech-inventory-population-with-Homebox.md

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+# Product label extraction agent for quicker tech inventory population (with: Homebox)
+
+About this time last year I decided that my home inventory system needed a dramatic overhaul.
+
+After too many years of trying out various tech projects, my inventory management system consisted largely of looking hopefully at a large pile of boxes and wondering where on earth the cable I needed was.
+
+I realised that things had hit a breaking point when it was quicker and easier to buy a cable that I knew I had than spend an hour trying to dig around looking for it. Besides being a waste of money, this was unsustainable, so I figured that it was time to put a proper system in place.
+
+Enter picture Homebox, a self-hostable inventory management system that, unlike just about every other such project that has been undertaken to date, was actually designed with the needs of crazy people like me and maybe you in mind. In other words, tech fiends with ridiculously large collections of cables, adapters and all the rest of it.
+
+At the time I thought it was going to be a one-week project maximum. In reality it turned into one of the most grueling projects I've ever undertaken. I've logged over 4,000 items. Yes, I told you I had a lot of stuff.
+
+And although I had no idea at the time how much work it would take to create an inventory of my belongings, ultimately it has proven a very worthwhile experience.
+
+Ironically, the system has allowed me to declutter by identifying duplicates I no longer need. I've been able to donate some tech products to those who were newer at my hobbies. It's made it vastly easier to find whatever I need.
+
+And it's made the entire process of building up a collection of tech things strangely more fulfilling. Because the inventory process forces me to record each item I buy, take a photograph of it and find a place for it. It makes the whole process of curating things much more deliberate. I don't think it's by mistake that I've purchased far less junk and far more things I really love since discovering Homebox.
+
+Picking the right vision-capable LLM for the agent
+
+In 2025, the rapid advance of AI has made literally any tech project seem feasible. However, there is always a balance to be struck between time investment and … where the project sits within your priorities.
+
+I say this because I realise that there is almost certainly far more advanced ways of achieving the functionality I'm about to describe For example, by interacting with an API you could achieve this all programmatically But if you just have occasional need for this kind of workflow using the agent and manually providing the product images might strike the right balance. The agent only takes a few minutes to configure and could be provisioned on ChatGPT or just about any other AI building platform.
+
+I used Diffy.ai. To state the obvious, you'll need to make sure that you're using a large language model with vision capabilities. In the near future, this will probably be almost every model.
+
+The choice of which model to use is up to you, but if you're doing this in batches and at scale, because this workflow doesn't require much in the way of reasoning capabilities at all, I would recommend using a older generation model with vision capability for cost optimisation reasons.
+
+System prompt for label processing
+
+The foundation of AI agents and assistants is a system prompt which takes the model they're provisioned on top of and provides custom instructions to target their behaviour towards achieving a specific workflow, thereby differentiating them from the chat iterations of the models that have taken the world by storm.
+
+Here's my very basic configuration for this agent.
+
+Your purpose is to assist the user by providing a list of detected data points from a product label. You can expect that the label provided by the user will be a technical label of some kind, and you should attempt to list all of the following pieces of information if they are available. If a particular piece of information isn't available, you can simply skip it. Here are the data points that you should list: Manufacturer name Product name Serial number Model number Version number Power and voltage instructions, Date of manufacture, Any other text listed on label.
+
+Using output format instructions to specify a desired output format
+
+You might want to improve upon this by adding what I call output formatting instructions. This is my terminology to describe the part of the prompt where you direct the assistant to provide the output you're looking for in a specific format.
+
+I commonly use a CSV output format instruction in order to ensure that the model provides the data in CSV format. One trick I've discovered to ensure consistent data formatting between multiple runs is to provide the CSV header row and then write a prompt along the lines of extract the data from this photo to match this CSV structure exactly.
+
+Unless there is a great textbook that I have not read, there is no hard and fast rule about the best way to configure these and some trial and error is advisable. Eventually you tend to get the hang of what specific models adhere well with.
+
+Use Your Bot!
+
+And that's basically all there is to know in order to get this simple workflow up and running. Here's an example of me interacting with my bot. I simply provide it with the product photo image along with a short initiation instruction and it returns the requested details to me.
+
+Another tweak that could be made to the configuration is specifying that the bot must return just with the parameters and not with any text before or after. Sometimes I write this configuration like, you must return only the information I've requested, do not prepend any text to your output or add any text after it.
+
+But this is how the default configuration ran:
+
+Ideas to take this further
+
+This agent suffices for my own relatively basic needs, but if you wanted to take this configuration further, as mentioned, you could script it, ensure a consistent output format using JSON, and then use an API to write the extracted data into your catalogue system.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/product-label-extraction-agent-for-quicker-tech-inventory-population-with-homebox](https://heyitworks.tech/product-label-extraction-agent-for-quicker-tech-inventory-population-with-homebox)

posts/hashnode/Self-Hosting-Your-Own-LLM-Stack-A-Guide.md

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+# Self-Hosting Your Own LLM Stack: A Guide
+
+2025 is set to be the year in which agentic AI makes it to the mainstream.
+
+OpenAI’s just-launched Operator will provide countless users with their first glimpses into what it will look like when AI tools can do more than just retrieve text.
+
+But many personal users and small businesses are going to be grappling with the first time with how to afford the growing litany of AI tools that are required to keep up with the fast pace of technical evolution. This is especially true for high volume LLM users who might be using them for everything from brainstorming to product ideation and competitive analysis.
+
+Here is a stack that I've put together over the past couple of months which allows for uninterrupted high-volume use at a relatively affordable price point.
+
+Component 1: A Cloud VPS
+
+A Virtual Private Server, or VPS, is the foundation of this stack.
+
+While you can deploy self-hosted tools just about any way possible these days including through dedicated platform as a service solutions, cloud VPSs are affordable and allow you to quickly spin up a machine in the cloud onto which you can provision all manner of software.
+
+You're still responsible for security, so using tools like Cloudflare Tunnels makes sense for many users. But you don't have to worry about maintaining the underlying infrastructure or securing services that are physically located in your own home.
+
+Popular providers include DigitalOcean, Hetzner, among others.
+
+Component 2: An LLM Frontend
+
+The next thing that you're going to need in order to use a large language model is a frontend to access the familiar chat interface.
+
+There is a growing ecosystem of LLM frontends available both for cloud hosting and local deployment.
+
+The differences between them, at least at the time of writing, are somewhat nuanced.For example, while I love OpenWebUI for its intuitive design, it doesn't currently natively support Anthropic models (although as a workaround these can be accessed via Open Router).
+
+Others are more oriented towards specific use cases like speech-to-speech interaction.
+
+But it's hard to go wrong with LibreChat or OpenWebUI. Both can be deployed via Docker onto a server. OpenWebUI is particularly straightforward to deploy as it only requires one image. Portainer is a highly useful tool for streamlining the deployment process.
+
+Component 3: LLM API Keys
+
+The next thing that you're going to require in order to use these just as you would use ChatGPT is to get API keys for the platforms that you like working with.
+
+Personally I’m a big fan of Open Router. It's a unified access platform which allows you to access a vast number of different models through one key pair.
+
+Together AI is noteworthy for its focus on making open source models available at very affordable price points. And of course you can directly run a balance on Anthropic, Google, or Deep Seek. Increasingly, the OpenAI API is emerging as a standard for interoperability. Frontends are increasingly supporting that, which effectively allows you to use any LLM API that conforms to this standard.
+
+Component 4: Cloudflare Tunnel (Optional)
+
+Once you've got your shiny new AI infrastructure deployed on the cloud, you’ll want to implement some basic security measures to ensure that random people aren't having fun with AI tools on your dime. You might also wish to consider hiring a friendly AI sloth in a tuxedo to monitor the entrance.
+
+A robust security posture might entail blocking all non-essential ports at the web application firewall level, installing the Cloudflare agent on the server, and then relying upon the Cloudflare tunnel to expose internal services. Connectivity between applications on the server itself (like containers running in the same Docker environment) will not be affected.
+
+Component 5: Vector Database, LLM, STT Model (Local)
+
+There are two emerging workflows for those deploying their own LLM infrastructure in the cloud:
+
+I would summarise them as follows:
+
+Option 1: Minimise Local Services
+
+This is the deployment method that I'm currently using.
+
+I'd personally rather consume a LLM via Cloud API and likewise for speech-to-text, text-to-speech and the vector database.
+
+While it's absolutely possible to deploy all of these things locally on the same server in which your LLM frontend is being hosted.
+
+Here's an outline of my current setup:
+
+Service Deployment Method APIs LLM (for inference) Accessed via Cloud API OpenRouter Vector database & embedding models Locally hosted or SaaS Pinecone, Weaviate, etc Frontend Locally Hosted (Open Web UI) STT Via Cloud API Whisper / Deepgram (where supported) TTS Via Cloud API OpenAI
+
+Option 2: The Full DIY Approach
+
+Some people are lucky enough to have powerful enough local hardware to run advanced LLMs totally on-premises or budgets large enough to deploy them onto sufficiently resourced cloud servers.
+
+Similarly, embedding models can be self-deployed and managed.
+
+The great thing about the world of open source and self-hosting is that the options are vast.It's possible to start out your self-hosted AI journey using option 1. And then perhaps as your resources increase or the cost of provisioning cloud hardware comes down, you can gradually shift towards option two, self-deploying and managing all your own services.
+
+Achieving a “full DIY” implementation might entail a setup like this:
+
+Component Deployment LLM Lllama deployed on the server; Ollama for local availability Frontend OpenWebUI (as before) Vector Database Chroma (deployed on VPS) Speech to text (STT) Whisper, locally deployed
+
+Deployment Price Estimates
+
+Deployment method one is going to be significantly more affordable. A basic VPS is sufficient to run a LLM front-end. Arguably such a VPS doesn't even need any AI specific requirements such as carefully chosen GPUs.
+
+Deployment option 2, the full DIY option, is going to be significantly more expensive. A credible absolute minimum budget for this might be $500 per month and even that would require careful selection of hardware.
+
+Component 6: A PWA (Or Hermit)
+
+Once you finally have your front end up and running, you're likely going to want to be able to access it from your mobile devices, as well as when you're at a desktop.
+
+The easiest way to do that is to make sure that your front-end is PWA compliant. If so, you can very easily create apps with just a couple of clicks on Android or iOS.
+
+However, the authentication provided by Cloudflare can make it slightly more tricky to configure these.
+
+In that case, Hermit provides a useful workaround. This is a highly versatile tool for Android that allows you to create light apps from any URL. The user agent add-on might be necessary to ensure successful authentication through Google.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/llm-tech-stack](https://heyitworks.tech/llm-tech-stack)

posts/hashnode/The-Elephants-In-The-Room-Of-The-Headless-Static-CMS-Hype-Cycle.md

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+# The Elephants In The Room Of The Headless & Static CMS Hype Cycle
+
+I’ve been building Wordpress websites way back since I was a chirpy, enthusiastic young university student (I was neither that chirpy nor enthusiastic but let’s stick with that as the story please).
+
+And Wordpress — for all its … simplicity ..has served me very well over the years.
+
+Back in the day, I built a whole news website type thing with it (this was before everyone and their grandmother had a blog).
+
+Lately I hacked together a data portal. Wordpress is great. But — okay, I’ll admit it — it’s very … vanilla.
+
+I think that this motivation — the proclivity of many to explore whatever’s just a little more ‘out there’ and alternative (in CMS terms that is — this is a tech blog) is a huge part of the reason why there are officially a gazillion and one static site generators (SSGs), flat file CMSes, and every other combinations of bits and bytes that can take some ideas and put them into some human-digestible format on the internet.
+
+The Long Tail Of CMSes Is … Oh My … It’s Long
+
+No, really.
+
+If you ever get a rabbit-hole-impending warning coming from me you know it’s a fricking deep one.
+
+If you haven’t gone down the CMS rabbit hole, please (I beg): Do yourself a favor and temper any desire you may have to try them all out.
+
+You will disappear for days, maybe weeks, into an online abyss that’s deeper than you ever imagined. You will mumble to your spouse or anyone prepared to listen about what a CMS is and what you’re about to discover by tapping to the great beyond of them.
+
+Wait, somebody’s made the 50th markdown-first CMS … in 2024 alone .. you will find yourself dreaming.
+
+Why yes they have! It’s called MDStaticGPT and it’s taken all the best things about ChatGPT, static, and … yawn. And it comes replete with a shiny Discord server and some cool graphics. But it’s okay. I give you permission to let this one pass you by.
+
+Jamstack is cool.
+
+I really want to try Statmatic.
+
+And Wagtail.
+
+But look at this list of CMSes. Perhaps I’m just jaded and cynical but I don’t think humanity has ever wished to spawn a list of website-making technologies this long. There are almost as many CMSes in existence as there are medicines on the WHO Essential Medicines list (*okay, I exaggerate a little).
+
+Who Really Benefits From The Sprawling Labyrinth Of Niche CMS Projects?
+
+(Rhetorical question. Your answer can’t be “the people selling them as SaaS)
+
+So getting above the minutiae of differentiators and deployment mechanics, here’s what I would argue has really happened:
+
+The collective interest of developers to create something more “dev-friendly” ”/ “hackable” / [insert your buzzword] than Wordpress (utter it quietly) hasn’t resulted in the arrival of one “anti-Wordpress” that’s like Wordpress for people who can tolerate editing (prepared to shudder) code.
+
+Rather, it’s spawned a long tail of literally hundreds of CMSes many of which are buggy, poorly-documented, and — yes, some will hate this — hard to distinguish from one another.
+
+It reminds me of adopting the Linux desktop around the year 2000 when it seemed like there was a new distro coming out every second minute. Things have gotten a little better since.
+
+Oh. And rapid development of very similar things demands extraordinary creative powers to think of ways to differentiate them.
+
+The weirdest trend in tech marketing I’ve seen in a while?
+
+Describing new products by referring to them as the hypothetical love-child of two well-known technologies (really … can this be stopped somehow).
+
+”It’s like Git and PostgreSQL had a baby”
+
+Wordpress and MySQL were having sex in missionary but then our AI thingy came on the scene and made it in a threesome worthy of porn (okay, this one I made up).
+
+(Postgres is typically represented by an elephant and if Git were personified it would be a cranky startup founder in Silicon Valley worried about running out of Ritalin. Beastiality aside, they’re not having a child any time soon. Why has noone but me done the due diligence on these mental images before unleashing them on the world!?!?)
+
+Headless CMS: The Stack Devs Made For Content People Who Are Confused By Them
+
+So here’s the thing about the great and never-ending attempt to reinvent Wordpress:
+
+Arguably like so many ‘things’ that gone before it, it was working on a problem that didn’t need “fixing.”
+
+Because here’s a fact that I think is deeply disappointing for many:
+
+For the vast majority of the great unwashed internet-using population and — one might argue — even the vaunted ‘enterprise,’ plain old Wordpress is Good Enough (trademark pending).
+
+And “Good Enough” is the arch nemesis of the technology industry which prides itself upon the restlesness of its need to innovate.
+
+Don’t get me wrong, here:
+
+There are valid concerns about the security of the Wordpress codebase and the fact that like all the internet is probably running on it makes it an enormously appealing attack vector for would-be hackers.
+
+If you’re going to put effort into cooking up some good ransomware, Wordpress is probably a much better bet than Daniel’s Markdown Generator 3.0 with its userbase of Daniel.
+
+Static websites (note: this site is static) are inherently faster (although that doesn’t stop the various static site generators from differentiating themselves based upon the number of miliseconds of loading time they reduced themselves by. Word of truth: nobody but the benchmarking tool is able to detect any of these differences).
+
+But those aspects of the value prop are totally negated by the majority of the internet-building community by the massive elephants in the room this blog’s title alluded to.
+
+But first, another sloth graphic:
+
+Headless CMS & Stack-Creep: Swapping 1 Tool For 4
+
+In a simpler time, your classic web script for creating blogs (AKA ‘CMS’)consisted of a single component which had a frontend and a backend.
+
+It was easy to use and the fact that millions of other simple people like you were using it meant that if you couldn’t figure something out there was always a plugin just a couple of clicks away.
+
+If you got hacked, so did lots of other people and you could find solace in collective misery.
+
+But while Wordpress is effective, for those of us beholden of a desire to tinker with technology, it isn’t satisfying.
+
+Even simple Wordpress users like you and me have moments when we feel that we could leverage something better and conquer the world if only we had it.
+
+We reckon that if only we had the CMS equivalent of a Ferrari and not the beat-up hunk of PHP everyone is using and abusing that then we could really go on to prove our mettle in an internet that’s never been more crowded.
+
+In 1991 you could impress your date by mentioning that you were distantly related to somebody who once owned a computer and it only took up a whole floor of their house and could do a math problem in only a decade.
+
+In today’s era you need something extraordinary to differentiate yourself from the great unwashed hordes of Wordpress users.
+
+But then you Google the alternatives and get back to this:
+
+In its well-intentioned quest to create something really innovative, truly spectacular, the runaway industry of new -and-better CMSes has instead spawned a whole new tech stack where before there was just … CMS.
+
+To reuse content — a sensible recommendation, by the way — we’re told that we need to stop thinking about it as words and thoughts.
+
+It’s code — those expressions and thoughts that lowly non-developers have running through their heads.
+
+And it needs to be reduced to an API (has someone termed the call API-fication yet or can I get that claim to fame?!).
+
+Surveying the sprawling ecosystem of better, cooler CMSes one feels a whiff of shame for feeling the need to resort to using any level of GUI in order to create ‘content’ on the internet.
+
+Markdown is offered as a kind of friendly middleground (lest this ever be misconstrued: I’m a huge markdown fan. In fact, I’m writing this post in markdown!)
+
+If you can’t handle markdown then I guess you should accept that you were too stupid to have Googled easy to use Wordpress alternatives and should crawl back into your Wordpress came from whence you came.
+
+(Pet peeve #2: as a somewhat tech-literate non-developer who has made a reasonably good career to date working in tech marketing alongside plenty of actual developers, I hate seeing ‘non-technical users’ referred to as a homogenous category of presumed imbeciles who might on a good day know how to turn on a computer but on an average day, if they knew what an SSH key was, be assumed to be stupid enough to delete the whole AWS account. Also: who decided that “developers” should be knighted the kings of this strange new content fiefdom? Besides developers, I mean…)
+
+The Boring Nuts And Bolts Of CMS Trump What’s New And Flashy
+
+The above is why Wordpress still not only proliferates but thoroughly dominates the CMS market. Drupal and Joomla and to a lesser extent Ghost are somewhat known. But venture beyond Reddit and the name ‘Strapi’ won’t get the kind of recognition you might have been hoping for.
+
+So where were we?
+
+What’s probably not coming across is that I think that headless CMS is a bloody good idea. This isn’t a hatched job on headless/static/flat-file (yes, I know that these are different things). Rather, it’s a case against unnecessary proliferation of unrefined products whose common denominator is that they regard useability for mere mortals as a ‘nice to have’ (if even).
+
+Key problems:
+
+Way Too Many Novel CMSes Fall Down On Basic Useability
+
+For alternative CMSes to become … non-alternative … they will have to accept the need to accept that for most non-technically-gifted users there are some basic must-haves for a tool to be useable.
+
+And a properly QA-d codebase and adequate documentation are only the beginning. Plenty of companies understand this and invest well in customer success and customer support and documentation. Such companies tend to be loved by their users.
+
+Some of the “must haves” include that:
+
+The CMS Has To Be Functional At A Basic Level
+
+This goes of all software but especially CMSes which are the workhorses of day to day online content generation.
+
+1: There’s a whole litany of CMSes out there that are terribly documented and barely useable but which are nevertheless dressed up in delightful marketing. This is probably known to the devs and the few people who’ve actually spent time using them.
+
+A Single Keystroke Shouldn’t Ever Kill The Entire Backend!
+
+2: Many headless CMSes — even those I love, like Astro CMS — are, by normal people standards, also completely unfit for their intended purpose of creating websites
+
+If I were to botch a HTML entity in the CMS I’m using for example my whole dev server — the only way I can visually preview the content I’m typing — will come crashing down.
+
+Wordpress may be tempermental but you at least don’t have to hope that you’ll manage to debug an NPM package just to be able to get the nice-visual-thingy back.
+
+If I were to bring this up as an obvious problem in a dev-centric community I presume I’d be considered an imbecile and told to go back to Wordpress.
+
+But outside of the developer bubble one sometimes feels these tools are intended for, issues like this are justifiably considered complete deal-breakers and blockers to widespread adoption.
+
+Other “Real World” Issues With Headless CMS:
+
+No-one Really Wants A Content “Stack” (Besides Those Marketing It). Especially Not Content Creators.
+
+Finally I come back to stack-bloat.
+
+I was sincere when I said that I think that headless CMS is a brilliant idea. However, I think that the downside of the idea is also easy to underappreciate.
+
+If we reconceive of the CMS from being an end to end tool that is great at making it easy to publish web pages and see it instead as only a constituent element in a pipeline then:
+
+Where One Tool Sufficed, We Now “Need” An Entire Toolbox. Is This Progress?
+
+Where we had one tool we now need about 4
+
+We interject version control / Git into a workflow thereby making it intimidating for anyone not literate in Git which is the vast majority of people who aren’t developers
+
+For most end-users we now need a “stack” — like Astro + a visual backend. While this is typically celebrating as offering fantastic modularity, for many people this just sounds like a massive PITA. Give me one tool that gets the job done and leave “stacks” for those crazy developers.
+
+Concluding Thoughts
+
+If a random friend of mine were to ask: is there something that’s better than Wordpress that I can use to make a really great blog? then unless they were a) a developer or b) somebody who relished challenges, then I would tell them something like that’s a great question but ask it again in a few years.
+
+There’s a lot of innovation happening right now and some very cool tech (the two tools I’m enjoying right now are Astro and LocalWP for a local Wordpress workflow).
+
+However, while the “big ideas” are awesome and dovetail perfectly with other lots of great ideas in tech (serverless, for one), I think there’s far too little emphasis on boring considerations like:
+
+The useability of these tools to normal people (ie, non-developers)
+
+The fact that the majority of users — even technical ones — would rather one good tool over a stack of components, even if that means losing out on some customisation
+
+The fact that being able to interrupt the visual backend to a site with a single misplaced keystroke is a big impediment to typical use
+
+Documentation and quality control
+
+Until the next blog/rant.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/the-elephants-in-the-room-of-the-headless-static-cms-hype-cycle](https://heyitworks.tech/the-elephants-in-the-room-of-the-headless-static-cms-hype-cycle)

posts/hashnode/Using-AI-Agent-Interviews-To-Develop-Context-Data-Demo.md

@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+# Using AI Agent Interviews To Develop Context Data (Demo)
+
+Enhancing LLM Interactions Through AI-Driven Context Generation
+
+Have you ever wished your interactions with AI were more personalized and context-aware? That's exactly what the AI Context Generation Interviews project sets out to achieve. Let me walk you through this fascinating demonstration of how we can make AI interactions more meaningful and personalized.
+
+What's This All About?
+
+At its core, this project showcases an innovative approach to enhancing AI interactions through what we call "agentic workflow-based context extraction." In simpler terms, it's a smart system that actively learns about you through natural conversation, then transforms those insights into structured data that can make AI interactions more personalized.
+
+How Does It Work?
+
+The magic happens through a straightforward workflow:
+
+Choose Your Focus: Start by selecting an area you'd like to discuss Have a Conversation: Engage in a natural interview with the AI agent Behind the Scenes: The system automatically extracts and processes relevant context from your conversation Ready to Use: Get your personalized context data in a format ready for use with LLMs
+
+The Cool Parts
+
+What makes this project particularly interesting is how it:
+
+Stays Proactive : Instead of passively collecting data, the system actively generates meaningful context through targeted questions
+
+Keeps It Natural : The interview format feels like a regular conversation, not a formal data collection process
+
+Makes Data Useful : All that conversational data gets transformed into a format that's perfect for RAG pipelines and vector databases
+
+Builds Over Time: You can have multiple interviews, gradually building a richer context pool for more personalized AI interactions
+
+Screenshots
+
+Technical Implementation
+
+The system is built using Streamlit for the frontend and implements a sophisticated workflow that:
+
+Automatically extracts context from user interactions
+
+Generates contextual metadata proactively
+
+Integrates smoothly with LLM inference processes
+
+Enables progressive enhancement of personalization
+
+Why This Matters
+
+In the world of AI, context is king. The better an AI system understands you, the more valuable its interactions become. This project demonstrates a practical approach to building that understanding through natural conversation, making it easier than ever to create truly personalized AI experiences.
+
+Try It Yourself
+
+Want to see it in action? Head over to the Hugging Face Space and give it a try. The entire project is open source and available on GitHub, so you can also dive into the code and see how it all works under the hood.
+
+Attribution
+
+This project represents a collaboration between Daniel Rosehill and Claude (Anthropic), demonstrating how human creativity and AI capabilities can come together to create innovative solutions for enhancing AI interactions.
+
+**Source:** [https://heyitworks.tech/ai-context-interviews-demo](https://heyitworks.tech/ai-context-interviews-demo)

posts/medium/-Coming-out--with-mental-health-journeys-and-diagnoses---professionals-share-their-experiences.md

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+# “Coming out” with mental health journeys and diagnoses — professionals share their experiences
+
+#### Sharing a mental health journey can have professional consequences, but these individuals decided to do so anyway. They shared why.
+
+Sharing mental health diagnoses is in vogue. But could it prove the kiss of death to corporate careers? I reached out to some professionals from various industries to ask whether they hesitated to share their diagnoses in light of stigma and potential risk. Photo by [Pixabay](https://www.pexels.com/@pixabay?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/architecture-black-and-white-building-business-273209/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+Like many young professionals, I spend a little bit of time every week scrolling around the professional network known as LinkedIn.
+
+As I’ve made known before, there are many things about LinkedIn that I, frankly, despise: To name a few of those, the brown-nosing, the humble-bragging, and the one-upmanship that sometimes feel endemic to the network, almost as if they were built-in features.
+
+And yet, there are also enough redeeming factors about the network that it feels worthwhile to stay there (besides the fact that, professionally, it remains useful to me; us humans are ultimately self-serving animals).
+
+For one, among the odes of praise to former bosses and the gracious letters of thanks about the generous gift hampers (with HR conveniently tagged, of course), _some_ people continue to share useful statuses inviting professional discussion among their networks.
+
+But recently, I’ve also been observing an unmistakable trend. And this, too, has encouraged me to stick around.
+
+**Increasingly, members of my LinkedIn network whom I never would have suspected of being in anything other than stellar mental health have shared their stories of battles with depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.**
+
+I found the stories humanizing — for one because some of them doing the sharing were “only” smallish freelance clients to me or names on an email thread. Remote relationships can feel stifled and professionally superficial. The color really changed my perceptions of some of those I have done business with.
+
+Reading their stories also chipped away at my own sense of stigma around the diagnoses they talked about. And I didn’t think any less of them as professionals after having read their accounts. So I began to wonder: was it time for me to do the same?
+
+In very short order, this trend towards mental health awareness has become so commonplace, in fact, that at times it even strikes as slightly trite.
+
+_“Oh, not another contact posting about anxiety!”_
+
+The pendulum has quickly swung. But it still makes the dynamic a healthy one.
+
+**Among all this positivity and work against stigma, I’ve also come to believe that there’s another parallel conversation that needs to be taking place — but which isn’t currently getting the airing it deserves.**
+
+Every professional who shares their story in any public forum is taking a brave decision. LinkedIn may be a closed social network but its reach still permeates outward, especially in professional contexts. Don’t people worry about what their bosses and future bosses might think if they know that they have been diagnosed with a mental health “problem”?
+
+That’s not the only ground for those thinking about sharing to be reticent.
+
+The reaction to sharing isn’t always positive.
+
+I can’t help but notice that the baby boomers who are part of my LinkedIn network — or secondary connections — seem to take particular issue with the idea of “coming out” about mental health in this manner. I’ve seen attitudes that I thought belonged in another era — they do — proudly emblazoned onto comments threads. In response to sharing, I’ve seen posters affirm that they think that therapy is a waste of time and that they’ve always managed handling things themselves.
+
+Some are even openly antagonistic towards those who choose to share. Although inevitable, this is disappointing. There’s a definite generational divide between the baby boomers, millennials like me, and Gen X. The latter, at times, almost seems to relish in being open about their thoughts on gender, mental health, and race equality.
+
+So while a movement towards greater openness in mental health is brewing — the unifying hashtag, by the way, is #mentalhealthawareness — forces that work in the other direction, and encourage patients to stay silent, remain active too.
+
+**So I’ve discovered that to pretend that we have reached a point of enlightened universal acceptability about mental health issues — and I’ll be honest, I thought that we really had — would be delusional. It’s more accurate to say that we, by which I mean human society, are simply taking our first paces towards making the _status quo_ a better and healthier one.**
+
+Seeing reactions like those is also partially why I fought through enormous hesitation that lasted many months before sharing the story of my own diagnosis with ADHD and dysthymia (the latter’s correct modern title is persistent depressive disorder or PDD; it’s essentially a milder but more chronic form of depression; being mild doesn’t make it any easier, by the way. But it can take a lot longer to spot when your baseline level of functionality is never quite _that_ bad. The illness tricks sufferers into believing that feelings of persistent bleakness and low self-esteem are simply part of the human condition). But this story isn’t about the specifics of my journey.
+
+Before I put pen to paper — or fingers to keyboard — I encountered enormous skepticism from … unnamed individuals … who told me that I would be _insane_ to put anything about a mental health diagnosis on my public record. These were much the same voices that those who have already shared have contended with publicly.
+
+I was told that clients would never hire me again (so far, that thankfully hasn’t been the case.)
+
+That nobody can really trust somebody with _any_ mental illness to be a competent employee (I won’t know the answer to whether that’s an impediment until I look for an in-house position).
+
+That there was nothing to gain by sharing (but plenty of adverse consequences).
+
+And that things like depression and ADHD and anxiety were all shameful and person dirty laundry that would be better kept under lock and key — both professionally and personally.
+
+In spite of those hesitations — and the vociferous and insistent nature of those making those arguments — I choose to share anyway. Not so much because I _wanted_ to. But rather because I felt that I _had_ to. I felt _compelled_ to share.
+
+What swayed me to do so? One simple thought.
+
+Had _others_ not shared their own journeys of diagnosis and treatment that showed _me_ that there was nothing shameful or embarrassing about having a mental health condition, I may never have felt empowered enough to reach out for help myself.
+
+How, then, could I be a hypocrite and not pass the hope on forwards to somebody who might similarly need to hear the simple message that it’s okay to be not okay? _(My final rationale: I was trained as a writer . It would have seemed like a particular shame not to use this “skill,” if it can be called that, constructively.)_
+
+I’ve also written, by now, about virtually everything else in my life (not all of it!).
+
+Keeping this aspect hidden, as if it were a sordid detail, felt disingenuous — particularly as it has consumed so much of my time and energy over the past few years.
+
+Doing so would be to play, albeit indirectly, into that same narrative of shame that keeps so many reticent to talk about their own diagnostic processes or even open up a conversation with their family doctor about what they might be experiencing.
+
+By _not_ sharing, I felt like I was open-sourcing my thinking about everything I care about — something I advocate — but stashing a few pages away for only my own eyes.
+
+I believe that this conversation — about the prejudices that exist in society and the stigma that still surrounds mental health and the potential repercussions of those currently doing the sharing — has been grossly under-discussed.
+
+Which is why I’m trying to do my little part to open it by sharing these stories.
+
+**Most of us seem to be staunchly in favor of de-stigmatizing mental health treatment.**
+
+**And yet we seem to have a collective blindspot when it comes to talking about very pragmatic concerns: like what doing so might mean for careers and professional reputations.**
+
+We talk about breaking down stigma. But — to have a rounded conversation — we also need to be pragmatic.
+
+If sharing publicly about mental health struggles means a future of un-employability and shunning from the workplace, those thinking about sharing need to keep those concerns in mind even if they are grossly unfair. **And perhaps there’s another role on the part of patients too beyond the work that we’re already doing:To make the case that treated mental health patients can not only be competent employees but indeed exemplary ones.**
+
+Depression — the most prevalent mood disorder — affects 7.1% of adults in the US. To suggest that patients should be ostracized into a lifetime of unemployment, under-employment or self-employment is extremely problematic.
+
+A couple of weeks ago I put out a request through SourceBottle asking respondents precisely the same set of questions I asked myself only a few months ago:
+
+  * Did you worry about the professional repercussions of disclosing, publicly, your mental health diagnosis?
+  * Why did you choose the time you did to share?
+  * How has that affected your career? How have colleagues and bosses reacted?
+
+Here are some of the responses I received _(due to the demographic that uses SourceBottle — the only major quote-request platform I could find that accepts humble bloggers — the respondents are disproportionately from Australia!)_
+
+#### [**Natalie Coulson, Founder and Director, AmpedUp Marketing:**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-coulson-419111a/)
+
+**_Were you worried about the potential repercussions of sharing?_**
+
+Not at the time of posting.
+
+But I did realise afterwards there might have been some risk involved.
+
+But, I’d rather use my voice and experience to change the conversation around mental health. I don’t live in fear anymore.
+
+**_How did your current employer react? (If you have one). Did your boss see and remark upon your post?_**
+
+I run my own business, and any clients who feel mental health issues are shameful are not clients I want (editorial note: this is a brilliant point!).
+
+I make a point of also showing how much my mental health crisis has taught me — and how practicing self care is vital.
+
+**_Why did you choose to share your journey when you did?_**
+
+It was World Mental Health Day — so perfect timing.
+
+I’ve decided to be really intentional about sharing my story to become more visible this year.
+
+It has helped me grow my business as almost everyone has either suffered from anxiety/depression — or know someone who has committed suicide or struggled due to mental health issues.
+
+It’s more common than people think.
+
+#### [Rik Schnabel, Owner, Life Beyond Limits](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rikschnabel/)
+
+“I have been sharing publicly my challenge with mental health for almost 20 years now.
+
+**I do this because it encourages people to take action, instead of suppress or hide it.**
+
+My story from depression to suicidal ideation to a life of freedom has now helped hundreds of thousands of people to stand up to mental health. I now have a radio show about it and have written several best-selling books on the subject.
+
+Though you might be asking, how did me coming out affect my employment?
+
+In short, it had to end.
+
+I left my job to start my self development company Life Beyond Limits and my world couldn’t be better.
+
+I am now an ambassador for positive mental health and today we are helping by teaching others how to help people overcome their problems and limitations.”
+
+#### [Danielle Sady, Every Day Lingerie Company](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-sady-267261ba/)
+
+“I was extremely scared to share my mental health journey as I wasn’t sure how my followers would find this as I own my own business.
+
+However it was the best thing I could have done.
+
+Not only did finally talking about my battle with postnatal help, but I got some many messages from people who felt they too could open up within the network and or ask for the help because they didn’t feel alone after hearing my story.
+
+**I was defiantly worried how my brand would be impacted by this, but I saw it as if I help one person to get the help they need or not feel alone this means so much more than any negative kick back I could get.**
+
+No one should feel alone, but when taking that step you need to be well enough yourself I feel to understand what you are going through or have been through.”
+
+#### [Ainslee Hooper, Ainslee Hooper Consulting](https://ainsleehooper.com.au/)
+
+“I chose to share my journey for a couple of reasons.
+
+**I needed to heal and move on.**
+
+**There was no way that was going to happen unless I spoke about what happened.**
+
+**I needed to stop feeling ashamed for something that wasn’t my fault.**
+
+I needed to help break the stigma of mental health by showing the contributing factors to mental health.
+
+In hindsight, I wouldn’t be who I am today had I not gone through all of that.”
+
+#### [Justine Martin](https://www.justinemartin.com.au/), Speaker, Author
+
+“I chose to share my journey as my story is someone else’s survival guide.
+
+To show people that they are not alone”
+
+#### [Melani De Sousa](https://www.sourcebottle.com/profile/194209/Melani-De-Sousa), Wellness Expert & Workshop Presenter
+
+4 years ago I shared my (once) deeply secretive mental health story publicly on Facebook.
+
+As someone who doesn’t often use social media, I did this intentionally to create an impact amongst family, friends and colleagues who saw me as a happy, successful person who would be the last person they thought would struggle with mental health.
+
+**Were you worried about the potential repercussions?**
+
+I was very worried about the repercussions initially given for 27 years created a persona that was happy, bubbly and successful.
+
+Sharing my story meant others might form a label or judge me in a way that negated all my other traits and achievements.
+
+I suffered with Binge Eating Disorder, Anxiety, Depression and OCD. It meant people often looked at the way I ate differently and questioned my experience.
+
+At the time of sharing my story publicly, I opened a mental health clinic dedicated to helping sufferers of mental health and their families. It provided understanding into why I left my previous career — and my previous employer did comment on the post.
+
+I chose to share my journey when I did to expel myths about mental illness and encourage others (both those I knew and didn’t know) to share their story and get help.”
+
+#### [Alana Mai Mitchell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanamaimitchell/), Results Coach
+
+“I have shared my mental health condition (which is well-managed schizophrenia) on LinkedIn, in the workplace, in the media and live on national TV.
+
+**I was not worried about the repercussions at all as I have 100% accepted in myself that I have a mental illness and the phrase “I have a mental illness” no longer has any power over me.**
+
+**My current employer reacted with overwhelming support, where my manager at the time said “Wow, I didn’t know, and we are so lucky to have you on the team”. I retained my employment some 1.5 years later after sharing that story.**
+
+I chose to share my journey because it was the next step I could see in my leadership growth — particularly around my story of resilience and resourcefulness.”
+
+#### [Susannah Birch](https://susannahbirch.com/)
+
+“I’ve shared my story publicly, in outlets around the world, because I have a thick skin and I know that I can stand the trolling and negative feedback that sometimes occurs.
+
+Many people are too scared to even tell their friends about their mental health problems, due to the repercussions you mentioned.
+
+**My employers and coworkers have always been supportive, even when I’ve had to take some time out.**
+
+I have proven through my career that I can still do my job, and sometimes I’m even better at it because of my experiences.”
+
+#### [Lunaria Gaia, Founder, More Confidence](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lunariagaia)
+
+**Were you worried about the potential repercussions?**
+
+Most definitely!
+
+I think that shame is so insidious in our human condition and it’s much easier ( in the short term) to sweep it under the rug.
+
+I am sure that companies that might want to hire me may see me all over the internet in bikinis and such and see my brand as “ _lacking credibility”_ but I’m determined to break the stigma.
+
+**Why did you choose to share your journey when you did?**
+
+I suffered alone for years!
+
+Long before the body positivity movement, I was just a fat girl who hated herself and thought that everyone else had all their shit together.
+
+As I started my healing, it became apparent that so many of us suffer from low self esteem, negative self talk, feeling of self harm/destruction and are in long term abusive relationships with ourselves.
+
+I learnt that shame only holds power when it’s kept inside so my mark on the world is to eradicate shame inside of myself by putting it out there and for others too.
+
+When we can see normal everyday people experiencing the same thing as us, we can start the healing journey for ourselves.
+
+#### [Tamara Sloper-Harding](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-sloper-harding-oam-4a386b8/)
+
+I am a war veteran with PTSD.
+
+I have shared my story because it may help other veterans and also it helps me assist a village in East Timor, the country where I served.
+
+**It has been hard for me to tell my story, but heartache and challenge for me could provide many benefits for others.**
+
+I have been judged and ridiculed but at least something good comes from it.

posts/medium/-Everyone-Has-ADHD----And-Other-Insulting-Things-People-Say-To-ADHD-Patients.md

@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+# “Everyone Has ADHD” — And Other Insulting Things People Say To ADHD Patients
+
+#### Why, In This Day And Age, Do ADHD Patients Face A Struggle To Prove That Our Diagnoses Are Even Real?
+
+ADHD: no, “everybody” doesn’t have it. Even “just a little.” Photo by [Tara Winstead](https://www.pexels.com/@tara-winstead?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/adhd-text-8378730/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+Browsing through a social media feed the other day, I came across a post by an “influencer” whom I hitherto respected.
+
+I try not to throw people under the bus on the basis of one stupid remark — so I won’t go so far as to say that I no longer respect this individual — but the poster provided a strong wake-up call that society’s understanding of ADHD is far less evolved and empathetic than I had previously assumed it to be.
+
+The poster was talking about the difficulties inherent in making it through any long ream of text.
+
+He suspected — thinking out loud — that the internet had a lot to do with that.
+
+It’s gotten us accustomed to browsing quickly through snippets of information, he reasoned.
+
+And then he threw in a non-sequitur: or maybe I just have ADHD.
+
+In response to a question about that throaway comment, he threw in something else: you know, we all have it these days.
+
+I checked for pushback. There was none forthcoming. And before I could get angry or felt compelled to start an internet flame war, I closed the tab.
+
+### Are We Actually Arguing About The Fact That ADHD Is Real!?
+
+Today, something about ADHD popped through another social feed.
+
+And it flung my mind back to the conversation.
+
+Had that actually happened?
+
+Had I just witnessed somebody affirm — to other educated adults — that ADHD isn’t even a real condition? That “everybody” has it — at least to a mild extent? And had I just witnessed as everybody who read that post stood there in silence, apparently agreeing with what had been posted. Yes, I actually had.
+
+[**My ADHD Diagnosis Story**  
+ _Cross-posted from Twitter, lightly redacted, and expanded:_ medium.com](https://medium.com/daniels-adhd/my-adhd-diagnosis-story-410010a3ba6c "https://medium.com/daniels-adhd/my-adhd-diagnosis-story-410010a3ba6c")[](https://medium.com/daniels-adhd/my-adhd-diagnosis-story-410010a3ba6c)
+
+[**Will Sharing Your ADHD Diagnosis Destroy Your Professional Reputation?**  
+_Those thinking about sharing an ADHD diagnosis–particularly the self-employed — often worry about the effect it will…_ medium.com](https://medium.com/daniels-adhd/will-sharing-your-adhd-diagnosis-destroy-your-professional-reputation-f1aa7d13a2f4 "https://medium.com/daniels-adhd/will-sharing-your-adhd-diagnosis-destroy-your-professional-reputation-f1aa7d13a2f4")[](https://medium.com/daniels-adhd/will-sharing-your-adhd-diagnosis-destroy-your-professional-reputation-f1aa7d13a2f4)
+
+And then I thought what a proper response to that should be.
+
+It didn’t take more than a few seconds to track down resources designed to highlight the pervasive and damaging nature of this societal trope from ADHD advocacy organizations. But that felt a little too JADE-like to me ([from another context](https://psychcentral.com/blog/imperfect/2018/03/dealing-with-difficult-family-members-dont-justify-argue-defend-or-explain), but a rule that I have found incredibly useful and widely applicable).
+
+We can point, for instance, to the fact that the diagnostic process for ADHD is pretty tightly controlled depending on where you live in the world. ADHD medications are powerful and controlled substances. Even after you’ve been diagnosed, maintaining access to them can be tricky.
+
+In Israel, I have to complete paperwork every single time I pick up a prescription — which is typically once a month. When I recently needed to get more in order to keep my supply going while in the US, the pharmacy needed to apply for a special permit from the Health Ministry. I needed to submit my passport, plane ticket, and prescription (the same one I’ve presented countless times).
+
+When my doctor decided to increase my Vyvanse dosage during the middle of the month, the only means for me to pick up the new script was to physically return the weaker tablets. I forgot about the fact that I had left one in a car which I keep as an emergency backup (note: for obvious reasons, probably a bad idea). The pharmacist counted and asked me why one was missing. I had to go back and fetch it. Only then could I get the stronger dosage.
+
+I can talk, as well, about brain scans.
+
+About how the most advanced medical imaging that society has at its disposal has proven that the brains of studied diagnosed ADHD subjects tend to look functionally different than those of neurotypicals — and that those differences might be what’s at the root of the fact that brains of ADHDers have a hard time using the dopamine that their brain produces (before I butcher the science any further, I’ll stop myself here).
+
+From what I have learned and understand about the condition, it seems that ADHD is more a neurological than psychiatric condition — although any condition affecting the locus of our thoughts and feelings is strongly liable to result in both manifestations.
+
+About how — despite ADHD being a complicated condition with subtypes and variable presentations — the medical community does the best possible job that it can at helping us to live with the limitations that it poses.
+
+Incidences are well-known.
+
+Treatment approaches are standardized.
+
+Diagnosis — for adults — tends to be a complicated and sometimes unfortunately protracted affair.
+
+We know what factors increase the likelihood of an ADHD diagnosis. So why are laypeople still denying the fact that the condition exists?
+
+### ADHD’s Stigma Is More Than Just A Slight
+
+But here’s what really gets me worked up when people make that throaway stupid comment about “everybody” having ADHD — typically qualified with “just a little” if the person making the remark realizes halfway through that he’s just universalized (and thereby denied) the existence of a very real health condition.
+
+Sadly, the space for discussion that we’ve created around mental health conditions, as societies, is far from ideal.
+
+Yes, even in this day and age that we commonly hold up as a model for how “evolved” we are and how much better we are than that ghastly time when we locked up the mentally infirm in asylums.
+
+Stigma remains a problem.
+
+Not just for ADHD but for just about any mental health condition ranging from anxiety to depression and bipolar disorder.
+
+Every remark that implies that our everyday actions meet a diagnostic criteria, in a small way, delegitimizes the condition to which we compare our actions.
+
+For if we _all_ suffer from a condition, then we deny the fact that there may be a subset of humanity that suffers from the condition to an extent that requires some form of treatment.
+
+If we keep our ears open, we’ll hear lots of these. Perhaps uttered by ourselves.
+
+_“Oh, I’m just a bit OCD about diary keeping. That’s why I lay out my calendar appointments like this.”_
+
+As somebody with more neuroticisms than I can keep count of, I totally get the intent behind remarks like this. But language is powerful, and often we are unaware of the subtleties in how it is perceived; and how different and more sensitives audiences (read: patient populations) may interpret our words.
+
+What would I recommend doing instead? “Neurotic” or “finnicky” or “pedantic” would all be better substitutes that don’t draw an equivalence to a mental health condition that needs to be diagnosed by a mental health professional. None of those imply that the weird way you lay out your diary means that you’re suffering from the same condition that means that it takes somebody else two hours to leave the house because they need to wash their hands two hundred times in order to do so.
+
+Unless you know for certain that you suffered from an actual panic attack — I’ve had a real one and they’re absolutely horrible — it’s better not to describe your minor freak-out upon learning of your credit card bill as “a panic attack.” “I got a shock,” is totally fine (ahem … I’ve been there recently). How about you were “taken aback” by the amount on the bill?
+
+One of the useful things about the English language — something you don’t really appreciate until you compare it to a language with a smaller lexicon — is just how many words there are. There are synonyms and words that communicate fine degrees of nuance. It’s unlikely that you’re missing one. If not you can combine words that aren’t diagnoses into sentences.
+
+Feel a little bit down after the weekend has reached its conclusion? You might be feeling a bit “sad.” But even though the distinction might seem slightly, it’s better than saying you’re _depressed_ — which you could argue implies that you’re suffering from clinical depression.
+
+Am I sounding high and mighty here? Probably just a little. Do I make these mistakes myself? Actually, yes. All the time. Not about ADHD. Because nobody needs me to convince me that it’s a real thing. But about other conditions. If you hear me making a slip up, please call me out on it.
+
+We can all do better when it comes to attempting to understand the challenges that other people live with — even if we can’t fit them within the frame of reference through which we view the world.
+
+hey may be totally beyond the pale of our lived experiences. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not real.
+
+As a golden rule if you want to hold on to no other: don’t refer to a mental illness in the DSM unless you actually intend referring to that illness or a manifestation of it.
+
+And certainly don’t pretend that what the medical profession _has_ collectively determined to be a real thing is something that’s merely an exaggerated description of a condition that’s universalized among the human race.

posts/medium/-Green-Flags---Tips-For-Recognizing-High-Potential-Leads-In-Your-Freelancing-Pipeline.md

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+# “Green Flags”: Tips For Recognizing High Potential Leads In Your Freelancing Pipeline
+
+#### Can you tell those prospects who are really interested in your freelancing services from those who are just collecting price points?
+
+Lead scoring: can you tell your high potential leads from those less likely to turn into customers? Photo by [Lukas](https://www.pexels.com/@goumbik?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-writing-on-notebook-669615/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+If you’re shoring up your efforts in the realm of inbound marketing then sooner or later — if your efforts bear fruit — you’re going to notice an uptick in the number of inbound leads that make it into your pipeline.
+
+Before I go any further, let me explain why I’ve added the “freelancing” qualifier to the title of this article. For the past five years, I’ve been operating at the smallest (solo marketing consultant) level of scale.
+
+If you want to know how to tell which multi-million deal prospects are likely to convert and which are not then I’m 100% unqualified to provide advice as I have zero experience in this domain. Speak to a B2B sales manager and I’m sure they’d have lots to say about that.
+
+However, I _have_ handled plenty of inbound leads for consulting services over the years and have begun to develop a sixth sense for which are going to materialize into business and which are going to …. end up dropping out of the pipeline.
+
+This sixth sense is invaluable because — when things get busy — it can help direct you to where it’s best to focus efforts. You can’t put together an amazing
+
+I’ve spoken before about the red flags that should give you pause for thought before adding a new account to your freelance/consulting book of business.
+
+[**5 Red Flags to Help Avoid ‘Difficult’ Freelancing Clients**  
+ _I recently wrote about my deliberate decision to be less responsive — about how taking slightly longer to get back to…_ medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/5-red-flags-to-help-avoid-difficult-freelancing-clients-52f57507a43d "https://medium.com/freelance-writing/5-red-flags-to-help-avoid-difficult-freelancing-clients-52f57507a43d")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/5-red-flags-to-help-avoid-difficult-freelancing-clients-52f57507a43d)
+
+But today, let’s look at the opposite. What clues might tip you in to who the high potential leads might be in your pipeline.
+
+(Everything here is based on personal experience and intuition; I don’t have data to back up these claims.)
+
+### They’re Oddly Focused
+
+The most reliable gauge I have for whether a prospect is going to convert is the level of focus that they bring to the first interaction.
+
+This one’s a little tricky to explain.
+
+Window shoppers — those who might be blitzing out quotes to lots of potential vendors — tend to leave off subtle signals that they’re not really all that serious about doing business with you.
+
+I’m not saying that these leads aren’t worth of attention. Simply that if you want to try to focus on those that have the most potential, these mightn’t be the ideal targets of your focus.
+
+A message from a window shopper might sound very much like it’s copy and pasted or a quick adaptation from a boilerplate. Whereas outreach from a highly engaged prospect will be a lot shorter and to the point.
+
+_Generic style outreach from a potential window shopper:_
+
+> Hi Daniel,
+
+> I came across your website and would love to hear more about the type of marketing consulting service that you offer.
+
+> We’re a 50 person tech firm based in Seattle and are thinking about doing more in this area this year.
+
+> Have a few minutes to chat on Zoom about this?
+
+I’d give this type of message a lead score of about 2 out of 5.
+
+_Much more focused outreach:_
+
+> Hi Daniel,
+
+> I saw that you offer marketing communications consulting and we could definitely use some of that right now. I liked the fact that you have tech experience because that’s exactly our space- we’re a backup provider.
+
+> We’re looking to onboard some kind of resource to cover this area by early next month and I looked at your resume and think you could be a great match. More specifically, we’re about to make some new appointments and need somebody to lay the groundwork for PR. Let me know if it would be possible to talk about this this week and whether you’re open to the idea of working on a retainer?
+
+And I’d rate this a 4 and make sure to follow up.
+
+### They Know What They Need And When They Need It Actioned By
+
+As the above example messages make clear (they’re not real, by the way, but _are_ very representative of the type of messages I’ve received over the years), prospects that _are_ really determined also tend to have already done the groundwork to understand and layout what their identifiable need is.
+
+The more specific they can be the better.
+
+They know what they need. They know approximately when they need it. And they’re interested in having a conversation with you to see whether you can be the service provider to address those “pain points.”
+
+### They’ve Done Their Homework About You
+
+If a prospect is really serious about hiring you as a freelancer or consultant, then they’ll typically send out some signals that they’ve invested a bit of time in actually checking out your business — or you — in order to evaluate whether you might be the right man or woman for the job.
+
+They might reference case studies you have on your website demonstrating your work for previous clients. They might make it clear that they’re already familiar with your professional background.
+
+The more leads you handle, the easier it becomes to get an intuitive sense for those that are likely to turn into business and those who will probably end up wasting your time.
+
+Obviously lead scoring can be whittled down to a near exact science — many CRMs have formulae that do this automatically — but there are also some intangible personal dimensions that need to be taken into account.
+
+These are some of the signals that I’ve found useful to determine whether an inbound lead is “really serious” or “just shopping around.”

posts/medium/-Salary-Confessions--Page-Helps-Lift-The-Lid-On-Salaries-In-Israel.md

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+# “Salary Confessions” Page Helps Lift The Lid On Salaries In Israel
+
+#### Anonymous salary reports open up a whole new world of data about how much jobs in Israel are paying; salaries in “high tech” trend above 30,000 NIS/month, almost 2.5 times the national average.
+
+Israel is an expensive country, but average salaries in the high-tech sector are continuing to trend significantly above the average and remain at above six figure territory in the US dollar. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
+
+In Israel, as elsewhere, there’s a strong movement going on towards salary transparency right now.
+
+As I wrote this January, jobseekers in Israel already have several means at their disposal to research where salaries stand in the job market:
+
+[**How To Research Salaries In Israel**  
+ _Places To Research Your Market Value In The Israeli Job Market_ medium.com](https://medium.com/living-in-israel/how-to-research-salaries-in-israel-3c0c6ca577f4 "https://medium.com/living-in-israel/how-to-research-salaries-in-israel-3c0c6ca577f4")[](https://medium.com/living-in-israel/how-to-research-salaries-in-israel-3c0c6ca577f4)
+
+For one, there are national salary surveys typically conducted by recruitment agencies . These provide good insights into the average (note: not _mean_) salary being paid in a specific field.
+
+Increasingly, [Glassdoor](http://www.glassdoor.com) is proving itself useful not only for reading anonymous reviews of working conditions at Israeli companies, but also for finding anonymous salary reports.
+
+According to recent data compiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Israel’s national statistics body, monthly salaries rose 5.5% in March and stood, then, at an average of 12,470 NIS. **At today’s exchange rates (October 28th), that’s roughly $47,168 and €40,577 (salaries in Israel are quoted monthly).**
+
+ Yes, you read that paragraph correctly. The average salary in the world of “high tech” now stands at more than 30,000 NIS per month.
+
+[**השכר הממוצע במשק - 12,740 שקל, השכר בהייטק - 31,525 שקל | כלכליסט**  
+ _לפי נתוני הלמ"ס לחודש מרץ, השכר הממוצע במשק עלה ב-5.5% לעומת החודש שקדם לו, ואילו שכר עובדי ההייטק זינק ביותר מ-10%…_ www.calcalist.co.il](https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/H14WlMLc00 "https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/H14WlMLc00")[](https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/H14WlMLc00)
+
+[**Average salary in Israel rises another 5.5%**  
+_The average monthly salary in Israel rose 5.5% in March to NIS 12,740 compared with February, the Central Bureau of…_ en.globes.co.il](https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-average-salary-in-israel-rises-another-55-1001373269 "https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-average-salary-in-israel-rises-another-55-1001373269")[](https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-average-salary-in-israel-rises-another-55-1001373269)
+
+Notably, the CBS computes a separate average salary figure for the country’s high-tech sector, where salaries significantly outpace those in the rest of the economy.
+
+Despite the fact that recent data showed that the sector employs only a small cohort of 20,000 workers at its core, “high tech” remains a major economic driver of Israel’s economy, with jobs largely concentrated in Tel Aviv and the surrounding area (Hebrew: the _merkaz,_ center). Successive Israeli governments have committed to driving participation rates in the high tech sector, particularly through encouraging the study of STEM subjects in high schools where, in recent years, Israel has showed concerning trends when benchmarked against other OECD member states.
+
+**According to data quoted in _Globes_ the high tech average, in March, rose to 31,525 NIS. At the exchange rates in operation at the date of publication, that’s $119,244 and €102,577 in Euros and United States dollars respectively.**
+
+Broken down, the CBS numbers show that the high tech average now trends above the national figure at a multiple of slightly more than 2.47, laying bare the stark differences between Israel’s internationally-focused “high tech” workforce and the rest of the economy.
+
+[**Just 20,000 people drive Israel's tech industry - study**  
+ _Israel's technology industry relies on 20,000 talented people who are responsible for the sector's technological…_ en.globes.co.il](https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-just-20000-people-drive-israels-tech-industry-study-1001384225 "https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-just-20000-people-drive-israels-tech-industry-study-1001384225")[](https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-just-20000-people-drive-israels-tech-industry-study-1001384225)
+
+### Salary Confessions Page Shares Anonymous Reports Verified By Payslip
+
+In recent months, another weapon has arisen to help Israeli jobseekers get and stay appraised of their market value.
+
+<https://www.facebook.com/salaryconfessions/>
+
+_Vidui Sachar_ (Hebrew: וידוי שכר; literally “salary confessions”) is a nascent Facebook page which features anonymous reports of salary from across the Israeli workforce.
+
+In order to verify the claimed earnings, those submitting listings are asked to submit pay stubs (Hebrew: _tlushim)._
+
+In order to preserve the anonymity of respondents, the information is submitted by Google Form and no personally identifiable information is collected.
+
+Interacting with me by private message, the page owner said that he/she expressly refuses to collect information through any other means and that in the even that somebody submits information through Facebook, the messages are immediately deleted.
+
+Among recent data points shared with the page:
+
+  * **A football referree who makes 1,554 NIS per game** through officiating at matches
+  * **A software engineer with 5.5 years’ experience pulling in a monthly gross salary of 36,00 NIS**
+  * **A data analyst with 3 years’ experience earning 19,00 NIS per month**
+  * A**help desk assistant being paid 8,000 NIS per month**
+
+To check out the page, click the link above. And share it with your Israel-based friends and family!
+
+**(Hat tip: Elisheva Hecht-Bronner, via Facebook)**
+
+### To share your salary report:
+
+### Coverage in Hebrew:
+
+[**קבוצת וידויים או גימיק שיווקי מבריק? מה עומד מאחורי "וידויי שכר"**  
+_לימודים וקריירה זוהר אורבך | לימודים וקריירה mako בחודשים האחרונים אחד העמודים הבולטים באינטרנט הישראלי היה "וידויי…_ www.mako.co.il](https://www.mako.co.il/study-career-career/articles/Article-211aa91d24e9971027.htm "https://www.mako.co.il/study-career-career/articles/Article-211aa91d24e9971027.htm")[](https://www.mako.co.il/study-career-career/articles/Article-211aa91d24e9971027.htm)
+
+[**כמה מרוויחים הקולגות שלכם? קבלו הצצה לסוד השמור של שוק העבודה**  
+ _עד כמה עובדי ההייטק מנותקים בשכרם מרוב המשק הישראלי - ניתוק שככל הנראה רק הועצם בשנת הקורונה? עמוד פייסבוק בשם "וידויי…_ www.globes.co.il](https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001369264 "https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001369264")[](https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001369264)

posts/medium/-Thought-leader--is-an-earned-title.md

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+# ‘Thought leader’ is an earned title
+
+#### Why Thought Leaders Need To Be Judicious About Using The Descriptor Until It’s Definitely Time
+
+As a writer and communications consultant specializing in working with technology thought leaders, I get some version of the below approximately once a month:
+
+_“We are looking to establish ourselves as thought leaders in the [technology niche] space. We are hoping to achieve that by the end of this quarter. We’d also like two placements in TechCrunch and to appear on the front page of Google News.”_
+
+(Query exaggerated for dramatic effect).
+
+Thought leadership _is_ an effective form of marketing that is related to, but [slightly distinct from](https://dsrghostwriting.com/insights/the-4-key-differences-between-thought-leadership-and-content-marketing-entrepreneur-com/), content marketing. Its uses extend from lead generation through to positioning the authoring party as a premium provider. But there is a faulty premise underlying the above.
+
+The purpose of this blog post is to unpack it.
+
+### True Thought Leaders Are Not Self-Appointed
+
+If you can get past whatever connotations you _may_ have about the term, think, for a moment, about somebody you consider to be a thought leader.
+
+Perhaps it’s a pivotal figure in the tech world — such as Bill Gates — whose prognostics you have come across as a soundbite in a Netflix documentary.
+
+Maybe it’s somebody influential you’ve seen quoted in the media. Alternatively, you may have come across an op-ed in the _New York Times_ that is doing the rounds on LinkedIn.
+
+Hold those images in your mind for a moment.
+
+Now think about (again) a LinkedIn post from a startup founder who declares himself (or herself) a “thought leader on innovation.” Or an email newsletter that proclaims itself to be thought leadership. Perhaps you’re at a networking event and a technologist — but one you’ve never heard of before — introduces himself as a _“thought leader on the future of cloud computing.”_
+
+I’m guessing that you noticed some differences in terms of how you conceived, in your mind, of both these groups. Pause and think what those are for a moment. Now see whether the perceptions you automatically arrived at differ from what I suggest they’re likely to be.
+
+For the first group, you may have silently affirmed the authority of the thought leaders — in the sense that mentally you didn’t rise to challenge the title that they proclaimed.
+
+The latter examples, by contrast, may well have aroused in you feelings of skepticism and jadedness. “ _Not another LinkedIn thought leader!”_ you may have explained to yourself.
+
+But what are the differences between the two sets of examples? Why did I feel that way?
+
+Let’s dig into a few:
+
+  * **It’s not easy to become an expert that is quoted in a Netflix documentary**(yes, even if you’re listed in an established experts’ directory.) By contrast, it’s not particularly difficult to set up a LinkedIn profile, or website, that declares oneself to be a thought leader.
+  * Thought leaders who are household names — like Bill Gates — typically don’t need to introduce themselves as thought leaders. Their reputation -quite literally — precedes them and declaring their thought leadership would, in many cases, simply be redundant. When people are at pains to depict themselves in those words through constant repetition, it tends to have a counterproductive effect and leads audiences to wonder if “the ‘thought leader’ doth protest too much.”
+  * In the latter set of examples, the thought leader’s standing is being externally validated. By being invited to contribute commentary to a documentary. By being offered lucrative real estate in the _New York Times_. By being invited to offer commentary to other top tier media. Introducing yourself as the thought leader doesn’t leverage any external validation. Most likely, it will be perceived instead as a claim. Perhaps a vacuous one.
+
+### The Good News: You Can Start Your Journey Now
+
+The above is not intended to suggest that it is forbidden for thought leaders to declare themselves to be thought leaders. Or to suggest that every self-reference to thought leadership is going to backfire and result in charges of charlatanism (or perceptions of the same).
+
+Rather the point is that — when subjected to the cold, hard light of public perception — there’s a very simple litmus test that readers or viewers can use to differentiate who they perceive to be “true” thought leaders from who they might mark out as wannabees. And that’s whether anybody _else_ is affirming the speaker’s standing as a thought leader.
+
+That social affirmation can take many forms.
+
+It can involve being named as a thought leader by a respected and trusted author with a reputation to defend (consider, for instance, the “40 Under 40” style awards). It could be the glowing introduction from a well-known event MC. Or it could take the form of one’s (repeat) invitation to appear on a television program.
+
+The important point is that the thought leader’s standing is being validated by a party that is itself well-perceived. The effect of these endorsements can be collective. But they’re naturally more powerful when they arise from an external source.
+
+As a general principle, self-references to one’s standing as a “thought leader” should be carried out judiciously until one is unquestionably worthy of the title. That’s because ultimately, whether one’s thoughts are considered leading is decided in the court of public opinion.
+
+Until arriving at that point, thought leaders in development should make every effort to share influential ideas and thoughts that can inspire and change viewpoints whatever their industry. This is the simple (but arduous) way through which one goes from being an unknown presenter on a stage to an expert contributor to prime time television programs.
+
+The business of becoming a thought leader is hard graft. It usually involves a combination of perseverance, having something interesting to say (or many things), and connecting with the right audiences at the right time. But doing so to a fixed timeline is at best a very difficult thing to achieve.
+
+Ultimately one’s success depends upon public perception. As any PR practitioner will tell you, despite one’s best efforts, that tends to be a very difficult thing to guarantee.

posts/medium/-You-Have-To-Be-Authentic--Every--Single--Day-.md

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+# “You Have To Be Authentic. Every. Single. Day”
+
+#### A valuable lesson garnered at a social event
+
+ _(A sort of public diary entry cross-posted from my blog)_
+
+Ten months or so I had the merit of attending a friend’s wedding.
+
+It was quite a glamorous affair on account of the prestige of the bride’s family.
+
+The Friday night dinner which preceded the wedding was held in just about the fanciest hotel in the city. There were bodyguards. Politicians. It was quite an interesting _milieu_.
+
+Despite our un-eminent station in society (I am a marketing writer; a friend in our contingent is a free-living musician) the groom kindly invited us to both the preceding dinner, the wedding itself, and a party after (the point of this blog post isn’t to brag about being invited to this wedding, so although there were more interesting details to the affair, I will not be embellishing beyond what’s necessary.)
+
+This wedding was shortly before my gallbladder surgery when beer and my digestive system were still on good terms.
+
+My wedding companion and I arrived a little early and had a drink in the hotel lobby. The nice thing about it was that after one small beer I loosened up about the idea of being in a room with people I knew from watching the news and began to get into the groove of just enjoying the evening.
+
+After some time we were seated at a table by the entrance. Next to us are seated an attractive couple, probably ten years older than us, who are part of the travelling delegation from what I could tactfully describe as the famous half of this couple that necessitated aforementioned security.
+
+Seeing these two seated at the “kiddy’s table,” by the door, I instantly felt a bit embarrassed for them. What kind of short straw did they draw to be seated next to _us_?
+
+Nevertheless, my anxiety and pity were both unfounded.
+
+The couple were warm and friendly and — despite clearly being very affluent — had no airs or graces and were surprisingly down to earth. If they were bummed about the seating arrangement and not being around more important adults, well, they did a great job of disguising their feelings. I got talking to the husband during the meal and we shared a shot of _arak._
+
+The gentleman, it turned out, was a successful diamond trader from New York City. We listen to the same Rabbi on the internet. So we had enough at least, to start up a cordial conversation about.
+
+At some point — perhaps after the first shot of _arak_ had sunk in — the guy decided to bestow his best life advice upon me. Perhaps I had asked for the key to his success (after five minutes this would have been uncharacteristic!). Maybe we had impressed upon him the difficult grittiness of making a living in Israel and he had sporadically decided to offer it. Maybe none of those things were segues. I can’t recall. But it doesn’t really matter.
+
+**The secret to success in life, he claimed, was to be authentic.** But he didn’t stop there.
+
+**You have to be authentic, he insisted, every single day.** And this is the part that has stood with me.
+
+As he described it, it wasn’t good enough to have moments or flashes of authenticity or to be on a run of it and then stop.
+
+No. Authenticity, he claimed, was sort of like a chain. If you let up, even for a day or two, the chain is broke and you’re back to square one — or at least you’ve muddied your messaging because those following you no longer know what’s the true you and what’s a front.
+
+He emphasized this far more than the value of authenticity itself, which of course is much more commonplace advice.
+
+As is sometimes the case, this comment — that perhaps was meant as as throwaway — has stuck with me ever since (and it’s always those small remarks that linger, good or bad).
+
+For some reason, I decided — viscerally, subconsciously — that this advice spoke to me on some deep level.
+
+I don’t expend mental energy trying to parse and unpack every nugget of wisdom I receive. But for some reason I felt an instantaneous attachment to this one. And I still feel that today trying to verbally unpack it.
+
+That’s all I really to say for now.
+
+In the intervening months since, I’ve tried to be a little bit braver about being authentic in my online writing. I’m always wary about where the mark is between sharing enough and over-sharing.
+
+To give an example:
+
+I wrote a piece today in which I offered my true feelings about _hasbara_ (amateur pro-Israel advocacy). I think that _hasbara_ is a colossal waste of time and energy even though I’m virtually certain that my views are going to offend a couple of friends who are involved in the world. Nevertheless, if I were going to write a piece about the things that I would like to see change in Israel, it would be unauthentic to not include that.
+
+Likewise, and despite undoubtedly seeming like a Biblical loon to some who read the piece, I penned a piece for my blog earlier outlining my day’s investigation into the burning issue of [how much wine, precisely was consumed during the times of the Bible. ](https://www.danielrosehill.co.il/myblog/some-information-about-biblical-wine-in-ancient-israel/)It was authentic to talk about a subject that has deeply interested me for some time (the society and diet of the Ancient Israelites!)
+
+So these are the little baby steps I have been taking, trying to push through small measures of reluctance on my part to skirt around my true feelings — or, more commonly to frame them euphemistically, which is, ultimately, a form of intellectual dishonestly.
+
+However pop-psychology-like as this will sound, I don’t think that the journey towards being as authentic as one can possibly be done overnight.
+
+I know, intuitively, that it’s a process. And I also know, intuitively, that — having a terrible habit of bottling up my feelings — I have a very long way to go.
+
+I still struggle to think, exactly, how I will need to make sure that I am as authentic, or more so, one day after the next.
+
+That I don’t let up. Even for a single day (as the advice demanded). But I guess that that meditation can be part of the journey. And perhaps some sort of daily meditation into who I am and what I hope to achieve is the answer to giving that process the guidance and strategy it probably needs to succeed.
+
+**Do you have insight into what being authentic every day might mean?**

posts/medium/10-Things-I-d-Like-To-Change-About-Life-in-Israel.md

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+# 10 Things I’d Like To Change About Life in Israel
+
+My Facebook poll. Source: Author
+
+When not thumping out writing projects for [technology clients](http://www.dsrghostwriting.com) or tending to my new and thriving YouTube channel (just kidding, I have 10 subscribers), I have been known to frequent the odd Facebook group.
+
+Although they can be addictive, over time I have found a way to make them work for me without derailing my work day. The “pro tips”: log out of Facebook rather than close the tab down and disable notifications when you’ve had enough of the back and forth.
+
+One of the groups I have discovered is one which — controversially — provides a safe forum for those considering leaving Israel. In Israeli circles,_‘yeridah’_ — the process of leaving Israel — has always been rife with controversy ( _The Jerusalem Post_ has a good piece [explaining the dynamic here](https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/middle-israel-time-to-shed-the-complex-of-yeridah-569871)).
+
+The group comprises individuals that have already left Israel after moving here, those that are hell-bent on doing so, and those who — like me — are just kind of continuously thinking about it (one study I read indicated that 40% of _olim_ eventually return to their countries of origin, so those in the undecided category has to comprise a pretty large contingent!).
+
+**Although it could well be my imagination, I believe that in recent weeks and months I have noticed a change in the discourse about leaving Israel** — a more open and tolerant one emerging, in which pointing out some of the things that need urgent rectification in the country is no longer met with the typical aggressive and dismissive response of “ _if you don’t like it here, you can leave”_.
+
+I have seen this at the national level in which even right-wing voters have been unable to contain their disgust at [the extravagant government that has been assembled during a time of national austerity (a wave of protests swept through the country).](https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/could-israelis-be-the-ultimate-freyers/)
+
+And I have also seen this on an inter-personal level. Now, with the country partially shut down and citizens swiftly deprived of the [Amazon free shipping offer](https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-amazon-halts-free-shipments-to-israel-1001322732) which took the country by storm, it’s painfully obvious, once again, that Israel is vastly overpriced and simply unaffordable for too many to live in.
+
+And so — emboldened by [my previous Medium post](https://medium.com/living-in-israel/the-pros-and-cons-of-living-in-israel-5caa0c76bb10) on this topic as well as [a blog post I contributed](https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-israel-i-would-like-to-live-in-in-10-years/) to this website about how I would like to see Israel in ten years — here’s a slightly expanded wish list of the things I would like to see change in the country by the time the next generation arrives.
+
+### 1\. A Lower Cost of Living
+
+As I mentioned in my blog post, an informal poll which I initiated on aforementioned Facebook group showed that for the vast majority of people, Israel’s extremely high cost of living ( [it was recently named the eight most expensive country in the world](https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/By5ba11dfL)) is the main factor pushing people out of Israel.
+
+**Studies have shown that as many as 41% of the country**[**lives in some kind of overdraft**](https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4633784,00.html)**.**
+
+Although it may sound like the stuff of conspiracy theories, a vast percentage of the Israeli economy is controlled by a small number of tycoons.
+
+Israel’s economy is one dominated by oligopolies and monopolies at virtually every level. And immigrants are tired of being paid insufficient salaries that don’t match up to the cost of living. Despite the rosy picture painted by Nefesh b’Nefesh and other organizations, I and many _olim_ can attest that many of our first friends in Israel have since left the country for precisely this reason: they found maintaining a reasonable standard of living in the country, or surviving, simply impossible (and yes, that even includes those working in “high tech”!). Although it typically happens with less fanfare than the arrival of a Nefesh b’Nefesh flight full of new immigrants, _olim_ are voting with their feet and leaving the country — and have been for some time. Israel’s absurd cost of living is unsustainable. To keep voluntary migrants in the country, this simply _has_ to change.
+
+**Possible solutions:**
+
+  * Israel enacting more aggressive antitrust law and lessening bureaucracy to encourage international competition in the market as well as local small
+  * Israel could consider abandoning its often restrictive policy of not recognizing international standards which again restricts foreign competition.
+
+### 2\. Breaking The Property Bubble
+
+Israeli currency. Many of these are needed to buy property in Israel! Source: Wikimedia Commons.
+
+If you thought that $10 beer was bad, just wait until it’s your turn to start thinking about getting on the property ladder.
+
+[This piece](https://www.timesofisrael.com/sure-you-can-make-it-in-israel-if-your-parents-help-say-economists/), by Simona Weinglass (for this website) does an excellent job of summing up the dynamic for far too many.
+
+To quote from that article:
+
+_“Unless they are in the top 20 percent of income earners, Regev told The Times of Israel, or unless they already own significant assets, a typical professional couple making aliya from abroad will likely never be able to save enough money for a down payment on an apartment.”_ (Eitan Regev was one of the researchers at the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies that commissioned the paper being referenced in the piece).
+
+This generation’s difficulty in getting on the property ladder is well-known and not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. But with absurdly high real estate prices propped up by restrictive government control of land the dynamic in Israel is exaggerated.
+
+**Possible solutions:** Israel developing currently sparsely populated peripheral areas such as the Negev and Golan and making them attractive for young people to move there. Most saliently, these areas — and Jerusalem — needs jobs. And lots of them.
+
+### 3\. Less Shitat Matzliach (Taking Advantage)
+
+Tel Aviv: the home of the Israeli high-tech scene. And some immigrant exploitation.Source: Wikimedia Commons.
+
+I’ve talked about _freier culture_ in several pieces before.
+
+If that word is new to you [then this piece I wrote about how to work with Israelis ](https://medium.com/@danielrosehill/what-to-know-about-working-with-israelis-c84200d7afca)— and do so while keeping your sanity — might be of interest.
+
+**A working culture prevails in _some quarters_ in Israel in which it is seen as smart and tactful to try out-negotiate the vulnerable** — often new immigrants — into taking bad deals or accepting salaries that are not commensurate with their skills.
+
+Too many immigrants end up getting repeatedly burned by unscrupulous employers. Again, immigrant exploitation is not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. But, as the only Jewish country in the world, and one premised on Jews uprooting their lives in order to share in a collective form of national self-determination, I feel like we can and must do better than taking advantage of one another at every opportunity. Many Israelis are the grandsons and granddaughters of immigrants. Taking advantage of those two generations down the line is nothing other than shameful opportunism.
+
+**Possible solutions:** Some kind of collective moment of national reckoning that life is not a zero sum game and compromises can be reached at whereby both parties in an employment relationship benefit. Mercilessly haggling down contractors and employees is not a great way to get them to do their best work. Additionally, a raising of the national minimum vacation day allowance from its current paltry figure of 12 to 20, which would be more in line with (non-US) international norms.
+
+### 4\. Better Customer Service
+
+A shopping mall in Israel. Source: Wikimedia.
+
+If you’ve never been to Israel then you might be unaware that customer service is _often_ painfully bad here.
+
+Putting a finger on ‘how’ or ‘why’ isn’t all that simplistic. A the retail level, tellers will commonly ignore customers and pay attention to their smartphones instead (or complete their stock take and keep the customer waiting in line until it is convenient for them to serve them!).
+
+At a more national level, many Israelis and immigrants alike have amassed vast collections of horror stories about dealing with some well-known national utility and telecommunications providers. By the standards of Western democracies, Israel’s current defamation laws are also [stifling](https://www.pearlcohen.com/israel-sharing-a-post-on-social-media-may-constitute-defamation-liking-it-will-not/). This contributes to a culture in which businesses feel able to treat customers with impunity. They know that they don’t have many alternatives. And even if they did, complaining about their treatment on Facebook, to warn other customers, could constitute an actionable offence.
+
+**Possible solutions:** A gold standard customer service award, independently audited, which would allow those Israeli businesses which take customer service seriously and treat their customers fairly to objectively demonstrate this. More international competition and exposure should raise standards. More generous consumer protection law would prevent businesses from being able to treat customers poorly.
+
+### 5\. Politicians That Serve The People (Rather Than Themselves)
+
+I don’t want to slant this politically by advocating for a political side of the political spectrum, although recent happenings have indeed pivoted me to one end of that spectrum.
+
+Instead I will say this: recent events in Israel have made it abundantly clear (for me and for many) that too many Israeli politicians care about very little other than their own preservation in power or that of their “tribe” — which might be a particular religious sect or a narrow demographic of immigrants. [As I wrote in my last piece decrying the grossly bloated government we’ve been foisted with](https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/could-israelis-be-the-ultimate-freyers/), it’s a system which seems to have cronyism and a lack of accountability hard-wired into it.
+
+To my eyes, Israel’s political system is thus both hopelessly divided and myopic in terms of its relentless, though justifiable, focus on security matters. Voters vote in party lists rather than individual candidates with constituencies and politicians have a longstanding habit of forming tiny splinter parties the moment they hit a disagreement with the party leader. As a result, the vast majority of the country which doesn’t share in the bounty of the “high tech” job market (the ‘periphery’ — the country beyond the ‘merkaz’) finds itself underrepresented. But even within the _merkaz_ there is no door to knock at when, say, your local municipality decides to begin a noisy street party outside your front door and refuses to listen to your complaints or those of local residents .
+
+Additionally, the national level focus which this system necessarily engenders continuously pushes what for me are the “hot button” issues (cost of living, cost of property) to the periphery of the political discourse. Instead, macro issues, of collective importance, dominate the political agenda at both municipal and national level. Thus, a [cable car to the Western Wall](https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-jerusalem-cable-car-610932) is deemed a vital infrastructural project for Jerusalem despite the fact that many residents oppose it. It strengthens Israel’s connection to the Old City and shows off that connection to the world. Never mind the fact that many local residents think that it is going to be an eyesore and an extravagant waste of the city’s perennially limited budget. There are other more controversial examples. But suffice to say that in Israeli politics whoever is perceived as toughest on security traditionally wins the game.
+
+**Possible solution:** Reform of the political system led by experts in the field.
+
+### 6\. And End to Hasbara (And National Gloating!)
+
+People won’t like this one — at least not the second part — but I’m going to include it anyway.
+
+I’ve long argued that _hasbara_(Israeli public diplomacy) has not demonstrated a positive return on investment (ROI), despite the millions that are pored into it.
+
+Furthermore, I believe that this form of global echo-chamber self-righteousness is a prodigious waste of the intellectual resources and energies that many devoted and talented friends of Israel worldwide could put towards more constructive ends.
+
+Instead of serving as needless and often overlapping amateur spokesperson for the Jewish state (or commandeering organizations with often almost identical mission statements) these individuals could focus on developing skillsets that are of use to the economy here and move to the country they so profess to cherish.
+
+_Hasbara_ , to my mind, is like a national attempt at defeating the classroom bully by dint of protracted reason and logic. In my view, it’s never going to work. Israel’s existence hasn’t made anti-Semitism go away — it has merely changed form and become harder to detect. I would love to see Israel draw what I feel is the right conclusion from this lesson and pull the plug on this insidious waste of resources that serves the detrimental purpose of constantly putting Israel and Israelis on a defensive footing when it comes to justifying their positions.
+
+Although Israel’s achievements are impressive, if it were to put an end to _hasbara_ culture perhaps — just perhaps — Israel also might be a little less hyperbolic in the claims it makes about itself to the world.
+
+In my view, Israel is a country that is doing tremendously given the circumstances and its age. Nevertheless, its leaders, I believe, are too trigger-happy to claim that it is the “best in the world” at every endeavor under the sun. Israel has made achievements in the space of 100 years that few would have thought possible. But rather than engaging in vain and premature boasting about its handling of a public health crisis, mending its fences and internal divisions would be an important activity that merits attention at this moment.
+
+**Possible solution** : Stop funding _hasbara_ organizations unless there is clear evidence that they serve a constructive purpose and do more than make people feel good about answering fire with fire. While at it, stop answering back every criticism the worlds make. Let people disagree and think differently. Instead, focus inwardly on construction and on growth.
+
+### 7\. Better Tenant Protection Law. Better Renting Options.
+
+For many immigrants that face a lifetime of renting, Israel’s rental system, at least in its current guise, simply doesn’t serve their needs.
+
+The country’s rental stock is overwhelmingly dominated by what are colloquially referred to as ‘mom and pop’ landlords — ie one of the hundreds of thousands of _sabras_ who chipped in on property when it was cheap and are now renting them out as sources of passive incomes to more hapless recently immigrants.
+
+Unless Israel’s macroeconomics are to dramatically change and property is to suddenly become affordable, Israel needs a stock of professionally managed property. Additionally, it needs proper tenant protection law unlike the Fair Rental Law which ultimately proved teeth-less. Otherwise, renters will continue to be used and abused by often unscrupulous landlords that cannot be held to any kind of account. Renting in Israel is currently a jungle. That needs to change.
+
+**Possible solution:** Devise tenant protection law that isn’t so hopelessly ambiguous that it gets thoroughly twisted by those adept in the art of practicing _shitat matzliach_. Involve actual renters in the formulative process for that legislation and not MKs who are unlikely to have ever rented in their lives.
+
+### 8\. Better Consumer Protection
+
+Like tenant law, consumer protection law in Israel currently, frankly, often sucks.
+
+Israel, in my opinion, should enact far more generous consumer protection law that force retailers to do better than fob them off to usually unhelpful (and monopolistic) “official importers” whenever a defect emerges with the pricey electronic they bought just a few months ago.
+
+**Possible solution:** Enact consumer law with teeth. Again, the gold standard idea: devise a way to highlight businesses that are expending effort to buck the often downward trend.
+
+### 9\. Better Post-Aliyah Support
+
+Despite some glossy web pages and brochures from official government organizations, Israel’s approach to post-aliyah, at the moment, can essentially be summarized as _“you sink or you swim and we don’t care much either way”_
+
+It’s time that Israel recognized that the survival of the fittest methodology may work in army bootcamp — but it doesn’t work towards keeping people in the country and becoming happy and constructive citizens of it.
+
+Many _olim_ have become discouraged and demotivated by far too many negative experiences in Israel. The rate of suicide among olim in Israel, tragically, remains at a multiple of the national average. It’s time that the State prioritized keeping those that have already made the move to the country. Post-aliyah — and those _olim_ that have moved here — have for too long played a very distant second fiddle to those who are already in the country. Priorities need to be reshuffled. It’s time to change this.
+
+**Possible solution** : Invest in post-aliyah to the same extent as investing in aliyah. If as many people leave Israel as come in, all that has been created is a revolving door of Jewish immigrants!
+
+### 10\. Better Banking
+
+If one thing epitomizes so much of what is wrong about life in Israel, for immigrants, then it is the banking sector.
+
+Banks, in Israel, often offer notoriously poor customer service, charge outlandish fees for the provision of very little service (including extremely limited opening hours), offer miserly credit card rewards, and are held to absolutely no form of accountability. Paradoxically, for a high tech pioneer, banking and financial services in Israel can often also seem rather surprisingly low tech: PIN codes on credit card payments are only just being introduced and contactless payments are still a far cry.
+
+**Possible solution** : Reduce bureaucracy so that Israeli FinTech pioneers don’t just see the country as a tiny test market not worth investing in. Introduce an efficient and online only bank that can afford to charge reasonable fees.
+
+### That’s All I’ve Got!
+
+That’s about the totality of my quick brainstorm.
+
+I could write a list of twenty things that I like about Israel (right now, summer watermelon would be very close to the top).
+
+But I feel like focusing on things that need to change might be more constructive.
+
+Israel is always fast changing. I hope that in the years to come it will continue to innovate and become an even better place in which to live.
+
+_

posts/medium/11-Things-You-Learn-About-Living-in-Israel-Only-By-Moving-Here.md

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+# 11 Things You Learn About Living in Israel Only By Moving Here
+
+#### There are things you find out about living in Israel only once you already … actually live here
+
+Enjoying a wonderful outdoor lunch at Motza Cafe near Jerusalem. Israel likes to brandish its Western credentials, but its Mediterranean nature is one of its major pluses. Photo: author.
+
+Think your _aliyah_ pilot trip prepared you for life in Israel?
+
+Think again!
+
+The best way to come to grips with living in Israel … is probably to live in Israel.
+
+Here are a few things that most immigrants only find out … actually they’ve already begun living here.
+
+### 1\. Everything — No Really Everything — Runs On WhatsApp (Or WhatsApp Groups)
+
+If you’ve never heard of — much less used — the instant messaging app known as WhatsApp (not _WhatsUp_ which appears to be Anglo baby-boomers’ favorite mis-appellation for it), then all that’s about to change.
+
+WhatsApp dominates both business and personal life in Israel.
+
+It’s the ubiquitous form of communication used to organize office parties, socialize, and plan neighborhood committees.
+
+_Everything_ has a WhatsApp group. I’m invited to so many that I effectively use my business line as a WhatsApp Group gathering number and my other account for one on one conversations.
+
+Don’t be surprised when your doctor/lawyer begins sending you communications over WhatsApp. Oh, and people _looove_ the voice notes here too (thankfully WhatsApp is finally rolling out automatic transcription of these soon).
+
+### 2\. Almost Nothing Runs Precisely On Time
+
+For those who like to stretch the concept of being fashionably late to its limits, this is probably good news.
+
+As a Mediterranean country and culture, Israelis sometimes adopt a _laizzer faire_ attitude to time-keeping.
+
+Like much cultural nuance in Israel, though, nothing is black and white.
+
+Just as members of the Knesset (parliament) do _not_ typically show up to vote in flip flops and jeans, while it’s probably (sometimes) okay to be five minutes late to an office toast, being 30 minutes’ late probably isn’t.
+
+### 3\. The Customer Is Not Always Right — Sometimes, In Fact, You’d Be Led To Believe That They’re Always Wrong
+
+There are things that Israelis do well — refreshing honesty.
+
+And things they tend to do horribly poorly — like customer service.
+
+When you think about it, that’s entirely logical. Being disarmingly honest and conventional customer service don’t really go hand in hand. You can tell the customer that they’re buying an idiotically overpriced camera, but the impression it leaves isn’t usually a good one.
+
+Americans are often aghast to find that the _“yes, sir”_ service culture they are used to simply doesn’t exist here. Joking about the issue does it a disservice, though. Shoddy customer service — and abusive companies exploiting a captive market position — are real problems here.
+
+### 4\. Many Israeli Websites Look Like They Were Built By A Stoned Teenager Some Time In The 1990s When MS Paint And Popups Were Enjoying Their Heyday
+
+One of the strangest paradoxes of life in Israel.
+
+For a country that prides itself on the state of its technology, it seems to have an amazing talent for cooking up some decidedly old school websites for its own population.
+
+As even domestic-focused businesses become more sophisticated, this is sadly become a thing of the past. But until its recent facelift, Yad2.co.il — a national buy and sell directory — was an outstanding example.
+
+To make an authentic Israeli website, it needs to be hosted on a .co.il domain name. All graphics need to be designed exclusively in Microsoft Paint (that still exists, right?). And popups should appear at least once every five seconds.
+
+This is an official Israeli government website for paying taxes. Replete with some random guy and a superimposed ‘chip’.
+
+A pixel not filled with banner advertising is a wasted pixel. This is the essential premise from which traditional Israeli web design departs.
+
+### 5\. There Are Basically Two Technology Stores: KSP And Ivory. No Wait, EVERYTHING Is Vaguely An Oligopoly/Monopoly.
+
+For those into tech — and I’m one of them — you’ll quickly learn that there are two major national technology chains, KSP and Ivory.
+
+Sure there are a punch of hobbyists’ outlets, such as Plonter, and tech shops that supply business. But if you’re a consumer looking for consumer-level gear, KSP and Ivory are essentially your options.
+
+And guess what?
+
+They appear to typically sell almost the exact same inventory for almost the exact same price.
+
+As one lives longer in Israel, one begins to find dubious oligopolies like this popping up in every industry. They’re part of what makes Israel one of the most expensive places to live in the world. According to one statistics, actual consumer purchasing power in Israel was lower than in every OECD country minus Japan.
+
+### 6\. Amazon Doesn’t Really Deliver Here. Instead, People Use Something Called Zap. And This Crazy Chinese Site Called Aliexpress. They Also Go Justifiably Nuts Whenever Amazon Puts On A Promo.
+
+Firstly, it’s not actually true that Amazon doesn’t deliver to Israel.
+
+What _is_ true is that they don’t ship very much of their global inventory here.
+
+Don’t believe me? Add an Israeli address to your Amazon account and see what you can get that actually delivers here — for less than the cost of the item.
+
+Thankfully all isn’t doom and gloom.
+
+There’s Zap which is an online comparison engine that lets you sift through offers from many (in my experience, typically bad) Israeli online retailers.
+
+Israelis — largely for this reason — also love to buy from Aliexpress, which is basically Alibab’s direct-to-consumer online marketplace. Sure, stuff takes a while to get to Israel (like over a month). But so long as it’s under $75 (after that, Israel charges 17% VAT) it’s cheap and fairly bureaucracy-free.
+
+From time to time — to keep the locals hopeful that one day Amazon will _truly_ operate here — Amazon puts on a promo deal.
+
+One avid Israeli online shopper, who totally isn’t me, sent in this pixeallated image of one of their old order hauls.
+
+### 7\. It’s Really Hot For A Really Long Time. Like It’s Hot Half The Year.
+
+If you’ve never lived in a hot climate before, then checking the climate graph for whatever city you plan on living in in Israel is probably worthwhile.
+
+There are two things worth keeping in mind about Israel’s climate:
+
+1: The summers are very hot.
+
+2: The summers are _long_.
+
+Here’s Jerusalem’s climate graph courtesy of Wikipedia:
+
+Some notes about Jerusalem’s data:
+
+  * The daily average high is at or above 25 degrees celcius (rounded) for six months of the year. That’s half the year!
+  * For five months of the year, there is negligible precipitation.
+
+A personal observation, at least about Jerusalem’s weather: the intermediate seasons in Israel — spring and autumn — are far less pronounced than my country of origin. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv also have remarkably different climates from cities just an hour’s drive apart. Tel Aviv remains hot and humid throughout the summer, including at night. Owing to its topography, Jerusalem’s climate is more “liveable.”
+
+### 8\. Realtors Will Still Insist You Don’t Need Air Conditioning. Politely Ignore Them.
+
+One of the greatest things about Israel:
+
+It’s totally unique — lest you need a reminder, Israel is the only Jewish country in the world.
+
+And simultaneously it’s vaguely similar to just about every other country in the universe. Some examples:
+
+  * Realtors are often sketchy people who will tell you anything to make a sale
+  * Government workers commonly go on strike
+  * Banks appear to open to the public only when it’s convenient to them and still charge you exorbitant sums for the privilege of doing “business” with them
+
+Case in point: when I was last apartment-hunting in Israel, countless realtors told me that I didn’t “need” air conditioning. Or that I could comfortably live without it.
+
+Apparently the cave-like nature of many Jerusalem rental apartments renders them naturally permanently cold. How convenient!
+
+I would love to know how many of these realtors don’t have air conditioning in their own homes. Although it’s worth pointing out that this AC-skeptic attitude _is_ prevalent among the more old-school Israelis who grew up at a time when air conditioning wasn’t almost universal in the country. By “old school Israelis” I mean the elderly Yemenite women you’ll find throwing bread to stray cats. Every neighborhood in Israel has at least one.
+
+If you come from a much colder climate like I did, I personally advise you _not_ to listen to these real estate agents.
+
+My post-aliyah life in Israel can be divided between the clammy era before I rented my first AC-sporting apartment and the time thereafter. I like the time thereafter better.
+
+### 9\. Driving Here Is Sort Of Crazy. But Public Transport Is Really Good.
+
+Perhaps this is common knowledge among Jewish immigrants who grew up taking summer holidays in Israel (note: my family never did this), but Israeli drivers are by and large lunatics with engines, wheels, and horns at their continuous disposal — the last of which they use very liberally indeed.
+
+But really: driving in Israel is kind of crazy in a way that’s vaguely astounding if you come from a country in which people compete with one another for who can be the most polite and considerate driver around. The good news is that it’s apparently possible to adapt to the oddly aggressive style that dominates on the roads here. My wife tells me that you just have to go to war — I mean drive — every day.
+
+The better news is that public transport in Israel — at least between major cities — is pretty decent. There are now regular high speed trains running between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv which are great both for people without cars and for newfound traffic-phobics like me. Although getting anywhere else in the country is still liable to prove challenging.
+
+### 10\. The Postal Service Is Kind Of Rubbish
+
+Israelis love to make fun of how bad the postal system is here although I’ve actually been really impressed by how _little_ of my prodigious online ordering they’ve lost. Really. They’re not fast. But they rarely seem to lose things.
+
+_Doar Yisrael_ been the subject of comedy sketches (see below).
+
+It has previously ranked as the most complained-about state-run institution — which in a country full of whingers like me really says something.
+
+And it’s well known that it can take _months_ for some letters delivered from abroad to finally make it into our letterboxes (now you know: sending a physical birthday card to somebody based in Israel is an exercise in futility; a bereavement card may as well be addressed to surviving relatives instead).
+
+The likely reasons: like most postal systems, the Israeli one is struggling under fundamentally difficult economics. Far more people are ordering online than sending mail to one another or to relatives abroad.
+
+The second reason is that nobody probably anticipated the extent to which Israelis would pick up on Aliexpress and online shopping in general. The post office has made periodic upgrades to its sorting network. But they still seem to be struggling to keep up with demand.
+
+### 11\. Israelis Still Love It Here In Spite Of All The Above
+
+Israel is a crazy country. That much you probably already knew.
+
+And yet — despite some of the insane features of life here — it’s an oddly enjoyable country in which to live.
+
+It offers a decidedly first world standard of living even if sometimes it feels oddly like a country whose GDP per capita statistic is far lower than what it actually is. Its healthcare system is excellent. And there are many jobs in the technology sector.
+
+I’m convinced that the key to enjoying life in Israel is to cast aside the image that Israel loves to project about itself to the world (that it’s a sophisticated Western ‘little America’ in the Middle East). Those features are true to an extent. But they do the full picture of what it’s really like to live here a massive injustice.
+
+Remember:
+
+  * **It’s a Mediterranean country.** Tempers can be frayed during the hot summer months. But on the plus side there’s plenty of good weather during the summer and it’s sunny enough to eat outside for a decent chunk of the year.
+  * **It’s a Middle Eastern country**. My cultural impression of the Middle Eastern aspect of Israel’s culture is something like this: rules aren’t the conventional things that we conceive them as in the West. There’s something vaguely spiritual about the way in which Middle Easterners try to swim their way around them. The common description is that rules here are conceived of as recommendations rather than strict edicts. That comes pretty close to depicting reality.
+

posts/medium/11-Work-And-Life-Philosophies-That-I-Currently-Believe-In.md

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+# 11 Work And Life Philosophies That I Currently Believe In
+
+In no particular order. Very non-exhaustive.
+
+I currently subscribe to the power of:
+
+### 1\. Asynchronous Communication
+
+I’m an enormous fan of deep work.
+
+I was also recently diagnosed with ADHD which probably explains why I’ve put so much effort into the years into making this mode of working work for me (see: flight mode article).
+
+Deep work isn’t just my preference. It’s the _only_ way I can work effectively.
+
+The good news: once I have a supportive environment to work in, I can be very productive. Or so I’m told.
+
+[**It’s Time To Untether Remote Work From Synchronous Communications**  
+ _Remote work doesn’t have to be a blur of Zoom meetings_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/its-time-to-untether-remote-work-from-synchronous-communications-4ca81a1ffc2a "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/its-time-to-untether-remote-work-from-synchronous-communications-4ca81a1ffc2a")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/its-time-to-untether-remote-work-from-synchronous-communications-4ca81a1ffc2a)
+
+[**Why Flight Mode Has Been My Best Productivity-Enhancing Intervention to Date**  
+ _And I Think That Synchronous Communication Platforms Like WhatsApp And Slack Are Today’s Destroyers of Focus_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-flight-mode-has-been-my-best-productivity-enhancing-intervention-to-date-a062a3659664 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-flight-mode-has-been-my-best-productivity-enhancing-intervention-to-date-a062a3659664")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-flight-mode-has-been-my-best-productivity-enhancing-intervention-to-date-a062a3659664)
+
+### 2\. Open Source
+
+I’ve been a daily Linux user — in both my work and personal lives — for well over 10 years now.
+
+I’ve been using Linux for so long that I don’t even think about it any more. Linux is just how computers work for me. Windows is that thing in a virtual machine file I spin up when I have no other option.
+
+Having benefited so much from the open source community over the years has also made me an ardent supporter of it as a concept. Not only for technology. But also for life.
+
+Outcome: I’m selective about what I choose to monetize.
+
+Want to hire me to write a book for you? It’s going to cost you.
+
+Want to pick over my thoughts about freelance writing? Help yourself to them for free. Sharing that information and creating the connections that reaching readers brings is worth more to me right now than generating a small side income from paywalling it.
+
+[**Freelance Writing**  
+ _Everything about the art and craft of running a freelance writing business including client management, growth…_ medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing "https://medium.com/freelance-writing")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing)
+
+### 3\. Inbound Marketing
+
+Growing up, I was an intensely private person that didn’t share much about my inner world. Breaking out of that strait-jacket has been a lifelong process for me. It’s still going on.
+
+If you’re like me and want some additional encouragement to get out of that mindset here’s a chunk of it: inbound marketing is a pretty neat way to reward authenticity!
+
+[**The Connection Between Inbound Marketing And Authenticity**  
+ _An argument in favor of amorphous free-flowing content creation and leveraging authenticity to create change_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-connection-between-inbound-marketing-and-authenticity-1322dbace3a3 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-connection-between-inbound-marketing-and-authenticity-1322dbace3a3")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-connection-between-inbound-marketing-and-authenticity-1322dbace3a3)
+
+Of course, if something business-connected is your goal then you’ll want to be more strategic than just sharing everything with everybody.
+
+But there’s a lot to be said for the power of doing just that.
+
+### 4\. Remote And Hybrid Working
+
+Let me circle back to deep work for a moment.
+
+If I want to keep working in an office environment my fate is a tiny chunk of desk space in an open office environment that is the arch nemesis of anybody who is easily distracted.
+
+While cable management admittedly isn’t my strong suit, working from home I can show up to this setup everyday.
+
+Remote and hybrid working arrangements can also untether us from geographies we don’t particularly want to live in. Employers can gain access to more talent than just the talent that can be easily recruited in their locality.
+
+We live in a world in which it’s eminently possible to work effectively remotely.
+
+For the 99% of knowledge workers that don’t work for state defense contractors or otherwise have advanced technical requirements … there are literally no impediments to working from anywhere on the planet.
+
+### 5\. Freelancing
+
+I’ve done it for 5 year both as a side hustle and as my full-time income.
+
+A point I’ve made repeatedly here on Medium is that done right freelancing can be more secure than office employment. Yes, you read that correctly.
+
+More thoughts about that here:
+
+[**Ways You Can Diversify Your Freelance Writing Business**  
+ _The Art Of Not Putting Your Eggs In One Basket_ medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/ways-you-can-diversify-your-freelance-writing-business-f53bac2deaf5 "https://medium.com/freelance-writing/ways-you-can-diversify-your-freelance-writing-business-f53bac2deaf5")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/ways-you-can-diversify-your-freelance-writing-business-f53bac2deaf5)
+
+### 6\. Doing Business Internationally
+
+In light of point 4, above, why wouldn’t you? We have all the technology in place to conduct knowledge work with any company we can legally do business with.
+
+[**How to Work With The World — From Israel**  
+ _At the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe, Israel is uniquely positioned on the geopolitical map._ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/how-to-work-with-the-world-from-israel-e71ecc6a5569 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/how-to-work-with-the-world-from-israel-e71ecc6a5569")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/how-to-work-with-the-world-from-israel-e71ecc6a5569)
+
+### 7\. Self Directed Learning
+
+The internet has been a sort of surrogate additional parent to me since I was a child. The muse to whom I ask my most perplexing questions. A teacher. An entertainer.
+
+I’ve also learned so much from YouTubers, podcasts, and online bloggers.
+
+Although I hold a couple of conventional university degrees, I feel like I’ve learned just as much by doing and learning on my own.
+
+### 8\. Continuous Professional Development
+
+[**Will tomorrow’s freelance writers be the custodians of bots rather than wordsmiths?**  
+medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/will-tomorrows-freelance-writers-be-the-custodians-of-bots-rather-than-wordsmiths-5d91a125b149 "https://medium.com/freelance-writing/will-tomorrows-freelance-writers-be-the-custodians-of-bots-rather-than-wordsmiths-5d91a125b149")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/will-tomorrows-freelance-writers-be-the-custodians-of-bots-rather-than-wordsmiths-5d91a125b149)
+
+The cold winds of AI are knocking at the door.
+
+What’s the best way we can avoid redundancy?
+
+Staying a few steps ahead of the AI bots and doing something that they currently can’t.
+
+Knowledge is key. In today’s environment, we can’t afford to count on what we already know.
+
+Ongoing learning and professional development is going to be key.
+
+### 9\. Working With Nice People
+
+The hardest part about freelancing?
+
+I’d love to tell you this wasn’t true — and I hesitated before adding this — but I could fill up a book with horror stories from working with bad and sometimes even downright abusive clients.
+
+On the plus side, there have been enough good ones that it’s been a major source of my income for the past five years.
+
+Earning a liveable wage matters. But over the past year I’ve come to really prioritize mental health (disclaimer: as noted before I struggle with ADHD and anxiety. Addressing these has been a big focus for me of late).
+
+Generally speaking, whenever I can afford to do so, I’ll prioritize working with respectful, pleasant and supportive people over those who simply pay more.
+
+### 10\. Everything On The Cloud
+
+I thoroughly believe that the software of tomorrow will be OS-agnostic.
+
+I believe that some version of thin computing is the future of …. technology.
+
+When architects are doing AutoCAD work on the cloud and professional video editors are rendering video there we’ll be almost there.
+
+For now consumer internet bandwidth remains a constraint — at least in many parts of the world — to full utilization of the cloud’s potential.I expect that this will change sooner than we expect.
+
+Desktop software (other than web browsers) and talking about local storage capacities will soon come to be regarded as as anachronistic as that weird dial up internet we used to use that made squelching noises.
+
+### 11\. Sharing, Authenticity, Communication
+
+If there’s one trait I’ve been trying to cultivate over the past few years, it’s this.
+
+We’re living in a world in which being transparent and open is viewed as a positive thing. Stigmas are eroding. These are all good changes.

posts/medium/16-facts-about-Ireland-to-get-Israeli---Jewish-tourists-excited-about-visiting.md

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+# 16 facts about Ireland to get Israeli & Jewish tourists excited about visiting
+
+#### El Al May Have Dumped Dublin As A Destination This Week, But Just In Case You Still Wanted To Visit, Here’s A Selection Of Facts About The Island Of “A Thousand Welcomes” (Israelis Excluded)
+
+Ireland’s national women’s basketball team is seen refusing to stand opposite the Israeli basketball team during the playing of national anthems in Latvia tonight. The team’s coach later praised the team’s “mature” behavior. Screenshot: Twitter/X
+
+El Al[ announced this week](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/el-al-wont-restart-ireland-morocco-flights-for-summer-season/) that it would be cancelling its service to Dublin, which only began operating this March.
+
+But just in case you were excited about the prospect of a trip to the Emerald Isle next year, here are some facts about the country which may be of interest to potential visitors from Israel.
+
+### 1: Its Prime Minister Supports BDS
+
+In case you missed this week’s hot-button issue in the always “colorful” world of Ireland-Israel relations, here’s the scoop:
+
+Ireland’s women’s basketball team recently got themselves into a bit of political mud for deciding that they should boycott a fixture against Israel. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) said that the Irish team would have to pay fines totalling more than €100,000 for the privilege of being… you know… racist.
+
+Ireland’s Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar (_the same guy of Emily Hand “lost and found” fame, by the way_) responded by saying that _“it may well be appropriate”_ to _“expel”_ Israel from _sporting or music events_ like the Eurovision (or a basketball game). I think he just doesn’t want Ireland to have to pick up the tab for doing the expelling. Isn’t this essentially state-endorsed BDS? It sure sounds like it to me.
+
+Cowing to pressure to play the fixture, the team ultimately decided to play against the hatred Israelis. But a-la-Iran they refused to shake hands with their counterparts and even stood to the side while the Israeli anthem was played.
+
+The Wolfe Tones … another Irish grouping with uncharitable thoughts towards the Jewish State.
+
+### 2: Its Eurovision Contestant Wants Israel Kicked Out Of The Context… As Do The Wolfe Tones
+
+It’s not just the thoughts of playing Israel in basketball that stirs up the enmity of the Irish, it seems.
+
+The idea of competing against us in _Eurovision_(for those unaware: that’s a song contest)__ is also a noxious prospect to many in Ireland.
+
+Joined by other noted European moralists the Swedish and the Finns, support for Ireland to boycott the song contest was extremely widespread with its contestant ‘Bambie Thug’ affirming that she didn’t believe it was fair for the EBU to have one rule for Russia and another for Israel.
+
+Beloved (to some) trad group ‘ _The Wolfe Tones”_ stated in January that they would be interested in representing their country. But only on the precondition that Israel were banned from competing. One gets the feeling it wasn’t a sincere offer.
+
+### 3: A Member Of Its Parliament Has Openly And Repeatedly Called For Israel’s Destruction
+
+Richard Boyd Barrett calling for an “intifada” to “bring Israel down” in Dublin. Photo: Daniel Rosehill (Via: X).
+
+Just in case you needed a model for what fringe antisemitism in mainstream western politics looked like when it’s allowed to go unchallenged, Ireland’s Richard Boyd Barrett and the People Before Profit party he heads provide an excellent example.
+
+Last December, Boyd Barrett called Israel a “filthy” “psychopathic” state adding that it had to be “brought down” through the process of “intifada.”
+
+The remarks were shared at a public event in Dublin city centre. After I shared the remarks on Twitter, my video went viral accumulating more than one million likes.
+
+The comments were brought to the attention of the country’s deputy prime minister who said that he would tend to see them as wrong.
+
+Ireland, by the way, is busily debating the parameters of potential hate speech legislation.
+
+But an unspoken exemption seems to be in place whenever Israelis or Jews are the targets.
+
+### 4: Ireland Is Home To A Political Party Which Calls For Israel’s “Total Dismantlement”
+
+People Before Profit also recently released a pamphlet calling for the “total dismantlement” of the State of Israel and its replacement with a state called .. you guessed it .. Palestine.
+
+For clarification, the party added that calls of “From the river to the sea” are not antisemitic. The pamphlet was not condemned in Ireland’s parliament because that would require the presence of somebody who didn’t hate Israel.
+
+Ireland’s People Before Profit Party has published a pamphlet urging the “total dismantlement” of Israel. Screenshot: The Irish TimesA poster in Dublin, Ireland photographed on February 2024. It carries the inscription “a woman’s place is in the intifada” and the logo of the Popular Liberation Front For Palestine (PFLP), an EU-designated terrorist organisation with a long history of carrying out terrorist attacks against Israelis. Photo: X.
+
+### 5: You Might Just Bump Into A Self-Published Antisemitic Rag While You’re There
+
+A conspiracy theorist freesheet newspaper — The Irish Light — is also published and circulated in Ireland. The publication frequently peddles in extreme antisemitism like this piece about how the Jews “conquered” Ireland. Screenshot: Daniel Rosehill.
+
+Irish conspiracy theorist Gemma O’Doherty and her Israel-bashing partner in crime John Waters publish a freesheet “newspaper” entitled _“The Irish Light”_ (the name might provide a chuckle for fans of irony, of course, as it does an exemplary job at spreading scientific illiteracy, racism, and all manner of general darkness on its often unwilling recipients).
+
+The publication frequently engages in the kind of grotesque antisemitism that many of my age probably naively thought died out a generation or two ago.
+
+A screed entitled _“How The Jews Conquered Ireland”_ lashes out at “Jewish control” in Ireland including the age-old charge that Jews enslave societies through usury.
+
+The piece also takes aim at two Irish Jews — Ronit Lentin and former justice minister Alan Shatter — highlighting them as _“agents of destruction”_ intent on destroying Ireland.
+
+Ironically, Lentin is an advocate for the Palestinian right of return. She is, however, Jewish.
+
+### 6: In Ireland, There’s A Palestine Support Group For (Almost) Everyone!
+
+In Ireland whether you’re a politician who hates Israel, an artist, a teacher, a psychologist, or anybody else .. the good news is that you can find cosy intellectual shelter in your nearest Palestine support group. You could fill up a phone directory with them!
+
+A group of academics repeatedly write to newspapers arguing for an academic boycott of Israel.
+
+In 2021 a pledge to boycott Israel circulated by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) attracted more than 1,000 signatures.
+
+A grouping of 250 psychologists wrote to the newspapers last week stating that they were “united in their horror” at the events unfolding in Gaza (on October 7th and other global conflicts, it seems, they are mute).
+
+A group called “Irish Sport For Palestine” recently sprung up and began advocating for a boycott by the women’s basketball team. The Irish Palestine Mental Health Network is a real organisation and its top recommendation (filed under: “do no harm”) is “refrain from holding conferences in Israel.”
+
+The Irish media does not need its own affiliate grouping. It’s simply the Irish media.
+
+Irish Pets for Palestine and Galway Goldfish For Gaza have both as far as I know not been formulated although I thought it would be remiss to deprive this readership of these creative and alliterative possibilities.
+
+There’s also the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Dublin Gaza, Gaza Action Ireland to name but a few more options.
+
+Cork, Ireland: Ireland’s second city is officially commited to the BDS movement and will boycott goods and services made even by “supporters” of Israel according to a recent resolution.
+
+### 7: Ireland’s Largest Local Government Body Recently Voted To Support BDS… Against Anyone Who “Supports” Israel
+
+Ireland’s largest county council (local government body) by territory governed, Cork County Council, recently passed a motion.
+
+It stated that:
+
+> Cork County Council declares the country of Cork to be an apartheid free zone, a space of proactive solidarity with the Palestinian people. It commits to encourage and assist all efforts to show solidarity and fundraising for humanitarian efforts in Palestine.”
+
+It added that:
+
+> Cork County Council declares its support for the BDS campaign and agrees not to purchase goods or services produced or provided in whole or in part as is practicable by Israeli companies or companies that support the Israeli state.”
+
+So there you have it.
+
+This might just be the world’s most far-reaching statement of endorsing BDS by a government body.
+
+You don’t only get on the blacklist with Cork County Council for being Israeli. Supporting Israel is enough of an ideological crime to have you shunned.
+
+Dublin City Council seems to pursue a similar policy. Last December it refused to meet with Israel’s ambassador to Ireland (before hosting — to the usual confetti-throwing — the Palestinian envoy). Two months ago Dublin concluded a treaty of friendship with Ramallah.
+
+Ireland is also home to an initiative called the ‘Apartheid Free Zones’ (AFZs) designed to encourage companies and local government bodies to declare their territories _Israelrein._
+
+ Ireland works at international institutions like the EU and the UN to oppose Israel. Stock: EU flag.
+
+### 8: Ireland Wants To Cancel Israel’s Trade Agreement With The EU
+
+After a brief period of condemnations of Hamas that felt extremely strained, Ireland’s reaction since October 7th has been one of increased solidarity with the Palestinians. The chorus of criticism from every part of Irish society is now, one feels, deafening.
+
+In the wake of the tragedy, Ireland’s president [backtracked from statements from the EU Commissioner stating that the “EU stands with Israel”](https://www.arabnews.com/node/2394336/middle-east) reasoning — presumably — that such a wording was unacceptably supportive. Ireland tried but failed to interject moral equivalency into an EU resolution released shortly after the tragedy.
+
+Not content with their legion efforts to harm Israel at the UN and through funding partisan anti-Israel NGOs, [Ireland is now going for the jugular at the EU](https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/02/01/ireland-seeking-review-of-eu-israel-trade-agreement-and-recognition-of-palestine-taoiseach-says/) attempting to have the trade agreement between Israel and the EU nixed on account of a human rights clause.
+
+Of course, Irish statesmen are wont to put it that bluntly. Instead Prime Minister Varadkar statement that his country and a few other states were “interested” in having the document “reviewed”. No prize if you can guess correctly the outcome he’s rooting for.
+
+Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh drew widespread veneration in Ireland after appearing before the ICJ in support of South Africa’s legal case charging Israel with “genocide.”
+
+### 9: Ireland Is Considering Supporting South Africa At The ICJ
+
+Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh emerged as one of the “stars” of South Africa’s absurd intervention at the International Court of Justice. The Irish counsel was providing support to the South African side alleging that Israel was conducting a “genocide” in Gaza.
+
+It seems that Ireland’s legal eagles may soon find themselves with more opportunities to hurl lies towards Israel before the world.
+
+Following the preliminary ruling, Irish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin [instructed lawyers to investigate the possibility of Ireland joining the ICJ case](https://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-israel-genocide-case-south-africa-six-months-6285483-Jan2024/#:~:text=Ireland%20previously%20filed%20an%20intervention,Russia%20under%20the%20Genocide%20Convention.) in support of South Africa. Israel, he said, needed to be “held to account” for their actions in Gaza.
+
+Ireland’s justice minister — Helen McEntee — [has already stated that she would be “in favour” of Irish intervention](https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/justice-minister-voices-support-for-intervention-in-south-africa-israel-icj-case-1581040.html). Which begs the question of why the Irish feel the need to go through with the charade of supposedly “evaluating” the prospect. We await the decision with bated breath.
+
+### 10: Despite Being Massively Anti-Israel, Ireland Somehow Sees Itself As Neutral
+
+If mental gymnastics were a sport, Ireland might consider fielding a national team.
+
+Perhaps more amusing than all the criticism is Ireland’s longstanding commitment to a “neutrality” that nobody else seems to really understand.
+
+The definition is somehow considered to extend to Israel, too.
+
+At a debate in its parliament shortly after October 7th, Irish politicians expressed concern that some of the statements emanating from their colleagues could be perceived as harming Ireland’s vaunted “neutrality.”
+
+In other news, the sky is pink.
+
+### 11: Ireland Invests In Anti-Israel NGOs
+
+Non governmental organisations (NGOs) are great political proxies for governments who don’t want to openly declare their foreign policies. Ireland provides an excellent illustration of this point.
+
+Ireland [has provided state funding](https://www.ngo-monitor.org/funder/ireland/) to organisations including Addameer and Al-Haq which Israel proscribed as terrorist organisations owing to documented affiliations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
+
+### 12: Ireland Is A Big UNRWA Funder And Decided To Continue Providing Money To The Organisation After The Recent Revelations
+
+In the wake of October 7th, Ireland decided to earmark €10M of its taxpayers’ money in emergency support to UNRWA to provide “emergency support” for the organisation.
+
+In the wake of revelations showing that some UNRWA employees were active participants in October 7th, Ireland decided to double down on its commitment to the agency stating that the government in Dublin had no intentions of pulling funding.
+
+The Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland is met with rapturous applause as she arrives to a Sinn Fein meeting. Photo: X
+
+### 13: The Palestinian Ambassador — Who Refuses To Condemn October 7th — Is Adulated By Sinn Fein
+
+Shortly after the October 7th massacre, the Ambassador of Palestine to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmaji interviewed on Irish radio. She was repeatedly asked if she would condemn Hamas and the heinous atrocities which they had just committed. She repeatedly refused to do so. After three persistent attempts, the interviewer — with an air of sorrow — gave up the chase.
+
+For being Palestinian, Ambassador Wahba Abdalmajid has become a sort of sudden star among the Irish left. Abdalmajid has become a regular fixture at Sinn Fein conferences where she is frequently afforded standing ovations.
+
+Her October 7th denialism appears to be just another uncomfortable fact that the Irish do not want to get into.
+
+### 14: Israel’s Ambassador To Ireland, However, Was Almost Voted Out Of The Country
+
+Israel’s many opponents in Ireland frequently demand, with bated breath, to “expel” the Israeli Ambassador from Ireland.
+
+Lest you fall for the idea that this is a “Gaza War” thing, a previous resolution came before the Oireachtas in May, 2021. It alleged that “the Israeli ambassador’s presence in Ireland is untenable in these circumstances.” It failed.
+
+Alongside other trending classics at Ireland pro-Palestine rallies like “ _from the river to the sea”_ and _“globalise the intifada,” “Israeli Ambassador: out, out, out!”_ has become a favourite rallying-cry for the masses who protest Israel’s war in Gaza every weekend in cities across the country (a pro-Houthi slogan got an airing in Cork recently too).
+
+Last November, the Social Democrats brought a motion before parliament which would have forced the expulsion of Dana Erlich, Israel’s ambassador to Dublin. The vote was defeated by 85 votes to 55.
+
+I’m not sure what wrongs Erlich must have committed on previous forays to be condemned to a posting to Ireland, but I have heard high praise from those who know her. At the very least, she’s a few thousand measures more diplomatic than I am. I wish her better luck with her next posting.
+
+### 15: Irish Jews Are Concerned By A Rise In Antisemitism
+
+It should come as no surprise that in this climate of Israel-hatred [anti-Semitism is also a growing concern.](https://www.irishtimes.com/video/video/2023/11/29/anti-semitism-in-ireland-theres-been-a-huge-uptick/)
+
+Stickers describing Israeli-made products as being “contaminated” with Zionism were placed at supermarkets throughout Ireland last week. Screenshot: X / Daniel Rosehill.
+
+Last week BDS activists placed stickers throughout supermarkets in Ireland stating that Israelis-made products were “contaminated” with “Zionism” and “apartheid.” I guess if you don’t have that many actual Jews to go after, these kind of theatrics are about the best that you can do.
+
+Ireland’s Jewish population is small. Most Jews who were born there, like me, have since left. Those still in Ireland report concern about the rise in antisemitism including on university campuses.
+
+Ireland is also home to an Israeli expat population many of whom moved to Ireland for employment. Israeli software company Wix set up an office in Dublin a few years ago and recently made the news when an employee there took to social media to label Israel a “terrorist state.” She was dismissed. Ireland’s Prime Minister advised her to seek legal recourse.
+
+At a recent debate in University College Dublin, a Jewish student was screamed at by a Jihadi supporter who stated that Hamas will commit October 7th “again and again”. It is a troubling climate to say the very least.
+
+### 16: Ireland’s Government Could Become Even More Anti-Israel After The Next Election
+
+Ireland took a full 15 years to offer _de jure_ recognition of Israel, only doing so in 1963. It previously refused to recognise the Jewish state citing alleged violations of UN resolutions. In Irish-Israeli relations there is not much new under the sun, it seems.
+
+If Ireland and Israel were two prospects on a dating website, you’d imagine that some newfangled algorithm might suggest them to be a match.
+
+Both are small countries. Both have large diaspora populations that help to amplify their international reach. Both have transitioned rather rapidly from poor economies dominated by agriculture to export-oriented forward-looking economies with a strong affinity for technology.
+
+There’s just one obvious spanner in the works and it probably doesn’t need to be stated.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting question looming in Ireland-Israel ties is _“how bad can things possibly get with a country in the EU?”_
+
+An accession to government by Sinn Fein after the next General Election would provide a datapoint on exactly that kind of scenario which may prove instructive for broader approaches to foreign relations.
+
+Because for all the noise that they make, in the broader scheme of things, huffing and puffing at the EU and trying to rally up a few stragglers to form a _“Western buddies of Hamas”_ type geopolitical alliance may be the most harm that they can do.
+
+For now.
+
+  * _Dublin and other Irish cities can be reached through connections in Istanbul, Amsterdam, and more. Between connections and delays it takes about a day to get there and back. For Israelis purchasing comprehensive medical and travel insurance, and heeding the latest travel advice, is strongly advised._
+
+_This was originally published in The Times Of Israel as a blog_

posts/medium/2-Blogging-Workflows-For-Creators-That-Want-To-Work-Across-The-Text-Audio-Video-Divide.md

@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+# 2 Blogging Workflows For Creators That Want To Work Across The Text-Audio-Video Divide
+
+#### Two suggested workflows for using text, audio, and video in your blogging strategy
+
+I’ve written previously about the divide between text, video, and audio.
+
+We’re currently living during an exciting era in content marketing.
+
+The “gaps” that delineate between the three are rapidly closing with tools like voice synthesization and AI video generators chipping away at the divisions and making it easier than ever before for content creators to embrace a future in which content creation is truly format agnostic.
+
+My predictions about whether text or video are going to dominate for content marketers tomorrow can be summarized as follows (at least at the time being):
+
+  * **What I call ‘format agnosticism’ is soon going to become entrenched as an expectation among readers.** Our readers are going to _expect_ that we’re also working across other formats — and that, at the minimum, we’ve invested in automated (AI-backed) solutions to bridge the divide. If we don’t provide an easy means for them to, say, consumer our blog posts in podcast format, they’re going to quickly loose interest in what we have to say.
+  * **Today, content creators can take advantage of the fact that jumping from text to audio to video (let’s call it the TAV divide) is relatively cheap and easy.** This is an easy win that just about everybody should be taking liberal advantage of. On today’s market: a mixture of manual and AI-backed approaches. To take text to audio as a simple example, you can record a podcast of your recent blog post (that’s the manual method) or you can use a TTS engine like Play (speech synth) to do that for you. In the latter, you’re serving as the human overseer of a robot. Both approaches are valid.
+
+For much more in depth thinking about that, please check out this post (naturally, it has an accompanying video).
+
+[**The Looming Flight Towards Format-Agnostic Content Creation: And Why It Matters (Now) For Creators**  
+ _To get ahead of the curve, consider leveraging easy win syndication opportunities that straddle distribution formats_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-looming-flight-towards-format-agnostic-content-creation-and-why-it-matters-now-for-creators-c8ca78c1ec92 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-looming-flight-towards-format-agnostic-content-creation-and-why-it-matters-now-for-creators-c8ca78c1ec92")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-looming-flight-towards-format-agnostic-content-creation-and-why-it-matters-now-for-creators-c8ca78c1ec92)
+
+[**Does Text-Based ‘Content’ Have A Future In The Age Of Video?**  
+_My own evolution as a content creator — and why I believe that format-agnosticism may be the way our industry moves_ medium.com](https://medium.com/daniel-on-marketing/does-text-based-content-have-a-future-in-the-age-of-video-3fad6037a683 "https://medium.com/daniel-on-marketing/does-text-based-content-have-a-future-in-the-age-of-video-3fad6037a683")[](https://medium.com/daniel-on-marketing/does-text-based-content-have-a-future-in-the-age-of-video-3fad6037a683)
+
+If you want to get started and you blog, then here are two workflows.
+
+### Text To Audio To Video (TAV)
+
+As most of my content creation is textual (e.g. the post you’re reading) let me start by looking at things from this perspective first. It’s where my natural affinity lies.
+
+We start with a blog post.
+
+If you’re blogging, then you’re likely already familiar with how to do that.
+
+You have a CMS. You have resources on your team that blog. And — if you’re a content marketer — you’ve got some kind of a strategy in place that looks at things like keywords and marketing mission to distribute the type of content you know is going to be most advantageous to your business.
+
+How do we get to audio? If we want to begin leveraging audio to distribute our textual content as a podcast then we can use two approaches:
+
+  * Firstly we can use our own voice to record a podcast version to accompany our blog post.
+  * Alternatively we can use text to speech (TTS) in order to use an AI bot to “narrate” the podcast on our behalf.
+
+Clearly each approach has its advantages.
+
+The first method is much more personal. Listeners get to deepen their connection with the author by hearing the nuances in his or her actual voice.
+
+The second requires less effort to produce.
+
+What should you do in any case?
+
+Honor the format. That’s the guiding principles here.
+
+You don’t want to just copy and paste a ream of text into a TTS generator — or read it off. To do so risks coming across as lazy and insincere — you’re just trying to blast the same content out across every channel.
+
+Instead, you want to optimize the content for the format it’s being delivered in.
+
+That might involve:
+
+  * Editing the blog post in order to simplify language and streamline the flow of text. When speechwriting, writers are encouraged to ‘write for the ear’ as their central guiding principle. This is a good approach to take when writing for podcasts too. Edit the transcript before you either run it through a generator or sit down to record your own version.
+
+For making the jump to video, similar principles apply.
+
+If you’re going to create a video blog version of a post that was originally published as text, for instance, you’re going to want to honor the format there too:
+
+  * Video is more immersive than audio. It’s difficult to watch a video while riding a bicycle. Therefore, aim for brevity. Consider whittling your text post down to just its bare essentials.
+  * Video provides you with the ability to leverage … well, a visual medium. You can do more than just record yourself sitting at a desk running over the same thoughts you blogged about. Can you think of ways to make the video more immersive? A large budget isn’t even a pre-requisite. You can use a video stock library, for instance, to affordably add some B-roll to break up the narration.
+
+### Video To Audio To Text (VAT)
+
+Let’s say that you decide to record a video blog.
+
+How can you work in that direction?
+
+Let’s skip a little faster with this explanation.
+
+Honor the format. The same principle applies.
+
+We don’t need any fancy technology to extract audio out of video. It’s already in there.
+
+But we can and should honor the format:
+
+  * Give your embedded video audio its own postproduction workflow if you’re shooting for a podcast or other audio product as the final output. Edit out pauses. Remaster the track. Consider skipping sections entirely. Record a personalized intro and outro.
+
+No AI is needed here because … well, if you started with a video blog then _you_ recorded the original. So we’ve got a leg up over the TTS version we might have used in the previous workflow here.
+
+Next to break down to audio:
+
+  * If the video blog was uploaded to YouTube then we can actually download the automatically generated captions file and get a strong leg up on the job of creating a text version of the video blog.
+
+We can use a subtitle editor in order to take out the timestamps and just work with the text that YouTube automatically created from our video. Then we can attempt to model that into a blog.
+
+A subtitle file automatically generated by YouTube being inspected on a computer. Photo: author.After using a subtitle editor to extract a plain text version and remove the timestamp tags
+
+Next we need to … once again, honor the format.
+
+We’ll need to spend a bit of time — potentially quite a bit of time — taking our thoughts as we conveyed them over video and editing them into a format that’s going to look good in text.
+
+We might need to rewrite entire sections, skip over others, and add headers. The final product will be a blog post that is designed to be _read._
+
+It’s quite a bit of work. But if you want to maximize distribution options and make readers _want_ to read the text version, then you’re going to have to offer them something more attractive than the raw output of the automatically generated YouTube file.
+
+### The Final Step: Bring It All Together
+
+The final step to take in order to make your content as format-agnostic as possible: bringing it all together.
+
+If your blog post was originally published to YouTube as a video blog:
+
+  * Link off to the blog version of the video that you put together using the above methodology.
+  * Link to the podcast version that you edited too.
+
+If your blog post was originally published in writing (say here on Medium):
+
+  * Link to the audio version from the blog post
+  * Embed the video
+
+If you blog on owned channels–like your blog — consider using share icons to make this more visually attractive.

posts/medium/2-Tech-Hacks-To-Make-Job-Hunting-Online-Easier-And-Less-Frustrating.md

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+# 2 Tech Hacks To Make Job-Hunting Online Easier And Less Frustrating
+
+#### A couple of pieces of software can make the process of looking for a job, or acquiring new clients, vastly easier
+
+For the past month or so, I’ve been dipping my toes into the world of remote work — checking out what’s “out there” and building up my client base.
+
+More and more companies are becoming open to the idea of working with remote talent on both part-time and full-time bases. Whether it’s your first time or you’re a seasoned remote worker, it’s an exciting time to be exploring the field.
+
+In the past, I’ve experimented with different approaches to landing clients and finding work for myself. With three years of full-time self-employment and three more years of side-hustling under my belt, it’s a skill that I’ve drawn upon whenever I’ve needed to.
+
+My first crude attempts (I say this as I blush): crudely-targeted mass-communications attempts to get my foot in the door. Impolite description: spamming. My favorite way to describe that: it works. But even the successes aren’t pretty.
+
+Over time, I would like to think that my methodologies have become a lot more refined and, often, more effective. While I (increasingly) think that in a saturated online environment, _offline_ networking (who you know) is the key to standing out, equally, it almost never makes sense to cut off the online world entirely, particularly when you’re trying to source opportunity in other countries.
+
+Unfortunately, job hunting is also really time-consuming and (frequently) a rather thankless endeavor. Which is why I think that a few processes can take that process and make it more palatable. Here are a couple of the shortcuts I’ve been using.
+
+### Using A Keyboard Macro Tool To Put Commonly Accessed Links (Like Your Resume) At The Press Of A Button
+
+As a longtime user of Ubuntu Linux, Autokey is the program I reach for whenever I want to set up a few keyboard macros to put key pieces of information within one button’s reach.
+
+AutoKey is an incredibly easy but powerful tool for configuring keyboard macros on Ubuntu Linux. Screenshot: author.
+
+Here’s one of my job-hunting aspirations: never to send out an application or cover letter structured around a template again (like ever).
+
+The best and most authentic cover letters and applications are going to be those that you write completely from scratch. Every single time. Getting across the extent of your enthusiasm for a role is always going to be challenging if you’re doing so with a stock letter that’s been sent to many other companies. Originality is key.
+
+I use Autokey to take the links that I commonly need when job hunting, and a couple of rough cover letter skeletons, and assign them to hotkeys on my numeric keypad that I rarely touch in the course of actual typing.
+
+I have configured text inserts for:
+
+  * A link to my Linktree
+  * A link to my resume
+  * A skeleton cover letter for tech-related positions
+
+[**GitHub - autokey/autokey: AutoKey, a desktop automation utility for Linux and X11.**  
+_AutoKey, a desktop automation utility for Linux and X11, formerly hosted at OldAutoKey. Updated to run on Python 3…_ github.com](https://github.com/autokey/autokey "https://github.com/autokey/autokey")[](https://github.com/autokey/autokey)
+
+[**Macro Recorder - No more repetitive tasks - Mouse and Keyboard Capture**  
+ _No more performing the same task twice! Macro Recorder captures mouse events and keystrokes like a tape recorder…_ www.macrorecorder.com](https://www.macrorecorder.com/ "https://www.macrorecorder.com/")[](https://www.macrorecorder.com/)
+
+The advantage of putting your job-hunting shortcuts at _this_ level of the operating system is that it’s very powerful and the links can be used wherever there’s room to insert text into a computer program (but most typically a web browser).
+
+If you’re having a direct message exchange with a prospective client or employer on LinkedIn for instance, you could quickly use one of your keyboard macros to drop your resume or a link to your writing portfolio into the conversation.
+
+The downside of this approach is that keyboard macros are tied to an individual computer. If you’re doing job-hunting from, say, a computer in a hotel business center, or from multiple computers at once, then things are going to get kind of complicated.
+
+I compute for the most part from a desktop so haven’t looked into this. But _perhaps_ some macro editors exist that include the functionality to sync updates to hotkeys across computers (although different keyboard layouts would pose a problem here). But if you just need these hotkeys on one computer — say, whichever one you use for job-hunting — then you should be set.
+
+### Setting Up A CRM For The Purpose Of Job-Hunting
+
+A slightly more elaborate approach is to set up your templates and text snippets for job hunting in a CRM.
+
+Naturally, setting up a CRM is more complicated. But also more powerful.
+
+Additional functionality this approach will give you that may come in handy during the job search:
+
+  * **The ability to track opening and clickthrough rates to receive valuable clues about prospective employers’ level of engagement.** (Personally I’m not a fan of email tracking and find it privacy-invasive, but I know that many are enthusiastic about its powers).
+  * **Being able to keep a careful log of all _inbound_ communication received from a job lead.**
+
+Hubspot’s free CRM is a great option if you’re just looking for a quick and easy tool to get going with job-hunting. It integrates easily with common email platforms and if you’re looking to do something more advanced — like use separate mailservers for SMTP and IMAP — you can configure that also.
+
+The two important components from the job-hunter’s perspective:
+
+  * The template manager where you can create and save templates for sending to prospective clients/employers.
+  * The snippet editor where you can easily create and edit text snippets for inserting into cover letters.
+
+Preparing a template to use in Hubspot. Screenshot: author.
+
+To really take advantage of the functionality that Hubspot offers, it’s worth creating custom fields that you can then use in your templates.
+
+The snippet editor in Hubspot. Screenshot: author
+
+Creating snippets can also be a great way to make the process of inserting commonly-accessed links, like links to resumes and Linktrees, that much quicker. You can insert them by referencing hashtags or manually select them in the email editor view in Hubspot.
+
+The above are two methodologies that can speed up your job-hunting process.
+
+They can be useful whether you’re looking to land a remote gig, a part-time (in person) job, or simply looking to pitch new potential clients on your freelance/consulting services.

posts/medium/3--Major--Obstacles-Currently-Standing-In-The-Way-Of-A-Truly-Remote-Global-Workforce.md

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+# 3 (Major) Obstacles Currently Standing In The Way Of A Truly Remote Global Workforce
+
+#### These factors stand in the way of the kind of remote mobilization many are currently imaginging as already being here
+
+Remote working: the vision that many are describing as being already here is still, too often, a far-off reality. Photo by [Anna Shvets](https://www.pexels.com/@shvetsa?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/earth-globe-with-googly-eyes-on-gray-background-5217882/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+There’s so much positive energy going around at the moment in favor of remote working.
+
+Barely a day goes by in which we don’t hear one of remote work’s many passionate advocates arguing that the office is obsolete — and decrying companies who are asking their workers to return to in-office employment.
+
+**And while I’m fully in favor of remote working (really, I think its potential is world-changing!), I think the future is going to look a lot more nuanced.**
+
+To demand that all companies make remote work fully optional is to ignore the reality that many workers — and companies — would rather work from an office than from a home.
+
+They’d prefer their colleagues to do the same.
+
+This is to be expected and, I believe, it’s also totally reasonable. Arguments are rarely won by aggressively spewing dogma and insisting that the other side (the non-remote-firsters) are anachronistic Luddites.
+
+After all, it’s what working has looked like for virtually all knowledge-based workers since the Industrial Revolution.
+
+Just as we (those on the ‘pro’ side of the remote work fence) are encouraging companies to respect our preference, we need to realize that we can’t dictate that everybody adopt ours. Change won’t come all at once. We’ll more likely have to meet somewhere in the middle.
+
+So the future of remote working — while rosey — is going to be limited by the above factors. As well as these.
+
+### 1: Deceptive Remote Work Advertisements
+
+Yes, a strange one to kick this list off with perhaps.
+
+Candidates looking for remote work opportunities at the moment (to disclose the obvious, I’ve been keeping my eye on what’s out there for the past month or so ) have been noting an enormous proliferation of miscategorized remote working “opportunities.”
+
+[**Fake remote jobs are becoming a major nuisance for today’s jobseekers**  
+ _Today’s remote jobseekers are having to wade through a haystack of fake advertising to find the few potentially…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/fake-remote-jobs-are-becoming-a-major-nuisance-for-todays-jobseekers-9faeb8113b63 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/fake-remote-jobs-are-becoming-a-major-nuisance-for-todays-jobseekers-9faeb8113b63")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/fake-remote-jobs-are-becoming-a-major-nuisance-for-todays-jobseekers-9faeb8113b63)
+
+These can take the form of:
+
+  * Positions advertised as remote because the term sounds trendy but … they’re not actually remote.
+  * Major T&Cs that preclude anybody except those based in the immediate environs of the office from fulfilling the job
+
+Responsibility for weeding these out lies on the shoulders of remote job marketplaces. More specialist websites have begun doing a good job at policing their listings. LinkedIn really has not.
+
+### 2: Geographically-Limited Remote Opportunities
+
+I’m currently based in Israel.
+
+And it didn’t take more than a few minutes on LinkedIn to suss that an enormous amount of remote opportunity — perhaps the majority of it — is circumscribed by one very significant term and condition: the positions are only accessible to those based in the United States (or Canada or the EU).
+
+So what’s a Bulgarian or Indian or Israeli remote jobseeker to do?
+
+[**A Remote World Would Be More Accessible If Only….**  
+_While attitudes towards remote work are rapidly changing, there remain legal and administrative obstacles that stand…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/a-remote-world-would-be-more-accessible-if-only-d2950cfd0b79 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/a-remote-world-would-be-more-accessible-if-only-d2950cfd0b79")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/a-remote-world-would-be-more-accessible-if-only-d2950cfd0b79)
+
+You could work remotely for a domestic employer, of course. But isn’t the whole idea of remote working to widen employment opportunities for companies and employers beyond those in one’s immediate geographic radius?
+
+Working remotely and domestically has always seemed somewhat less appealing — almost like trying to make contrary objectives meet.
+
+These are various reasons for this state of affairs.
+
+One is that US-based organizations sometimes believe — or have been advised — that hiring non-American remote workers is a bureaucratic headache they’d rather live without.
+
+Another is that the positions being billed as remote are actually hybrid roles. These require periodic on-site attendance. Hence, if you’re not at least in the _country_ it’s very unlikely that the position is going to work out.
+
+This really speaks to the point above.
+
+Right now, we’re seeing a lot of confusing categorization that makes many job forums very frustrating experiences for remote opportunity job-seekers.
+
+Hybrid isn’t remote. And if we want to move forward with remote working to the fullest extent possible, we’re going to need to make sure we’re all on the same page about these (extremely significant) nuances.
+
+### 3: The World We Live In!
+
+About twelve months ago, a friend was waxing lyrical about his newfound remote working existence in — of all places — the Canary Islands.
+
+I felt an instant pang of jealousy. How cool and what a great way to take advantage of the zeitgeist towards remote work! Then I remembered that my wife holds down a non-remote job here in Israel and … other obstacles.
+
+Here are a few that sprung quickly to mind:
+
+  * My wife and I currently rent and — like many renters — are contractually precluded from subletting. Legally, there’s no easy to way to simply vanish from the country for a few months without putting our lease (and housing) in jeopardy.
+  * Twelve months ago I was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD (I mean … you should totally still hire me notwithstanding that!). The medication I’m prescribed — Vyvanse — has been nothing short of mildly life-changing. Unfortunately ADHD stimulants are controlled substances and, generally speaking, prescriptions are not internationally recognized. Do I really want to set back all the progress I’ve made just for a short term adventure?
+  * Tax and compliance. Although I’ve never been hailed as a tax planning expert, I believe that most jurisdictions have some concept of tax residency. Spend more than a certain number of days in the country and you now owe tax to … some other sovereign. This is a complicated reality that digital nomads have to deal with.
+  * The spotty nature of internet connectivity worldwide. I have setup some pretty ridiculous business-grade connectivity for my home office.
+
+I can throw out some ideas, even though none of them strike me as tremendously realistic:
+
+  * We — as in … human society — need to develop a more flexible paradigm for housing that acknowledges the fact that, these days, people tend to be more geographically footloose than ever before. I love the idea of housing as a service (HaaS) becoming more normalized. Just as we can rent server space from month to month (and it’s advisable to make our codebase easily transportable if we’re doing so; see Docker, Kubernetes, etc), we should be able to rent housing on a monthly basis and something like minimalism would probably be well-advised to help us do that. (Sorry — I sometimes think in tech analogies.) Normative rental contracts in many jurisdictions effectively force those not wealthy enough to pay rent for multiple properties simultaneously, or to own property, to effectively never leave their base for an extended period or to risk being found in breach of contract.
+
+**Mentioned:**
+
+[**How To Set Up A Home Internet Connection That Almost Never Goes Down**  
+ _If you’re struggling with home internet connectivity, there are some cool solutions out there. This may save you a few…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/how-to-set-up-a-home-internet-connection-that-almost-never-goes-down-562143906d0b "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/how-to-set-up-a-home-internet-connection-that-almost-never-goes-down-562143906d0b")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/how-to-set-up-a-home-internet-connection-that-almost-never-goes-down-562143906d0b)
+
+**Related:**
+
+<https://danielrosehill.medium.com/a-remote-world-would-be-more-accessible-if-only-d2950cfd0b79>
+
+<https://danielrosehill.medium.com/its-time-to-untether-remote-work-from-synchronous-communications-4ca81a1ffc2a>

posts/medium/3-Advantages-Text-Based-Content-Retains-Over-Video-Marketing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+# 3 Advantages Text-Based Content Retains Over Video Marketing
+
+#### The written word still has its advantages over those fancy video-slayers, especially for nascent companies
+
+A few days ago, I penned a piece here about how — from the perspective of a hobbyist creator, at least — video is more fun and fulfilling than writing:
+
+[**4 Reasons Making Video Is More Fun Than Writing**  
+ _As a longtime writer dipping my toes in video, there are aspects of this mode of creative expression that already…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/4-reasons-making-video-is-more-fun-than-writing-63ff3c498382 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/4-reasons-making-video-is-more-fun-than-writing-63ff3c498382")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/4-reasons-making-video-is-more-fun-than-writing-63ff3c498382)
+
+I wrote that piece from the perspective of doing both for fun and enjoyment. And I stand by what I wrote in that piece:
+
+  * There’s something fulfilling about the fact that videography involves using your body as well as your mind
+  * As a tech geek, I love the fact that video-making — even simply creating videos for YouTube — allows me to jive with both my creative and technical proclivities. I can spend hours fressing over gear. But ultimately what keeps me inspired to keep moving forward is the pursuit of storytelling and creativity.
+  * Video is a cool way to meet people. In real life!
+
+Shooting video at a political march in Jerusalem earlier this year. Photo: author.
+
+Nevertheless, there’s a part of me that feels the need to stick up for the written word.
+
+For one, I can speak to the advantages of using writing professionally — it’s a large part of what I do for a living and what I have been doing for the best part of 10 years.
+
+It’s also something that I _have_ helped plenty of companies — especially early stage ones and entrepreneurs — to make good use out of. To date, my video career has been purely a hobby, although I’m keeping one eye firmly on how I could (down the road) weave it into my service offering.
+
+So while my perspective here may be limited by the second qualification, I can vouch for three things that writing “does” really well.
+
+### Barriers To Entry To Create Written Content — Say, Content Marketing — Are Low
+
+As I write this point, I feel an irrepressible jolt of anger at myself for publishing it.
+
+Because I know that it’s a rationale that has frequently haunted me as a professional writer and which is exploited by merciless cheapskates to keep writing rates artificially down.
+
+Writing’s cheap (or it should be). It doesn’t require much skill. Anybody can do it. These are all helpful (and untrue) slurs that writers have probably heard all the time.
+
+Now here’s the truth. Good writing requires an investment — in the humans doing the writing.
+
+I’m a firm believer that nobody gains from cheap, ineffective copy. Sadly, we live in a world in which many clients would roll their eyes with disdain at the thought that what they perceive to be a simple piece of writing — let’s take a blog post — could cost $300 (or $500 or … dare I say it … $1,000). I was tempted to add the word “increasingly.”
+
+While transitioning towards an inbound-led pipeline has been a huge boost for my business, I still spend too much time fending off the unrealistic demands of business owners and marketing agencies (who really should know better). They want a white paper about their client’s emerging AI platform written tomorrow (written by a writer that must be able to demonstrate prior experience in the subject matter). Their budget: $200.
+
+[**Opinion: $300 Really Isn’t A High Rate For Freelance Writing Services**  
+medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/opinion-300-really-isnt-a-high-rate-for-freelance-writing-services-8581a0139d1a "https://medium.com/freelance-writing/opinion-300-really-isnt-a-high-rate-for-freelance-writing-services-8581a0139d1a")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/opinion-300-really-isnt-a-high-rate-for-freelance-writing-services-8581a0139d1a)
+
+What I’m talking about instead is that the barriers to entry to create the _physical hardware_ needed to produce writing isn’t comparable to video. Cameras, green screens, and fancy microphones aren’t required. Us writers tend to need screens, keyboards, and steady supplies of internet connectivity and caffeine. Get out of our way and let us do our thing. For small budget-constrained-businesses, what’s not to love about that?
+
+### Writing Is More Accessible Than Audio Or Video Based Content — For The Moment, At Least
+
+I’ve written before about my “forecast” for what I see happening to the world of “content.”
+
+[**Does Text-Based ‘Content’ Have A Future In The Age Of Video?**  
+_My own evolution as a content creator — and why I believe that format-agnosticism may be the way our industry moves_ medium.com](https://medium.com/daniel-on-marketing/does-text-based-content-have-a-future-in-the-age-of-video-3fad6037a683 "https://medium.com/daniel-on-marketing/does-text-based-content-have-a-future-in-the-age-of-video-3fad6037a683")[](https://medium.com/daniel-on-marketing/does-text-based-content-have-a-future-in-the-age-of-video-3fad6037a683)
+
+A few months later, and I haven’t much to add, or change, to that prediction.
+
+We’re seeing, at the moment, a slew of technological developments that — collectively — could change the face of content marketing. We just haven’t all recognized it yet:
+
+  * Getting text transcripts of video is becoming easier, cheaper, and faster. Case in point: YouTube’s built in automatic captioning engine which I generally find to be amazingly fast and accurate. Or Rev. It’s going to get easier for video creators to produce automatic text-based readouts of their videos. As in, a _lot_ easier.
+  * Moving in the other direction, speech synthesis is speeding up the rate at which realistic human-like voice can be used to take a ream of text and convert it into audio. We haven’t quite gotten to video yet. But as I mentioned in the post linked above, it’s not hard to imagine a future in which stock libraries and more AI could be paired to finish off that process.
+
+The point I was trying to make with the above piece (and if I may say so myself, I think it’s still salient):
+
+We’re marching quickly towards a future of format-agnostic content; in fact, the first manifestations of it are already here waiting to be digested.
+
+It’s a reality in which the _format_ through which we distribute content — currently audio, video, or text — matters far less than what we have to say. Unironically, the knife that helps cut through the noise and takes us back from the precipice of content saturation might be .. content itself (in a stricter sense of the word).
+
+In one direction (text to video) we have synthesization and tools yet to be developed but which are probably around the corner. In the other, AI and automatic transcription engines. A few clicks and creators can go either way. A couple more and consumers can control how they wish to consume the latest from their influencers of choice.
+
+That’s tomorrow. But the easiest means which creators have at their disposal to _start_ that process is still … the written word.
+
+### Writing Lets You Iterate Quicker — And Fail Faster
+
+Have I been working with startups for too long? Probably.
+
+But in an increasingly saturated content marketplace, creators are going to have to become more imaginative with their content marketing in order to actually get their voices heard.
+
+One method is shouting — let’s call this the brute force approach (publish a lot!).
+
+Another is trying to be more strategic and clever about what’s being said. The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, by the way.
+
+As above, my prediction remains that the key to that endeavor is going to be a return to focusing on messaging. It’s going to be easier for us creators to focus on what we have to say rather than how we’re going to distribute it (format-wise, I’m talking). Consumers are going to have the easy ability to override us at arm’s reach anyway.
+
+Content saturation is here. Consumers aren’t interested in hearing more fluff. Say something significant. Or don’t say it at all.
+
+Even those who _do_ truly have something significant to say aren’t likely to get their by tomorrow.
+
+Content creation is an ongoing process.
+
+It requires developing thinking. Refining how that thinking is expressed. And advancing slowly towards a form of communication that really gets the intended idea across to audiences.
+
+The easiest way to get through that process as quickly as possible is to fail as fast as possible. The Agile philosophy. And probably the quickest way to go from idea conception to execution in the creative world … writing.

posts/medium/3-Damaging-Myths-That-Keep-Writers-Poor-And-Undervalued.md

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+# 3 Damaging Myths That Keep Writers Poor And Undervalued
+
+#### Too many clients buy into these three tropes which have together helped to make writing a difficult world for many to survive in
+
+Professional writing: hard to do in practice. Commonly regarded as very easy by prospective customers. Photo by [Negative Space](https://www.pexels.com/@negativespace?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexel](https://www.pexels.com/photo/coffee-notebook-pen-writing-34587/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels).
+
+Recently, I decided to share something that truly came from the heart:
+
+It was about why — after spending more than 10 years spent in writing-centric roles — I’ve decided to veer off that path a little and focus, instead, on selling clients on a mixture of writing _and_ the strategic input needed to make written content really ‘work’ when it’s being used towards marketing-related ends.
+
+I call it marketing communications consulting.
+
+Consulting rather than freelancing because I want to make it clear that I’ll be providing _consultative_ services rather than just executing writing briefs and .. scribbling.
+
+Marketing communications because I try to bring value _beyond_ content marketing, even if it’s an immensely popular area (though much derided, I see a significant difference between content marketing and thought leadership and continue to feel passionately about the potential of the latter — done well).
+
+[**The 4 Key Differences Between Thought Leadership and Content Marketing**  
+ _Thought leadership garners a lot of attention among entrepreneurs and those aiming to pick up more traction in their…_ www.entrepreneur.com](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/358323 "https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/358323")[](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/358323)
+
+[**Why I’ve Stopped Identifying As A ‘Freelance Writer’ — Or A Writer At All**  
+ _Why I (Sadly) No Longer Think Freelance Writing Is A Good Space To Be In_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-ive-stopped-identifying-as-a-freelance-writer-or-a-writer-at-all-1cb41acce9fb "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-ive-stopped-identifying-as-a-freelance-writer-or-a-writer-at-all-1cb41acce9fb")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-ive-stopped-identifying-as-a-freelance-writer-or-a-writer-at-all-1cb41acce9fb)
+
+In the course of explaining my decision, I expressed frustration at some (perceived) ‘home truths’ that I have observed during the past six years during which freelance writing has been at least part of my income base.
+
+The first of those is that writers are chronically undervalued.
+
+The second is that it seems to me that ‘writer’ is a label that — sadly — in may be in the best interests of many marketing professionals to discard.
+
+And the third is my earnest belief that not only are things already difficult, but they’re only getting harder. Hence why it seemed like a sensible time to pivot.
+
+But what’s underpinning the sometimes dismal plight of today’s marketing writers?
+
+This is a question I’ve thought about a lot, too. And these factors explain it at least in part.
+
+### “Anybody can write.”
+
+The first way we can take a pop at this is to point out that actually _no_ not “everybody” can write. There are people in the world, for instance, who are neither literate nor capable of typing on a computer–and the latter is really the main prerequisite for a career as a “writer” in today’s world.
+
+But that’s typically not what the naysayers are trying to allege.
+
+They mean that because _anybody they can readily conceive of_ can type at a computer, it means that writing is a complete non-skill.
+
+By that token, writing is like respiring air. Just as you wouldn’t expect to be paid for the service of walking into an office and breathing air, it’s absurd to think that a business is going to pay you to “just write.”
+
+The rebuttal:
+
+The gulf between writing for fun and writing professionally is actually rather large. Anybody who makes a living from writing knows that. And knows that there are few things about this career that could be considered ‘easy’.
+
+Do you know how to use a video camera? Do you know how to drive a car? Do you know how to take a photograph? Have you built IKEA furniture before?
+
+Assuming you answered yes to at least one of those now try to answer this:
+
+  * Do you regard yourself a videographer — such that if a local cinema production company were looking for a fill-in you’d think about applying?
+  * If somebody rocked up to your door in a rally car — would you know what to do in order to take it out on a circuit?
+  * Do you think that knowing how to put together the odd piece of IKEA furniture qualifies you to begin marketing yourself as an interior designer and professional mechanic?
+
+If you _did_ answer yes to any of those things, you’d likely find yourself getting horribly out of your depth in very short order being asked to do things you didn’t have the first clue how to pull off. Annoyed clients. Annoyed you. Misery all round.
+
+And you know what?
+
+This _is_ kind of what’s happening in freelance writing.
+
+The lack of barriers to entry — and not the odd YouTube huckster who tells you that you can absolutely get very rich if you get into freelance writing and buy my course — further the notion that _anybody_ can write. And many people who are unable to write — even to normative standards of grammar — enter the market. “Freelance writers” who can’t string together a grammatically correct sentence abound. As do “cybersecurity experts” who couldn’t tell you the difference between, say, a VPN and a proxy if their life depended on it.
+
+The result? Clients _assume_ that freelance writing is a skill-less craft filled with those changing their arms at it and that the next prospective writer who sends them a resume is a charlatan. The next step: bad pay for everyone.
+
+Freelance writing, by the way, requires knowing how to do a lot more than “just write” — even if that _were_ easy. You’ll also need to know:
+
+  * How to run a business. There’s a _lot_ to this and freelance writers are typically one man or woman shops who have to do everything from keeping books to filing tax reports.
+  * How to market yourself to find work. Or network in order to hear about it that way.
+  * How to keep on top of written deliverables for potentially as many as 8 clients at the one time. Deadline juggling becomes an art form.
+
+### “Writing is easy “
+
+A corollary to the notion that anybody can write is the idea that writing to professional standards on complicated topics is somehow easy.
+
+You know how easy such writing _isn’t_ (at least for me)?
+
+So un-easy that whenever I sit down to write for clients I have to make sure that my room is perfectly silent, that I’ve drunk my coffee, and that I’m going to be focusing on absolutely nothing but the draft for the next X minutes. It takes every once of concentration that I can muster.
+
+I put such a premium on the value of deep work, in fact, that I put my phone into flight mode whenever I’m doing something like this:
+
+[**I Went Into Flight Mode For Six Months. Here’s What Happened.**  
+_Back in January, I wrote an excited Medium post about how being slightly less responsive was going to be the motto of…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/i-went-into-flight-mode-for-six-months-heres-what-happened-e8ffd86e88b1 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/i-went-into-flight-mode-for-six-months-heres-what-happened-e8ffd86e88b1")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/i-went-into-flight-mode-for-six-months-heres-what-happened-e8ffd86e88b1)
+
+The problem?
+
+I’ve got the impression that many freelance clients have thought that writing their blogs is something I could do while a little tipsy and typing into my phone while taking a touristy horse and cart ride in some busy Spanish holiday resort with screaming teenagers trying to sell me _churros_ from the roadside. Perhaps I’d have the odd conversation going on too. “ _Si señor, déjame terminar el blog y estoy contigo”._
+
+The reason I say this?
+
+Their budgets often made zero sense _unless_ writing is a near zero effort enterprise.
+
+I recently encountered a client whose maximum budget for a blog post was $300 (and even getting there was a strain) — including an outline that needed approval. When it came to leveraging their one revision they went all out. Multiple stakeholders needed to leave their two cents in excruciating detail.
+
+The question that went through my head — and if you’ve been in this industry, you’ve probably had this thought too — “does this person _really think_ it’s worth my time to go through all this hassle for $300?”
+
+There are a couple of possibilities that lead to answering that question in the affirmative:
+
+  * No but the client doesn’t really care and will try extract maximum value from whoever they work with (of these in the writing space there are plenty; the best solution is typically not to worth with them).
+  * The client thinks that this process is really easy and that actioning their massively detailed feedback could take you all of five minutes.
+
+Neither of those options is entirely benign. Again: the only real option, in my experience, is avoidance. The problem: when such clients comprise a significant chunk of the buying-side of the industry. Perhaps even the majority of it.
+
+### Freelance writing is just a gig job
+
+Here, again, I have to argue that freelance writers are often freelance writers’ worst enemy.
+
+If your average client were to come across most messaging forums and blog posts written by and for freelance writers, they might conclude a few things about us in very short order.
+
+Firstly that we’re money-obsessed and that getting decent “rates” was really all we were after. That might seem like where our horizon of focus started and ended.
+
+The reason that so many freelance writing clients seem obsessed with rates?
+
+It’s getting harder and harder to survive in this industry and money is .. well, how we pay the bills. For too many of us, that’s the furthest we can lift our eyes upwards. We’re getting paid enough. We can get to thinking about whether we actually _like_ the work that we’re doing, or find it fulfilling, some other day.
+
+[**The Pros And Cons Of A Career In Freelance Writing**  
+ _As a lifestyle, it offers its ups and downs. Here are some of them._ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-career-in-freelance-writing-d13e1597e8a7 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-career-in-freelance-writing-d13e1597e8a7")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-career-in-freelance-writing-d13e1597e8a7)
+
+[**To Grow As A Writer, Write About (Slightly) Uncomfortable Topics**  
+ _As freelance writers, we’re constantly being adjured to niche down._ medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/to-grow-as-a-writer-write-about-slightly-uncomfortable-topics-2bf304ef58e9 "https://medium.com/freelance-writing/to-grow-as-a-writer-write-about-slightly-uncomfortable-topics-2bf304ef58e9")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/to-grow-as-a-writer-write-about-slightly-uncomfortable-topics-2bf304ef58e9)
+
+I’ve often been told that where I live (Israel), “content writing” is seen as a first rung in the ladder kind of a gig — which explains why recruiters have sometimes sounded baffled when I explained “five year goals” that didn’t involve ditching the field as soon as possible. This is partially why I by and large stopped working with locally-based clients and why if I go back in-house I’m probably going to be relocating (or working remotely). Israelis get tech. But — to interject my opinion here — they don’t get the value of communication done well.
+
+If an entire industry agrees that writing is just about hemming out a few words for pay — the knowledge-based equivalent of being the office janitor — then nobody is going to take what we do seriously or be prepared to back it with proper budget.
+
+Can “freelance writing” be a career?
+
+I would say ‘probably’ — but I’d attach to that the caveat that even those writers who love writing the most will probably feel a natural thirst and inclination to do a little bit more over time. Common ancillary add-ons involve developing skills in SEO, content strategy, or even public relations. I don’t think the kind of pivot I’m taking at the moment is necessarily that uncommon.
+
+When I think about _why_ writers are chronically undervalued a few factors come to mind. The culprits here: both self-described writers themselves and the industries we commonly work among.
+
+Perhaps the most prescient of all the reasons: The total lack of a barrier to entry to the profession of freelance writing.
+
+We have no licensing exams to pass. No professional associations really sticking up for us (at least in many parts of the world). We typically don’t unionize and, at best, can be found banding together in online communities — often moaning about things like rates.
+
+The industry has responded harshly to this weak hand. Too many clients think freelance writers are “not real” professionals. And they’re insistent on paying them rates that accord with that status. To many, this industry has an entry level but no higher rungs.
+
+Are there any actionable ideas here?
+
+I can think of a few but I also think that we’re up against an endless incoming tide of so-so writers who will provide bargain basement rates that attract clients who never really wanted to pay that much anyway.
+
+Writing is a valuable activity and writing well, professionally, requires real skills that takes years to develop and sharpen. Unfortunately too many of us are trying to assert our value to clients who really aren’t interested in hearing it.

posts/medium/3-English-Speaking-Jerusalem-Influencers-To-Follow-On-Social-Media.md

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+# 3 English-Speaking Jerusalem Influencers To Follow On Social Media
+
+If you’re moving to live in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, and want to keep in the know about what’s going on, then you might wish to keep an eye out on the following bloggers and influencers.
+
+Better yet, they write in English. So you won’t even need to come to grips with the language to keep on top of their feeds (although, of course, improving your Hebrew is always a sensible thing to do).
+
+Without further a-do. Here are three worth keeping an eye on.
+
+### Shimshon Sam Leshinsky, Lifestyle Commentator
+
+Leshinsky seen with a packet of the salt and vinegar crisps which recently came to Israel. Photo: Courtesy / Shimshon Leshinsky
+
+In the space of just four months, Australia-born Jerusalem-based immigrant Shimshon Sam Leshinsky has shot to prominence as one of the most engaging voices in the English-speaking community in Jerusalem.
+
+[**Meet: Anglo Jerusalem's Newest Social Media Influencer - After Aliyah**  
+ _What comes to mind when you picture your stereotypical social media influencer? Leshinsky during a recent snow day in…_ www.afteraliyah.com](https://www.afteraliyah.com/blogs/meet-anglo-jerusalems-newest-social-media-influencer/ "https://www.afteraliyah.com/blogs/meet-anglo-jerusalems-newest-social-media-influencer/")[](https://www.afteraliyah.com/blogs/meet-anglo-jerusalems-newest-social-media-influencer/)
+
+Leshinsky’s platform of choice is the Secret Jerusalem Facebook group — a community which numbers more than 91,000 members (and growing).
+
+[**Facebook Groups**  
+ _Secret Jerusalem has 91,022 members. Welcome to Secret Jerusalem! We are a welcoming, diverse community of…_ www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretjerusalem "https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretjerusalem")[](https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretjerusalem)
+
+Although the Melbourne-born immigrant began sharing reviews about Jerusalem restaurants on the group, he soon expanded into other areas — including Jerusalem doorframes. Leshinsky has also featured natural trails in the city and shone a light upon worthy causes such as a woman attempting to raise money to support a chocolate venture.
+
+Leshinsky’s posting features an inimitable blend of frank questioning and trivia from his Jerusalem outings. He told _After Aliyah_ that he likens posting on social media to kicking off a conversation at a Shabbat (Sabbath) table.
+
+Leshinsky’s observations can be followed both on Instagram and on his own Facebook page:
+
+[**Log into Facebook**  
+ _Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know._ www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/Shimshon-Leshinsky-Daily-Food-Comments-105290711559622/ "https://www.facebook.com/Shimshon-Leshinsky-Daily-Food-Comments-105290711559622/")[](https://www.facebook.com/Shimshon-Leshinsky-Daily-Food-Comments-105290711559622/)
+
+### Sarah Tuttle-Singer, Taxi Driver Stories
+
+The Times of Israel’s social media editor, Sarah Tuttle-Singer, has been amassing stories from taxi journies which she intends publishing in a forthcoming book. Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons
+
+Tuttle Singer, whose day job is as the social media editor at the _Times of Israel_ is a well-known left-leaning voice in the Israel English-speaking community — and far beyond it.
+
+She is also the author of _Jerusalem Drawn And Quartered_ and has passionately argued in favor of greater coexistence between the city’s Jewish and Arab populations.
+
+Tuttle-Singer has a propensity for picking up anecdotes and trivia from her many taxi journeys (American readers: that means cab rides).
+
+[**Log into Facebook**  
+ _Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know._ www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/taxidriversaid/ "https://www.facebook.com/taxidriversaid/")[](https://www.facebook.com/taxidriversaid/)
+
+After sharing plenty such anecdotes on social media groups and her _Times of Israel_ column, Tuttle-Singer decided to launch a Facebook page which is intended to precede the launch of _Israel On The Road_ which will be the author’s second book.
+
+[It can be found here.](https://www.facebook.com/taxidriversaid/)
+
+### Debbie Kandel, Food And Travel Blogger
+
+Keeping an eye on Jerusalem’s ever-evolving culinary scene is Debbie Kandel, a British-born, Jerusalem-based food and travel critic who runs the [Restaurant Club Jerusalem Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/restaurantclubjerusalem/members) which features spirited discussions on restaurant openings (and closings) in the city.
+
+Kandel travels throughout Jerusalem (and Israel) sampling the country’s delicious food and frequently reports back her findings through her Facebook pages.
+
+To learn more about Kandel and her blogging, visit [DebbestFood.com](https://debbestfood.com/about/).

posts/medium/3-Great-Reasons-To-Begin-Posting-On-Reddit--And-Not-Facebook-.md

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+# 3 Great Reasons To Begin Posting On Reddit (And Not Facebook)
+
+#### Some reasons to become active on one of the most fascinating (and controversial) spaces on the internet
+
+Reddit: though typically considered to be one of the internet’s more obscure online communities, Reddit is growing in popularity and influence. Photo by [Brett Jordan](https://www.pexels.com/@brettjordan?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-white-and-black-labeled-box-5437588/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+Reddit is one of the largest social media networks on the internet.
+
+With more than 2.8 million discussion forums — known as subreddits — it’s a sprawling labyrinth of online discussion, with subreddits covering everything from current affairs to nice subjects like health support groups and geography-specific communities.
+
+And although Reddit _does_ tend to be US-centric, like any social network, its reach is truly global.
+
+[**Did You Know? Reddit Has Its Own Search Language. Here’s How To Use It.**  
+_One of Reddit’s lesser known features is the search syntax it contains_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/did-you-know-reddit-has-its-own-search-language-heres-how-to-use-it-a081a957891b "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/did-you-know-reddit-has-its-own-search-language-heres-how-to-use-it-a081a957891b")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/did-you-know-reddit-has-its-own-search-language-heres-how-to-use-it-a081a957891b)
+
+If you’ve never thought about posting there, here are three great reasons why it’s worthwhile for you to consider doing so.
+
+### The Long Tail Of Communities Is Incredible
+
+I’ve always wanted to learn about home networking.
+
+And while I’d been dabbling around with routers and ethernet cables for too many years, I never quite had the confidence to try pull off something a little bit more elaborate.
+
+A few months ago that changed.
+
+After about 5 years of living with sub-par home internet in Israel, I decided it was time to implement something that could make home connectivity issues a thing of the past. I typically work from home. So it’s not an exaggeration to say that daily downtime was literally impacting my business.
+
+[**How To Set Up A Backup (Cellular) Home Internet Connection In Israel**  
+ _For when your sapak just isn’t really all that great and fiber is nowhere to be seen_ medium.com](https://medium.com/living-in-israel/how-to-set-up-a-backup-home-internet-connection-in-israel-83959b3f178c "https://medium.com/living-in-israel/how-to-set-up-a-backup-home-internet-connection-in-israel-83959b3f178c")[](https://medium.com/living-in-israel/how-to-set-up-a-backup-home-internet-connection-in-israel-83959b3f178c)
+
+Two things got me from where I was (sucky internet!) to where I wanted to be (insanely reliable home internet connectivity for the fraction of its usual price):
+
+  * Desperation
+  * /r/homenetworking
+
+Reddit’s long tail of support communities is amazing. And many are populated by extremely knowledgeable posters.
+
+### You’re Creating Indexed Discourse On The Internet Every Time You Start A Thread There
+
+Here’s a more unusual one but it’s actually one of my main motivators for participating on Reddit.
+
+I frequently find that there are overlapping communities between Facebook and Reddit.
+
+Increasingly, if that’s the case, I go out of my way to post on the Reddit community, even if it’s less active.
+
+My reasoning?
+
+Lots of Facebook communities have their privacy set to private. This effectively makes them part of the deep web — the part of the internet that isn’t indexed by search engines.
+
+Creating “content” on Reddit in the form of discussion and questions creates more information that’s freely available on the internet for anybody who might wish to find it.
+
+Every time I post a question on Reddit, I like to keep in mind that I’m not just asking a question on behalf of myself. I’m creating a question that may make it quicker for somebody with the same question to find the answer (because mine, and a chain of responses, will already exist).
+
+Contrast: Quora. Which also hosts many questions and answers. But you need to be a member and login to access many of them. Reddit content is up and out there on the internet. A click away whether you’re a user or not.
+
+### Reddit May Be An Acquired Taste, But It’s Growing In Popularity
+
+[**Reddit: Why I Predict That This Social Dark Horse Will Only Get Bigger And Better This Year And…**  
+ _If Reddit Can Tame Its Sprawling Web Of Hyper-Engaged Communities, It’s Primed To Capitalize On Influencer Ennui And…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/reddit-why-i-predict-that-this-social-dark-horse-will-only-get-bigger-and-better-this-year-and-1633155092ca "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/reddit-why-i-predict-that-this-social-dark-horse-will-only-get-bigger-and-better-this-year-and-1633155092ca")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/reddit-why-i-predict-that-this-social-dark-horse-will-only-get-bigger-and-better-this-year-and-1633155092ca)
+
+Traditionally, Reddit is thought of as something as an unusual dark horse among the world’s social media networks.
+
+It tends to be tech centric and particularly popular among an American demographic (because it’s a lot harder to see where users are based, there’s an annoying and virtually universal assumption on Reddit that every poster is based in the US. Many are not!)
+
+Because most Redditors post anonymously — under pseudonyms (note: you there’s nothing stopping you from _not_ doing this, or operating multiple accounts), toxicity is and hate speech has become a prevalent problem there.
+
+Like any social network, there are good things about Reddit and less desirable qualities. But posting there can be a valuable and even educational experience.

posts/medium/3-Ideas-To-Help-Scale-Up-Your-Content-Creation-Process.md

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+# 3 Ideas To Help Scale Up Your Content Creation Process
+
+#### If You’re Looking To Write More Online This Year, These Tips Could Help
+
+Writing. Image: PixHere
+
+While the “write every day” debate continues to be endlessly trashed out on Medium and elsewhere (note: I tend to think it’s bad advice), there are those who, for other reasons, are looking to do more online writing _without_ necessarily striving to reach that magical “daily writer” KPI.
+
+If you’re simply looking to write _more_ online this year, then here are a few suggestions to make the process work more fluidly.
+
+### Hold A Brainstorming Session — With Yourself
+
+It should go without saying that if you’re striving to write more online (or create more YouTube videos or podcasts) you should invest some time into coming up with ideas to write about.
+
+My own content creation process is a mixture of ad-hoc writing (I didn’t plan to write this post but inspiration struck) and more formal sprint-based tracking.
+
+For the latter, I’ll set aside some time to brainstorm new ideas for both my business content marketing and my personal writing. When I adopt the more formal approach, I take a pen and paper and jot down some ideas. Then I log these — as quickly as possible — into a project management system.
+
+I use a project management system to keep track of my writing and divide it between onsite and offsite.
+
+Once it’s in the latter I use a simple Kanban board project management layout in order to move pieces of writing between various stages.
+
+For a workflow for Medium.com I might include:
+
+  * Ideas
+  * To write
+  * Writing
+  * Published
+
+For articles that I intend pitching as guest posts (offsite) I might include:
+
+  * To write
+  * Writing
+  * Pitching
+  * Placed
+
+None of these categories are hard and fast suggestions and you should obviously come up with whatever categories work best for you.
+
+Find somewhere comfortable and jot down some great ideas for writing. My recommendation is then to digitize the output of that brainstorming session as quickly as possible, preferably as soon as you’ve filled up a whiteboard / piece of paper.
+
+### Build Out And Maintain Your Own Stock Image Library
+
+Much to the annoyance of my significant other, I’ve taken to shooting random images of restaurants / road signs / cranes / other urban features in order to slowly build up a stock image library which I can use in future blogs / social media posts / etc.
+
+I try to grab a few images whenever I’m out and about and chance upon something interesting or which I haven’t seen before even if the topic is as obscure and relatively unexciting as the arrival of salt and vinegar crisps in my city.
+
+My current process is to batch the images I shoot (at least the halfway decent ones) into Google Photos albums. I sometimes also add descriptions (thanks Google support forum!) so that I can add more keywords which can be searched.
+
+I’ll give each album a theme. Like so:
+
+Some of my recent Google Photos albums
+
+What I like about this process is that it’s scalable and cloud-based. I can add photos to the cloud from wherever I happen to be, whether I’m working at my desktop or on the road. I plan on creating literally hundreds of albums.
+
+### Don’t Get Caught Up In Responding To Every Comment And Notification
+
+(But don’t ignore your readers / commenters either).
+
+[Tim Denning](https://medium.com/u/b6d641be1066) recently authored an interesting piece which caught my attention.
+
+[**I Don’t Read the Comments on My Writing. There, I Said It.**  
+_It’s not for the reason you think. I will radically transform your perspective on comments._ writingcooperative.com](https://writingcooperative.com/i-dont-read-the-comments-on-my-writing-there-i-said-it-4aab2d0df0cd "https://writingcooperative.com/i-dont-read-the-comments-on-my-writing-there-i-said-it-4aab2d0df0cd")[](https://writingcooperative.com/i-dont-read-the-comments-on-my-writing-there-i-said-it-4aab2d0df0cd)
+
+Tim’s reasoning is that he doesn’t want negative comments to ruin his motivation to keep writing.
+
+[Doran Lamb](https://medium.com/u/669cf08a2170) authored this piece in rebuttal:
+
+[**Why I Won’t Be Following Tim Denning’s Latest Advice**  
+ _I know he’s the Godfather of Medium, but he’s not always right_ medium.com](https://medium.com/feedium/why-i-wont-be-following-tim-denning-s-latest-advice-a486307e520a "https://medium.com/feedium/why-i-wont-be-following-tim-denning-s-latest-advice-a486307e520a")[](https://medium.com/feedium/why-i-wont-be-following-tim-denning-s-latest-advice-a486307e520a)
+
+I have to be honest, I’m on Doran’s side of the argument here.
+
+As I commented, while I understand Tim’s motivation, I think that avoiding negative comments because they’re energy-sapping is a form of avoidance behavior.
+
+As writers, we need to be able to roll with the punches a little and if we’re afraid to do that then I think that learning to confront that feeling is a better approach. And while trolling and hate are indeed virulent punches to receive, civil and respectful disagreement with what you write is not. It’s par for the course. And I think that as professional writers we need to learn how to deal with that.
+
+Nevertheless, I think that there’s a fine line between being reasonably engaged with your readers and not obsessing over every notification and follower.
+
+I’m guilty of periodically refreshing my Medium homepage to see whether I’ve picked up any new followers. It’s an unproductive habit that I would like to break, even though I assume that there’s some sort of neurochemical / addictive basis for doing so (probably rooted in the dopamine system and the validation of receiving new followers as a small form of reward).
+
+Don’t be like me. Monitoring your personal brand development is one thing, but it’s easy to become a little too involved in tracking how much engagement your work is getting.
+
+Again, I don’t advocate Tim’s approach and deliberately ignoring comments. I think that reciprocating reader engagement is courteous. But equally it’s probably prudent advice not to get pulled in too far, particularly as you begin scaling up and your engagement volumes increase.
+
+These are three quick ideas for scaling out your content creation process. They’re mostly applicable if you’re writing on the internet. But even video and audio creators could benefit from these tips. Simply build up your own stock video (or audio) library instead of images.
+
+To receive posts like this to your inbox, please consider signing up for my personal
+
+[**Daniel Rosehill**  
+ _Daniel Rosehill Email Forms_ danielrosehill.us14.list-manage.com](https://danielrosehill.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3783e42b60560108f2f0fd374&id=72917fe020 "https://danielrosehill.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3783e42b60560108f2f0fd374&id=72917fe020")[](https://danielrosehill.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3783e42b60560108f2f0fd374&id=72917fe020)
+
+Or to receive the stories directly through Medium, please sign up below:

posts/medium/3-Keys-To-Creating-A-More-Effective-Remote-Working-Environment.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# 3 Keys To Creating A More Effective Remote Working Environment
+
+#### The 3 keys I believe can make remote working vastly more enjoyable for all involved
+
+Remote work: organizations do it superlatively well — and totally awfully. Photo: Black laptop on bed by Kaique Roche [via Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-laptop-on-bed-3568792/).
+
+Over the past number of years, as a self-employed marketing consultant, I’ve formed part of a number of different remote and hybrid teams centered around a number of different geographies.
+
+Although my perspective is only my own, I believe that I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to running teams in these configurations.
+
+Learning from both experiences — the great ones and the terrible ones — these are the three things I would say that teams that run remote well get right.
+
+### Appropriate, Collaborative Management Is Key
+
+Many organizations are currently making their first forays into the remote world at the moment, working with external contractors for the first time or those only on site one day per week.
+
+**Unfortunately, when presented with these unfamiliar arrangements, many managers’ tendencies is to swing straight into aggressive micromanagement mode, which is virtually always a mistake.**
+
+This reaction to offsite subordinates might be natural from a psychological perspective for mangers who are used to leaning over the shoulders of those working for them. But it tends to have a disastrous and stifling impact upon retention. And after all, why should a manager’s anxiety be a subordinate’s problem?
+
+By and large, those willing to work remote jobs tend to be self-motivated — otherwise it’s difficult to have confidence in your ability to make such a job work. And many — potentially unlike their superiors — have worked in remote configurations for years.
+
+This mismatch creates a culture clash that’s ready to explode at any moment in the faces of many companies. Remote opportunities tend to attract those who thrive working in such environments. But existing hierarchies may be uncomfortable or even hostile to such working relationships.
+
+Authoritative top-down management processes are a real turn-off for many, but particularly those who see themselves as being capable of collaborating and thriving remotely.
+
+When organizations and managers instinctively reflex to these ways of working simply because an organization has gone remote, the outcome, for retention, can be disastrous. Talent feels suffocated, unheard, and unappreciated. And so they leave. If remote is going to be the new normal, encouraging management to successfully navigate this trend is the logical starting point for improvement.
+
+Organizations that do remote work well hire a management layer that trusts those they hire to get their job done well without resorting to micromanagement. Bottom-up (or outside-in) decision-making also tends to hitch along for the ride. Both can drastically improve retention and hence cut down on the sometimes tedious process of recruiting remotely.
+
+### In Remote Environments, Documentation Becomes King
+
+Perhaps unsurprisingly (I’ve spent a large part of my career writing), I’m an enormous believer in the power of documentation to better how companies operate.
+
+Ever organization has some degree of institutional knowledge that should be cataloged, nurtured, and passed down between layers of a hierarchy or simply between colleagues on the same level.
+
+Almost every organization (I contend) could benefit from some kind of formalized process for recording and storing that information in the form of a knowledge management system or KMS (truly almost any will do, even Google Docs, although I’m particularly fond of Confluence).
+
+Too often, companies only properly commit to knowledge management once they’re big (think: enterprise scale). However, even microscopic business units often hold substantial knowledge within their ranks.
+
+Human turnover is actually another argument in favor of recording internal knowledge. When staff leave, particularly longstanding players, knowledge bleeds out. Capturing every contributor’s know-how and input from the get-go can help to greatly mitigate the loss.
+
+The benefits of documenting what you and your people know are manifold but again these are magnified in remote working arrangements. For the sake of simplicity consider the onboarding use-case.
+
+Many organizations I’ve worked with have been in the throes of scaling, onboarding new team members on an almost weekly basis. Failing to document company knowledge in these circumstances represents an enormous wasted opportunity and will quickly swallow up managers’ time telling new hires more or less exactly the same thing about the company’s mission, what it does, and what internal procedures look like. This is a perfect use-case for async communication if there ever were one because none of this information needs to be transmitted in live sessions (although far too often it is).
+
+As the onboarding process scales, this dissemination process can quickly become an informational bottleneck. But the repercussions of failing to document information are magnified when the operating environment is a remote one and even simple meetings require scheduling.
+
+Personally, I advocate being pedantic about managing knowledge. Does your hybrid office have an address and door code? Jot that down somewhere staff can predictably access so that the all hands isn’t delayed by five contractors texting the CEO to ask how they get in the door. Non public facing bios? Those should go in the same place.
+
+### Make Asynchronous Communication Your Default
+
+While I’m an enormous advocate for asynchronous communication and the growing panoply of tools supporting it — I love email, Loom, Yac, and more — equally I realize that most organizations can’t _only_ be async.
+
+To illustrate the limitations of asynchronous communication, consider the case of calling an ambulance to assist with a medical emergency (yes, really!).
+
+Many of us would be justifiably miffed if we called 911 only to be told that the ambulance service was only checking its voicemail once per day and communicating asynchronously with patients. So clearly async can’t be the _only_ game in town.
+
+Extrapolating from that experience, we can see that for _most_ organizations it’s some _combination_ of synchronous and asynchronous that’s going to yield the best results.
+
+The remote environment presents a few unique features. One of those being that colleagues spread across different time zones are frequently called upon to collaborate on a daily basis. In such a setup, asynchronous communication should be the _default_ mode of communication with synchronous meetings held only when real-time back-and-forth exchanges are needed and desirable.
+
+Practically speaking, this often does not happen.
+
+The most salient feature of the organizations I’ve thought have done remote work poorly (to horribly!) has been that _“let’s hop on a quick Slack sync”_ has been the default method for collaboration and decision-making, leading to a steady stream of meetings between colleagues that quickly ends up monopolizing the working day and preventing anybody from achieving fruitful periods of deep work.
+
+There are organizations that ‘do’ remote superlatively well.
+
+And those for whom this recent trend has been, frankly, a retention-killing disaster.
+
+For those organizations that want to come out of this trend performing better than ever, the three tips, above, might be of guidance.

posts/medium/3-Things-Freelancers-And-Management-Consultants-Typically-DON-T-Have-In-Common.md

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+# 3 Things Freelancers And Management Consultants Typically DON’T Have In Common
+
+#### Management consultants, attorneys, dentists: the professionals that so many freelancers can learn so much from
+
+Consultants are commonly self-employed, like freelancers. But there are important distinctions between the two. Photo by [Andrea Piacquadio](https://www.pexels.com/@olly?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/formal-man-with-tablet-giving-presentation-in-office-3760093/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+Freelancers, attorneys, dentists.
+
+They probably haven’t been mentioned in the same sentence many times before.
+
+But wait:
+
+**What’s the difference between a freelancer and a consultant anyway, I hear you ask?**
+
+The dividing line is thinner, and grayer, than many imagine it to be.
+
+But the one I would default to if somebody asked: freelancers provide _deliverables_. Think: pieces of writing. Coding projects. Graphic design projects.
+
+Nothing wrong with that.
+
+Consultants commonly _do_ provide deliverables (consultants can be used to plug manpower gaps). But more commonly their deliverable is their thinking, or rather the actionable advice that they derive from it. These are consultative services after all.
+
+I position myself as a marketing communications _consultant —_ or strategist — who executes (does projects).
+
+I want to keep the focus on the thinking and experience I can bring to clients — and ideas and ways in which I can add value — and less on what I simply ‘do’ or ‘produce’ while still making it clear that I _do_ some of the execution. Which is why I lead with strategy rather than output. If you want to sell on value and not on price, consulting often provides an easier model for doing that.
+
+Beyond that: semantics and sometimes differences in occupational classification vis-a-vis tax. But important ones.
+
+Consultants — at least the ones that I know who work for themselves — are careful to avoid the ‘freelancer’ label.
+
+Their rationale: they want to hone their value offering in on the _thinking_ and the strategic input that they provide and not get pidgeon-holed into being thought of as simple task-doers.
+
+And vice versa, if you’re a freelancer who “just” produces deliverables, it doesn’t make sense to brand yourself a strategist.
+
+There’s no judgement intended here.
+
+Many freelancers are perfectly happy with what they do. And some freelancers make more money than consultants.
+
+But the differences, or distinctions, are actually very significant for other reasons.
+
+There are a few very important things that consultants can learn from consultants and other self-employed professionals.
+
+### Consultants Don’t Generally Do Trial Projects For Free
+
+If every freelance writer who had been asked to produce a piece of writing for free to “test out” their writing skills were to receive a dollar, and that dollar were to be put toward some kind of fund to send them all off to Barbados for a week’s rest and relaxation (I’d call it the Jaded Writers’ Hammock Fund), I think we’d have hundreds of millions of dollars at our disposal .
+
+Sadly, freelance writers are asked _all the fricking time_ to do a project for free as a means of “assessing” their writing skills — often, ludicrously, when they already have an extensive portfolio of clips (more ludicrously, many say ‘yes’).
+
+This is abusive. And — in my opinion — always wrong. Testing out a writer is fine. You just have to be prepared to pay for the _privilege_ of defraying the risk involved. That’s the quid pro quo.
+
+Companies hiring talent — or people for that matter — are commonly expected to foot the risk that the service provider, or business, will turn out to be a dud.
+
+If you hire a plumber to fix your toilet, you take the risk that they’re not going to do a great job. You _don’t_ attempt to defray that risk by asking them to do a freebie. They would probably say no because fortunately their industry hasn’t reached a point of downward evolution at which this kind of this has become acceptable. They might be insulted. I think they are right.
+
+Before you say ‘yes’ to any form of unpaid trial project, ask yourself how likely any of the following professionals would be agree to the following propositions:
+
+  * _“Hey! I’d love to make you my family doctor. But I’d like to know that you’re good first. Would you be willing to do a free checkup just so that I can get a sense that you know your stuff!?”_
+  *  _“I love the thought of using you as my dentist. So here’s what I’m thinking. We’ll start with one wisdom tooth extraction. And then we’ll see where we can take it from here. I can write a blog if the first one goes well and tag you on Twitter. Deal?”_
+  *  _“I heard you were a great corporate lawyer. So before we move forward, I’d just love to get a sense for how you draft. Could you perhaps write up this email and send it over and then I’ll take a look at your lawyering sample?”_
+
+### Consultants Charge Mercilessly For Their Time
+
+This makes total sense.
+
+There’s no reason you should be “merciful” to your clients.
+
+You’re not even under any obligation to charge them the lowest rates that you can.
+
+Of course, a lot of people will feel _compelled_ to keep their services affordable so that a certain type of client or catchment can afford them.
+
+But don’t mistake that for an _obligation_.
+
+If you want to get a feel for what it looks like to be charged _well_ for something, just hire a lawyer (at least one that’s in-demand). Lawyers are sometimes accused of being predatory chargers. I think there’s a much more positive way to look at it. They’re the gold standard for how self-respecting professionals _should_ be charging for what they do.
+
+In many cases, you’ll note that:
+
+  * Everything was itemized and billed for. You probably got charged for that consultation phone call. Which is totally rational when you think about it because it took up the lawyer’s time and that time has an opportunity cost associated with it.
+  * Nothing was all that cheap.
+
+Again, I’m by no means suggesting that freelancers should start charging their clients through the nose. Simply that by comparing standards in their industry with the manner in which other professionals behave, they can see how truly dysfunctional things are and rally others to push back against them.
+
+This is actually why I have always been a fan of very tightly defined service level agreements. Here’s _precisely_ what I’m willing to do for _precisely_ this much money. Take it. Or leave it.
+
+But equally, I think it’s illogical to work for free. Under any circumstance.
+
+Common ways in which freelancers allow themselves to do work for free:
+
+  * Holding sales calls which clients who ask them how they would solve their business problems in minute detail. This is kind of the same thing as a free writing test. It’s just harder to spot. They’re looking for free consulting. I’d call this a red flag.
+  * Holding out of scope calls and being expected to tend to lengthy email correspondence chains with unexpected stakeholders.
+  * Freelance writers who commit to “unlimited” revisions. Many advocate for this approach. For the above reason, I’ve always been firmly in the opposing camp.
+
+### Consultants Think About The Big Picture
+
+Finally, here’s one that might tick some people off.
+
+Preface all this with _in my opinion_.
+
+**Consulting is more likely to be a “big picture” type engagement than freelancing. And it’s hard to present yourself as one without getting rooted to the label.**
+
+You come into a business and look at what they’re doing right and where, you think, they might be able to improve.
+
+Some consultants will look at the business’s supply chain management (SCM) and make recommendations based on that. Others will look at their marketing. And others yet will look at their approach to PR.
+
+One of the problems I see with _exclusively_ freelancing is that–by focusing on task delivery — freelancers loose sight of the higher order thinking going on inside businesses.
+
+Before businesses decide to _do_ something — like even write a blog — they do some thinking about _why_ they might want to do that.
+
+What are their objectives? How might they wish to do that? How can this play into the business’s larger branding and marketing objectives?
+
+It’s a lot easier to capture some of the work that there is to do in that space if you look like you’re primed to do it.
+
+So if strategy work is something that you have offered to clients and know how to do, make sure to make it clear to your prospects that it’s a part of your service offering.
+
+The similarities between several different categories of self-employed workers belie some important distinctions beneath the surface.
+
+Freelancers and consultants typically offer different services to businesses. Ther are parts of the typical consulting engagement process that can be instructive to freelancers.

posts/medium/3-Very-Cost-Effective-Ways-To-Get-PR-Exposure-As-A-Startup.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# 3 Very Cost-Effective Ways To Get PR Exposure As A Startup
+
+#### If you want coverage without the five figure pricetag, these could be some options to explore
+
+Securing media coverage doesn’t have to involve retaining an expensive PR agencies. These are some cost-effective or free ways to achieve some of the results. Photo by [Redrecords ©️](https://www.pexels.com/@mjlo?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-microphone-while-talking-to-another-man-2872418/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+Many startups are looking to leverage the power of media exposure to get more eyes on their brands.
+
+However, not everybody is willing, or able, to go to the expense of hiring out a PR agency.
+
+According to Agility PR, retainers can run from as little as $1,500 a month up to around $20,000 per month. This puts them beyond the reach of many smaller organization.
+
+Leah Frazier is the owner of Think Tree Media and also runs the PR Yourself podcast which I just recorded an episode for.
+
+If you’re interested in the whole subject of how to PR yourself — or your company — then check out Leah’s podcast ([Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pr-yourself-with-leah-frazier/id1537875452)).
+
+My conversation with Leah prompted me to think about some of the free tools that I’ve introduced startup founders to over the years.
+
+If you’re just looking to get some basic traction then these are some ways you can do it — no five figure investment required.
+
+### Sign Up For Help A Reporter Out (HARO)
+
+HARO, by PR giant Cision, is well-known in PR circles as a tool through which reporters put out requests for expert commentary.
+
+[**Help A Reporter**  
+ _Edit description_ www.helpareporter.com](https://www.helpareporter.com/ "https://www.helpareporter.com/")[](https://www.helpareporter.com/)
+
+Anybody can sign up as a source and receive one of the daily briefing emails that the company puts out.
+
+Each opportunity is paired with a unique email address and journalists can access their dashboard to see which sources have responded to their queries.
+
+Here’s my “pro tip”:
+
+My HARO alerts folder in Google Groups
+
+Because sifting through HARO emails can be a tedious process, I set up a dedicated address at my Gsuite domain which they send to. This then aggregates into a Google Group and keeps the emails from cluttering up my inbox.
+
+It also makes it really easy to search through the HARO messages by topic. And they come in thick and fast.
+
+If you’re looking to get quoted in a few media stories (and more), then HARO is a great (and free) resource to start with.
+
+### Get The PodcastGuests.com Newsletter
+
+From a PR perspective, it’s hard to know what to make of podcast sometimes.
+
+Looked at in traditional PR terms, their listenerships can be small — a lot smaller than traditional broadcast radio programs, for instance.
+
+However what they sometimes lack in reach they often make up for in engagement levels.
+
+Podcasts are almost like the audio equivalent of trade media publications, which similarly tend to have smaller circulations but which are read by a highly engaged industry readership. That’s why, in spite of the fact that they are sometimes relatively obscure, trade media editorial outreach continues to be a core component of many PR strategies, particularly for clients in the B2B world.
+
+But speaking of podcasts, there are a few platforms out there that serve the purpose of connecting people that want to be on podcasts with show hosts that want to get guests.
+
+One of them is PodcastGuests.com. It’s free to receive their opportunities newsletter and you can pitch yourself onto shows.
+
+[**Connecting Podcasters with Great Guests - Podcast Guests**  
+ _Find relevant experts and other podcasters to be guests on your podcast. Get booked on great podcasts to expand your…_ podcastguests.com](https://podcastguests.com/ "https://podcastguests.com/")[](https://podcastguests.com/)
+
+Reddit mightn’t be the first place most people would think of turning for this purpose, but there’s actually a subreddit just for this purpose: /r/PodcastGuestExchange.
+
+[**r/PodcastGuestExchange**  
+ _The subreddit for podcasters and guests together in one place. We are podcasters and guest experts pursuing excellent…_ www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/PodcastGuestExchange/ "https://www.reddit.com/r/PodcastGuestExchange/")[](https://www.reddit.com/r/PodcastGuestExchange/)
+
+Finally, there are also Facebook groups. One example is the Podcast Guest Collaboration group which has 18K members.
+
+[**Facebook Groups**  
+ _Podcast Guest Collaboration Community - Find a Guest, Be a Guest has 18,380 members. Are you looking to appear as a…_ www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/groups/234007497618342 "https://www.facebook.com/groups/234007497618342")[](https://www.facebook.com/groups/234007497618342)
+
+Being active in too many communities can be overwhelming. So I’d recommend checking out what kind of opportunities can be picked up from each of the above and carefully monitoring the source that seems most valuable for you and your brand.
+
+### Create A Slack Group For Journalists
+
+In a very crowded media landscape, sometimes it pays to think creatively.
+
+We all know that press releases are a somewhat abused format for distributing information.
+
+Far, far too often, companies use them to blitz un-newsworthy information out over newswires.
+
+The tactic often results in some automated pickup from news sources that syndicate content distributed this way. It fills up the coverage books of PR agencies without actually providing much meaningful
+
+But it’s fair to say that in many cases the world would be a better place if this kind of activity didn’t go on.
+
+If you’re looking to secure media coverage for your organization, then quality is often far better than quantity.
+
+Furthermore, rather than blitzing news in a one-way “push,” journalists can be a lot more receptive to receiving press releases through channels that offer more potential for engagement.
+
+One startup founder friend has created a Slack channel just for journalists that are following the company. His team drops insights into the channel and everything posted there is considered suitable for attributed comment.
+
+My friend says that he has had enormous success using this unconventional method of obtaining PR coverage and it’s resulted in both print and TV placements in top-tier broadcast media.
+
+Many startups want to leverage the power of PR to get their name out there but don’t have enough news — or budget — to justify hiring a PR agency on retainer.
+
+The above can be three surprisingly effective ways to achieve results more affordably.

posts/medium/3-Ways-To-Protect-Yourself-From-Getting-Digitally-Cancelled-By-Google.md

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+# 3 Ways To Protect Yourself From Getting Digitally Cancelled By Google
+
+#### A random fraud detection filter is all that may stand between you and being able to access your digital life through Google services. How can you avoid being caught off guard?
+
+Email access over webmail: how could you or your business live without it? Ask yourselves these questions when systems are up to prevent major headaches when your online access goes belly-up. Image: PX Here.
+
+This week I learned a very valuable lesson about entrusting your data to cloud computing providers: you don’t own data if you give it to somebody else and you should always expect the very worst from any third parties upon whom you rely for … anything (yes, it’s a great recipe for cynics).
+
+It’s now been more than 48 hours since I was last able to fully access my Google account and everything it contains, which was an unusual surprise to end my vacation with.
+
+The damage from this even slight interruption to the online world as I knew it has been surprisingly far-reaching. A browser cache on my computer is all that currently stands between me and not being able to post here on Medium. I’m currently attending critical Zoom meetings with clients by forwarding calendar invites from the only device that still has access to my account — an Android phone — over to my business email.
+
+Despite what feel like endless phone calls and chat interactions, I’ve received no explanation from [Google](https://medium.com/u/be36e94a7e47) as to why my account was locked down and no definite timeline for its recovery. I can’t speak to the team supposedly looking at restoring my access despite having followed their verification procedures down to a ‘t’. It may seem extreme, but it could happen to you too.
+
+[**This Is How Bad Google Workspace Support Is**  
+ _Google users beware:_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/this-is-how-bad-google-workspace-support-is-50cfaa4692a0 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/this-is-how-bad-google-workspace-support-is-50cfaa4692a0")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/this-is-how-bad-google-workspace-support-is-50cfaa4692a0)
+
+[**What’s The Worst That Could Happen If You Got Locked Out Of Your Google Account?**  
+_Relying on the cloud for everything seems great. Until it unexpectedly turns on you and you can’t legally leave your…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen-if-you-got-locked-out-of-your-google-account-a543368f06a4 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen-if-you-got-locked-out-of-your-google-account-a543368f06a4")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen-if-you-got-locked-out-of-your-google-account-a543368f06a4)
+
+This experience has provided a useful learning opportunity for me to assess how the damage of this unexpected lockout (probably triggered by accessing my Google account from one too many IPs) could have been mitigated if not avoided. Here are some early thoughts.
+
+### Avoid Being Overly Reliant Upon Google For Everything In Your Digital Life
+
+Whatever the outcome of this process, I know one thing for sure: I’ll be taking active steps to “de-Google” my life by diversifying the service providers I use for key things like email and connectivity or doing something I did years ago and managing them myself ([ownCloud](https://medium.com/u/5dfa1c5bfff1) et al).
+
+If you’re looking for like-minded folk to turn to for advice about how to actually pull this off, then check out /r/privacy — a subreddit for those interested in minimizing the privacy-invasive nature of what they get up to online.
+
+[**de-google - privacy**  
+ _If you want to help out with the project, here are some ideas (submit Issues & Pull Requests on the GitHub page): iOS…_www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki/de-google "https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki/de-google")[](https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/wiki/de-google)
+
+The subreddit has some thorough de-Googling documentation nicely laid out in its wiki. I’l be digging through it over the coming weeks.
+
+### If You Make Money From YouTube, Make Sure That You’re Not The Only Brand Manager On The Account
+
+Six months ago or so, I got into YouTube-ing.
+
+I run a channel for fun rather than as an economic enterprise. But what’s not so fun is the knowledge that access to it can now be taken away from me at a moment’s notice if anything were to happen to my account.
+
+That sole Android device currently (conveniently) experiencing some battery issues? It’s the only conduit I currently have to that YouTube channel. And while my subscriber count isn’t yet north of 200, I resent not being able to see and respond to the latest comments left by subscribers in a convenient manner. (I also resent not being able to easily access my vacation photos which are currently only accessible through Google Photos).
+
+How can you avoid this general suck-iness?
+
+Firstly, I think it’s a great way to bring the point home that relying upon a SaaS provider as your sole monetization stream is a very bad idea from a strategic standpoint.
+
+If YouTube is your sole source of income, then you should think about the fact that Google can arbitrarily strip you of the ability to run your business by locking you out of your Google account — and that includes YouTube. Smart? Not particularly.
+
+Secondly it makes a good case for why you should always have backups in place for just about any online eventuality. I maintain a separate YouTube account for my marketing consulting business. Had I had the foresight to provide that account with management privileges over my personal account, some of the adverse impact of this could have been avoided.
+
+### Expect That Something Like This Could Happen — And At The Worst Possible Moment
+
+There are many other little things you can do to make sure that any trigger-happy Google account security filter doesn’t derail your business and life.
+
+For instance you could:
+
+  * Ensure that if you’re a one person Google Workspaces organization, like me, that you have a separate account to serve as a super admin — even if it’s just yourself accessing it. If something goes wrong with your account, keep your data — your day to day usage account — and your admin account separate.
+
+But I think it’s better to summarize this as: “expect the unexpected and that any cloud provider to whom you entrust your data could arbitrarily suspend your account.”
+
+As a backup advocate, this is an easy point for me to make. Where I slipped up? I thought that Google was better than this and had more reliable customer support than it does.
+
+Some specific pointers here:
+
+  * If you’re going to entrust your organization’s email to a SaaS platform like Gmail, take periodic backups to ensure that if that data trove is locked down you can quickly import to a backup system.
+  * Don’t do what I routinely did and upload all your photos to the cloud while deleting them on your local devices to conserve space. If your cloud photo hosting service becomes inaccessible to you, so will all your precious photos and memories.
+  * Don’t assume that just because a tech provider is widely used that it’s inherently more reliable than one that you’ve barely heard about. Before deciding to commit large troves of data or mission-critical businesses services to it, do some critical investigating. What do prior users have to say about its customer support resources? Are there any people like me making noise who have tried to raise warnings about restrictive lockdown practices?
+

posts/medium/4-Reasons-I-Write-A-Post-A-Day-On-Medium--Just-For-Fun-.md

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+# 4 Reasons I Write A Post A Day On Medium (Just For Fun)
+
+#### Sometimes Non-Monetary Payoffs DO Matter For Creators
+
+Since discovering Medium.com, I’ve become a big fan of the platform.
+
+At the risk of repeating what I wrote here yesterday (or was that the day before, already?) [Medium](https://medium.com/u/504c7870fdb6) has been just about the first platform for which I have violated my hitherto commitment to attempt to only use my own tech whenever I create a significant data pool.
+
+[**Why I (Deliberately) Haven’t Monetized My Medium Account To Date**  
+ _It may stand in defiance to some people’s idea of conventional logic, but I don’t see this account as part of my…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-i-deliberately-havent-monetized-my-medium-account-to-date-7df00cbcae62 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-i-deliberately-havent-monetized-my-medium-account-to-date-7df00cbcae62")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-i-deliberately-havent-monetized-my-medium-account-to-date-7df00cbcae62)
+
+[**Why I Think NOT Monetizing Your Passion Projects (Including Writing) Might Be The Smarter Approach…**  
+ _Sometimes not monetizing projects is the better (but less profitable) approach_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-i-think-not-monetizing-your-passion-projects-including-writing-might-be-the-smarter-approach-fb71d5b2f250 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-i-think-not-monetizing-your-passion-projects-including-writing-might-be-the-smarter-approach-fb71d5b2f250")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/why-i-think-not-monetizing-your-passion-projects-including-writing-might-be-the-smarter-approach-fb71d5b2f250)
+
+[**My Approach To Backing Up My Online Writing**  
+ _I have written a lot about backups in recent months . So much so that I reckon that there is probably an entire book’s…_ medium.com](https://medium.com/daniels-tech-world/my-approach-to-backing-up-my-online-writing-fc6ccc252521 "https://medium.com/daniels-tech-world/my-approach-to-backing-up-my-online-writing-fc6ccc252521")[](https://medium.com/daniels-tech-world/my-approach-to-backing-up-my-online-writing-fc6ccc252521)
+
+It’s a SaaS platform. I don’t control it. Medium could arbitrarily choose to take down my account here — even though I really hope that they don’t. My solution? Take rigorous backups of all my writing and try to stop worrying so damn much.
+
+I don’t actually write a post here _every single day_ but I have consistently published a few a week since joining. The content I share here isn’t paywalled and is (thus) non-monetized. But…. why? Well, here are a few reasons.
+
+### I Have To Write To Be Happy. Whether Somebody’s Paying Me To Do So Or Not Is — To An Extent — Immaterial*
+
+Writing is a big part of what I do professionally. During my brief and illustrious* career to date — which has spanned in-house and self-employed roles — it always has been.
+
+Although I hold a degree in journalism and worked briefly in the field (initially as a freelance; later as the copy editor at a newspaper), I never really ended up managing to make a career as a reporter.
+
+Instead, like many, I went over to the “dark side” — of communications, public relations, and marketing. The reasons? By falafel and pita alone man doesn’t live (that’s the Israeli equivalent of the better known phrase regarding bread.)
+
+In addition to pita and falafel my career in self-employed marketing has paid me enough to buy these ridiculous speakers and everything else in these photos (minus the roof and walls, sadly). Photo: author.
+
+While I’ve (mostly) succeeded in making enough money to keep myself sated with falafel, pita, and ridiculously overpowered speakers for my modest video editing needs (see above), there’s a small part of me that has to find fulfillment through creative channels in order to be happy.
+
+Something I read once by somebody wise on some website has stuck with me ever since (sadly, sources aren’t coming to me fluidly at this hours). Creatives don’t _need_ to create. They _have_ to create. In order to feel happy.
+
+Another thought which I have always connected with: getting into the flow state. Nothing gets me there quicker or more reliably than sitting down at a page (or its digital equivalent).
+
+If I go too long without getting my thoughts down in writing, or in video, or in audio, I get cranky — much as one does when not eating for that amount of time (you should see me after a triple whammy of insufficient sleep, insufficient food, and insufficient creative output; it’s not a pretty sight).
+
+The format the output takes matters much less than the finished product. It would be _nice_ to get paid even for writing I undertake for fun (beer money is always appreciated around these parts). But I’m not prepared to do so if that means greatly curtailing something about the experience — and in the case of [Medium](https://medium.com/u/504c7870fdb6) paywall-ing would mean greatly limiting the reach of my articles here.
+
+Some see writing as a chore. For them, I can understand why wanting to write for fun would seem inexplicable. I find it a delight. Different folks and all that.
+
+_(*Please don’t show this article to my clients!)_
+
+_(** Long time readers have probably already understood that a large chunk of what I write is intended sarcastically, at least in part.)_
+
+### It Gives Me A Break From Writing About Things Others Want Me To Write About — But Which Don’t Always Fuel My Creative Fire
+
+On any given day of the business week, my professional endeavors will typically see me writing at least _something_ for _somebody else_ for _some chunk_ of cash.
+
+The cash payment gets reinvested into activities such as paying rent, keeping fed, and purchasing the odd pair of speakers, as aforementioned. Creative reinvesting — of a kind.
+
+Ask anybody who has turned a passion into a profession — recently, I learned that even includes filmmakers — and they will likely tell you that their relationship to their craft changed the moment folks started paying money for it.
+
+So it is for me.
+
+I choose my clients — or try to — on the basis of whether the work is congruous with my ethical standards (90% is, but there’s been a chunk of work I’ve turned down that isn’t). And, of course, whether the client is prepared to pay me enough for it to be worth my time (sadly, in today’s writing market, that cuts out another chunk).
+
+Beyond that, I do the typical business-y things. Like determining whether I can actually bring sufficient value to this prospective client.
+
+Thus — like most people who write professionally — I sometimes end up writing about things that I’m not ravenously passionate about. About topics that I didn’t and probably wouldn’t have chosen but they’re important to the client for strategic reasons. Until I can find a well-disposed patron, this is the way I know to pay my bills. And so it is for most writers.
+
+Writing about things that _are_ true passions of mine — even topics as obscure as Linux backups — gives me a break from all that. It may sound like a busman’s holiday, but I find it refreshing. It gives the creative fire I mentioned a top-off. So that when the next week rolls around I can give my paying clients my full enthusiasm.
+
+### I’m Slightly Morbid And Want My Ideas To Outsurvive Me
+
+Recently, I’ve begun taking my content creation in the direction of video. Feel free to follow me on YouTube. Photo: author (shooting video at the Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem).
+
+Now here’s one you may not have been expecting.
+
+The first time I realized that keeping one eye on … you know …. wasn’t all that weird was when a friend kindly gifted me a book about Stoicism.
+
+The Stoics were big into using _periodic_ reflection upon … you know, I still can’t write the word … in a manner that you could regard as constructive.
+
+Believe it or not, this is one of the reasons that — when a thought comes to mind, even one that’s unlikely to be popular — I try to get it out in some format. What if — G-d forbid — I get hit by a bus tomorrow? Before that thought could have reached somebody?
+
+Writing — or any mechanism that shares ideas — is a powerful thing. It can influence. Inspire. Outrage. Solidify people around movements.
+
+Here’s something to reflect upon.
+
+Think about those who have made an impression on the world and changed the course of history. The inventors. The authors. The politicians.
+
+Disproportionately, they were writers, prolific readers, or both. Dare we call some of them “content creators” by reference to today’s lexicon?
+
+Our societies need brain surgeons, accountants, and airport baggage handlers in order to function. But some people — especially those of the curious bend — get their kicks out of asking questions, reporting on what’s going on in the world, and investigating things we believe are ‘up.’
+
+We also draw our strength from being the voice for those who are unable to raise it; for serving as the vital conduit between those with information in the public interest and the mechanisms that get that information to the public; and for explaining the world as we encounter it, which is often different than the person reading our work (it has to be; we all see the world through our own unique lens).
+
+Damn, I think I want to get back into journalism.
+
+### Writing— Or Any Kind Of Creative Enterprise — Is A Great Way To Kindle Relationships
+
+Among the writers and content creators of this world I may currently be in the D League, but I do pick up a somewhat steady stream of comments, quotes, and other signs that indicate that people out there are actually reading what I write.
+
+Sometimes, these make my day. At other times, they’re hurtful. Sometimes even downright insulting. But I’d still take even the latter than nobody reading my output.
+
+[**The 4 Types Of Readers You’ll Get As An Online Writer**  
+ _What happens after you hit the publish button_ medium.com](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/the-4-types-of-readers-youll-get-as-an-online-writer-c3f2596c6b4a "https://medium.com/freelance-writing/the-4-types-of-readers-youll-get-as-an-online-writer-c3f2596c6b4a")[](https://medium.com/freelance-writing/the-4-types-of-readers-youll-get-as-an-online-writer-c3f2596c6b4a)
+
+Writing — or any form of “content” creation — is also a terrific way to kindle relationships.
+
+This is (incidentally) another reason why the articles I publish here aren’t paywalled.
+
+I have no idea what my payout from the Medium Partner Program would look like (this month, my stats dashboard tells me that I have about 16,000 views), but I tend to think that it would be less than the average monthly value of even one paying client.
+
+As, for the most part, I don’t proposition for work here (exception: I publish a small volume of content marketing), I tend to see the most value in the relationships that my writing here kicks off.
+
+Folks get in touch. Drop me an email. I pick up pen pals. I enjoy the uncertainty of what even this nebulous kind of “opportunity” could create. It all operates on the fundamental law of attraction: you get back from the world what you put into it. And if you put out nothing, it’s hard to kindle a community of any kind.

posts/medium/4-Reasons-Making-Video-Is-More-Fun-Than-Writing.md

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+# 4 Reasons Making Video Is More Fun Than Writing
+
+#### As a longtime writer dipping my toes in video, there are aspects of this mode of creative expression that already excite me more
+
+About six months ago, I finally got around to acting on a long time desire to “get into” the whole world of videography.
+
+Shooting some video in the Deer Park in Jerusalem earlier this year. Mic: Saramonic Cam Mic Plus. Camera: Canon Vixia HF R800. Stabilizer: Ulanzi U-Grip. Source: Author.
+
+To do so, I began posting more regularly to my (very small) [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFhEM_Jl3uKV6b8Ex4wbiFQ) — which I still think is in the early stages of its infancy. And the more I learned about video, the more I got entrenched — to the point at which I began dreaming about perfect wireless mic setups (yes, really).
+
+So that you don’t feel alone while a hobby unexpected consumes your life, there’s an amazing and passionate community of rookie videographers that centers around both YouTube — as you’d expect — and Reddit (useful communities: /r/videography, /r/newtube, /r/locationsound, /r/soundengineering).
+
+Videographers — perhaps more so than other creatives — seem unusually generous in proferring advice to us rookies.
+
+I’ve had a Hollywood boom operator steer me away from a Neewer boom pole and onto a Rode (thank you!).
+
+My local camera store in Tel Aviv doubles as a kind of technical support department for me. And if you want to troubleshoot or sound out advice on a technical issue — would running wireless audio over XLR be appreciably better than over a 3.5mm system? — there’s again a world of passionate amateurs willing to share in your journey (this, I’ve learned, would be one for the location sound guys).
+
+That support community comes in handy virtually every day because — as anybody who gets into this quickly finds out — there’s an almost infinite amount of information to absorb about the nuances of lighting, video, and sound design. People go to school for years to master this stuff. But the good news is that in this day of ridiculously easy information sharing you can pick up the basics as a passionate hobbyist.
+
+Another of the (now early) pre-gimbal rigs. First Station, Jerusalem. Photo: Author.
+
+There’s also gear to pick up and (or the ongoing temptation to) and — of course — there’s video to shoot.
+
+And once the SD card is out of the camera that’s only half the work done: learning about video editing and post-production is its own fascinating fiefdom too. As a Linux-user, my plan is to migrate from Kdenlive to Da Vinci Resolve. I’m not sure either can do speed ramps. But getting from where I am now to where I want to be is part of the fun.
+
+Truly, this was more like my second go at attempting to pick up video as a hobby. My best childhood memories involve making — and scripting — stop-motion Lego movies with a friend. One of my high school summers was spent attending a short film school. And as a postgraduate journalism student I spent plenty of time in a mock TV studio — even if I ended up choosing audio as my broadcast module.
+
+Shooting among pro crews (who don’t attach $400 cameras to selfie sticks, it seems) at the controversial Jerusalem flag march (rescheduled after the first one essentially kicked off a war). Photo: Author
+
+I’ve also been writing professionally for close to or more than ten years (the difference depends whether you include an internship; it’s long enough that I find saying “a long time” sounds more suitably haggard.)
+
+Slowly, the go-to rig is starting to take on a life of its own. The Canon Vixia is now mounted on top of a gimbal, the DJI Ronin SC, a lot of the time. Lighting has improved. Sound will hopefully too. Photo: Author.Getting some practice with the gimbal-plus-monopod rig in a forest in rural Connecticut (Codfish Falls). Photo: Author
+
+As a somewhat longtime writer and definitely newbie videographer, these are some things about the video-creation process that I already find more appealing.
+
+Without wishing to take a swipe at writing — it’s still what I do for clients and I still love it — these are some unique facets of the video-making process that really stand out as advantages for me.
+
+### Making Video Involves Using Your Body. And Travelling.
+
+As a writer, it’s entirely possible to do this job while essentially never leaving your home.
+
+Of course, if you’re a travel writer such an approach isn’t likely to get you very far. Unless your home happens to to be a notorious travel destination.
+
+But assuming you don’t live in the Taj Mahal, then it’s probably safe to say that you _could_ get all your writing done from the confines of a home office.
+
+There have been days where I have spent hours working for clients only to come over to Medium to pour my last creative energy for the day into a post or two. And then to go to sleep.
+
+While such days are oddly satisfying — if your brain were a cloth it’s kind of like wringing it of the last mililitres of creative inspiration — it’s nice to make it past your front door now and again.
+
+Persistence pays: 5 camera shops told me there was no way my camcorder would work with a gimbal. Until I found one (B and H) that were willing to sell me one! Also pictured: the Ulanzi claw quick release mechanism. Insanely useful! Photo: Author
+
+I love the fact that making video is a process that uses both your body and mind. In a strange way, it also forces you to (at least attempt to) align your workflow with nature. If you’re planning on shooting a scene in daylight, then rocking up at 22:00 isn’t going to be of much use.
+
+YouTube has allowed me to see the city I live in — Jerusalem — through entirely new eyes. I’m now constantly prowling through Google Maps to try find locations that haven’t been shot by a thousand tourists. In the process, I’ve discovered an abandoned urban forest, a serene nature walk, and discovered that yes you really _can_ walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem (I just needed a camera to give myself an excuse to try).
+
+[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECRs5tH5t0U&ab_channel=DanielRosehill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECRs5tH5t0U&ab_channel=DanielRosehill)
+
+Even planning out a short YouTube video can involve some amateur location scouting. Followed by the shoot itself (in Israel, while baking in the hot sun). The evening can be spent editing. And the part after the evening while you lie in bed exhausted spent watching other video creators on YouTube to gain inspiration — or learning about the differences between key lighting and fill lighting.
+
+### Video Is An Oddly Social Hobby
+
+Something that’s become apparent to me after only a few months:
+
+As you get into video, you slowly begin accruing more gear. Slowly, the joy of upgrading your shooting equipment begins eclipsing the need to …you know, eat. Well hopefully not. But it can provide a new outlet for your disposal income, whether you want it to or not.
+
+There’s one additional aspect of this that I haven’t seen discussed much.
+
+As you go from looking like a guy messing around with the manual settings on his iPhone to somebody who looks vaguely like they know what they’re doing, you begin attracting plenty of attention from strangers.
+
+Vixia meets Gimbal. V2. Photo: Author
+
+The odd gimbal enthusiast will jump over to ask whether that’s the Ronin SC or the SC2. Plenty of random strangers will ruin otherwise good clips by waving frantically in your frame. And you’ll meet amateur people with the same passion regardless of whether you might have connected around other subjects.
+
+For the curmudgeons and misanthropes of this world (ahem), writing is almost too good of a way to sequester oneself from society.
+
+The writer needs only a screen and a keyboard to practice his or her craft. But there’s a bigger downside to that technical simplicity than saving money: you also risk foregoing the joy of connecting with other creatives who are interested in the same form of creative expression — or just in creative expression in general.
+
+### Video-Making Is A Kind Of Mental Tonic
+
+I’ve mentioned, on this Medium page, the fact that I was diagnosed with ADHD.
+
+Part of the videography lifestyle: using every human around you as a test subject
+
+I’ve also mentioned that fact that — like a disproportionate amount of ADHD patients — there are days where I have what could euphemistically be described as a low level of enthusiasm about the world.
+
+Oddly enough I’ve found that video-making is a sort of unexpected tonic for the latter.
+
+For the former, it’s been my observation that a disproportionate amount of ADHDers are involved in creative pursuits, including video.
+
+While many hate the thought of having to keep tracking of 10 moving parameters, the short focus quick burst decision-making process that choosing lenses, lighting props, and audio tools involves is something that our brains thrive upon.
+
+How does video-making help with bouts of depression, you may ask?
+
+It’s a bit like when you’re feeling too bummed out about life to go running. But then you do and you’re so grateful that you didn’t just linger in bed.
+
+If I’m in a bleak mood, getting out of the house to do something creative is about the last thing on my mind to do.
+
+But it’s also about the _best_ thing I know I can do for myself.
+
+Getting out there, exercising, seeing people, and getting distracted in something that takes you away from your problems. It’s kind of the perfect tonic. And it’s free (minus the cost of electricity, time, and gear!).
+
+### Video Is An Outlet For Both Technical Geekery And Creativity
+
+If there are two aspects of the professional package I bring to clients that I have struggled enormously to reconcile during my career to date, it’s a love of creativity — which draws me to writing and marketing — and a love of technology — which brings me to love things like Linux and backups.
+
+During my first day on a previous job, after I whipped out my laptop and booted into Ubuntu, the development staff told me bluntly that I was wasting my time in marketing and should come over to their side of the divide where I could probably boost my earning power four-fold.
+
+Video has oddly proven itself to be the elusive technical field that can bring these two parts of my personality together.
+
+As a rookie video-maker, there’s an almost limitless amount of tech to come to grips with: if I’m narrating a scene from behind, should I use and mix two microphones or just wear a lav mic? When I have my next $1,000 to invest in this, should I go for a 4K-capable cam or update my sound gear?
+
+Again, while there’s a to love about the fact that writing takes nothing more than a keyboard and a screen to produce, that simplicity also contributes to a trope that has dogged writers for years, undermined rates, and caused me enormous professional pain and even emotional slights: the mistaken belief that “anybody” can write. For the most part, people don’t make the same claim about setting up a camera on a jib or flying a drone.
+
+But all that tech geekery that goes into producing video is really just about finding the ideal tools for story-telling.
+
+And that’s what ultimately gets me out of bed in the morning — as in this morning when I strolled over to the Tayelet to see if I could capture a Jerusalem sunrise well enough if I tried to nail the white balance.
+
+Writing is a field that I continue to feel passionate about. It’s what I’m doing right now. Nevertheless, I resent the fact that I bought into way too many fallacies about video to not even try it for too many years.
+
+It’s too expensive (it’s expensive, but you can upgrade your kit slowly). And it’s too hard (it’s hard, but you can get better by just repeatedly trying and not caring too much about how bad your initial results are).
+
+Video is an enormously joyful hobby and form of creative expression. And for writers, it offers some unique advantages that can you know … get us out of our homes.

posts/medium/4-Shameless-Reasons-To-Consider-Becoming-A-Book-Author.md

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+# 4 Shameless Reasons To Consider Becoming A Book Author
+
+#### If you need encouragement to get that book idea out of your head and onto the page, then read on
+
+Fame, money, and cheap dinner party gifts — the glorious life of a book author. Photo by [John-Mark Smith](https://www.pexels.com/@jmark?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-audio-amplifier-24069/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+As the cliché goes, everybody has a book in them. But clearly, most end their time on this planet before getting one out (sorry to get all morbid this early on).
+
+If you’ve always dreamed of becoming a book author but need an extra prod of encouragement to actually get going, here are some unashamedly snobby reasons why you should take the plunge (alone … or with the help of [a ghostwriter](https://dsrghostwriting.com/services-outline/writing/books/)).
+
+### Books Have A Relatively High Bar For Entry
+
+As anybody who has clicked onto the URL has surely observed Twitter is, in large part, a cesspool (of hate, misery, ire, and woe).
+
+Why is it thus, you ask?
+
+**Because it takes precisely three minutes to sign up for a Twitter account and — once you’ve done that — you have a lifetime pass to spew rants onto the internet**(until Twitter bans you. Then you have to pull a Donald Trump and start your own social network).
+
+You can reach for the app wherever you keep your smartphone. Which for most people is in their trouser pocket or by their bedside.
+
+The book market isn’t exactly bereft of bad — sometimes even appalling — literature (as book publishing has become progressively easier over the years, the avalanche of low quality published work has risen commensurately).
+
+But it’s still — even now — a good deal harder to get a terrible book onto the market than it is to issue another appalling tweet into cyberspace. And as the formula goes, the harder something is to do, the more elite those who successfully pass the bar can consider themselves. If Redditors and Twitter users are the food soldiers of the online flame war, then book authors are the Navy SEALs.
+
+Reading non-fiction books is also a high ROI intellectual activity that puts readers — and authors — above the reach of the Twitterati (you can now call them The Digital Proletariat) constrained to a 280 character limit by their Big Tech Overlords. They can thus get away with being far snobbier and more transparently self-pretentious. Warren Buffet is said to read for six hours a day, ya know.
+
+Become a book author. Join the Global Elite.
+
+### Book Authorship Confers Lifetime Bragging Rights
+
+Once you’ve got a book or two to your name, you can bore friends and dinner party guests for the rest of time about that book you put out in [insert decade].
+
+The fact that it sold 10 copies, your literary agent subsequently dumped you, and even your family members couldn’t finish it needn’t matter one bit. No-one needs to know those sordid details including your ghostwriter. Bottom line you wrote a book. Once.
+
+Better yet, assuming your book appears in print, you may find that you now have lifetime access to heavily discounted copies of your own book–these are usually called author’s copies and are one of the best gigs in the writing business.
+
+Order them by the crate, store them in the attic (displace your family possessions if you have to), and — again — thrust them on your dwindling network of friends or whoever else will listen to you talking about _your book_.
+
+If it sells, you’ll also get to see your book in airport duty free shops (take selfies with the copies and post those to Twitter). And you may even catch someone reading it one day in the wild. Take photos of those encounters too and also post them to Twitter.
+
+More importantly, your one-time act of book authorship will provide you with a lifetime supply of gifts for (more) dinner parties, social events, etc.
+
+You get to give cheap gifts while shamelessly self-promoting yourself indefinitely and if your book is even vaguely educational you can use the idea of benevolently educating your friends and family as a convenient subterfuge to get your name up on other people’s bookshelves as free advertising (just be sure to visit their houses periodically to assess product positioning and discreetly adjust it if required).
+
+How cool is that?
+
+### Book Authorship Helps You Become Famous
+
+A reputable book ghostwriter’s inbox is permanently filled with missives from retired businessmen, B-list Hollywood celebrities, self-aggrandizing megalomaniacs who may also have conveniently selective memories, and individuals of dubious repute, with blurry pasts, clutching at their last hope of fame for all its worth. I promise I’m not describing mine.
+
+Those hoping to go down _The Book Route_ are planning on rolling out a time-worn-but-still-operable formula that goes something like this:
+
+  * Write book
+  * Hire aggressive publicist, preferably also somebody somewhat desperate, to promo the book
+  * Talk about book to any podcast / TV / radio host with a pulse while hooking prospective readers on vague promises that it will somehow change their life
+  * Wait for royalties to come flooding in
+  * Go back to enjoying retirement but as a slightly More Prosperous Person.
+
+Even if this process turns out to be a total flop, you’ll likely wind up at least somewhat more notorious than you were when you began this process. And prosperous. Maybe.
+
+Fame, royalties, and almost free dinner party gifts. This inglorious trifecta can become yours if you just get that book out.
+
+### Book Royalties Are Basically An Age-Old Passive Income Scheme
+
+Passive income has become all the rage these days.
+
+But in their thirst to buy up property in tax havens and get in on the dropshipping/Bitcoin-mining/affiliate marketing crazes, people tend to forget that earning book royalties is like passive income for old school folk who didn’t get brainwashed by internet culture and who don’t listen to podcasts or YouTube.
+
+Contrary to what some prospective first-time authors imagine, book ghostwriters don’t take royalties (at least reputable ones). But publishers do (or more accurately revenue). Even if you’re self-publishing.
+
+But once that’s been taken care of you, the author, are left with some pocket change — I mean money. The better news is that that flow can continue indefinitely.
+
+Better yet — pseudonymous publishing is still a thing. That means that you can legally use a fake name and get paid for the books you sell. Your mysterious neighbor who speaks of being “self employed” and always seems to be on vacation may, in fact, be enjoying a thriving career as an erotica author. You probably don’t want to know his pen name.
+
+Books can be your ticket to fame, fortune, and longwinded self-promotional monologues at dinner parties about that book you once wrote.
+
+Write one. Or [hire ](https://dsrghostwriting.com/services-outline/writing/books/)a jaded internet cynic to do the dirty work.

posts/medium/4-T-Cs-That-Can-Make-Or-Break-A-Freelance-Writing-Business.md

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+# 4 T&Cs That Can Make Or Break A Freelance Writing Business
+
+My interview with DevChat.tv’s The Freelancers Show was published this week.
+
+[**TFS 379: The Confused Freelancer - How To Get Started In Freelancing with Daniel Rosehill …**  
+ _In this episode of The Freelancers Show, we talk with Daniel Rosehill about navigating the choices of tools a new…_ devchat.tv](https://devchat.tv/freelancers/tfs-379-the-confused-freelancer-how-to-get-started-in-freelancing-with-daniel-rosehill/ "https://devchat.tv/freelancers/tfs-379-the-confused-freelancer-how-to-get-started-in-freelancing-with-daniel-rosehill/")[](https://devchat.tv/freelancers/tfs-379-the-confused-freelancer-how-to-get-started-in-freelancing-with-daniel-rosehill/)
+
+I talked, in the episode, about some of the technical nuts and bolts that newbie writers might require on their quest to freelancing glory. Basic things like choosing and optimizing a CRM system, building an attractive looking website with good market positioning, and even setting up a branded email address.
+
+An equally important subject is the matter of contracts. Cookie cutter examples abound on the internet — and many prefer to leave the drafting to a lawyer. But regardless of who’s doing the drafting, what terms to include is a hot button subject among freelancers.
+
+My own contract development process has been unashamedly iterative. It works something like this. I spell out a contract, wait until something goes wrong in the form of encountering pain, and when it does, I fix it. I rise and repeat over the span of years.
+
+The following are the terms which I have found essential to include in my standard contract, why I feel that way, and what kind of reaction you can expect if you’re tempted to borrow them.
+
+Some of them, I realize, are likely to draw eye rolls, vociferous protest, or a variety of other strong reactions from freelancers and potential clients. But that’s okay with me.
+
+Final introductory point: you need to make sure that you are emphasizing the value you’re adding to your client _before_ you can expect the other side of this business relationship to acquiesce to _your_ needs.
+
+In other words, this isn’t a conversation to have at the very outset of a prospective business relationship. And speaking of those: everybody’s needs and businesses are different. But these are what currently work for me.
+
+### 1\. Limiting The Number of Allowable Revisions
+
+Limiting allowable revisions effectively controls time expenditure per project
+
+My standard terms and conditions for my writing business currently allow only one round of revisions in the quoted price.
+
+If clients need one more than one round of edits, I tell them that I’m happy to price by the hour**. The primary objective here is to control the scope.** As I wrote previously, when I quote a flat rate for a project, I do so based on a time estimate — and I need to protect my target hourly rate.
+
+[**My Freelance Hourly Cheat Sheet**  
+ _Several people have reached out to me recently on foot of two Medium posts which I wrote trying to dispel some of the…_ medium.com](https://medium.com/@danielrosehill/my-freelance-hourly-cheat-sheet-cd21b602b15f "https://medium.com/@danielrosehill/my-freelance-hourly-cheat-sheet-cd21b602b15f")[](https://medium.com/@danielrosehill/my-freelance-hourly-cheat-sheet-cd21b602b15f)
+
+If I were to offer unlimited revisions, for instance, I would have no way of knowing whether a prospective clients might require one round of revisions or five — and the latter could entail hours and hours of work.
+
+Writers who _do_ offer unlimited rounds hope that most clients will request a reasonable amount of revisions and swallow the loss on the few that ask for ten rounds. I’m not suggesting that either approach is better. Just that this T&C is what I, and many writers, have found necessary to ensure the smooth operation of our businesses.
+
+I would argue that this actually coaches clients into how to work with freelancers. If multiple stakeholders are reviewing a document it encourages them to organize internally _before_ sending work back out to you for review.
+
+  * **Why to include:** If you don’t limit the number of revisions which clients can request, some will make unreasonable requests.
+  * **What to expect:** Most clients, in my experience, understand why this is necessary. It helps that it is relatively commonplace. Some might find it unacceptable.
+
+### 2\. Limiting Allowable Revision Timeframes
+
+Settings some limits on revision timeframes also works for a lot of people
+
+Here’s a more controversial one.
+
+Early in the game, I was once working on a blog post for a software company. I was charging this company approximately $150 for a 1,000 word blog post.
+
+My point of contact kept passing the document around to new people at the company. Two rounds of minor revisions went by in a flash.
+
+Then, one sunny day, _six months_ after initiating the project, and long after I had invoiced and been paid for the job, I received a request for just one more round of revisions.
+
+I learned from that experience.
+
+I would suggest putting a cap on the amount of time within which your clients can request revisions to your work.
+
+  * **Why to include:** Projects can hang in the air for months on end. If the client holds upon payment (see: payment terms) then this can seriously impact your cash flow.
+  * **What to expect:** Agencies will likely revolt against this because their payments to you are dependent, in their eyes, upon when their client pays them.
+
+### 3\. Billing For Meetings
+
+It’s often difficult for salaried employees to grasp the economics and financial realities of being a freelancer. Painfully difficult (for us). And many organizations also have a meetings-centric culture.
+
+As a freelance writer, feedback meetings can represent a serious threat to your scope control if you don’t set some limits around them.
+
+Many freelancers will include a certain number of minutes for allowable meetings for each project. After that, clients will be billed by the hour and any travel expenses will have to be added to the invoice. I think that this is a good approach because it allows clients to convey some feedback about the project but discourages them from treating you as an always-available resource.
+
+  * **Why to include:** Many organizations will try to treat freelancers as salaried employees and ask them to participate in an exhaustive amount of meetings and other activities for which they are not being compensated. This is unfair. But it’s your job to avoid this situation in the first place.
+  * **What to expect:** Potential pushback. You may need to be flexible and negotiate slightly on this one.
+
+### 4\. Upfront Payment and Late Fees
+
+If you thought that dealing with limits and request for endless Zoom meetings was fun, wait until you have to deal with chasing up late payments.
+
+Freelancers _hate_ having to work as their own debt collectors and it’s a situation that they shouldn’t be in. And yet almost anybody that knows a long term freelancer has heard some war stories about having to collect payments from clients after invoices are due.
+
+Two things can help mitigate the risk:
+
+  * **Ask for an upfront payment on large projects.** The amounts vary by the project type, but asking other freelance writers for ballpark figures can be helpful.
+  * **Levy late fees to encourage organizations to pay their invoices on time.**
+
+### Strong Contracts Build Better Relationships
+
+As counterintuitive as it might seem, I believe that better, more robust contracts make freelancing an easier experience for both freelancers and their clients.
+
+Freelancers that know they are being taken advantage of tend to be miserable creates who do not do their best work. Enforcing some limits around allowable revisions actually encourages organizations to use outsourced and freelance resources more effectively.
+
+Consider integrating some of the above terms and conditions into your next contract.

posts/medium/4-Terrible-Reasons-To-Move-To-Israel--Make-Aliyah----And-One-Really-Good-One.md

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+# 4 Terrible Reasons To Move To Israel (Make Aliyah) — And One Really Good One
+
+#### Ahead of Aliyah Day, some strident opinion on why one should, and shouldn’t, move to Israel
+
+This evening, in Israel, Aliyah Day will begin.
+
+Aliyah Day exists as a symbolic day of appreciation for the many _olim_(Jewish immigrants) who have made Israel home.
+
+For the most part, it’s a non-event that is short on substance. I think it’s also an annual missed opportunity.
+
+For one, the State of Israel continues to refuse to report honestly on _aliyah_ numbers — because its stubborn insistence is to report only on those coming to Israel. Thus, the picture always looks various degree of good. _Olim_ retention is a major problem. For countless, Israel is a revolving door. Until the State makes serious effort to engage with that dynamic, it’s a vacuous excuse to pop some champagne.
+
+[**Aliyah numbers are meaningless without also talking about olim retention and yeridah**  
+ _To be useful and honest, Israel’s aliyah numbers have to be understood in the context of the much underdiscussed…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/aliyah-numbers-are-meaningless-without-also-talking-about-olim-retention-and-yeridah-3c76fb9ae44b "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/aliyah-numbers-are-meaningless-without-also-talking-about-olim-retention-and-yeridah-3c76fb9ae44b")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/aliyah-numbers-are-meaningless-without-also-talking-about-olim-retention-and-yeridah-3c76fb9ae44b)
+
+Post-aliyah assistance is marginal compared to the enormous efforts Israel goes to to convince world Jews to move to Israel; the efforts that are undertaken often feel lackadaisical.
+
+There are serious challenges facing _olim_ in Israel. These were recently elucidated by the _Times of Israel_ in its excellent piece about the stupefying state of the real estate market here that has come to prevent all but the very wealthy from getting on the property ladder.
+
+[**What is mental healthcare like in Israel for immigrants (olim)?**  
+_Ahead of Aliyah Day, Israel should look at what it is doing to prevent the tragically high suicide rate among its…_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/what-is-mental-healthcare-like-in-israel-for-immigrants-olim-4a63c06435b1 "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/what-is-mental-healthcare-like-in-israel-for-immigrants-olim-4a63c06435b1")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/what-is-mental-healthcare-like-in-israel-for-immigrants-olim-4a63c06435b1)
+
+[**Israeli housing prices have nearly doubled in a decade, with no signs of slowing**  
+ _It's Saturday night on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv and a group of protesters is again gearing up for a rally…_ www.timesofisrael.com](https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-housing-prices-have-nearly-doubled-in-a-decade-with-no-signs-of-slowing/ "https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-housing-prices-have-nearly-doubled-in-a-decade-with-no-signs-of-slowing/")[](https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-housing-prices-have-nearly-doubled-in-a-decade-with-no-signs-of-slowing/)
+
+It’s also an annual day to reflect upon _aliyah._ Here are a few reasons that are commonly suggested. I’d like to offer my unsolicited opinion on them. And share what I think is the only worthwhile one.
+
+### Don’t Move To Israel Because The Weather Is Nice
+
+Gordon Beach, in Tel Aviv, at sunset. Photo: author.
+
+Undoubtedly, there has been at least one Birthright participant who chose to move to Israel because the weather looked a good deal nicer than what they were used to back home.
+
+This, in my opinion, is an awful reason to move to the Middle East.
+
+Good weather can be found in far more peaceful and less expensive climes.
+
+Can I suggest Spain and Portugal instead? No geopolitical conflict in your back door. A much lower cost of living. It’s also an EU member state so if you can base yourself there you can move freely around the whole Union.
+
+### Don’t Move To Israel Because … Startups
+
+No, really.
+
+I’m not denying that there are opportunities to be exploited working in Israel’s startup sector. But is that really a good enough reason to move country?
+
+However, some realism is warranted.
+
+Israel’s high tech nucleus employs only 10% of the country. And are startups really the best organizations within which to build a career? Will startups even HIRE you when you’re (gasp) in your 30s and beyond?
+
+And what about the pay?
+
+Average salaries in Israel generally lag behind those of other developed countries. Which makes zero sense considering that it’s cost of living is one of the highest in the world. Real incomes, for many, are squeezed.
+
+If you’re a developer you can make a good salary, sure. But what if you work in a field that’s far less profitable in Israel?
+
+Finally, don’t forget that Israel is not an English-speaking geography. If you’re looking for a job that has English at its core — like journalism or content marketing — you may find much more fertile opportunities outside of the country.
+
+Still interested?
+
+### Don’t Move To Israel Because The Healthcare Is Cheap
+
+Well maybe if you need an operation and it’s far cheaper in Israel you should.
+
+But if you’re fit and well?
+
+[**6 Great Things About Israel’s Healthcare System**  
+ _Why Israel’s healthcare has a well-deserved reputation for excellence_ danielrosehill.medium.com](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/6-great-things-about-israels-healthcare-system-b7db1a630d7e "https://danielrosehill.medium.com/6-great-things-about-israels-healthcare-system-b7db1a630d7e")[](https://danielrosehill.medium.com/6-great-things-about-israels-healthcare-system-b7db1a630d7e)
+
+I’m a huge fan of the healthcare system in Israel, by the way. It’s affordable. It’s accessible. It’s well-digitized. I’m enormously grateful for the fact that — as as an asthmatic — I no longer need to triage my breathing difficulties in the manner I did in Ireland. There’s no such thing as breathing being “not quite bad enough yet” to see the doc. If it’s sub-par, I’m in.
+
+Nevertheless, I think that moving here because it’s cheap would be shortsighted. You have to set the cost of healthcare against the other costs involved in living here which tend to be, you know, a little on the outrageous side. Does healthcare really offset those? I think for most young people the answer is probably no.
+
+### Don’t Move To Israel Because Of The Falafel… Or The Shawarma… Or The Tubi
+
+It’s true that _falafel_ is relatively cheap and plentiful in Israel.
+
+I may have mentioned that I effectively subsisted on a steady diet of falafel and _arak_ and coffee for my first three years in the country. On year four, I was found to have developed gallstones and needed to have an organ excised from my body. So make what you want of my dietary advice.
+
+Falafel is great. It’s also bursting to the seams with lots of juicy fresh ingredients. I’m getting hungry writing this. Make sure you ask for tahini AND amba.
+
+Some beer taps at the Shuk Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem. Don’t move here for those either. Unless you live in Hong Kong, alcohol here is probably more expensive than back home. Photo: author.No, this isn’t what you think it is. It IS, however, Tubi 60. Which is absolutely amazing and deserves to be far better known. Photo: author.
+
+But falafel — even though I love it — really isn’t a good enough reason to move to Israel even. Even _shawarma_ isn’t.
+
+And not even Tubi 60. Yes, that liquid above. It didn’t emerge from a camel. Sorry to be vulgar. Tubi 60 is excellent and I’m glad to see that they’re now exporting around the world. Even if when I found it in Dallas, Texas this summer I couldn’t help but notice that it was cheaper than in Israel. What can I say? I was surprised but not surprised.
+
+You know that something is wrong with the cost of living in a country when it’s cheaper to buy one of its national spirits in another continent. Photo: author. (Spec’s Liqor, Dallas, Texas)
+
+[**Email: Israeli Cheese Cheaper in California**  
+ _Chain letters are usually an annoyance, but one going around in Israel in recent days has garnered a great deal of…_ www.israelnationalnews.com](https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146556 "https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146556")[](https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146556)
+
+### DO Move To Israel Because It’s The Only Jewish Country In The World
+
+Here’s my point.
+
+People — and even aliyah organizations — provide all sort of tepid reasons for why it makes sense to move to Israel.
+
+I reckon these do future _olim_ a disservice because they encourage people to move here for the wrong reasons.
+
+Or at least reasons that aren’t going to be solid enough to buffer them for what life in Israel may have to throw at them that will make them question their resolve to be here.
+
+Sorry to be so negative, but I also believe that most of them don’t hold up to scrutiny. If I were craving a nice climate to retire in, I’d probably go for Portugal or the Canary’s quicker than I would Israel. Etc, etc.
+
+And besides. If you’re going to be paying $10 for beer and driving in what feels like a real life version of a Go Cart circuit then you’re going to need a pretty good reason motivating you to power on.
+
+Sometimes, in life, it’s best not to beat around the bush. To go straight for the jugular. That’s why — even though it sounds weird when you’re being asked in a casual business context — my answer to anybody’s question of “why did you move to Israel?” is “because I’m Jewish.” I rarely even tack on “and I think it’s the only place it makes sense to be.” I let them react to that however they see fit.
+
+In my book, and my understanding of the world, that’s the only reason to move here that actually makes any sense.
+
+Because Israel is the only Jewish country in the world and — as a Jew — it’s the only place you feel you belong in the world.
+
+If that’s what’s driving your _aliyah_ I reckon you have a decent chance of being happy and successful in Israel.
+
+The falafel and the beach and the Tubi will be nice bonuses.
+
+Happy Aliyah Day!

posts/medium/4-Tips-For-Writers-On-Working-With-Celebrity-Clients.md

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+# 4 Tips For Writers On Working With Celebrity Clients
+
+#### Some of the things you may encounter when your client list includes high profile and public figures
+
+Ghostwriting is one of the relatively few occupations that may involve regularly interfacing with clients who are well-known to the public. Here are some tips on working with this interesting clientele. Photo by [Abdel Rahman Abu Baker](https://www.pexels.com/@abdel-rahman-abu-baker-958112?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels) from [Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/arch-cathedral-entrance-with-red-carpet-2319413/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels)
+
+Relatively few industries and occupations may involve the possibility to rub shoulders — or at least exchange Zoom greetings — with people in the public eye.
+
+Public relations is one of those. Being an LA-based executive assistant is probably another good strategy if that’s your end game. And oddly, being a book ghostwriter is another — for relatively few private individuals have the unusual confluence of large sums of cash lying around and interesting life stories worth capturing in print.
+
+To regurgitate a trite cliché, celebrities are but regular people who got famous. Nevertheless, there are a couple of useful things to know about working with them. From early lessons learned during a handful of encounters, here are a few of those.
+
+### Celebrities have retinues
+
+Perhaps the most salient difference between us commonfolk and our celebrity brethren is that celebrities tend to have retinues while we … well don’t _(sorry to burst the bubble but it’s really me writing this blog post and answering emails — I kid)._
+
+What this means, in practice, is that navigating sometimes labyrinth layers of gatekeepers is par for the course when working with publicly-known figures.
+
+The higher the stature of a public figure, the more likely they are to have different figures helping out with different parts of their life in different geographies.
+
+This (possibly segmented) retinue might include executive assistants, public relations managers, and unofficial jacks of all trade. These are the individuals the celebrity might actually spend most of their time interfacing with.
+
+Before that’s a requirement, though, celebs-in-the-making answer their own email and (we presume) do their own laundry and dishes._They’re just like us!_
+
+**What you need to know as a writer:** Who their gatekeepers are and how to work with them.
+
+### Celebrities place a premium on discretion
+
+Celebrity culture remains a staple of fascination for the general public — and by extension the media.
+
+Many celebrities are an accidentally forwarded email or two away from having something they don’t want public accidentally slip through that rigorously guarded net of confidentiality.
+
+If you’re a naturally private and guarded person, your innate sense of discretion is likely to be an asset. If you’re a blabbermouth, things could get difficult.
+
+At a minimum, expect to be signing plenty of NDAs and confidentiality agreements. As a book ghostwriter, this can put us in a difficult position because we need to promote or at least share our past work in order to land more of it. So it may be necessary to push back on some unworkable contract clauses.
+
+**What you need to know as a writer:** Don’t get drunk and brag to your friends that you’re ghosting for Britney (or tweet the same) if your NDA or contract precludes you from disclosing the writing relationship until the book has gone to market (or forever!). Things have a weird habit of boomeranging back to people.
+
+### Celebrities value their time
+
+The life of a celebrity or high profile individual — think a Fortune 100 CEO — can be an insanely busy one.
+
+They tend, disproportionately, to be early risers. Although athletes during off-season and actors between shoots can have schedules that are surprisingly accommodating. Like happens to all of us, to an extent, life tends to get busy in fits and spurts — then goes relatively quiet just as it was getting frantic.
+
+Nevertheless, it’s prudent to assume that they’re always pretty busy unless you know that they’re really not. The key to communicating with them is therefore mastering the art of being succinct:
+
+  * **Communicate essential information before extraneous information.** The inverted pyramid style commonly used by newspaper journalists is actually a pretty good guide for structuring communications generally — especially to VBPs (very busy people). Work on the assumption your messages won’t be read in their entirety so get the crucial stuff out of the way first.
+  * Brief-writing is a prized skill. Get good at putting together digests and snapshots.
+  * One favorite trick I picked up from an Israeli startup founder is using the series of tags that the US army does in emails. These allow the recipient to quickly glance at the communication and see what kind of action is required. Always assume that your emails are being read on a mobile device. So preface rather than suffix your content tags. This way a PA can quickly bounce over something time-sensitive or hold something for a weekly sync. I use [Time-sensitive] as a supplementary tag for this reason even though it’s not an “official” tag in the US military system.
+
+[**How to Write Email with Military Precision**  
+ _In the military, a poorly formatted email may be the difference between mission accomplished and mission failure…_ hbr.org](https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-precision "https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-precision")[](https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-precision)
+
+**What you need to know as a writer:** How to communicate succintly with your client even if that’s not necessarily your natural writing style.
+
+### Celebrities are mission-led individuals
+
+Who becomes famous?
+
+Sometimes, reality TV stars make it big.
+
+But more commonly that fame tends to be ephemeral — until the next TV show supplants it in the ratings. Their fame is short-lived and often millennial-centric.
+
+The type of individuals who get famous, stay that way, and tend to be notorious across demographics, are (again, disproportionately) those fulfilling some important mission in life.
+
+This little nugget is key to understanding a commonality often encountered in their otherwise heterogeneous and sometimes idiosyncratic personalities.
+
+Whether they’re _about_ acting or _about_ screenwriting or _about_ some business mission, it’s that mission that propels them to get up in the morning and towards achieving the highest levels of success.
+
+Figuring out what the _about_ is is the key to relating well to them — which is an essential requirement for a successful principal-ghostwriter relationship.
+
+Otherwise, as just about everybody knows, celebrities are just ordinary people — with a few quirky exceptions such as that many people know their names, they get creepy fan mail on the regular, and sometimes can’t go out to buy groceries without getting mobbed by people wanting a selfie or an autograph.
+
+**What you need to know as a client:** Understand your client and what they’re ‘about.’ If you share a genuine interest in that mission, that can form the basis for a successful collaboration.

posts/medium/4-Ways-To-Backup-Linux-Workstations-Onto-A-Synology-NAS--With-Videos-.md

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+# 4 Ways To Backup Linux Workstations Onto A Synology NAS (With Videos)
+
+Since getting my hands on one of Synology’s brand new line of NAS devices, the DS920+, I’ve been playing around with various ways to take backups onto it from my Linux Desktop, which runs 20.04 LTS.
+
+Here are some of the methodologies I have used so far.
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+Before beginning to take backups of your Linux desktop or laptop onto your Synology NAS, you’ll want to make sure that the requisite servers are running on the NAS — and take notes of which ports you have opened.
+
+From ‘Control Panel’ select ‘File Services’:
+
+You’ll probably want to enable:
+
+  * The SSH server
+  * SMB
+  * SFTP
+  * FTPS
+  * rsync
+
+Take note of the IP address your NAS is running on and make sure that your user has read/write access to whatever backups you’re going to be running from the Linux workstation using its credentials. You may even wish to create a separate user just this purpose.
+
+Synology has a well-populated knowledge base and some resources there might be useful to you to get started:
+
+[**DiskStation Manager**  
+ _Centralize data storage and backup, streamline file collaboration, optimize video management, and secure network…_ www.synology.com](https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General_Setup/How_to_login_to_DSM_with_root_permission_via_SSH_Telnet "https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General_Setup/How_to_login_to_DSM_with_root_permission_via_SSH_Telnet")[](https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General_Setup/How_to_login_to_DSM_with_root_permission_via_SSH_Telnet)
+
+Here are some of the methodologies you can employ:
+
+### 1\. Using Grsync (GUI)
+
+Running full disk backups using [grsync](https://www.opbyte.it/grsync/), a basic frontend for rsync. Rsync can be used — creatively — to create both full backup snapshots as well as sets using incremental and differential points.
+
+### 2\. Using rsync (CLI)
+
+If GUIs aren’t your thing, then you can get under the hood and just use rsync. Cron and rsync are really all you need to get basic rsync backups going from your Linux desktop to the NAS.
+
+However, if you feel like creating multiple restore snapshots on the destination, then you might want to consider using a different rsync-based tool.
+
+If that approach sounds more up your street take a look at rsnapshot:
+
+[**rsnapshot**  
+ _rsnapshot is a filesystem snapshot utility based on rsync. rsnapshot makes it easy to make periodic snapshots of local…_ rsnapshot.org](https://rsnapshot.org/ "https://rsnapshot.org/")[](https://rsnapshot.org/)
+
+Borg Backup is also popular and versatile:
+
+[**BorgBackup - Deduplicating archiver with compression and authenticated encryption**  
+ _BorgBackup (short: Borg) gives you: Space efficient storage of backups. Secure, authenticated encryption. Compression…_ www.borgbackup.org](https://www.borgbackup.org/ "https://www.borgbackup.org/")[](https://www.borgbackup.org/)
+
+### 3\. Using Cloudberry (GUI)
+
+[MSP360™ Backup for Linux](https://www.msp360.com/backup/linux.aspx) (by Cloudberry Lab) is a versatile tool that I’m fond of for creating offsite backup plans which can be used to sync a Linux desktop with a cloud storage provider. [I recommend B2 for Backblaze](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage.html) because it is both easy to use (compared to AWS) and specializes in bulk object storage for backup.
+
+Setting up the backup plan in Cloudberry is simply a case of adding the NAS a local SFTP share, inputting credentials, selecting which folders you want to back up, running the backup, and putting it on a recurring schedule.
+
+### 4\. Using Clonezilla (live USB)
+
+While running incremental and differential backups is space-effective and easy (one of rsync, for instance, can be run from a live system), now and again you might want to create full, bare metal backups.
+
+The humble but powerful [Clonezilla ](http://www.clonezilla.com)is my tool of choice for creating backups that I only plan on calling into action when ….. something very bad happens.
+
+Running backups directly onto the NAS over SSH isn’t particularly hard. You just need to make sure to configure a real path to mount /home/partimag.
+
+Performance when backing up over the LAN is definitely slower than running it directly between disks (hitherto, this has been my modus operandi). But full disk images are still relatively quick to run and Clonezilla can be configured to power off the machine upon job completion.
+
+### Back Up Your Linux Workstation Today
+
+I’m glad to now be backing up my desktop onto an NAS rather than separate drives on the device itself.
+
+For one, thanks to Cloudberry’s Cloud Sync, this will make pushing those copies offsite (to achieve 3–2–1 compliance) far easier. No more Post-Its reminding myself not to power off my desktop while a days-long push to the cloud is going on.
+
+Secondly, I can retire my internal backup drives and find more interesting things to do with them — or just add more capacity to the Desktop with LVM.
+
+Thanks for reading!