Ever Given Has Been Finally Freed and So Can Your Mind
It’s time to shed the shackles hampering your own progress. Here are 6 amazing places to start!
Uncertainty has become the new normal. Entire industries, such as tourism, dining, aviation, and entertainment have had a massive blow, with years of recovery awaiting them.
As with any major crisis, or downturn, not everyone is in tears. In fact, if your name is Bezos, Musk, Nakamoto, or Yuan, 2020 may have been one of your best years ever!
1. Ever Grounded
Unless you’ve been lost in the Sahara last month, you must have heard about Ever Given. And no, this is not the latest song by Ariana Grande, but rather the name of one of the largest container ships in the world (about 193 feet long, weighing over 224,000 tons. It’s a beast!).
Gusting sand storms had brought the ship to a diagonal standstill on March 23rd. The ship ran aground and was stranded for about a week, causing a massive traffic jam of over 400 cargo ships in one of the busiest trade routes in the world, and billions of dollars in damages (due to delayed cargo).
Luckily Ever Given was finally freed with the help of Mashour, a huge dredging ship, capable of transferring over 70,000 cubic feet of sand per hour.
The lesson?
If you feel stuck, don’t try to unstuck yourself. As Albert Einstein famously said:
“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”
So you can, and should, seek help, encouragement, or even just a wake-up call or an energy boost from someone or somewhere else.
Hopefully, the Higher Magazine can provide just that…
2. Feeling uninspired?
It’s hard to be consistent and achieve greatness when you’re not doing something you love. It may sound obvious, but, hand on heart, if you keep procrastinating instead of taking massive action, this may be the wake-up call you to need to hear.
President and CEO of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a global consulting company, Dave Brock explains exactly why you need to work in something that inspires you in order to succeed.
If you don’t feel like waking out of bed and hate Mondays, this short and energetic manifesto has been written with you in mind.
3. Dark website patterns revealed
Were you recently asked by Instagram to “make your ads more personalized” in order to “provide a better ad experience”?
As Sara Morisson explains in this eye-opening article on Vox, dark patterns have been used by websites for years to “trick users into granting consent to being tracked, or having their data used in ways they didn’t expect and didn’t want.”
Why should you care?
Because as a user you deserve to know and decide exactly how your private information is being used. And as an entrepreneur or website owner, you may want to know what methods and tactics to avoid if you care about your customers. In addition to some notorious dark pattern examples, Sara offers possible solutions at state and federal levels.
4. SEO in 100 words or less
Everybody’s talking about SEO (search engine optimization) these days. It’s one of those things you know you must wrap your head around if you’re doing anything online.
And yet, if you’re clueless about SEO, commonly related terms that are often thrown around such as organic traffic, direct traffic, or paid search engine marketing, would sound like buzz words to you.
Luckily, HubSpot is here to answer your most burning SEO questions in plain English, and provide practical SEO tips and strategies, whether you’re new to the subject or want to take it to the next level.
5. Can’t fall asleep?
SEO, doing what you love, getting unstuck…
These skills can all move the needle in your business but they become worthless if your sleep is disturbed.
Why?
Because, according to Stanford Medicine sleep specialist Rafael Pelayo, “If you’re getting by on as little sleep as possible and you skip sleep completely one night, you’re a wreck the next day.”
If you think sticking to bedtime is the best way to get a good night’s sleep, think again. This fascinating (and definitely not yawn-inducing) article by Katie Way for Vice explores practical methods to get a full night’s sleep and enjoy the “ultimate form of self-care”. So read it as you wind down before hitting the sack tonight.
6. April Fools’ Day 2021
Tired of bizarre, corny April Fools’ Day jokes by big tech brands and media outlets?
Take a look at this fun rundown of heartwarming April Fools’ pranks by the Mary Sue and you’ll be in for a good laugh (My favorite? The Duolingo Roll of course!) But why do we even celebrate April Fools’ Day, you may ask?
The answer, in short, is that nobody really knows for sure. (No joke!) But here are some interesting assumptions.
And finally, remember Dieselgate?
It turns out Volkswagen hasn’t had enough bad press since 2015. The automaker is in hot water again, this time for a media stunt, or an April Fools’ Day prank, gone bad. If you can’t do without April Fools’ pranks, here’s what not to do.
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