Emilie Kormienko

According to learning theory, a grade is just a reward (or punishment!) signal. However, one of its obvious shortcomings is that it is totally lacking in precision. The grade of an exam is usually just a simple sum—and as such, it summarizes different sources of errors without distinguishing them. It is therefore insufficiently informative: by... See more

Communities work best when members are intrinsically motivated, but external rewards can be effective when used wisely.

The idea behind Web 3.0 is to combine the decentralized ideals of Web 1.0, with the consumer-friendly user experience of 2.0.

Each step in a flow should be a very simple question to help the user set up the product. In each question and answer, the user should get one step further in their understanding of the product and its capabilities too.

Smartphones were inherently social, too, unlike the desktop web. Apps could tap into a smartphone’s address book for a ready-made social graph; they could import photos from a user’s camera roll, or easily grab the user’s coordinates for location-based networking.

I like thinking of people as vessels, which provides a refreshing counterbalance to the well-trodden “great man theory”. Rather than viewing people as agents of change, I think of them as intermediaries, voice boxes for some persistent idea-virus that’s seized upon them and is speaking through their corporeal form. You might think of this as “great... See more

It’s important to tell your friends, see a therapist or psychiatrist, join a support group, or even just read up online about what you might be experiencing.