Super8: Eight intriguing articles from February.

Ah, COVID-19. A regular phrase that sits at the forefront of everyone’s minds. It’s astonishing to think it’s been over 12 months since the world came to grinding to a halt. Now, with vaccines being distributed world-wide, the world is stirring and starting to dream of what a new normal will look like.

Whether that be improving your home-office, creating AI chatbots or finding resolutions that lead to happiness; Mitchell Dekker has scoured the internet to bring you this month’s edition of Super8. So, sit back, relax, and get inspired for change.

1. Google’s remote work policy has 9 great tips you should definitely steal today.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Justin Bariso.
• Contributed by: Timocles Copland.

With remote work here to stay in 2021 (and maybe the foreseeable future), there’s no better time than now to improve your home office. Many of us, whether that be around Australia or around the world, remain separated from family, friends and colleagues.

This kind of separation, John Baristo highlights, can cause suffrage from a lack of productivity and personal wellbeing.

To avoid the WFH burn-out, try taking a tip or two from Google’s remote working book. Who knows, you might find a way to improve your home office, increase emotional intelligence, or learn how to schedule in some much-needed time for your afternoon walk.

2. New Year’s resolutions that will actually lead to happiness.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Arthur Brooks.
• Contributed by: Nina Wan.

Do you set a New Year’s resolution each time the clock ticks over to January 1st? Are you someone who can’t seem to complete it come December 31st? Perhaps it’s because you don’t have enough time, it’s too difficult, or maybe you’re just content continuing on as you please.

If this sounds like you, that’s ok. You’re not alone.

If you’re like me and didn’t set a New Year’s resolution, fear not. It’s never too late! After all, the best time to start something is yesterday, the next best time is today.

3. Young people are going to save us all from office life.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Claire Cain Miller.
• Contributed by: Rachel Antoniadou. 

There is no doubt that the world is changing in more ways than one. One of those changes, pioneered by the younger generation, is more freedom when it comes to office life.

With many people in the millennial age group juggling parenthood, social commitments, and trying to escape an endless sleep and work cycle (especially with your desk so close to you bed!), working outside of the conventional 9-5 just might be the answer.

In this piece, Claire Cain Miller and Sanam Yar dive into the ever-changing workplace landscape and those leading the charge to greater flexibility, freedom and remote working.

4. 27 eye-opening statistics about user experience, website first impressions, and website design that you should be taking very seriously.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Sweor.
• Contributed by: Isabel Silvis.

There’s no doubt that we’ve all visited a website that’s slow to load, confusing to navigate, or not-so-great on the design front. We’ve all probably spent a little too long on that said site, hoping for the best.

With a need for everything to be delivered to us as quickly and as effectively as possible (it is the 21st century, after all), there are few factors to consider when it comes to making sure your webpage is as effective (and speedy!) as possible.

Here, you’ll find 27 factors worth considering, because first impressions always last.

5. Good design rules in UX design.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Riti Dass.
• Contributed by: Kurt Smith.

Here, Riti Dass provides a valuable insight into some of the many ground rules that govern good UX design and the psychology behind such principles.

Whether you’re an aspiring UX designer or an expert in the field, keeping these in the forefront of your mind can be beneficial in designing content, interfaces, or experiences that engage.

6. What it takes to create a GPT-3 product.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Ben Dickson.
• Contributed by: Sarah El-Atm

Imagine sometime in the future where a program can intelligently create unique, tailored work in mere seconds, where a person would take several hours to complete the same task. The future is here now!

Released last year, Open-AI’s GPT-3 language prediction model has stunned the world with its incredible, human-like capabilities. In this article, Ben Dickson provides tips and tricks to create and design your own GPT-3 product and reiterates what the model is capable of!

7. Google’s new chatbot “Meena”: the most human-like AI chatbot ever.

• Watch the full video here.
• Article by: AI Network.
• Contributed by: Claire Grainger.

AI has had a global presence since the mid-2000s, with companies such as Google using it to deal with big data and process information.

With nearly a quarter of all companies using AI in some form, the obvious question is ‘where do we go from here?’ And how close to human thinking and understanding can we get?

This video by AI Network shows Google’s newest chatbot in development and how it’s pushing the nature of AI-human interaction into the future.

8. ‘Success addicts’ choose being special over being happy.

• Read the full article here.
• Article by: Arthur Brooks.
• Contributed by: James Otter.

I know I’m certainly guilty of being a “success addict”— I also know that there are more than a few people who choose specialness and accomplishment over well-being and happiness.

However, there’s no doubt that such success can come with a price. This eye-opening article explores the psychology of why we act this way, the hedonic treadmill we find ourselves running on, and how it can have a negative impact on our lives.

If you’re someone who often sacrifices things like sleep or catching-up with friends in order to finish off a project, then perhaps it’s time to get off the treadmill and follow these three steps to find the right metrics of success.