Recently I made my first painting. And I loved the process. It is an activity where you can completely immerse yourself in. And it is something where you are constantly switching state.
Think of something you can make & make it with your own hands.
Add small details & then take a step back to look at the bigger picture.
Adding stuff & not overdoing it.
I loved it.
When do you experience creative flow?
3 reasons why I write this blog …
The 8 o’clock news is always 20 minutes long. Somehow the amount of news is independent of the quantity or impact of the events that happened that day.
Twenty minutes of news. That is what people expect. That is what has been programmed. That is what has been sold to the ad agency.
I am looking forward to the day there is no news. The day there is nothing really important to say. The day the news stays quiet. And people can read, play games or just talk with
“Today there is no news. Have a great evening.”
To know what is important to you at work, try to answer these questions from Seth Godin:
[Original post Seth’s Blog: Ten questions for work that matters]
The field of analytics is changing rapidly. And for many analytics professionals, it is hard to keep up with all new developments. One of the best and easiest things you can do is subscribe to a couple of the best analytics newsletters. From that moment on you will have a constant flow of inspiration, tips, and tricks. Coming straight to your inbox.
Here are my
Listening to podcasts has gently become a new habit for me. It is the perfect medium to fill “in-between times” like commutes, exercising, cleaning or ironing. I use an app called Overcast to listen to my podcasts.
Here are my favourite podcasts: Continue reading My Favourite Podcasts
[DUTCH] Afgelopen donderdag (2 februari presenteerde ik (samen met mijn collega Timothy Dieduksman) bij het Marketing Insights Event in Utrecht. 123 deelnemers namen wij mee in wat een Data Analist kan doen om meer impact te maken. Bij ING zoeken we trouwens nog meer van deze impactvolle Data Analisten!
De presentatie werd gewaardeerd met een 7,9 en vind je hier:
[DUTCH] Afgelopen woensdag (12 oktober presenteerde ik (samen met mijn collega Timothy Dieduksman) bij het Digital Analytics Congres in Utrecht.
Mijn presentatie vind je hier:
A funny TED talk by Tim Urban on procrastination. Meet the Rational Decision-Maker, Instant Gratification Monkey and the Panic Monster.
Teletekst remains very popular in The Netherlands. In other countries (like Great Britain and Belgium) the local Ceefax initiatives have been shutdown. The succes of the Dutch Teletext app can be explained by the fact that the NOS (Dutch Broadcasting Company) released this app in the early days of smartphones.
And here are my three reasons why Teletekst still is my favorite app to follow the news:
As long Teletekst exists, I will be using it.
[DUTCH] Afgelopen woensdag (9 maart) presenteerde ik bij het ContentCafé in Utrecht. Het ging die avond over het meten van het effect van content (marketing).
Mijn presentatie vind je hier:
Tuesday 9th of February I presented at Digital Data Tips Tuesday in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I talked about how you can improve the customer experience with the use of analytics.
You can see the presentation here:
If you read this blog, you probably believe in building websites based on evidence, not false beliefs. If so, then you should read UX Myths – the brainchild of UX designers Zoltán Gócza and Zoltán Kollin.
This is what they say about UX Myths:
Our goal is to provide evidence in user experience design that can help stakeholders move away from design decisions that are based merely on beliefs and personal opinions. But you should still do your own research, check how your design performs.
We’ve collected a lot of research data, as well as facts, quotes and articles from well-known designers and web experts in order to debunk the common web design misconception.
Here are my personal favorite myths:
Read them all at uxmyths.com or download this pdf, print it and put them on the wall (a Behance project).
First of all, I wish you all the best in 2016!
If you haven’t made any New Year resolutions yet, here is some advice from Dan Ariely: setup your priorities.
… I get a lot of requests for all kinds of time-consuming activities very day. In general I try to be helpful, but there are only 24 hours of the day and I already don’t sleep much. So, in reality every time I say yes to something I also say no to other things – and my sad realization is that my process for saying yes and no does not lead to a plate of activities that fits with my priorities. So, in 2016 I am going to try and figure out what my priorities are, and then direct my time in a consistent way with my priorities. …
Dan Ariely
So, what are your priorities this year?
[photo credits: Colin Knowles]
Friday 29th of May I presented at the Webtrekk User Conference in Berlin, Germany. I talked about how you can improve the customer experience with the use of analytics.
I started my presentation with proving the German prejudice of Dutch people driving with caravans is just wrong!
You can see the presentation here:
In February I´ve send 4 Behavioral Insights newsletters. The number of subscribers doubled, so it´s growing steady. Here are the facts and top clicked articles from the February issues.
Wednesday 4th of February I presented at the Marketing & Insights Event in Utrecht, The Netherlands. I talked about how you can improve the customer experience with the use of analytics.
You can see the presentation – in Dutch – here:
It’s been 4 weeks since my first Behavioral Insights newsletter went out. Time for some facts and an overview of the top links.
Today Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) released the results of its research on mobile phone share of activations per manufacturer. You can question the validity of the research, but for now I’ll just assume the numbers are correct. CIRP bases its findings on a survey of (only) 500 US subjects that activated a new or used phone in the October-December 2014 period.
Their main conclusion:
Continue reading Mobile Phone Share of Activations: Pie Chart Remake
The answer is: somewhere between 4 and 6 million. This is a rough estimation (based on Google’s profile sitemaps) done by Edward Morbius.
I have visualized how the 2.2 billion Google+ profiles break down based on user activity:
Edward’s findings are:
There are about 2.2 billion G+ profiles.
Of these, about 9% have any publicly-posted content.
Of those, about 37% have as their most recent activity are comments on YouTube videos, another 8% are profile photo changes.
Only 6% of active profiles have any post activity in 2015 (18 days so far).
Only about half of those, 3% of active profiles, are not YouTube posts.
That is, 0.2% – 0.3% of all G+ profiles, about 4-6 million users, have made public post in 2015.
You can find more on this analysis and the method he used in Edward’s Google+ post. There is one caveat: it does not include non-public posts or comments.
The graph is a Sankey Diagram and was made with SankeyMATIC.
[UPDATE] This post got some attention on Reddit, Business Insider, Slashdot, Boing Boing, Twitter and several other sites in Hungary, Greece, Poland, Brazil and again Hungary.
It’s a strange sight, a group of people taking a photo of themselves. Dan Ariely, behavioral economist, shines some light on the selfie phenomenon:
The people of Juice Analytics have created this great 30 Days to Data Storytelling.
It’s critical for analysts and presenters of data to share information in a way that people just get it. Enter data storytelling – a magical elixir to all your data communication woes! Well, maybe not quite. But you should be aware of recent efforts using this timeless approach to deliver information so naturally – through stories.
You should download, print and use it.
- Take more photos
- Learn a new skill
- Connect with nearby photogs
- Save for gear (by selling your photos)
- Get in front of the camera
- Print more
- Brush up on photo history
I just love the cartoons from Tom Fishburne. Spot on, as always:
Data doesn’t have biases. It’s people who collect and select the data who bring bias to it. – Tom Fishburne
… and here are ‘5 New Year’s Resolutions That Might Actually Work‘ from Dan Ariely:
- Order an annual subscription to the Fruit Guy.
- Give a good friend the ability to take some money from your bank account if …
- Set up an automatic monthly transfer from your checking account into a savings account.
- Set up recurring weekly “meetings” with friends or co-workers for workouts.
- Get a dog.
[photo credits: Amodiovalerio Verde]
Eric Fischer made a map of 6+ billion public geotagged tweets. He open sourced the tools he used to manipulate the data: Making the most detailed tweet map ever.
Today I presented at the Dutch Webanalytics Conference. This was my slide deck (mostly in Dutch):
