10 hot consumer trends for 2016

Methodology

This report presents insights from various studies that have been conducted by Ericsson ConsumerLab during 2015.

The broadest trend in this report is representative of 1.1 billion people across 24 countries, whereas the narrowest trend is representative of 46 million urban smartphone users in 10 major cities. Source information is given separately for data used on each page.

An additional online survey of smartphone users in 13 major cities across the world was also carried out in October 2015, specifically for this report. It comprises 6,649 urban iOS/Android smartphone users in Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Respondents were aged 15−69, and the sample is representative of 68 million urban citizens.

This is Ericsson ConsumerLab

An evenly distributed future

The world changed – we didn’t

At Ericsson ConsumerLab, we study how consumers use the internet and communications technology in everyday life on a global scale in over 40 countries every year. This is the fifth consecutive year that we have published our 10 Hot Consumer Trends, and we haven’t changed our focus at all. Really, what has changed is the world around us. More specifically, there are three important underlying shifts that set the scene for how these trends should be interpreted.

All consumer trends involve the internet

Today, almost all consumer trends involve the internet, since many aspects of our physical lives are merging with our online habits: shopping, working, socializing, watching TV, studying, traveling, listening to music, eating and exercising are just a few examples.

This is happening because we use mobile broadband or Wi-Fi, rather than cables. We may not be physically more mobile, but our online activities are less restricted by our surroundings than ever before.

Early adopters are less important

Four years ago, Ericsson ConsumerLab said that women drive the smartphone market by defining mass-market use. But as the speed of technology adoption increases, mass-market use becomes the norm much quicker than before. Successful new products and services now reach the mass market in only a matter of years. This means that the time period when early adopters influence others is shorter than before.

Since new products and services increasingly use the internet, mass markets are not only faster, but are also more important than ever to consumers themselves. Most internet services become more valuable to individuals when many use them.

Consumers have more influence

Only a few years ago, there was a lot of focus on how the internet is influencing consumers. However, now consumers are using the internet to influence what goes on around them.

For some time, prosumption – consumers participating in the production process – was mostly limited to user-generated media content. However, online user reviews, opinion sharing, petitions and instant crowd activities are now becoming the norm more than an exception. Although not all online activity is carried out by engaged consumers and some may even be classed as ‘slacktivism’ (lethargic, one-click internet activism), it is still perceived to have real effect. With such a large part of the world’s population now online, it is clear that there is strength in numbers.

A future for everyone

Some trends in this report may seem futuristic, but mass markets are appearing quicker than ever. Therefore, it is necessary to ask consumers about new technologies in order to conceptualize the future.

Although we would like to include everyone in the discussion about the future, several trends focus on smartphone users. This is because we believe they have the experience to judge the services we ask about, thanks to their familiarity with using smartphone apps. Essentially, the technologies we ask about, new or not, are like any other app, easily downloaded and just as easily discarded if not of interest.

As the famous science fiction writer William Gibson noted, the future is already here. However, as we are entering an era of inclusivity unlike anything we have ever seen before, this future seems to be much more evenly distributed than he predicted.

1. The Lifestyle Network Effect

Imagine a world where new technology is easy to use and inexpensive; where the latest products reach the mass market almost as quickly as they reach the early adopters and industry experts.

That world may actually exist, and it may be the world you live in.

By using the internet, we are becoming increasingly interconnected with others. In our broadest survey covering 24 countries, 4 out of 5 people now experience a lifestyle network effect, where an individual’s benefit from a range of online services increases as more people use them.

Thanks to the internet, this network effect happens to almost all new products and services simultaneously, and our research indicates that the accumulated value gets aggregated on a lifestyle level.

For example, in the US it took over a quarter of a century for TV to be used by a quarter of the population. For PCs it was 16 years, for mobile phones it was 13 years, and it was only 7 years for the web.¹ For networked technologies like these, the quicker everyone else starts using the latest service, the better the service becomes for those who already use it. The world is becoming all-inclusive.

These lifestyle network effects are clearly reflected in people’s attitudes and behaviors. 46 percent are active on more than one social network, while 34 percent already participate in various forms of the sharing economy, from rooms, cars and bikes to internet sharing and person-to-person loans.

Crowd intelligence is another example of the lifestyle network effect, with 38 percent considering user reviews to be better than expert reviews – and the effect increases as more people write reviews and share their views. 46 percent also believe technology will have a democratizing effect on education.

However, one in five is currently living a life that’s not significantly affected by the internet. While most of them have a mobile phone, this un-networked group uses online communities much less and does not experience a lifestyle-changing network effect.

Figure 1: Lifestyle differences

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, The Networked Life, 2015
• Base: 45,290 respondents aged 15–69 in 24 countries

1. Chart of the Week: The ever-accelerating rate of technology adoption(www.pewresearch.org)

2. Streaming Natives

The oldest digital natives – the first generation to grow up with the internet – are now in their mid-30s. But the internet is changing and new generations are growing up with their own native behaviors.

One of the more significant changes is the huge amount of video content online. It is said that in 2011, around 30 hours of video was uploaded to YouTube every minute.² Today, estimates indicate that it is more than 300 hours every minute.³

Correspondingly, new generations have a very different online video experience. Today, 20 percent of 16-19 year olds say they watch more than 3 hours of YouTube daily, compared to only 7 percent in 2011. The original internet generation does not follow this behavior and only 9 percent of today’s 30-34 year olds watch 3 hours or more of YouTube daily. Today’s teens are now streaming natives. In fact, 46 percent of them spend an hour or more on YouTube every day.

Streaming natives also watch video on different platforms, spending around 59 percent of their total viewing time on mobile screens, which is considerably more than other age groups.

In fact, 28 percent of the total viewing time among streaming natives is on smartphones. They are also the only age group who spend a larger amount of time on smartphones than on any other device.

16 percent of streaming natives also stream music for more than 3 hours per day, which is more than the other age groups.

Figure 2: Consumers who watch more than three hours of YouTube daily*

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, TV and Media, 2011–2015
• Base: 9,000 respondents aged 16–59 per year over 5 years
• * For China the service measured is called Youku

2. 2005-2010 YouTube Facts & Figures (History & Statistics) (Geraldes's Blog)

3. 300+ Hours of Video Uploaded to YouTube Every Minute (www.reelseo.com)

3. AI ends the screen age

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enable interaction with objects without the need for a smartphone screen.

The screen age started in the 1950s, when TV entered mainstream popular culture. The number of screens in households continued to multiply with the arrival of PCs, and (more recently) with smartphones and tablets.

In 2011, sales of smartphones and tablets surpassed PC sales.⁴ Incidentally, research conducted by Ericsson ConsumerLab in the same year indicated that smartphone owners in New York and Paris spent more time in front of screens than any other activity.

But constantly having a screen in the palm of your hand is not always a practical solution. After 60 years in the screen age, 1 in 2 smartphones users now thinks that smartphones will be a thing of the past, and that this will happen in just 5 years.

Battery capacity is a real issue for smartphone users and the size of devices is literally getting out of hand. Although most big smartphones have screens less than 6 inches diagonally, our research indicates that 31 percent of smartphone users want a 7-8 inch screen and another 30 percent want a 6 inch screen, while 78 percent want to worry less about the battery dying.

The contradictory demands for power-draining larger screens and a longer battery life however, highlight a need for better solutions, such as the use of intelligent assistants to reduce the need to always touch a screen. In fact, 85 percent of smartphone users think wearable electronic assistants will be commonplace within 5 years. Additionally, one in two believes they will be able to talk to household appliances, as they do to people. This way of interacting with objects and surroundings would be possible with an AI interface.

Smartphone users believe AI will take over many common activities, such as searching the net, getting travel guidance and as personal assistants. These are areas already being addressed by current generation AI interfaces in smartphones.

But the desire to use AI for more advanced purposes is apparent. 44 percent think an AI system would be good as a teacher and one third would like an AI interface to keep them company. Furthermore, a third would even rather trust the fidelity of an AI interface than a human for sensitive matters. 29 percent agree they would feel more comfortable discussing their medical condition with an AI system.

Figure 3: Consumers who think using artificial intelligence (AI) would be a good idea

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016, 2015
• Base: 6,649 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15–69 in Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo

4. Smart phones overtake client PCs in 2011 (www.canalys.com)

4. Virtual Gets Real

The importance of visual information will continue to grow – especially outside of traditional screens. The way we use visual information will evolve and become more immersed in the physical world around us.

Virtual reality is a popular idea for representing visual information among smartphone users in the future. In fact, 8 out of 10 think at least 1 of the 12 virtual reality (VR) services Ericsson ConsumerLab surveyed is a very good idea. VR smartphone maps, movies that play virtually around the viewer, virtual tech support, and VR headsets for sports were some of the services that sparked the most interest. But one in two would also like to have participants surrounding them in video conferences and a third are interested in dating services that include VR.

Shopping is another area where ‘virtuality’ will have a real impact. Half of the smartphone users surveyed want a 3D selfie that can be used as an avatar to try on clothes online, and 64 percent would like the ability to see an item’s actual size and form when shopping online.

Shopping for certain items may even become a thing of the past, as half of smartphone users want a 3D printer for printing household objects such as spoons, toys and spare parts for appliances. 44 percent even want to print their own food or nutritional supplements.

Devices will also have to evolve with growing demands, for example over 50 percent of consumers think holographic screens will be mainstream within 5 years.

Figure 4: Consumers who think using virtual reality services would be a good idea

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016, 2015
• Base: 6,649 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15−69 in Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo

5. Sensing homes

Bricks may be the new building blocks of the internet.

Furthering the idea of the Internet of Things, sensors could be integrated into bricks and mortar in your house, literally connecting your home from the ground up.

55 percent of smartphone users believe that within only 5 years, their own homes will have embedded sensors that look for construction errors, mold buildup, water leaks and electricity issues. This means we may have to fundamentally rethink the concept of a smart home, where the internet is every bit as intrinsic to the home as water pipes and electrical wiring. Construction companies will be the builders of internet infrastructure.

In fact, even the air we breathe in our homes could be connected to the internet. Today, 54 percent of smartphone users are very interested in sensors that optimize indoor air quality. In 5 years, 66 percent think homes that use the internet to regulate air quality, ventilation and windows will be commonplace.

Sensors in future smart homes could also reflect changes outside. 64 percent believe that buildings will mimic outdoor light conditions within the next 5 years. Each brick will supply information that will allow houses to sense the external environment and adapt to changing conditions.

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016, 2015
• Base: 6,649 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15−69 in Istanbul, Base: 6,649 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15–69 in Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo

6. Smart Commuters

Commuting is becoming an ever more central part of everyday life across the globe. Unfortunately, commuters today perceive commuting time as unproductive and dull, or even frustrating.

With continued urbanization, average time spent in traffic is also on the rise in many cities. On a weekly basis, commuters globally spend 20 percent more time commuting than doing leisure activities. In fact, half of those spending more than nine hours every week commuting don’t think they have enough time for leisure.

Commuters want to use the time spent to be productive, to socialize or to enjoy themselves. For this reason, they are now demanding uninterrupted connectivity while commuting.

However, their demands are yet to be met: 55 percent are dissatisfied with the ability to browse the internet and access social media during their commute, and as many as 66 percent are dissatisfied with video streaming.

Commuters also want real-time crowd information integrated to help them manage their commute, as well as unified payment options and services that span across travel modes. All of this should be personalized to individual needs, and 86 percent say they would use personalized commuting services if they were available.

The future of commuting will not only be about getting people from A to B, but providing commuters with valuable time.

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, Commuters Expect More, 2015
• Base: 20,293 smartphone commuters from 23 countries

7. Emergency Chat

Today, more people communicate using text than calling on the phone. Many are also used to instantly sharing photos and videos via social networks.

It is therefore understandable that people increasingly use social media rather than call 911 when accidents quickly become critical. For example, during previous fieldwork we met with smartphone users who said that using a social network after a major earthquake saved their lives. Another example is Facebook, which has recently enabled its Safety Check function for disaster situations.

For this reason, 65 percent of smartphone owners are interested in an emergency app, which would alert them in a crisis or disaster, and provide verified, rumor free information.

Our research also showed that one in two people believes emergency centers will be contacted via social networks rather than calling 911 in three years, and as many think that sending pictures and their location in such emergencies will become routine.

This of course leads to new challenges. For instance, emergency calls are toll free – but what happens if a user’s data allowance runs out in the middle of an emergency chat? 62 percent of the smartphone users we interviewed recognize this issue and would like to have an emergency chat app free of data charges.

Many international travelers turn off their mobile data connectivity when abroad, making an accident or emergency situation overseas even more dangerous, as they may not know how to call for help. More travelers would like to use the internet, but only 34 percent find it logical that using mobile data abroad is more expensive.

Figure 5: Consumer interest in using social media to contact emergency services

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016, 2015
• Base: 5,024 iOS/Android smartphone users in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo

8. Internables

Consumers today enjoy improving their physical wellbeing, while monitoring and quantifying their progress using wearable devices. However, wearing these devices can be aesthetically unattractive and sometimes impractical, getting in the way of performing everyday tasks.

Judging by consumer interest, the next generation of body-monitoring technology may not be worn, but may instead be found within the human body.

These ‘internables’ will initially have a similar focus to the current external body monitoring devices. Half of all smartphone users believe internal sensors will give updates on their health and wellbeing in three years.

But this is only the beginning; 8 out of 10 smartphone owners would like to augment their sensory perceptions and cognitive capabilities with technology – the most popular being vision, memory and hearing.

As well as physical improvements, more than half would also like to improve their communication capabilities. Research showed that one in three is very interested in implants that add internet information to what they see and hear, indicating that these internables will be connected to the internet. Internables will, in effect, become the new wearables.

Figure 6: Consumers who would use internal sensors to augment senses and capabilities

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016, 2015
• Base: 6,649 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15−69 in Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo

9. Everything Gets Hacked

With over 3.2 billion users, the internet has a massive and instantaneous global reach. Unfortunately, this also means that we are becoming vulnerable to cyber-attacks such as viruses and hacking, often highlighted in the news. Consequently, the majority of smartphone users believe a range of organizations, products and services will be hacked or become infected by a virus in the near future.

18 percent say their trust in an organization, product or service is reduced when it’s been hacked. Around two thirds believe that PCs, smartphones and social networks will continue to be exposed, whereas only 21 percent see the risk of such issues with kitchen appliances in the near future.

6 in 10 say their trust isn’t affected much by hacks and virus attacks, and half think these problems will become part of everyday life within 3 years. Around half also say they will continue using PCs and smartphones in the same way they do today, even after they have been compromised.

This may be because consumers feel they have no control over these issues, or find it hard to relate to them.

Only 39 percent say they will continue to use a social network service normally once it’s suffered an intrusion. Consumers also see that new security services may appear. For instance, 43 percent think we will be required to identify ourselves whenever we use the internet within the next 3 years.

Hacking potentially also has some positive effects. Knowing an organization has been attacked and then managed to solve the issue can increase consumer trust. As many as 21 percent say their trust goes up after an organization has successfully resolved a problem after being hacked or infected.

Although these issues remain problematic, consumers will continue to use online services, which will need to constantly improve as a result.

Figure 7: Consumers prediction of devices, services and organizations likely to get hacked

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016, 2015
• Base: 6,649 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15−69 in Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo

10. Netizen Journalists

By sharing observations, opinions and ideas and actively commenting on what others post online, smartphone owners are increasingly acting like journalists.

Citizens have been involved in such journalistic activity before, but the value on an individual level is increasing as more people participate as netiizens online.

Two thirds of smartphone owners say they share more information online now than ever before. For example, over 70 percent say they share personal photos regularly, and have an audience who see what’s been shared.

Companies feel this impact. 34 percent of smartphone owners who have had a bad experience with a company due to a faulty product or service share that experience, all or most of the time it happens. When sharing such experiences, others take notice. On a weekly basis, 29 percent say they read about bad experiences that others have had, and 27 percent share or repost complaints about companies or authorities that others have posted.

People believe this will have a big effect on society and they expect their contribution to be heard. 37 percent say sharing information about a corrupt company online has a greater impact than going to the police. Furthermore, as many as 54 percent of smartphone owners also believe the internet has increased the possibility for whistleblowers to expose corrupt and illicit behavior.

In these and other ways, consumers are increasingly important as influencers on the future of societal evolution.

• Source: Ericsson ConsumerLab, Information Sharing, 2015
• Base: 5,025 iOS/Android smartphone users aged 15-69 in Berlin, Chicago, Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, São Paulo, Sydney and Tokyo

Why the First and Most Important Person You Need to Lead Is Yourself

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Editor's note: "The First 90 Days" is a series about how to make 2016 a year of breakout growth for your business. Let us know how you're making the first 90 days count by joining the conversation on social media with the hashtag #Inc90Days.​

Every business needs a leader who can cultivate a compelling vision, define a strategic plan, develop change management, lead employees, and inspire commitment among his or her people.

I have found in my many years as a coach to top leaders that if people are going to be successful and skillful at leadership, they must first become a leader who leads from within.

Put another way: You must know who you are as a leader before you can lead others.

Here are nine skills to sharpen if you want to be a successful leader:

1. Cultivate your self-awareness. 
Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement. Successful leaders don't only run an organization--they also lead people. It's paramount that you know yourself well, because when you know yourself, you are empowered; when you accept yourself, you are invincible.

2. Develop the right mindset. 
Develop your mindset. Start each day with a decision to be happy. Embrace the positives and let go of all the frustrations and past failures that can distract you. When you master your mindset, you free yourself to achieve the level of success you are capable of, because as Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."

3. Capitalize on your confidence. 
Successful leaders capitalize on their confidence when difficulties arise. Don't allow your insecurities to get the best of you. Remember that your confidence is like a muscle--the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

4. Continue to learn.   
Try to learn something new every day. Read newspapers, books, magazines, and online. Search for what is innovative and creative, and try to intersect what is new to what you are already doing. The most skillful leaders never stop being a student.

5. Teach to grow. 
Don't hoard your knowledge but share it: with your team, with your colleagues, with your clients. The more you teach as a leader, the more you grow. When you learn, teach; when you get, give.

6. You are the results of your experiences. 
One of the hardest things to do is to learn from your mistakes, but even the most successful leaders have made mistakes they don't want to repeat. Document your experiences and ask yourself what you could do better next time. Reference back often so you don't repeat patterns. You can learn something from everything you do, good or bad. The only source of knowledge is experience.

7. Success is a series of small wins.
It can be hard to build momentum, so start with small wins. The best way to have a sustainable successful year is to secure small wins, because small wins, small differences, often make a huge difference.

8. Action speaks louder than words. 
To be a successful leader, you have to be out there--you have to hit the ground running, taking action, taking risks. If not, you will find yourself growing stagnant and stale. If you wait until you are ready, you may be waiting for the rest of your career.

9. Find the balance. 
Last, but definitely not least, learn to take care of yourself. Keep a balance. Eat healthy foods and exercise each day, even if it's just a brisk walk. Make time for the people and things you love outside of work.

You can make this your year, but it takes skillful leadership to make it happen. It all starts with you--with knowing yourself, learning daily, and sharing that knowledge with others. Then when the difficult days come, and they will, you will be prepared. 

Reference: http://www.inc.com/

How to Raise Money For Your Startup

Raising money is simple but not easy. This guide illustrates one way how to raise money for a startup, especially for first-time entrepreneurs. We have seen quite a few entrepreneurs go from nothing to a funded company. This infographic is a generalization of their experience. Let us know if you have any questions about it in the comments.

Over the last three years I have seen over a thousand startups in their early stages. I witnessed many of them go from an idea to funding within several months. I have also seen some of them fundraising for years and not getting anywhere.

Few More Tips How To Raise Money

When it comes to funding, there is one thing that can increase your chance of getting funded astronomically – traction. Yet, founders often struggle to get traction and hope that investor money will help them get it. This problem can be solved if you start lean, test your product and and gather meaningful feedback from your customers.

Use that feedback to modify your product. After you get traction, you are certain to get interest from investors. How much traction? Compare yourself to your competitors at the moment they got funding and use that as a benchmark.

Preventing people from raising money successfully, the other myth is that you can raise money before you build anything. Even if you are not an engineer, you can build a prototype of your product. You can do it in WordPress, another content management system (CMS), you can learn to code the basics. If you do not go out of your way to build your own product, why should other people risk in joining you?

Finally, when you are going to raise money, have the investors feel good about what you are going to spend their money on – not marketing, not development, not business development, but scaling.

Sources:

• businessinsider.com
• secondmarket.com (On the size of angel rounds.)
• quora.com (On the best prototyping strategies.)
• Demos and pitches of 600 startup founders we have seen at Funders and Founders.

Education is broken — but this entrepreneur has a stunningly simple idea to fix it

A former hedge fund analyst pointed out a crippling flaw in the US education system during alive TED Talk in New York City in November.

Salman Khan, also a founder of the free education resource Khan Academy, says we force students to move ahead when they aren't ready.

But he has a solution.

"We shouldn't drag everyone around at the same pace," Khan told the audience. Instead, he says, we should take inspiration from martial arts teaching.

Suppose a student gets a 75% on a test, which is a passing grade. Khan says this means the student didn't learn 25% of the material, yet they're expected to move on to the next lesson with the rest of the class.

The problem with this, he says, is the next block of material builds on what the student was supposed to learn in the last lesson, and it's usually more difficult to pick up. So a student learns only 75% of the material, we can't expect that student to master the next section.

You can see how this effect could quickly snowball as a student works their way up through more advanced classes. If students don't master all of algebra, for example, they'll have significant knowledge gaps when trying learn calculus.

Khan says we assume they are bad at math, or born without the "math gene," and so they'll give up on the class.

In reality, they're not bad at math — they just didn't master the foundation material, he said.

Which is why Khan argues we shouldn't drag everyone through school at the same pace. The education system should work the same way as martial arts or mastering a musical instrument, he says: Practice your white belt skills until they're perfect, then move up to the yellow belt; practice the beginner piece until you nail it, then move on to the more advanced song; don't move onto calculus if you haven't mastered algebra and trigonometry.

A lot of research out there backs up Khan's idea. Students that don't move onto the next lesson until they master the first often perform better later in their education career than peers who are arbitrarily shoved along from grade to grade.

If we personalize the education experience for students instead of requiring them to move as a herd, then anyone "could become a physicist, or a cancer researcher, or a rocket scientist," Khan said.

Provided, of course, that they put in the work required to master all of the steps.

4 strategies for remembering everything you learn

If you're going to learn anything, you need two kinds of prior knowledge: 

• Knowledge about the subject at hand, like math, history, or programming

• Knowledge about how learning actually works

The bad news: Our education system kind of skips one of them, which is problematic, given that your ability to learn is such a huge predictor of success in life, from achieving in academics to getting ahead at work. It all requires mastering skill after skill. 

"Parents and educators are pretty good at imparting the first kind of knowledge," shares psychology writer Annie Murphy Paul. "We're comfortable talking about concrete information: names, dates, numbers, facts. But the guidance we offer on the act of learning itself — the 'metacognitive' aspects of learning — is more hit-or-miss, and it shows."

To wit, education research shows that low-achieving students have "substantial deficits" in their understanding of the cognitive strategies that allow people to learn well. This, Paulsays, suggests that part of the reason students perform poorly is that they don't know a lot about how learning actually works. 

It's a cultural issue.

Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis and coauthors of "Make It Stick: The Science Of Successful Learning," say that "how we teach and study is largely a mix of theory, lore, and intuition."

So let's cut through that lore. Here are learning strategies that really work. 

 

Force yourself to recall.

benjamingolub/flickr

Flashcards force you to really think.

The least-fun part of effective learning is that it's hard. In fact, the "Make It Stick" authors contend that when learning is difficult, you're doing your best learning, in the same way that lifting a weight at the limit of your capacity makes you strongest. 

It's simple, though not easy, to take advantage of this: Force yourself to recall a fact. Flashcards are a great ally in this, since they force you to supply answers.

Don't fall for fluency.

Don Arnold / Getty Images

Test your recall before you move on and forget important information, like your gate number.

When you're reading something and it feels easy, what you're experiencing is fluency.

It'll only get you in trouble.

Example: Say, for instance, you're at the airport and you're trying to remember which gate your flight to Chicago is waiting for you at. You look at the terminal monitors — it's B44. You think to yourself,Oh, B44, that's easy. Then you walk away, idly check your phone, and instantly forget where you're going. 

The alternative: You read the gate number. Then you turn away from the monitor and ask yourself, What's the gate? If you can recall that it's B44, you're good to go. 

Connect the new thing to the old things.

Getty Images

Relate abstract concepts, like heat transfer, to something more tangible, like hot coffee.

"The more you can explain about the way your new learning relates to prior knowledge," the "Make It Stick" authors write, "the stronger your grasp of the new learning will be, and the more connections you create that will help you remember it later." 

When you're weaving in new threads into your pre-existing web of knowledge, you'reelaborating. 

One killer technique is to come up with real-life examples of principles you've just uncovered. If you've just learned aboutslant rhyme, you could read poems that exhibit it. If you've just discovered heat transfer, you could think of the way a warm cup of coffee disperses warmth into your hands on a cold winter's day.

Reflect, reflect, reflect.

Flickr/Will Clayton

Reflect on what you've learned so that it soaks in.

Looking back helps. In a Harvard Business School study, employees who were onboarded to a call center had 22.8% higher performance than the control group when they spent just 15 minutes reflecting on their work at the end of the day.

"When people have the opportunity to reflect, they experience a boost in self-efficacy," HBS professor Francesca Gino tells us. "They feel more confident that they can achieve things. As a result, they put more effort into what they're doing and what they learn."

While reflecting may seem like it leads to working less, it leads to achieving more. 

This is an update of an article that was previously posted.

Transparent solar cells could turn your windows into power sources

A Michigan State University research team has finally created a truly transparent solar panel — a breakthrough that could soon usher in a world where windows, panes of glass, and even entire buildings could be used to generate solar energy.

Professor Richard Lunt shows off a transparent solar cell.

Until now, solar cells of this kind have been only partially transparent and usually a bit tinted, but these new ones are so clear that they’re practically indistinguishable from a normal pane of glass.

Previous claims toward transparent solar panels have been misleading, since the very nature of transparent materials means that light must pass through them. Transparent photovoltaic cells are virtually impossible, in fact, because solar panels generate energy by converting absorbed photons into electrons. For a material to be fully transparent, light would have to travel uninhibited to the eye which means those photons would have to pass through the material completely (without being absorbed to generate solar power).

So, to achieve a truly transparent solar cell, the Michigan State team created this thing called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC), which employs organic salts to absorb wavelengths of light that are already invisible to the human eye. Steering clear of the fundamental challenges of creating a transparent photovoltaic cell allowed the researchers to harness the power of infrared and ultraviolet light.

The TLSC projects a luminescent glow that contains a converted wavelength of infrared light which is also invisible to the human eye. More traditional (non-transparent) photovoltaic solar cells frame the panel of the main material, and it is these solar cells that transform the concentrated infrared light into electricity.

Versions of previous semi-transparent solar cells that cast light in colored shadows can usually achieve efficiency of around seven percent, but Michigan State’s TLSC is expected to reach a top efficiency of five percent with further testing (currently, the prototype’s efficiency reaches a mere one percent). While numbers like seven and five percent efficiency seem low, houses featuring fully solar windows or buildings created from the organic material could compound that electricity and bring it to a more useful level.

Researchers on the Michigan State team believe their TLSC technology could span from industrial applications to more manageable uses like consumer devices and handheld gadgets. Their main priorities in continuing to develop the technology appear to be power efficiency and maintaining a scalable level of affordability, so that solar power can continue to grow as a major player in the field of renewable energy.

Read the original article on Digital Trends. Copyright 2015. Follow Digital Trends on Twitter.

5 signs that programming is not for you

Computer Programming is not an easy thing as it apparently looks like. I mean yes, it looks cool sitting on a computer, typing at a fast speed and drinking coffee or an energy drink after a couple of hours.

It is a known secret in the tech industry that the computer programmer, aka developers, have a better shot for a higher place in the management, and they are on the good payment slabs as well. Well, they actually do, but at the cost of experimental creativity, late sittings and impressive technical skills, their job is easier said than done.

There’s a great influx in programming fields these days. Before you pursue a career in programming, it is very important to know some key signs indicating that programming isn’t for you. If you sincerely think that these traits are not within you, better look for other career lines in the IT field – but it doesn’t mean that you are a bad tech professional, you are just not a developer;

1. Your mind does not digest algorithms

The core architecture of the applications comprises of complex program sequences and structures. These are called algorithms. A tech professional who does not understand the construction, implementation and placement of the algorithms within the structure of an application, cannot be a good programmer. This skill is what makes good programmer stand out. Because creating algorithms to resolve problems, is actually part creativity as well. Remember the famous algorithm of “Facemesh” at the dorm room window of Mark Zuckerberg? Now imagine world without Facebook after that 

2. You do not like logic problems

If you are given a simple test to calculate the Fibonacci series using any set of language (say C#) then how would you approach it? If you find making logics the most difficult task on earth, then you might need to rethink about programming as a career.

If your mind start thinking something like “who will use this application?”, or “what would it look like when finished?” then it is a red flag for you. The developer’s mind will take the dive into the Input, Process and Output sequences, determine the variables, construct the formula and identify the loops. Developing the right logic isn’t always enough. Testing modules and individual units is also programmer’s job. Testing and debugging requires fixing logic. As a matter of fact, programming is more about hunting and solving logic based faults. And that’s what your project manager expects you to do. The more complicated error you identify, the more skilled you are considered and rewarded accordingly.

3. Admit it, you do not like mathematics

There are now several tools to help out developers in complex mathematical problems. In case if a formula oriented logic is to be constructed with several layers of calculations and logical decisions, these tools help out the programmers. But, if you are not a maths person, then no matter how simple that tool is, you will always have goosebumps while using it. Fact is, programming requires good methodical understanding. To develop algorithms, you must have a good understanding of basic mathematical concepts, trigonometric functions, factorials and etc. Even modular testing requires checking logic of mathematical functions applied.

4. Sitting in front of a computer is not your thing

Programming is done on computers and if you are to program something, it means, you will be spending a good amount of time in front of your computer screen. Neither you like computers nor spending time on them?! Well, then programming is not for you. Because as a programmer you will be required to sit on your computer screen and you already don’t like that. Don’t make your life miserable and think about something you enjoy doing.

You will come across many workplaces where developers are working till late hours in their own pace to get things done. A good number of developers are late sitters because they do their work, take break, develop logics and get back to development again. Development requires patience, persistence and not giving up attitude.

Visit any software house after 6 pm, and the most people you will find digging on to their screens and having a gulp of caffeine will be these geeks. It comes with the package, and the habit then evolve genetically inside the developers. During the critical phases of coding, testing and implementation the after hours are the after life for the programmers.

5. You are not self-driven

This can apply to other career domain as well, but for a kick ass developer, you need to have that creative germ inside your genes. Otherwise the combo cannot work that well. It will be like a dish served without the proper seasoning of the sweet and sour.

Programming is considered a highly creative job and that requires a great deal of motivation and attachment to whatever you do. If you are not self-driven and you do not have the desire to code, you should not plan a career in programming. Programming actually involves wrestling with your mind and you cannot enjoy it unless you have a passion for it.

Several other reasons are also in play beside the ones mentioned above. Sometimes, even the great programmers would want to shift their careers to something else because of burning out of work.