Googles best email idea make everyone sound friendlier

Googles best email idea make everyone sound friendlierGoogles best email idea make everyone sound friendlierWe already use machine learning to outsurce our labor,our love, and our memories, so its bedrngnis surprising that Googleis using machine learningto automate a daily communication we really wish we didnt have to deal with so often our office email replies.On Wednesday, Google announced that they were expanding their Smart Reply feature to all Gmail users. Introduced in 2015 to Googles Inbox app, Smart Reply suggests automated responses to emails, which, weve noticed, are far friendlier than the replies we would normally tap out.Rich with exclamation points and cheery tone, Googles technology can really reduce office friction.Now, Smart Replywill suggest three responses after reading your email. You can use them immediately or edit them. If your email is about scheduling a meeting next week, Smart Reply may suggest Lets do Monday, Monday works for me, or Either day works for me. (This beats our usual responses of k and sure.)Googles neural networks are not just good at answering yes/no questions, they are learning how to pick up emotional tone, the most complex part of human language for a machine to understand.According to Google, using algorithmsto write your emailsis gaining popularity. 12% of replies in Inbox on mobile are currently machine-generated, Googles Greg Bullock said.How smarter email replies work to read your mindThe technology behind Google Google engineers said that if someone emailed you aboutthat interesting person at the cafe we like gave me a glance, Smart Reply would weigheach part of information that sentence reveals.That could mean knowingthat we indicates you and the sender, or considering whether or not glance is a positive or negative gesture.Its still a work in progress, but Google believes that the system can find responses that are on point, without an overlap of keywords or even synonyms of keywords. Currently, Smart Reply is only available in English.For scheduling mundane tasks, go ahead and outsource your thoughts to a machine. I would not be hurt if I received generic responses ghostwritten by Google about mycolleaguesmeeting. But for harder, complex negotiations between colleagues- write it out yourself. Although thats my personal opinion.Otherusers are conceding toSmart Replys intuitive power to suss out what we mean.Writer Ben Crair noted that Smart Reply was perceptive about what he wanted to say after a breakup. He had written a messy email of contradictory feelings to his ex-girlfriend, while Google had seen through him and simply suggested he reply I miss you so much.Googles senior research scientist told Crair that Smart Reply learns how to notice patterns and reply to every scenario- from colleague requests tobreakups- by reading throughanonymized past emails Google keeps. (Does Google scanning your emailssound creepy? Thats part of the terms of service we sign off on when we sign up for Go ogle. You cant opt out of that unless you quit Google, but you can opt out of Smart Reply by turning the option off on mobile your emails will still get scanned, but you wont have the ready replies pop up to send to people.)Alan Turings famous 1950 test said that for a machine to be intelligent, a human should be unable to distinguish whether or not the conversation had come from a human or a machine. As Smart Replys existence shows, whether we like it or not, were getting there.

The problem with mimicking successful people

The problem with mimicking successful peopleThe problem with mimicking successful peopleI was sitting in a coffee shop, trying to drown out the conversation at the next table between a mother and a teenage son with my own mental chatter. But I was failing.Steve Jobs dropped out of college, and look how well he turned out.I felt an itch in my throat, a desire to get on my high horse, but I kept my mouth shut. If I would have let myself speak, heres what I would havesaid.Youve niedergehen victim to the survival bias. Youre seeing only the winners, leid the losers (and with a large enough population, you can always find winners). For every Branson, Jobs, and Zuckerberg, theres a hapless person who made a terrible mistake by dropping out of college. But those people dont make the news.College isnt for everyone. Going to college because its the default option, or because you cant think of anything better to do, is a bad idea. Theres a bubble in university education that will burst soon en ough. Particularly if you plan to treat college like a four-year party, youd be better off by taking that 150 grand, hopping on the next Vegas flight, and putting it all on red.But this doesnt mean you blindly chase a college dropouts path to success.Lightning rarely strikes the same spot twice. You cant drop out of Reed College, sit in on a calligraphy class, take some LSD, dabble in Zen Buddhism, set up shop in your garage, and expect to start a wildly successful computer company. Sorry. That path is already taken.By the time youre done setting up your lightning rod in the last place where it struck big, its already too late. The world has moved on.Yet we still search for that formula, that proven shortcut to success, that life hack that will finally make things right. Businesses chase the latest fad or trend and mimic the strategies of their competitors.But the same path that led to glory for one can cause catastrophe for another. Bad decisions can lead to good outcomes. And when we emulate those bad decisions, we may not get as lucky. As Warren Buffett put it, The five most dangerous words in business are Everybody else is doing it. Whats more, its possible that some of these titans became successful - not because of their path - but in spite of it. We focus on the visible results, but neglect to ask Whats missing? What am I not seeing? Perhaps Steve Jobs would have been even more successful (hard to fathom, I know) if he hadnt dropped out of Reed. Perhaps the scantily clad woman in that fitness commercial has a six pack - not because of the workout program or supplements shes peddling - but in spite of them. Perhaps the man who put on twenty pounds of muscle in one month by working out once a week has superhuman genes that you lack.Success and failure often have multiple causes. We assume that one specific variable caused the result when, in fact, multiple causes acted in combination to achieve the outcome. We fail to ask, What else could have caused this result? We also underestimate the enormous role that blind luck plays. We attribute to skill or genius what should be chalked up to coincidence.Mimicking others isnt just an innocuous exercise. In so doing, we let ourselves off the hook. We tell ourselves that if we only had the right tactic, routine, or habit of a world class performer, wed be all set. Hence the recent Internet obsession with peoples morning routines, creative routines, Sunday routines, writing routines, as if the right routine were the only missing piece of an otherwise complete puzzle. We pretend that copying from success stories is an acceptable strategy, so we dont put in the hard work required to pave our own path.We should be informed by the greats, not be constrained by them. Read about the titans and learn from their mistakes. But dont put them on a pedestal, fetishize them, or attempt to copy and paste their path to success.Youre much better off forging your own.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author. Click here to download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).This article first appeared on ozanvarol.com.

What To Do When Scammed Online

What To Do When Scammed Online What To Do When Scammed Online Protection your information!  Here are 7 things to do when scammed online: Contact, Cancel, and Change Account Information: Any personal information exchanged with the scammers should be changed. Call banks and credit card companies to change account information, change all account passwords, and ask companies to put an alert on any accounts you have open. Credit Alert: One common activity scammers engage in is opening new lines of credit in a persons name using their personal information. Contact the three different credit agencies: Experian, Equifax, and Transunion and place a fraud alert on your credit report to be notified if any activity is reported under your name. Contact the Hiring Company: Sometimes scammers use real company names to gather information. Contact the actual company and inform them that someone is using their name in a scam. Report Phishing Page to Google: Google uses this page to evaluate phishing scams in an effort to keep users safe and remove phishing pages. File a Complaint with the FTC: The Federal Trade Commission accepts complaints about businesses, their practices, and any issues with identity theft. Once a complaint is filed they will perform an investigation. File a BBB Complaint: Contact the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. They will investigate the company and the complaint as well as make the information available to others. File a Complaint with the IC3 : The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is responsible for investigating Internet crime complaints. Once the investigation is open they can refer the complaint to the appropriate law enforcement entity for further actions. These are a few measures to help protect information once it has entered the wrong hands. Prevention is equally important in protecting sensitive information, and when looking for a job, keep in mind the 5 Ways Job Seekers Can Spot Scams.  As a general rule, make sure to keep personal information safe guarded as much as possible and, when in doubt, make direct contact with hiring companies or law enforcement agencies that may have additional information on scams being conducted. To avoid job scams, check out where every single job is hand-screened and legitimate.