BrainPint - Useful Feedback

Hi everyone,

This week we're covering the empathy of useful feedback, how to go from a good to a great listener, odd friendships and the tech behind Shazam.

Cheers,
Janel

The Empathy Of Useful Feedback
"When a friend shows you work in progress, your best contribution is to imagine the point of view and preferences of the person it is being created for. “I don’t like it,” isn’t useful, because it’s not for you. “I could imagine that someone who wants x, y or z would be looking for…” is much more helpful...

On the other hand, when a friend shows you something that’s finished, the most important thing you can do is find two or three truthful and positive things to say."

10 Types of Odd Friendships You’re Probably Part Of
A light-hearted and hilarious look at the strange, perplexing, yet very common real-life friendships that we all have but don't talk about.

How Shazam IDs Over 23,000 Songs Each Minute
A video explaining the technology behind Shazam. Basically, Shazam creates a unique audio fingerprint of the music it hears, allowing it to identify songs even in the presence of background noise. 

How To Go From A Good Listener To A Great Listener

• Ask questions and let the other person talk more than you
• Don't just interview the person - make it a two-way energetic exchange
• Reflect back when you feel resonance or interest sparked inside you
• Monitor your body and emotions as you listen, don't just absorb words
• If you're too restless or preoccupied to listen well, acknowledge it and adjust
• Good listening requires openness, sensitivity, and letting go of your own agenda

A Simple Guide To Prepare For A New Role
Transitioning into a new role comes with unique challenges, but also opportunities. In this comprehensive guide, Deb Liu draws on her extensive leadership experience to provide actionable tips for avoiding common pitfalls. By focusing on communication, relationships, and learning through action, she offers best practices for new hires at any level to ensure a smooth onboarding.

Three big takeaways:

• Over-communicate early on to help others understand where you are coming from and course correct if needed
• Build relationships beyond your comfort zone to create trust and open doors down the line
• Learn by doing - pick small, tangible things you can impact rather than just observing at first

How To Be A More Interesting Person
To be an interesting person, you have to do interesting things. I don't agree with everything that the writer shares, but here are some things that resonated:

• Build Identity Capital: Build your unique set of skills, experiences, personality traits, and talent by yrying new things, lifelong learning, and honing your skills
• Travel: Immerse yourself in other cultures and create stories to tell
• Find interesting work: Find work that is not only meaningful but work you are passionate about
• Get a Life: Do things. Don’t take things too seriously and have a ‘fun side’.

Airpano - Visit this site to see beautiful 360-degree pictures and videos from around the world, including breathtaking places like Mount Everest and Lake Baikal.

Lex.page - Lex is a modern word processor that enables a radically new way to write, combining a Google Doc style processor with powerful AI to help you beat writer's block. I've recently been playing around with it and love it.

AI Checklist Generator - Use AI to create a custom checklist template for any process.

Minimum Viable Productivity is a free 2-day event hosted by my friend Khe Hy from RadReads, taking place on 9/26 and 9/27 at Noon ET.

They'll teach you to design a system to achieve your goals (while working *waaay* less). You'll learn how to:

• Stay focused on the most important things in life
• Stop putting things off until some imaginary future date
• Invest in improving your mind, career and relationships

Strategy Breakdowns is a 3-minute email on the strategy playbooks and growth hacks that built the world's greatest companies.

The Automated helps you master AI in 5 minutes daily. We'll show you how ChatGPT can streamline your workflow and boost productivity.

Share your work with >6k curious BrainPint readers by reserving a spot in Brain Snacks!

Guess My Movie - Can't remember a movie that you have watched? Write a short description and this tool will use AI to help you identify it.

Map Of The Best - The world's best restaurants and bars put into a list, prioritized by awards from food/bar guides (e.g. Michelin Guide, 50 Best), reviews and ratings from Google and the creator's own curated list

"Dirty Little Secrets" from different industries - Interesting Reddit thread about the things you didn't know, by the people who work in those industries. Did you know that they put little weights in lipsticks to make them feel more expensive so they can charge more?