<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title><![CDATA[Omni Calculator Blog]]></title><description><![CDATA[Getting the numbers you need.]]></description><link>https://www.omnicalculator.com/</link><image><url>https://www.omnicalculator.com/favicon.png</url><title>Omni Calculator Blog</title><link>https://www.omnicalculator.com/</link></image><generator>Ghost 2.9</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:35:45 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/rss/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><ttl>60</ttl><item><title><![CDATA[The Omni Calculator Challenge]]></title><description><![CDATA[The contest has now officially ended  🙌 Thank you to all those who participated! We will be posting the winning entries in 48 hours. Do you believe that numbers are everywhere and that calculations can be fun too? 💯 Are you a curious, imaginative person who can’t seem to stop...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/omni-calculator-challenge/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__616546ff5bd1d70025ed40d0</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Sam Balboa]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2021 10:58:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2021/10/Web-Header_211006_omnichallenge_Header.png" class="kg-image"/></figure><p>The contest has now officially ended  🙌 Thank you to all those who participated! We will be posting the winning entries in 48 hours. </p><hr><p>Do you believe that numbers are everywhere and that calculations can be fun too? 💯 Are you a curious, imaginative person who can’t seem to stop coming up with weird, unusual comparisons? 🙋 Then this challenge is perfect for you! We are <strong>looking for a creative genius </strong>🤓 who will share with us the <strong>wackiest</strong>, most <strong>unusual</strong>, and the most<strong> unique unit</strong> for our <strong>Weird Units Converter</strong>.</p><p><strong>The Prize</strong><br>We’re giving away a total of <strong>💵</strong>  <strong>$400 worth of Amazon gift cards</strong>. Every week, for two weeks, we’ll be choosing the<strong> best ideas shared on Facebook and Instagram</strong>. Each winning idea will win a $100 worth Amazon gift card and be featured as a co-author of the calculator.</br></p><p><strong>How to participate<strong>?</strong></strong><br>1) Play with our <strong>Weird Units Converter</strong> below.<br>2) Choose a unit type and <strong>come up with your own, unique idea</strong> for a weird unit.</br></br></p><div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="conversion/weird-units" data-width="90%" data-config="{}" data-currency="PLN" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1633439834638">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Weird Units Converter</div>
  <div class="omni-calculator-footer">
    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/conversion/weird-units" target="_blank"><img alt="Omni" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
  </div>
</div>
<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/><p/><p>3) <strong>Share it on social media</strong>! Entries can be submitted either on Facebook or Instagram. You can also invite your friends and challenge them! 😉 For the full rules and regulations, please scroll down below.</p><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OmniCalculator"><strong>Facebook</strong></a></p><ul><li><strong>Comment your idea</strong> with a short explanation on our official contest post.</li></ul><div id="fb-root"/>
<script async defer crossorigin="anonymous" src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v12.0" nonce="XihsoyKN"/>
<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/OmniCalculator/photos/p.4701719129905072/4701719129905072" data-width="500" data-show-text="true"/><p><strong><strong>Instagram</strong></strong></p><ul><li><strong>Visualize your idea</strong> and take a creative photo/video. 📷</li><li><strong>Share</strong> it as an IG story with #omnicalculatorchallenge.</li><li>Tag the official Omni Calculator IG (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/omnicalculator">@omnicalculator</a>) and<strong> challenge one friend</strong> to participate by mentioning their handle.</li><li>Make sure that you’re following us, you’ve liked our contest post, and your account is public so we can see your entry!</li></ul><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CWDW2lZo5f7/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); 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text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CWDW2lZo5f7/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Omni Calculator (@omnicalculator)</a></p></div></blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"/></figure><p><strong>Key dates:</strong><br>The Contest shall be held from <strong>November 2, 2021 </strong>(from 3:00 AM PST / 12:00 PM CET /) to <strong>November 16, 2021</strong> (until 2:59 AM PST / 11:59 AM CET) and will consist of two rounds:<br><strong>Round </strong>1️⃣<strong>:</strong> November 2, 2021 (3:00 AM PST / 12:00 PM CET)  - November 9, 2021 (2:59 AM PST / 11:59 AM CET)<br><strong>Round </strong>2️⃣<strong>: </strong>November 9, 2021 (3:00 AM PST / 12:00 PM CET) -  November 16, 2021 (2:59 AM PST / 11:59 AM CET).</br></br></br></p><hr><p><strong>Rules and regulations:</strong></p><ol><li>This document lists rules and regulations for the “Omni Calculator Challenge” contest.</li><li>The contest is organized by Omni Calculator sp. z o.o., with the address: Mazowiecka 72/46, 30-019 Kraków, Poland, referred to as Organizer from now on. </li><li>All prizes are funded by <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com">Omni Calculator</a>.</li><li>The contest takes place in our official social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram.</li><li>Any person not related to Omni Calculator's owners or employees is eligible to take part in the contest.</li><li>Contest task is to come up with a creative idea for the new unit for the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/conversion/weird-units">Weird Units Converter</a> and publish it in English, either <br>(1) on Facebook - as a comment with a brief justification <br>OR<br>(2) on Instagram - as a creative visualization/photo on Instagram stories with the official hashtag #omnicalculatorchallenge. Users must also follow the Omni Calculator Instagram page, like the contest post, and tag at least one friend.</br></br></br></li><li>All four winners will receive the following prizes: <br>(1) Each winner will receive a $100 Amazon Gift Card; <br>(2) Will be named as a co-author of the Weird Units Converter.</br></br></li><li>Winners will be determined by beautiful members of the Omni Calculator team.</li><li>The Jury will be guided in judging the entries by the following criteria: creativity and originality of the submitted unit, distinctiveness from the units already included in Weird Units Converter, and justification of the unit.</li><li>In the event of the beautiful jury not being able to determine a worthy winner(s), all unallocated funds shall be donated to the charity of jury’s choice.</li><li>Contestants agree to transfer all IP rights related to their ideas to the Organizer.</li><li>The awards will be sent before the end of 2021.</li><li>The winners will be contacted 48 hours after the end of each round.</li><li>We would like to inform you that the Administrator of the personal data is the Organizer. The personal data will be processed for the purposes related to the Contest, performance of tax and accounting duties, for the purposes related to potential claims investigation or defense against claims. Detailed information on the processing of personal data by Organizer can be found at <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com">www.omnicalculator.com</a> in the tab “Privacy Policy” tab.</li></ol></hr></hr>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#Sciviews #3 Dyani Lewis: Science shouldn't lose to politics.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is the third part of #Sciviews, a series of interviews with top science story tellers around the globe . If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.We’re living in times where ‘science’ is ready to solve a crisis, but the politics just won’t stop. Our...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/sciviews-dyani-lewis/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5d97428718d10000251a51a2</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:19:21 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/10/Sciviews-Dyani.jpg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/10/Sciviews-Dyani.jpg" alt="#Sciviews #3 Dyani Lewis: Science shouldn't lose to politics."/><p><em>This is the third part of <strong>#Sciviews,</strong> a series of interviews with top science story tellers around the globe . If you don’t know anything about it, read </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em>what got us here.</em></a><br><br><em>We’re living in times where ‘science’ is ready to solve a crisis, but the politics just won’t stop. </em><br><br><em>Our newest edition of #Sciviews was with one such storyteller who too speaks of the amount of  frustration scientists and storytellers face due to lack of political support. </em><br><br><em>We spoke with the amazing  Dyani Lewis, a PhD in plant genetic and science contributor for Cosmos Magazine who agreed to share her story as a science storyteller and even gave us some interesting insights to science and how she hopes its future to be. Here’s what all we discussed:</em><br><br><strong>1. Needless to say there are countless pitches waiting for journalists every day, how do you pick your stories?</strong><br><br>I think it’s really important to tune in to your own sense of wonder at new discoveries. What’s interesting for you will often be interesting for others, too.  </br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>2. You've been a science and tech producer for your college before you turned to science journalism as a profession, is this true? Gradually you developed an interest in topics like evolutionary biology, paleontology, medicine,  environment</strong>.<strong> How did it all happen? Tell us your story</strong></p><p>Yes, that’s true. I was very fortunate to land a job working as the science producer for Up Close, a podcast for the University of Melbourne. It was great experience. I found guests for the show, interviewed them to work out how best to get them to tell their story, and then wrote briefing notes, an episode introduction and questions for whoever was going to be the host of the show. I covered lots of topics – everything from quantum computing and systems engineering, to areas I’m more familiar with, like genetics and evolutionary biology. I also got to host quite a few episodes in the end, which was exhilarating, but rather challenging. I’ve always loved radio – and I’m now a massive podcast addict – so I might go back to it one day. But while I was working on Up Close, I was trying to get my writing career started… very tentatively. I had no idea how to pitch a story or who I could write for, but I slowly got the confidence to write to editors and pitch some ideas. I did my PhD in plant genetics, so biology is somewhat familiar territory. I used to worry that I didn’t know as much about some topics, but I’ve learned that having a niche can be really rewarding. Editors come to know what you cover well, and send work your way. After writing an explainer article on early human evolution, for example, I became the ‘go-to’ writer for any studies on human origins. Having said that, being a freelancer, I can choose to pitch a story about anything that takes my fancy, so I’m not limited to just one beat. This variety is what makes science journalism so endlessly rewarding.</p><p><strong>3. Is there anything unique you came across in your career that can be turned into a cool calculator/tool for people to use?</strong><br><br>Hmmm… I’m not sure about that one. Certainly one type of calculator that I find very useful is one that translates measurements into everyday objects that people can relate to. For example, comparing an extinct Diprotodon to the size of a small car. These sort of comparisons can seem a bit naff, but they do help people to envisage the scale of things you are writing about, which is especially important when talking about really large things – the human brain can’t easily comprehend big numbers, so a little help is useful.<br><br><strong>4. We're among the worst crisis on the planet in all history and it seems to be going downhill. Plastic pollution, heat waves, Amazon fires. It is leading to many discoveries and solutions but what we need is something bigger it seems. What are your hopes when it comes to science and technology over the next few years?</strong><br><br>To be honest, my biggest hope is that we get movement on a political, rather than scientific front. It’s no wonder that scientists working on the front line of the climate crisis (and science journalists who cover their work) are frustrated – and grief-stricken – at the state of the planet and the inaction of governments to address the crisis. Here in Australia politicians are still arguing over the reality of the climate crisis, rather than enacting policies that will make a difference.  <br><br><strong>5. Though you cover a wide variety of subjects, many of them are very niche and it takes a unique outlook to fully enjoy its stories. Would you recommend a book to make someone fall in love with science, especially in the field you write or talk about? There can be more than one :)</strong><br><br>Off the top of my head, one book that I read recently and really loved was Carl Zimmer’s '<strong>She Has Her Mother’s Laugh'</strong>. It’s a tremendous read and you discover all of the ways that inheritance is so much more complicated than simply inheriting traits from your mother and father.   </br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>6. What do you think about The Omni Calculator Project, which calculator you would be likely to recommend to your curious science audience? Perhaps you might like some of our </strong><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology"><strong>Ecology Calculators</strong></a><strong>? Or </strong><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health"><strong>Health Calculators</strong></a><strong>?</strong><br><br>I really like the Flight Radiation Calculator. It’s something I often wonder about and I always forget what dosage of radiation is okay and how that compares to common procedures like X-rays.<br><br><strong>7. What’s the weirdest science story you've ever been pitched?</strong><br><br>An editor asked me to write about <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/six-of-nature-s-weirdest-sex-lives">the strange sex lives of animals</a> – Mother Nature delivered! :)</br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><em>An interesting outlook to mother nature indeed.  Hope this planet continues to surprise us (in a good way) and we hope minds like Dyani are always around to tell its stories. </em><br><br><em>In case you missed our previous stories check them here:</em><br><br><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/sciviews/"><em>#Sciviews: The science of storytelling</em></a><em><br><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/sciviews-signe-dean/">#Sciviews #1: Signe Dean’s ‘never too curious’ approach to science storytelling.</a><br><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/sciviews-neel-patel/">#Sciviews #2: Neel Patel makes 'staring into space' interesting.</a><br/></br></br></em></br></br></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#Sciviews #2: Neel Patel makes 'staring into space' interesting.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part two of #Sciviews, a series of interviews with top science story tellers around the world . If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.A lifetime isn't enough to explore even a whit of what we think is our 'observatory' universe. I wish the...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/sciviews-neel-patel/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5d94b06d8a853a0025acc81f</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:45:11 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/10/Sciviews--Neel-Patel.jpg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/10/Sciviews--Neel-Patel.jpg" alt="#Sciviews #2: Neel Patel makes 'staring into space' interesting."/><p><em>This is part two of <strong>#Sciviews,</strong> a series of interviews with top science story tellers around the world . If you don’t know anything about it, read </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em>what got us here.</em></a><br><br><em>A lifetime isn't enough to explore even a whit of what we think is our 'observatory' universe. I wish the story of space was as simple as reciting "twinkle twinkle little star...". It's amazing how this nursery rhyme says everything about us humans and our constant mental itch to know "what the hell are these things?" <br><br>Years of efforts, money, and time may have opened our eyes to what was unknown a few years ago, but if it wasn't for some bright minds who did an amazing job at telling the story of space, we'd still be sitting here, writing poetry about loving someone to the moon and back. It's 477,800 miles by the way (depending on where it is).   <br><br>We had the opportunity to speak to one such bright mind,<a href="https://neelvpatel.com/"> Neel Patel</a>, an experienced space and physics writer. Before reporting space stories for <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/">Technology Review</a>, he spent a lot of time writing about interstellar travel and earnestly covered the rise of commercial spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. He was also the managing editor of SciArt magazine unearthing the intersections of science and art.<br><br>Talking to him was an absolute pleasure, it even gave us some great insights on how to tell better interstellar stories. Here's how it went:</br></br></br></br></br></br></em><br><br><strong>1. You have written for many leading publications before, and I'm sure it's a mix of different audiences. How do you manage to pick the right story for your readers? </strong><br><br>It really just depends on what the publication I’m writing for needs. Each outlet is different, writes for a different kind of readership, and specializes in a different kind of line of coverage. I think what matters more than just picking the right kind of story is figuring out the proper way to cover any given story. 12 publications will cover a story in 12 different ways, ideally. </br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>2.</strong> <strong>You've been a science writer since the beginning of your professional life, is this true? Before joining Technology Review you have done some amazing pieces about space for some amazing journals. How did you end up in science journalism especially your love for the science of space? Tell us your story</strong><br><br>I actually studied biology for my undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech, with a concentration in microbiology and immunology.  I initially wanted to get into laboratory research, but after a brief half-year stint as an undergrad in an immunology lab, I quickly realized I wasn’t exactly cut out for lab research, which requires an enormous amount of patience and a very keen diligence to rote procedures and methodology. I was a great writer, however, and my professor noticed I had a skill in communicating science really well. So I quickly decided to try to find opportunities to do more science journalism. I worked in the PR department for VT’s College of Natural Resources and Environment during my senior year and doing some blogging for smaller outlets, honing my skills and getting used to doing interviews with scientists. After graduating, I interned at The American Gardener for a few months and became more used to the editorial ins and outs of a magazine, and applied to NYU’s graduate program in journalism, where they have a Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP). This was really where my science journalism career took off, learning from some incredible professors who had years of vaunted experience, and getting an opportunity to tap into NYC’s media network. I had internships with Popular Science, IEEE Spectrum, and upon graduating I took on a reporting fellowship at Wired, in San Francisco. When that ended, I came back to NYC and started freelancing full time, with most of my work going towards writing for Inverse. That’s where my big foray into space reporting began, as I was the only science journalist at the company who was better equipped to write about some of the heavier sciences. So I honestly just sort of fell into it, and it’s just felt really easy and natural for me to cover space. The science of space really puts into perspective how small and transient or life here on Earth is, in the context of the cosmos, and I find that pretty enthralling. </br></br></p><p><strong>3.</strong> <strong>I see there is an unimaginable future when it comes to space travel, though happenings like Sagittarius A eating up a whole neutron star is something out of our control, until a few months ago we didn't even know what a black hole looked like. What are your hopes when it comes to science and technology over the next few years especially for space related discoveries?</strong></p><p>I hope we’re able to better understand the complexity of different extraterrestrial worlds, especially as it relates to habitability. I think the odds of finding intelligent life is almost non-existent (my biology background gives me an understanding of just how complex organic life is, and I think the odds of something like that springing up elsewhere in the planet is nigh impossible), but I think the odds of finding another planet that is potentially habitable to life of some kind (primitive) is a whole other story. </p><p><strong>4. There are probably millions of secrets to life on planets we still haven't tapped. Would you recommend a book to make someone fall in love with the science of space? There can be more than one :)</strong><br><br>I’ve never actually found much use out of using any books to turn people on to space. The people who buy and read space books are already interested. Better ways to get new people interested in space are through visuals — videos of rocket launches, gawking at space pictures, science fiction movies, etc.</br></br></p><p><strong>5. What do you think about <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/">The Omni Calculator Project</a>, which calculator you would be likely to recommend to your curious science audience?</strong><br><br>I think it’s a pretty unique project. I’d probably recommend any of the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics">physics calculators</a>, since I think they do a really good job of making abstract physical concepts understandable. </br></br></p><p><strong>6. What is that one science quote that speaks to you? There can be more than one :)</strong></p><p>“The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.” — Lewis Thomas. I like this because it’s an example of how science isn’t always drive by a goal to move towards elegance. Sometimes it’s sheer chaos and error that pushes science forward. <br><br><br><em>Thanks to all the chaos and error we made it this far. I hope our curiosity takes us places. Also, more power to the ones fighting to make our current planet more habitable. </em><br><br><em>In case you missed our last story check out <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/sciviews-signe-dean/">Signe Dean's never too curious approach to science story-telling.</a> Stay tuned for more. </em></br></br></br></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#Sciviews #1: Signe Dean’s ‘never too curious’ approach to science storytelling.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part one of #Sciviews, a series of interviews with top science story tellers around the world . If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.The story of science goes way back and it wasn’t always this pretty. Millions of failed experiments and tests have...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/sciviews-signe-dean/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5d7b5198880fcd0025222a71</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 13 Sep 2019 10:07:46 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/09/Sciviews-2.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/09/Sciviews-2.png" alt="#Sciviews #1: Signe Dean’s ‘never too curious’ approach to science storytelling."/><p><em>This is part one of <strong>#Sciviews,</strong> a series of interviews with top science story tellers around the world . If you don’t know anything about it, read </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em>what got us here.</em></a><br><br><em>The story of science goes way back and it wasn’t always this pretty. Millions of failed experiments and tests have continued to imply an important thing. If you’re curious enough to get up and try to find the right answers, there’s a huge probability that you eventually will.  </em><br><br><em>“Almost in the beginning was curiosity” was the first thing Signe Dean quoted as  she began a 365 day long science blog project in 2014. Today, Signe is the managing editor of one of the leading science news websites, ScienceAlert. Surely a lot must have changed in the past 5 years but one of the things that has remained unmovable is her love for science and telling it’s stories.</em><br><br><em>We were lucky enough to have a humble conversation for our interview project #Sciviews with one of the best science storytellers and it went better than we imagined. Here are some of the things she shared: </em><br><br><strong>It's not easy dealing with so many stories every day, simply because science has so many stories to tell. I don't have to say, that what you do is an amazing responsibility, and it does come with a certain pressure to pick what people would like. How do you manage to pick the right one?</strong><br/></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p>Any editor of any publication, anywhere, will have to balance what they think their readers need to know, versus what the audience might want to know. We try to apply this basic principle at ScienceAlert, too, by balancing the important breakthroughs in science with more curiosity-driven pieces, along with lighter stories that don't always cover a study published in a journal.</p><p><br>In online media, there's always the risk of falling prey to traffic and algorithms. I strongly disagree with the mindset that one must only serve the content that generates the most clicks. There needs to be a journalistic balance there.</br></p><p><strong>Before becoming the editor you've spent quite some time writing health stories, you still do. How did you end up in science journalism? Tell us your story.</strong></p><p>As I was completing my M.Sc degree in cognitive science and philosophy, I was pretty certain I'd become an academic. Then life happened and I moved to Australia, where my 'immigrant CV' landed in quite a few bins, at least at first. But radically changing your life path can sometimes open up the opportunity to ask yourself - what would you do even if you weren't getting paid? For me, the answer was "tell people about science", so I started doing just that, applying for internships and pitching freelance stories to various publications. Once, as part of my career development, I even committed to a 365-day science blog, where I wrote an entry every single day for an entire year. Few things show commitment to science writing as much as that insane project, and it certainly opened some doors!</p><p>I am an outspoken proponent of evidence-based medicine, hence my initial interest in reporting on health and medical stories. These days, however, I'm very much a generalist - you have to keep up when you're the editor of one of the most-read science news websites in the world, and all your team are brilliant award-winning reporters!<br/></p><p><strong>What are you hopes when it comes to science and technology over the next few years?</strong></p><p>My own hopes when it comes to technology don't lie so much with new inventions as with a shift in existing policies that should be informed by scientific consensus - mainly, we need to sort out our priorities to avert the worst effects of the climate crisis.</p><p><strong>What do you think about The Omni Calculator Project, which calculator you would be likely to recommend to your curious science audience?</strong></p><p>There's so much cool stuff on your website, it would be impossible to pick just one calculator to recommend! I quite like <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/hand-dryers-vs-paper-towels">the one that told me</a> I can get a 0 on my carbon footprint tally if I wipe my freshly washed hands on my pants.</p><p><strong>What is that one science quote that speaks to you? There can be more than one :)</strong></p><p>Rather than a quote, I want to recommend a whole book, by my greatest inspiration in the science world, the wonderful Carl Sagan. Everyone should read <em>The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark</em>, it's truly excellent.<br><br><em>Science has always taught us that it's okay if you don't always have the right answer. What's important is to be curious. Signe's contribution have continued to help people stay inquisitive about the magic of science and we hope this drive reaches many more.</em><br><br><br/></br></br></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#SciViews: The science of storytelling]]></title><description><![CDATA[It’s true that science is more fun when you play with it, learn from it and share its endless powers with others. For a moment, let’s go back in time to ancient Egypt, Greece, India and Babylonia. Scroll a little through the ideas of Pythagoras, Archimedes, Brahmagupta, Al-Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Ptolemy....]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/sciviews/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5d3c52e47c2ae80025532b0b</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 30 Jul 2019 17:54:56 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/07/Sciviews.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3 id="it-s-true-that-science-is-more-fun-when-you-play-with-it-learn-from-it-and-share-its-endless-powers-with-others-"><strong><strong>It’s true that science is more fun when you play with it, learn from it and share its endless powers with others.</strong></strong> <br/></h3><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/07/Sciviews.png" alt="#SciViews: The science of storytelling"/><p>For a moment, let’s go back in time to ancient Egypt, Greece, India and Babylonia. Scroll a little through the ideas of <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/pythagorean-theorem">Pythagoras</a>, <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/area-of-sphere">Archimedes</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi#Contributions">Brahmagupta, Al-Khwarizmi</a>, <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/fibonacci">Fibonacci</a>, <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/law-of-cosines">Ptolemy</a>. Revisit the mind-blowing discoveries of <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/newtons-second-law">Newton</a>, <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/emc2">Einstein</a>, <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/faraday">Faraday</a> and many more geniuses whose ideas still influence our worlds at some stage or the other. Now imagine if no one ever told their stories, their theories, we’d still be believers of folklores, and our outlook may not have been as rational as it is today.<br><br><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/">Omni Calculator</a> has always believed in not just telling these science stories but also letting the world put them into use in their everyday lives. At a point, we can proudly say we literally <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/rocket-thrust">made rocket science simpler</a>. From calculating the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/coffee-kick">perfect time to drink coffee</a> to using <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/egg-boiling">quantum physics to boil perfect eggs</a>, we’ve always tried to help the world count on science more than their intuition. <br><br>One of the latest initiatives of Omni is an interview project called <strong>#SciViews, </strong>it honors and shares the word of storytellers like us. The world of science journalism has largely contributed to our curious outlook and always made us inquisitive of the hidden magical treasures of science.<br><br>This series of interviews will connect the world with the best science journalists and show you how they see the world. It aims to make curious scientific minds better storytellers and evangelists of the wonders of science.<br><br>Discovering soon. Stay tuned. :)  <br/></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#HuntedHunters #5: Chris Messina hints, 'don't miss out on 'the journey']]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part five of #HuntedHunters, a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.Haven’t we all wanted to be a cooler version of ourselves? Acting, thinking, looking, talking, living...a little bit better? We’re...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/huntedhunter-chris-messina/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5cd1c2351aea5900259ab2c2</guid><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[No-Code]]></category><category><![CDATA[Product Design]]></category><category><![CDATA[product building]]></category><category><![CDATA[Product Hunt]]></category><category><![CDATA[Ryan Hoover]]></category><category><![CDATA[entrepreneur]]></category><category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category><category><![CDATA[Silicon Valley]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 07 May 2019 18:11:33 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/05/Product-Hunt-Chris-Messina.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1 id=""> <br/></h1><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/05/Product-Hunt-Chris-Messina.png" alt="#HuntedHunters #5: Chris Messina hints, 'don't miss out on 'the journey'"/><p><em>This is part five of #HuntedHunters, a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/">what got us here.</a><br><br>Haven’t we all wanted to be a cooler version of ourselves? Acting, thinking, looking, talking, living...a little bit better? We’re sure you have, it’s an essential part of being human. We may not have been cognisant of this while we were growing up, but we made our own role models and motivators anyway. Not until we were adults did we realise that their journey, no matter how enticing and similar it may seem, is still completely different to your own. <br><br>If we spent their lives wanting to be like someone else, we’d still be stuck in figuring out what’s not right. At some point we have to find our own path through the wilderness. Fortunately, here at The Omni Calculator Project, we happened to meet someone who brought things into perspective, so our young entrepreneurs have a trailblazer to teach them how to survive in this ever evolving technological jungle.<br><br>While Omni was in talks with <a href="https://twitter.com/bramk">@bramk</a> about his experiences on Product Hunt and <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters-2-bram-kanstein-hails-the-no-code-universe/">the new age of No Code websites</a>, we dared to ask if he can introduce us to our next top hunter. We were in luck because we heard back from Bram, that Chris Messina would like to do an interview with us. Believe me there is no hashtag for how it feels when the ‘father of hashtag’ wants to participate in your project.<br><br>So, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is our honour to bring to you our interview with a great mind, Chris Messina, he is an ace designer of products, platforms, and experiences for Google and Uber. He founded many startups, and changed the world by giving away many of his creations, including the hashtag. </br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></em></p><p><strong>Omni Calculator: You’ve been part of an impressive list of projects in the past (I’ll be here all day if start listing them). Your interview on 'Story in a Bottle' podcast was amazing. How do you manage to steal time and search thousands of new projects on PH? Is </strong><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/messinabot"><strong>MessinaBot</strong></a><strong> for real?</strong></p><p>Chris Messina: Dan Maccarone’s a good friend and it was a fun (and somewhat saucy!)<a href="http://storyinabottle.charmingrobot.com/2016/01/20/chris-messina/"> interview</a>. I really enjoy his<a href="http://storyinabottle.charmingrobot.com"> interview style</a>. </p><p>My motivation for participating in the Product Hunt ecosystem is really to surf the edge of the future and to see what new and emerging trends are happening before they hit mainstream. There are so many makers on Product Hunt who are working on digital products to scratch their own narrow itches. There really isn’t a better concentration of people sketching the contours of the future publicly than on Product Hunt. And the good news is that they’re all pretty available and open for feedback, so, when I reach out, I’m often able to get insights about the problems they’re trying to solve, why they’re doing it, and what their plans are. This helps me in my own product design projects and in counseling other makers.</p><p>Since I’ve been active on Product Hunt for so long, now most of my hunts come to me directly — or else I spot interesting new apps in the App Store or on Twitter. It’s very organic.</p><p>And, MessinaBot once was real, but now it’s in hibernation. I hope to one day revive him! </p><p><strong>OC: What do you relish doing while don't feel like being the tech guru sometimes? Do your hobbies affect the kind of products you hunt?</strong></p><p>CM: I was asked this question recently and felt a little bashful because I feel like I haven’t focused on hobbies lately… but then when I looked at the activities I engage with regularly, I actually have a specific set of things that I enjoy, including discovering great food and drinks (wine and cocktails), exploring cities through travel (I just<a href="https://medium.com/chris-messina/leaving-sanfrancisco-349582c18630"> became a nomad</a> after living in San Francisco for nearly 15 years!), listening to tons of<a href="https://breaker.audio/u/chris"> podcasts</a> and audiobooks, being curious about ideas, people, relationships, and contemplating the subjective experience of reality (🧠). I of course also love design, products, technology — and staying up to date on world affairs and politics. I guess you could say I’m a bit of an infovore. </p><p><strong>OC: What does the future of tech look like to you? What are we looking at 5 years from now?</strong></p><p>CM: I recently had the insight that humans <em>are</em> technology. So this question should be rewritten, <em>“what does the future of humanity look like?”</em> I care less about gadgets and gizmos and new ways of forming sand into<a href="https://medium.com/chris-messina/silicon-valley-is-all-wrong-about-the-airpods-8204ede08f0f"> internet-connected jewelry</a>, and more about the evolution of human behavior and relating. Certainly technology external to us will continue to co-evolve with us, and we will shape it, and in turn, it will shape us — but I’d prefer to start with how we think people should behave to maximize understanding, cooperation, opportunity, and learning. </p><p>This is especially key as it becomes more natural to conversate with AI companions like Alexa and Siri. These products are being worked on by 10s of thousands of Silicon Valley’s best and brightest — to have personalities and expressiveness that is adaptive to each individual that engages with them. We have a long way to go, but it seems inevitable to me, like going to Mars is inevitable to Elon Musk. In that world, given what we’ve learned from the seductive powers of social media, I think we have to learn to program ourselves, individually, to become better humans. If we don’t, I fear for the future of humanity — I really do.</p><p><strong>OC: Do you have any suggestions for the young kids trying to make their way to the startup industry?</strong></p><p>CM: Spend time exploring your own interests and passions — and develop a deep sense of curiosity and awe for the world and for people. The most successful founders are on the relentless pursuit to bring something novel into the world — but the only way to sustain that drive is to find the journey the reward in and of itself. If you spend too much time imitating others and not becoming curious and introspective about your own motivations, desires, needs, and ambitions then you’re more likely to find yourself floundering, confused, and frustrated years later.</p><p><em>It's important for all of us to eventually strike out and find our own way through life; we are all unique and have our own specific desires and thoughts on life, meaning no one else’s track is going to fit you as well as your own. However, do not take this as meaning you cannot look at other people’s lives and learn from them, the best way to learn a lesson is to learn it from someone else’s mistakes.</em></p><p><em>Chris throws emphasis on self-reflection and nurturing your drive to achieve things that matter to you the most. After all it was never about being like someone else, just the better version of yourself. We thank Chris for this moment and I hope to stumble into him on one of his nomadic journeys. </em></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#HuntedHunters #4: James Mundy points towards Eco-tech.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part four of #HuntedHunters, a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.It’s great to be futuristic and coin unimaginable concepts that could shape the future of humanity. Especially when the current state...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/huntedhunter-james-mundy/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5cb8a12f44e97a00256b0de2</guid><category><![CDATA[HuntedHunters]]></category><category><![CDATA[TopHunters]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category><category><![CDATA[Start-ups]]></category><category><![CDATA[setting goals]]></category><category><![CDATA[Eco-Tech]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 18 Apr 2019 16:42:08 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/04/James-Mundy.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/04/James-Mundy.png" alt="#HuntedHunters #4: James Mundy points towards Eco-tech."/><p><em><em>This is part </em>four<em> of <strong><strong>#HuntedHunters,</strong></strong> a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read </em></em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em><em>what got us here.</em></em></a><br><br><em>It’s great to be futuristic and coin unimaginable concepts that could shape the future of humanity. Especially when the current state humanity is terribly out-of-shape. We are in dire need of sustainable-tech, now more than ever.</em><br><br><em>At the other end of the tunnel, we see things happening that are not all bad. People are becoming more aware are filling their habitats with smarter greener technology. In this highly charged tech industry, I managed to steal a brief conversation with a hunter who gave us a kaleidoscopic purview of our future.</em><br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/_jamesmundy?lang=en"><em>James Mundy</em></a><em>, our next hunter, is a creator and product manager based in London. One of the earliest adopters of Product Hunt, James owns an interesting product portfolio.<strong> </strong>He’s built </em><a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/travelnapp-review"><em>an alarm</em></a><em> for people who fall asleep on trains, </em><a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/tag/vizage"><em>an app</em></a><em> that guesses your age and </em><a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/yuletile-bringing-holiday-spirit-marketplace"><em>a charity advent calendar</em></a><em>, to name a few. He’s also a proud creator of </em><a href="https://jamesmundy.net/foundbite"><em>Foundbite</em></a><em>, a service which allowed users to share and explore the sounds of the world around them. His small team received backing from </em><a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/foundbite"><em>Microsoft, Nokia</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.idealab.com/"><em>IdeaLab</em></a><em>, with sounds and images shared from all over the world.</em><br><br><em>He’s currently working on a number of projects including </em><a href="https://sailsys.com.au/"><em>SailSys</em></a><em>, a site for sailing clubs to receive entries, manage races and display race results online - often before the competitors have even got back to the dock!</em><br><br><em>We asked James what it takes to re-route humanity’s current trajectory. Here’s how it went.</em><br><br><strong>Omni Calculator: You've worked on an interesting project in the past. (Foundbite- a great idea, being a musician, I like it when the power of sound makes things come to life. Great job!). What drives your hunt for new products? Any specific thing you’re actively looking for?</strong></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><br>Jame Mundy: Thanks for your kind words about Foundbite. It was a fantastic project to work on and from which I learnt so much. I was pretty early to join Product Hunt (I think user #140~) as I was a member of Ryan Hoover’s mailing list which is why, I guess, I am quite high up the rankings. I don’t hunt as much now as it is very rare that I post a product and someone hasn’t got there before me. Early on I would come across an interesting London based startup that I liked, post a link and write a little bio about them and why I liked them.<br/></br></p><p><strong>I’m sure there are many other you like to do apart from being a tech geek, tell us a little about your hobbies. Do they also influence your hunts?</strong><br><br>I mainly post products I find on Twitter or IRL so my hobbies don’t affect that so much. In my time outside working on tech I run and gym a lot and like to travel. The usual things really.</br></br></p><p><br><br><strong>OC:</strong> <strong>Where do you see mankind 5 years from today? Tell us what you see   </strong><br><br>JM: Tricky question, I think there’s probably a difference between what I’d like to see and what will end up happening. I’d like the continuing trend of tech being used for good to make a fairer society to continue, hopefully having a big impact in preventing a climate catastrophe which seems likely if we continue down our current path. I’d also like to see more small profitable internet business and indie hackers succeeding and communities of people from all over the world working together online to create the next generation of social networks.</br></br></br></br></p><p>I don’t think self-driving cars will be on our streets in 5 years but I do think cars will be far smarter and be able to prevent a lot of accidents on their own (smarter collision detection etc). I think machine learning will also have a huge impact, largely positive but I think there are going to be some hurdles along the way.</p><p><strong>OC: You said you've been one of the older members on Product Hunt. What advice would you like to give to the young kids on the block? The ones who've just started their journey in the startup industry, especially those who did it through Product Hunt.</strong><br><br/></br></p><p>JM: Make sure you have a Twitter account and follow people in startups and tech who you find interesting. I’ve met so many friends and collaborators through Twitter. It’s hard to overstate it’s value for learning and hearing from people building companies and products all over the world.<br/></p><p><strong>OC: You're a product builder/designer, hence I wanted to steal a few minutes to ask for your opinion about The Omni Calculator Project? Is there something you like or find interesting? Please tell us and our readers!</strong><br><br>JM: It looks useful and it has a nice clean design. I can see myself using some of these calculators in the future. The ability to embed the calculators is an added bonus.</br></br></p><p><br><em>It has been very insightful speaking to James. Imagining the future of technology seems impossible without imagining the technology to save the future. All the young, enthusiastic eco-tech start-ups have great scope for flourishing in the coming days. The world needs new opinion leaders for a healthier tomorrow.</em></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Did Brexit Happen?]]></title><description><![CDATA[As a supplemental to our Brexit Calculator, we have released a brief passage detailing the time from the rise of UKIP to May's ascendancy in the Conservative Party. We hope you find it useful.Let's go back to the summer of 2014 in the UK. You're sitting in your garden, enjoying...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/brexit/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c90cb31fdaee60025b2b54d</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jack Bowater]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2019 11:11:26 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Brexit.jpg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Brexit.jpg" alt="How Did Brexit Happen?"/><p><em>As a supplemental to our <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/brexit">Brexit Calculator</a>, we have released a brief passage detailing the time from the rise of UKIP to May's ascendancy in the Conservative Party. We hope you find it useful.</em></p><p>Let's go back to the summer of 2014 in the UK. You're sitting in your garden, enjoying one of their few days of summer. Life is pretty good. The world seems to have finally recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. The World Cup is on, with Brazil suffering their humiliating 7-1 defeat on home soil. There's some news of ISIS in the Middle East, but that's nothing to worry about, right? You check Facebook. You see another video of Nigel Farage, standing in a pub, pint in hand, big smile across his face. And why wouldn't he be happy? He and his party, UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), had just won 166 seats and 17 % of the vote in the 2014 local elections, and had, in fact, won that years EU MEP election with 26.6 % of the vote, securing UKIP's spot as a major player in UK politics. He'd be mad not to be grinning ear to ear.</p><p>UKIP has been growing steadily in support over the last 10 years. What was once a single issue party (that issue being the UK's immediate withdrawal from the EU) has been steadily taking voters from the main parties for years. Whenever the Tories under Cameron moved a little further to the left, Farage waited with open arms. When Labour began focusing their attention on the ever-growing middle-class, UKIP was right there in the pub with the politically disenfranchised lower classes. This emerging base of support gave UKIP the confidence to diversify its policies. It started calling for the end of the inheritance tax, cutting the size of Westminster and came up with its own immigration policy.</p><p>This worried the political elites in Westminster. Having to compete against another party for votes in a first past the post voting system meant that one of them was going to lose, as maths dictates this system tends toward a two-party system. The Conservatives, seeing a new opponent spring up to their right while they battled Labour to the left, were at risk that they would become sandwiched between the two. There was also dissent within the ranks of the Tory party, a growing number of MPs were voicing their concern about the UK's role in the EU. Some had even left the Tory party to join UKIP. So, they came up with an ingenious solution to kill two birds with one stone. We'll give them what they want. Next general election, a vote for the Conservatives would be a vote for a referendum to leave the EU.</p><p>And so the stage was set. After a fierce election campaign, where the main talking point was not the referendum but austerity, the British people turned out on the 7<sup>th</sup> May 2015 to vote in what would turn out to be the most unrepresentative election in UK history. Firstly, Labour was gutted in Scotland, with the SNP (Scottish National Party) winning 56 of their 59 seats, a success rate of 94.9 %. With 36.9 % of the vote, the Conservatives gained a majority, that is, 50.8 % of the seats in Parliament. It was also the end for UKIP. Receiving 12.6 % of the vote, but only gaining 0.2 % of the seats, Farage resigned, citing that his job was done. UKIP's political prominence perished post this election. It turns out that having a bigger party deal with your main issue really puts you out in the political wilderness. But the deed was done, the referendum was set.</p><p>The Tories caused this referendum, but were they really in favour of it? Of course, there were enough Eurosceptics among them to force Cameron into promising the referendum, but there were plenty who were in support of Europe. Being big benefactors of business, it seems unlikely that putting up barriers between suppliers and consumers is among their ideals. The Conservative party was officially neutral on the issue of Brexit when the campaign for the referendum started, but MPs had to choose a side once the campaigns began. Whether that was for their lofty ideals of a Britain free from the yoke of Brussels, or as an attempt to angle themselves as a potential PM in the post-Brexit parliament (<em>cough cough</em> Boris Johnson <em>cough cough</em>).</p><p>As we all know, on the 23<sup>rd</sup> June 2016 the UK voted by a narrow margin to leave the EU. David Cameron, being the strong statesman he is, resigned immediately. Was this because he was personally in favour of remain? Possibly. Was it because he realised that leading a country through the process of leaving the worlds biggest trading block, something that had never been done before, was political suicide? More likely.</p><p>Enter Theresa May. As Home Secretary, she championed the Snoopers Charter, dissolved ASBOs and restricted immigration. Although she had personally voted to remain in the referendum, she likely saw the resignation of Cameron as an opportunity to get Brexit on her terms, and maybe to fulfil some greater ambition to become Prime Minister. During the ensuing Conservative leadership election, May was in favour of allowing "British companies to trade with the single market in goods and services" while rejecting any deal that "involves accepting the free movement of people as it has worked hitherto." Her other main stance was the UK withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the European court of justice. May won the first and second ballots of MPs, due to her support from Remain wing of the Tory party. After her last remaining opponent, Andrea Leadsom, withdrew her candidacy, May was confirmed as leader of the Conservatives and on the 13<sup>th</sup> May 2016 she was invited by the Queen to succeed Cameron.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#HuntedHunters #3: Adam Marx sails on good relationships.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part three of #HuntedHunters, a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.We’ve often heard that the strength of an idea also depends on how you pitch it. You may have some really...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/huntedhunter-adam-marx/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c8fd32d3fc906002565c953</guid><category><![CDATA[Product Hunt]]></category><category><![CDATA[ProductLaunch]]></category><category><![CDATA[Start-ups]]></category><category><![CDATA[Music-Tech]]></category><category><![CDATA[Tech]]></category><category><![CDATA[HuntedHunters]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2019 17:36:30 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Product-Hunt-Adam.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Product-Hunt-Adam.png" alt="#HuntedHunters #3: Adam Marx sails on good relationships."/><p><em>This is part three of <strong>#HuntedHunters,</strong> a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em>what got us here.</em></a><br><br><em>We’ve often heard that the strength of an idea also depends on how you pitch it. You may have some really interesting thoughts, but until you articulate them well they may not yield the handsome results they deserve. Of course, when it comes to expressing stuff we can’t really say it’s some innate skill, or everybody is confident in doing so.</em><br><br><em>It’s strange (and wonderful) the vast varieties of people that exist. There are extroverts who are not very hesitant in making new friends and will happily shout their ideas from a pulpit. But then there are also the shy ones, for whom even asking a simple question about what time the next bus is is like climbing Mount Everest. Maybe harder.</em><br><br><em>In the professional sphere it’s not so rare to be misunderstood, but do you know what can make things a lot simpler? Learning how to build relationships. “It’s one of the most critical tool to grow” says our next geek Adam Marx for the #HuntedHunters Series. </em><br><br><em>Adam is a music-tech advisor, journalist, and entrepreneur. He’s been interested in music-tech projects since his early college days and is keen on continuing to explore the many notes of music tech as he learns from his experiences.</em><br><br><em>Being a musician myself it was an interesting chat to get Adam talk about the amount of potential talent that still needs to be tapped. Here’s how the conversation went.</em><br><br><strong>Omni Calculator: You've worked on an interesting project in the past, Glipple was a really nice concept. Are you planning to do something similar in future? Tell us a little about your plans. </strong><br><br>Adam Marx: Yes, I am working on new projects as we speak. I learned a lot from my experience with Glipple, both as means of getting to know the startup tech community, and as a better way of understanding the gaps that exist in the dialogue between music and tech. I'm currently developing a new music project, which I've been working on as a side-project for about a year. I'm deliberately taking it slowly as a strategy of collecting the right kind of data that will really help me understand my target market. One thing that people really should understand is that music and tech work according to different time schedules; by that I mean that while in tech it's good to build an MVP and get it out the door as soon as possible, people need to realize that building for artists is different than building for the early adopter tech community. This is a critical reality that I think a lot of music products miss, which is why they sometimes have a very hard time finding product-market fit. I'm not going to reveal too much yet as I'm still working on the initial prototype, but I will say that the product I'm developing is geared towards music professionals in a B2B context. Therefore, I'm not focused on any of the following areas (initially): streaming, distribution, royalties, labels, management, or promotion. <br><br><strong>OC: What motivates you to take out time for hunting and even building so many new projects on Product Hunt (PH)? How do you hunt them?  </strong><br><br>AM: So even though I've become a little less active on PH lately (simply because time is precious), I still try and pop by at least a few times a week to check on new products. I used to comment a lot when I was really trying to get to know the community, and I still think it's so important to engage. My philosophy has been that if I'm going to comment, I'm going to try and make the comment solid feedback for the reader in some way. So I may ask very hard questions about a music product for example, but it's always from a place of wanting to help the maker think deeper about potential obstacles they may need to address. I think ultimately what motivated me to get on PH early and still motivates me is to know the people in the community. I live by a mantra that "life is relationships" and I really just genuinely enjoy getting to know these other talented people and hopefully working on projects with them some day. (Ironically I'm not a big hunter myself since it takes a lot of time which I would never want to do halfway, but I'm friends with a lot of the other top hunters/moderators, and they simply do it because they love the community and helping others create things!). <br><br><strong>OC: Not everyone can work 24/7, what do you relish doing on days you're not a tech expert? Do your hobbies affect the kind of products you hunt?</strong><br><br>AM:<strong> </strong>I really love building relationships with people. I suppose that falls into work I do as a consultant, but it really comes from an enjoyment of meeting new people and working on new projects. When I'm not doing that, though, I spend a lot of time digging into new music and new art. Clearly the music hobby (going to shows, talking to artists, writing music journalism) helps further my reach in the music world for when I return to my desk and continue working on music-tech projects. Additionally, writing for fun helps keep my skills sharp, so I'm better able to help others level up their written content skills. These hobbies do affect my activity on Product Hunt, as many of the products I tend to comment on are either community-focused or music-related. My comments on music-related products may seem grumpy sometimes, but I just want to ask the hard questions to help founders build even better products. I truly believe that we build better things when we learn how to answer the hard questions as much as the easy questions, so it's always from a place of support. </br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>OC:</strong> <strong>What does the future of tech look like to you? What are we looking at 5 years from now?  </strong><br><br>AM: Wow, the future of tech -- no pressure haha. I can't speak for other areas, but there are a few massive trends in tech that will shift the entire paradigm I believe. These are as follows:<br><br>I. More and more women and underrepresented founders in tech. These means non-white and LGBT, but also people without coding skills and those of us who don't live in SF or NYC. This broader inclusion and diversity is going to help tech become more egalitarian and will help us build better products and services. There is no "if" in this scenario; it's going to happen (it already is), so we either choose to be allies in this, or we risk being on the wrong side of history. This is a perfect example of a place that new founders can lead by example. <br><br>II. More and more focus on humanities skills. So often, tech sometimes makes fun of humanities educations, but certain humanities skills are critical to building great tech companies. Leveling of written content skills, and learning how to build relationships in a non-transactional way are going to severely affect how people are able to generate connections and raise money. I don't think it will be as simple (or necessary) as going to an accelerator anymore; accelerators are great paths, but they're not the only way to build a great reputation and network. Ultimately, I think there will be a shift towards recognizing and prioritizing humanities "soft skills" -- there already is, if you read through a lot of VC tweets about which email pitches they ignore and how not to try and approach them for money. <br><br>III. We're going to see even more democratization of content and knowledge. I always say that software may be eating the world, but democratization is eating the universe. We're already seeing it with creative content like video and music. The walled-garden approach has a lot of cracks in its structure, and if you look at a lot of current walled garden companies, you can start to see a lot of the challenges that they're running into. I think we're not going to see "growth at any cost" anymore, but rather that people want to back companies with a clear vision and mission. Sometimes that can get lost in the super fast growth, but companies end up having raised tons of money for a service that not enough people may actually want to pay for. <br><br>IV. Regarding music-tech: I've been saying this for over a year now, but we're going to see a massive break away from B2C and movement towards B2B. The next massive trend in music will be B2B. The irony is that because of this direction, speaking only to tech people in the tech world will not be sufficient to build a great music-tech B2B company. Instead, founders will *need* to start branching out and speaking to people in the music world (not only record execs by the way) and building reputations in the music world simultaneously as they do in the tech world. This is one of the major gaps I see lately (as I mentioned in my previous answer). As music becomes more B2B, we're going to see a tectonic shift in the music "classes" and a the emergence of a massive music "middle class" of creators and professionals who up until now have basically been ignored. This is ultimately the huge demographic that my new company will address. </br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>OC: You've mentioned how you like to spend a lot of time exploring new music and art. Also, that you love building relationships. How crucial do you think building relationships is in 2019, especially for artists and</strong><em><strong> especially</strong></em><strong> in the field of music? In this highly digital age, it's not so difficult to be great if you bring great stuff to people. You could call it the age of Indie Projects. How do you think young musicians can do better (growing in the industry) with their gut feeling, talent, and intuitive thinking. What is your pro tip?</strong><br><br>AM:<strong> </strong>Relationships are *critical* and have been what I have relied on when building my first music company and what I'm relying on to build my second. I think there needs to be more focus on the relationship-building aspect in tech with regard to music companies; that is an area I think that tech and startups could certainly improve in. I talk a lot about this in the podcast episode I just did with Tyler Wagner on <a href="https://anchor.fm/businessblast/episodes/Adam-Marx-Writer-and-Music-Entrepreneur-e3eiai">The Business Blast Podcast</a>.<br><br>I think a lot of artists have a really innovative sense of business that they are sometimes not credited with; some of the most interesting markers and social media experts I know are musical artists. They have a read on the industry that a lot of people should recognize and credit them with. My pro-tip for getting into the music-tech world is that you need to get away from the computer and code for a while -- you need to spend *a lot* of time talking to artists and not just record execs. <br><br><strong>OC: I can easily see your outlook comes from a very unique set of skills, I would love to know if Omni Calculator is something you think can do well on PH? Do you have any suggestions for us?  </strong><br><br>AM: I actually really like the idea of Omni Calculator -- math and conversions have always been tough subjects for me, and it seems that this is something I certainly would have used in grade school and high school. My suggestion would be to certainly make it affordable for students -- that could be a great demographic to start with. <br><br>- <em>Well it’s a good thing then that Omni Calculator is free for all and always will be. It was great to speak with Adam about music, relationships and Product Hunt. His pro-tip about opening up might sound simple, but it definitely isn’t easy. You can start small, perhaps an informal chat over pizza. Or a good song. Let the ideas flow.</em><br/></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#HuntedHunters #2: Bram Kanstein hails the 'No-Code' universe.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part two of #HuntedHunters, a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.Who knew 40 years ago that the Yellow Pages and Telephone Directories will become mere relics of a bygone age, made...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/huntedhunters-2-bram-kanstein-hails-the-no-code-universe/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c7d5c6ddb957f0025c5aa7e</guid><category><![CDATA[Product Hunt]]></category><category><![CDATA[ProductLaunch]]></category><category><![CDATA[No-Code]]></category><category><![CDATA[HuntedHunters]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:49:56 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Bram-Kanstein.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Bram-Kanstein.png" alt="#HuntedHunters #2: Bram Kanstein hails the 'No-Code' universe."/><p><em>This is part two of <strong>#HuntedHunters,</strong> a series of interviews with top members of the <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/">Product Hunt</a> community. If you don’t know anything about it, read </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em>what got us here.</em></a><br><br><em>Who knew 40 years ago that the Yellow Pages and Telephone Directories will become mere relics of a bygone age, made from recycled paper and recycled every year with phone numbers nobody will ever bother to remember, all because Google Contacts has a back up. Who could've imagined that having a website would become the norm, and those businesses who don't have one will soon be virtually invisible to the increasingly virtual world. <br><br>Somehow, <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/">Omni Calculator Project</a> made it this far, with close to 4 million users coming to it every month. They can come to us because we're just a "http://" away. This is how important a website is to any business, start-up, brand or NGO. <br><br>Here's an interesting conversation with <a href="https://twitter.com/bramk">Bram Kanstein</a>, who helped the world realize that you don’t need to be an IT genius to build websites; that it's okay that your business idea is much stronger than your knowledge of coding. He guessed, quite rightly, that the future would not be one where everyone knows how to code. He envisions a world where people can learn to grow their business with time, without having to be experts in developer tools.  </br></br></br></br></em><br><br><strong>Omni Calculator: You've had your own successful projects in the past, such as StartUp Stash, StartUp Watching and more. What motivates you to take time out of your busy schedule and search through thousands of new projects? How do you hunt them? </strong> <br><br>Bram Kanstein: I've always found it interesting to discover what people are working on. Why are they spending time on this idea, or that problem? Spending time on something is the most valuable thing you can do, so when someone is pursuing a certain idea, it must be valuable too, right?<br><br>I think it's also part of how I gather inspiration for my own activities: how do digital products change overtime? What areas are trending? etc. I subscribe to websites like BetaList and Product Hunt to discover these new things :). Due to my activity on PH I have people reach out to me and show what they are building, and sometimes when I discover a new product (mostly via Twitter), I reach out to the maker and propose I help them get on PH.<br><br><br><strong>OC: I like your rationale for hunting new ideas and projects. The most important thing for growing any project is asking yourself questions. This is how The Omni Calculator Project, has made it this far: we ask ourselves what questions to people need answers to? We then give people the tools they need to make more rational decisions. It could be based on numbers or an algorithm, but in a year we have grown from 351 calculators to 719 insightful tools to help people with their everyday lives. I saw there's something in the works, please share a little about your new project 'No Code MVP'? When are you planning to launch?</strong><br><br>BK: So I've had this idea ever since I discovered <a href="https://twitter.com/ajlkn?lang=en">@ajlkn's</a> amazing <a href="http://carrd.co/">Carrd.co</a>. It's a super easy tool to create websites, and when I discovered it I loved it instantly. I know some basic HTML/CSS design but not enough to actually build something with code. Carrd helped me to build the basics and with tools like Zapier and Airtable I discovered you can build a (semi-) functional product that can deliver value to potential customers.<br><br>And<strong> </strong>that's where the idea for <a href="https://nocodemvp.com/">No-Code MVP</a> (an online course) came from: the barriers to JUST START have never been this low. PLUS you don't need to know how to code to start. This is because the #1 thing you have to do when you have a new startup/business idea is to discover if it even should exist (i.e. are there people who are looking for the value you want to deliver?). And you can do that without code.<strong> </strong>I might even argue that you SHOULD do it without using code.</br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p>In my upcoming course I'm going to teach how to turn your idea into a value proposition, how to turn that into an MVP experiment, how to "build" that experiment and launch it. I want to help people to tackle the most important question: should I really build this? I'm planning to launch late Q1/Early Q2, 2019.<br><br><br><strong>OC: ‘No Code MVP’ sounds like an incredible course. Indeed, there are hundreds of young minds dreaming big, but feel challenged by their lack of coding skills. I am sure this is some kind of revolution that empowers everyone to not think too much before taking these initial baby steps. Starting something is the most critical step and if ‘No Code MVP’ gives people the confidence to start, there’s a whole universe of ideas to come. But there’s one thing I’m dying to know, do you think it can be a challenger in the huge coding website market. Coders (and developer firms) have almost monopolized the industry. Does NO CODE aim to completely replace coded websites (even if it's just a small segment)? How do you think it can affect the current coding market? Are we looking at newer apps and products that help facilitate no code websites?</strong> <br><br>BK: That is totally depending on the idea for which a product is being build. Of course, No Code tools are built with code so don't think coding is going anywhere haha. No Code tools democratise the playing field and give everyone with an idea the possibility to start.<br><br><strong>OC: At this point, I am intrigued to know, what does the future of tech look like to you? What are we looking at 5 years from now? </strong> <br><br>BK: I love Ryan Hoover's <a href="https://medium.com/@rrhoover/the-rise-of-no-code-e733d7c0944d">"The Rise of “No Code”</a>. I also believe more people (hopefully also through my course ;) ) will be able to turn their ideas into the first product that they can launch, faster than ever before. So there will be more ideas, products, failures and successes in the startup world in the coming years. I also think that Paul Jarvis' "Company of One" philosophy will spread throughout the tech world and that more people will be focused on building sustainable and profitable businesses that connect with their personal values, instead of being fuelled by the endless search for growth, directed by venture capitalists and other investors.<br><br><strong>OC: That’s great, I too follow Ryan’s insights on the No-Code age.  The future you mentioned by suggesting Paul Jarvis’ book makes so much more sense. Today we see that building a business often starts the same way but eventually transforms into a big mess. Hopefully tomorrow is more ‘woke’, perhaps more open to the idea of personal values. I almost feel like we’re going in circles, investor-less and small personal businesses was how it all began. Business was more personal than Corporate. But soon we somehow managed to over-complicate it, and the world is moving towards simpler things once again. I wonder if the urge to search for growth can vanish that easily, what do you have to say about security and backing of such projects? Isn’t it okay to share a little risk while keeping those values intact?</strong> <br><br>BK: Of course, same as above, totally depending on the type of product / business. If you can only make a profit at huge scale, of course you need extra money to scale. The "Company of One" mindset will help you to ask the right questions: Should I scale this? If yes, how?  <br><br><strong>OC:</strong> <strong>That's an interesting Insight Bram. I've been waiting to ask you, how you see <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/">OMNI CALCULATOR</a>. Do you think it has a good scope to become a contender on Product Hunt?</strong><br><br>BK: I think it's a cool idea! It's like the Wikipedia of calculators haha. I think it would be nice to make smaller subject focused sites and see if you can market those specifically for a target audience. That way you could increase the amount of people that benefit from your calculators. And, since it's a live product, of course it can be on Product Hunt!<br><br><em>Thanks for your responses Bram, I love how your idea of the future is based on the products and literature that are coming out now, making your future seem all that more obtainable. I also share your hope that the epoch of No-Code is around the corner, leading us into a more egalitarian future. </em></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#HuntedHunters #1: Tristan Pollock's Hunt for random greatness.]]></title><description><![CDATA[This is part one of #HuntedHunters, a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read what got us here.There are some really strong number upvotes for the 'IN it to WIN it' mentality around the globe. Everybody seems to...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/huntedhuntertristanpollock/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c7d5214db957f0025c5aa09</guid><category><![CDATA[accelerator]]></category><category><![CDATA[Start-ups]]></category><category><![CDATA[entrepreneur]]></category><category><![CDATA[Product Hunt]]></category><category><![CDATA[TopHunters]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><category><![CDATA[Launch]]></category><category><![CDATA[ProductLaunch]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2019 15:32:02 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Product-Hunt-Tristan--1-.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Product-Hunt-Tristan--1-.png" alt="#HuntedHunters #1: Tristan Pollock's Hunt for random greatness."/><p><em>This is part one of <strong>#HuntedHunters,</strong> a series of interviews with top members of the Product Hunt community. If you don’t know anything about it, read </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters/"><em>what got us here.</em></a><br><br><em>There are some really strong number upvotes for the 'IN it to WIN it' mentality around the globe. Everybody seems to enjoy being in the race and trying to reaching the finish line...first, of course. However, here at the </em><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/"><em>The Omni Calculator Project</em></a><em> our aim was never being the first to finish or to prove our mettle to the haters (hope we don’t have many). We just wanted to have fun, hoping to make people more rational along the way. We wanted to make the most dreaded subject in the Universe - Math,  a tiny bit more interesting to the world. And that's what we do (try to do).‌</em></br></br></p><p><em>It was nice then when we found out that our first hunter loves his work as well. We started digging into what life looks like from the perspective of an entrepreneur &amp; venture partner at <a href="https://500.co/blog/author/tristanpollock/">500 Startups</a>, someone who has awarded $30M in funding to over 220 startups, <a href="https://medium.com/@tristanpollock">Tristan Pollock</a>. Surprisingly, we found that it looked pretty fun and was really thought-provoking! He started and sold two companies: SocialEarth, which he bootstrapped; and Storefront for which he raised $10M in venture capital and grew to be the de facto marketplace for retail space, being named in Forbes 30 Under 30 for his work. Tristan is globetrotting his way to new life experiences around the world with his wife, searching for new inspiration, while supporting global accelerator programs. Here's our short but sweet conversation which started on the note of motivating young minds to be brave and step up more confidently about their new ideas, especially when it comes to Product Hunt. </em><br/></p><p><strong>Omni Calculator: You've had your own successful projects in the past. (I loved The Shisharka Land) What motivates you to take out time from all this and search through thousands of new projects on PH? How do you hunt them?  </strong><br/></p><p>Tristan Pollock: ProductHunt is one of the best ways to get inspired and find functional tools for your daily life, personal or business. That's why I spend so much time on the platform when I'm at home or in the office. I especially love the travel section as my wife and I are traveling on a sabbatimoon around the world in 2018 and 2019. I also dig <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/ask/2510-what-s-the-weirdest-product-you-ve-seen-on-product-hunt">anything comedy</a> tech and keep an eye out for pranks and other random fun.<a href="https://www.producthunt.com/ask/2510-what-s-the-weirdest-product-you-ve-seen-on-product-hunt"> </a><br><a href="https://www.producthunt.com/ask/2510-what-s-the-weirdest-product-you-ve-seen-on-product-hunt"></a><br><strong>OC: . Keeping it fun seems like an interesting and essential mantra for many young people who are just anxious to approach or speak to someone in the startup community. </strong><br><strong>What do you relish doing when you don't feel like being a tech expert? Do your hobbies affect the kind of products you hunt?</strong><br><br>TP: I'm this strange combination of entrepreneur-turned-investor and artist. When I'm not in the office (and sometimes when I am) I take time to be creative in different ways. Usually, that comes back to art and music, but I like to try sampling a lot of different types of creative practices. <strong>My main mission is creating mystery when I'm outside the office</strong>. That definitely comes back to the types of hunts and upvotes I do on ProductHunt. My most viewed categories are in travel, music, media, comedy and other types of <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/@writerpollock/collections/comedy-tech">creative tech</a>.<br><br><br><strong>OC: Sounds like you like to keep people wondering what you’re up to next! I don’t know if I’ll have this answer, but it’s still worth asking. What are you working on these days?</strong> <br><br>TP: As a nomad and Scottish Viking by blood, I'm interested in the hidden secrets of Earth. The dark tourism, Atlas Obscura-like places and stories around the world fascinate and energize me. Danyelle (my wife) and I are also excited by the world's randomness, the things you can't predict. I'm looking at ways to promote more of these moments in daily life during a time where it seems everything has already been figured out.<br><br/></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>OC: What does the future of tech look like to you? What are we looking at 5 years from now?</strong> <br><br>TP: If only there was this futuristic world just five years away! I think we will see more efficiency in our daily lives. San Francisco already relishes in on-demand this and automated that. The thing is though that San Francisco is also far behind on urban infrastructure and even tech capabilities that are available to the local citizens. I'd like to see a future of innovation that equally involves technology, but also provides more opportunities for artists, musicians, journalists and so on to also create powerful step changes. For example, why do we have never before seen access to art online via projects like Google Arts &amp; Culture, but our streets are the same old shades of gray they have always been? When the San Francisco Bay Bridge was <a href="https://www.sftravel.com/article/what-you-need-know-about-bay-lights-worlds-largest-light-art-installation">strung up in 25,000 lights</a> by artist Leo Villareal, I was (and still am) excited! Now can we do that scale of art to every major city in the world?<br/></br></br></p><p><strong>OC: I have been a part of underground street art projects myself, working on huge wallscapes across the city. There’s nothing more relatable than watching another branch of the tree flourish. Have you, in the past, worked (or been involved) on a project that blends technology and art in an unimaginable way?  How about your travelling experience, was there anything unique you found while wandering around that instantly motivated you to think of a new idea/project?</strong><br><br>TP:<strong> </strong>Unimaginable! I'm working towards that goal every day. I've tried to build Shisharka, which I discovered while wandering around Serbia, into unimaginable and mysterious things. From a chat-bot that intrigues to a pyramid for Afrikaburn, I try to keep my creative side engaged and building. Burning Man itself is the ultimate source of inspiration for me that combines technology and art in incredible ways.<br/></br></br></p><p>‌<em>After having this beautiful conversation I was assured that this is going to be an amazing project. To all of those entrepreneurs who're fearfully staring at a mountain of opinions in the start-up market and wondering how you'll make it. Just have fun and keep at it, greatness will come looking for you.‌</em><br><br>Check out our next episode : <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhunters-2-bram-kanstein-hails-the-no-code-universe/">#HuntedHunters #2: Bram Kanstein hails the 'No Code' universe.</a></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[#HuntedHunters: A Product Hunting Saga]]></title><description><![CDATA[People say that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but still, great things can happen in a day.My first ever lesson in time efficiency was my mother telling me “Everybody gets the same 24 hours, use it better”. I took these words to heart, mastering the art of time management...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/huntedhunters/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c7813d22512bf00255d7eb3</guid><category><![CDATA[Product Hunt]]></category><category><![CDATA[Start-ups]]></category><category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Farhan Khan]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 06 Mar 2019 16:55:16 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Product-Hunt-Intro--1-.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Product-Hunt-Intro--1-.png" alt="#HuntedHunters: A Product Hunting Saga"/><p><em>People say that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but still, <strong>great things can happen in a day.</strong><br/></em><br><em>My first ever lesson in time efficiency was my mother telling me <strong>“Everybody gets the same 24 hours, use it better”</strong>. I took these words to heart, mastering the art of time management and eventually took over the universe (probably).<br><br>On one of these life-changing days at <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/">The Omni Calculator Project</a>, I came across our<a href="https://www.producthunt.com/posts/omni-calculator"> unintended success story</a> on <strong>Product Hunt!</strong> For those of you who don’t know, Product Hunt is a day-long contest between startups/young entrepreneurial projects across the world. 24 hours of fame that can last a lifetime if utilized well. <br><br>It turned out that a someone had submitted us without our knowledge. We finished third that day, and our prize was a ton of attention. Thank you random stranger. In this serendipitous moment, we began to think, what does it take to make it big with Product Hunt? Our team at Omni Calculator brainstormed, we needed an idea. Young entrepreneurs often feel like they are up against a colossus, finding a way in to any start-up community is tough, especially one that has seen more products born than any other platform I can recall in these recent years. </br></br></br></br></em></br></p><p><em>We wanted to know, what makes a product launch great? Our hunt for insight continued. We brainstormed and finally came up with a thought; the best way for us and everybody else to find out what it takes, would be to ask the lifeblood of the community, <strong>THE HUNTERS</strong>! <br><br>One thing led to another and we decided to make it a series of interviews with them. Now the hunters were being hunted.<br><br>We put together our thoughts into meaningful questions and asked the Top Hunters of the world, <strong>“How do you do it?”</strong>. Before we knew it, we received an amazing response from the community, it was a pleasant surprise to see such enthusiasm to help out young entrepreneurs on their journey.<br><br>This marks the beginning of an interesting series of conversations we’d like to call the #HuntedHunters. </br></br></br></br></br></br></em><br><br>Check out <strong><a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/huntedhuntertristanpollock/">#HuntedHunters #1: Tristan Pollock's Hunt for random greatness.</a></strong><em><br></br></em></br></br></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[FitView #1 | Drop those pink dumbbells...]]></title><description><![CDATA[“...and pick up the barbell ”  is what Serdar Tuncali said when asked for a fitness pro tip. Taking the path to fitness may be the most trending choice people are making these days. However, there are only a few who genuinely want to help others through their own...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/fitview-1-serdar-tuncali/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c751cee00da7300255c7cbf</guid><category><![CDATA[getting fit]]></category><category><![CDATA[healthy lifestyle]]></category><category><![CDATA[weight loss]]></category><category><![CDATA[macro split]]></category><category><![CDATA[calorie calculator]]></category><category><![CDATA[BMR]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Magdalena Plewniak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:42:59 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/fitview_1.jpeg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/fitview_1.jpeg" alt="FitView #1 | Drop those pink dumbbells..."/><p><strong><strong>“</strong>...<strong>and pick up the barbell ”</strong> </strong> is what Serdar Tuncali said when asked for a fitness pro tip. <br><br>Taking the path to fitness may be the most trending choice people are making these days. However, there are only a few who genuinely want to help others through their own journey. I did happen to come across such a person on his inspirational journey to the lean and healthy body. </br></br></p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/Serdar_article1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="FitView #1 | Drop those pink dumbbells..."/></figure><p><strong><a href="https://nerdgettingfit.com">Meet <strong>Serdar</strong></a><strong> -</strong> the fitness and diet geek, with university degrees in Pharmacy and Clinical Research Management. His number-based approach and years of experience in science, lead him to become the successful weight-loser. On the own example, he shows us the most efficient and scientific way to get in shape</strong>. </p><p><strong>What was your trigger to start an </strong><a href="https://betterhumans.coach.me/how-to-lose-weight-and-eat-the-foods-you-love-by-tracking-macronutrients-b32c4cbe006e"><strong>intensive fitness journey</strong></a><strong> full of hurdles, failures, recovery and finally sweet success? How did it all start?  </strong><br><br>Since childhood, I was always the "skinny kid". Being overweight never seemed possible to me, so I never cared about my nutrition. After I moved to the US 10 years ago, changes in my lifestyle and the foods I ate caused me to gain a little weight. One day I hurt myself playing soccer, and when I went to the doctor, they asked me to step on the scale. I weighed 230 lbs which put me in the obese category. That was a shock and a wake-up call. I had to do something about it.<br><br><strong>How do you set your fitness goals?</strong><br><br>My initial goal was to get into a healthy weight. It was a modest goal and all I wanted was to be able to play soccer without hurting myself.  Now that I "cracked the code" so to speak, I set my goals in 3-month increments to reach my ultimate goal of a strong, muscular, and a lean body.  <br>My goal for the day is to eat 150g protein and 2,000 Calories and take 10,000 steps.<br>My goal for the week is to lift weights 3 times.<br>My goal for the month is to stick to my daily and weekly goals at least 90% of the time.<br>If you reverse engineered the process correctly, the weight loss will happen by reaching your little goals.<br><br><strong>What would you advise our readers? </strong><br><br>I would advise your readers to have a vision of an end goal and create bite-size goals to reach their end goal. Have a goal for the day, then for the week, then for the month, and so forth. Make sure your goals are actions that are in your control. Weight loss is a result, not an action.<br><br><strong>Do you think we could apply the idea of splitting the big goal into a set of small ones to the calculator helping people to set and maintain their weight-loss goals?</strong><br><br>I see people setting unrealistic goals such as losing 30 lbs in a month. When you actually break it down to weekly and daily goals, you quickly realize it is an unrealistic goal.<br>I think having a calculator that can break down your long term goals into short term targets would be very useful. It might help people to set more realistic goals.<br><br><strong>Talking about goals, I would like to ask how they should evolve in time? Shall we move forward with equal pace or is there any verified dynamics to follow? </strong><br><br>In terms of weight loss, it's been shown over and over again that the weight loss is not linear. I have experienced that myself. Some weeks you lose 2-3 lbs, some weeks you don't lose any. That's why I like looking at weight loss over the course of several weeks and take an average to assess how fast you are losing weight. Weight loss of 0.5-1% of total body weight is an ideal pace to lose weight. <br><br><strong>What to change if you regularly fail to reach your goals? </strong><br><br>If you are regularly failing to reach your goals, first you should see if your goals are realistic. If your goal was to work out 3 days a week, but you can only workout once or twice, you need to prioritize your life. You will reach your goals when you are ready. If you think you are doing everything you can, but still failing, seek help. Maybe we can troubleshoot and help you reach your goals.<br><br><strong>And what to do once you reached your big goal - "is this the end my beautiful friend"?</strong><br><br>Once you reach your big goal, you just set up another goal. Even if your goal is to maintain your physique for a year, that is a big and challenging enough goal. Maybe reaching your physique goals will free your mind to allow you to reach other life goals. We are never done. <br><br><strong>What does the ideal body mean to you? </strong><br><br>To me, the ideal body is the body that allows you to live a healthy and productive life. The ideal body is a body that doesn't get in the way of your life and you don't feel the need to hide it. <br>It is different for everyone. If you are a fitness model or a professional athlete, your ideal body is different than a mom who wants to be able to play with her children. <br><br><strong>Is it possible to describe the ideal body in numbers? Is there any equation or metric that you consider most trustworthy?</strong><br><br>Numbers to look at for ideal body would be your lean body mass, fat percentage, waist to hip ratio, shoulder to waist ratio, etc. There are always genetic factors that affect these numbers, but these are the measurements I would look at for ideal body goals. <br><br><strong>Generally speaking, how important are the numbers in your diet/fitness routine? Which are worth to be monitored and how to tackle them? Can they be helpful or even misleading sometimes? </strong><br><br>As long as you use the numbers as a guide, they are very helpful. If you go through your diet and exercise haphazardly without any reference numbers, you are leaving things to chance. I like to be more methodical about it. I track to total calories and specific macronutrients I eat. I track to weights I lift along with reps and sets for each exercise. I also track my weight, body fat percentage, and body measurements.<br>It is important to look at these numbers in context. If you only track your weight, you may not realize the changes in your body. <br><br>Let me give you an example of two people. Let's call them John and Steve.<br>John and Steve decide to get in shape. John starts tracking his macronutrients and starts a weightlifting program. Steve, on the other hand, decides to eat as little as humanly possible and he never has enough energy and motivation to workout. At the end of a month, John loses 8 pounds of fat and gains 5 pounds of lean tissue. Steve loses 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of lean tissue. If these people only track their weight John only lost 3 pounds and Steve lost 10 pounds. Steve seems like the winner! In reality, John is in much better shape, whereas Steve has a lower metabolism because of the lean tissue he lost. Besides, John will look much better than Steve.<br><br><strong>Is there any of Omni Fitness Calculators that you like the most? Or would suggest using to our readers?</strong><br><br>I like the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/bmr">BMR calculators</a> on <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health#s-62">omnicalculator.com</a>. It helps you to calculate how many calories you burn so you can calculate how many calories you eat. <br><br><strong>I like your Macro Split and I would like to enrich our Calorie Calculator with the additional formulas. Are those rules universal and scientifically proven to be right for everyone?</strong><br><br>There's no universally accepted and scientifically proven macro split. <br>The most important macro is protein and it should be around 0.8-1g/lb or 1.6-2.2g/kg of body weight.<br>Once you know your calorie target and protein target, you can set your carbs and fat<br>according to your personal preference.<br>I would say the minimum amount of fat is 0.3g/lb or 0.66g/kg of body weight. <br>I would recommend the high-carb, low-fat diet for people who work out often at a high intensity. If you are sedentary or don't do well on carbs, you should follow a high fat and low carb diet. <br><br><strong>What would be your final single golden tip for our readers to make their weight battles easier and more successful?</strong><br><br>If I could give just one tip, I would say lift heavy weights. It makes the weight loss much easier and helps you transform your body instead of just turning into a smaller version of your old self.</br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p><p><strong>Your golden tip is great for men. Do you think it is also worth practicing by the girls? </strong><br><br>Lifting heavy weights is definitely beneficial for women as well. Most women are scared of getting big muscles and "looking like a man”. However, that is not true. Men and women have different hormones. It makes it almost impossible to get huge muscles for women. Lifting heavy weights will ensure women to have the toned, tight body once they lose the weight. <br>So, I would say drop the pink dumbbells, pick up a barbell and learn how to perform compound lifts with good form.</br></br></br></p><p>I hope you enjoy the interview with Serdar. That was a huge amount of practical and proven methods as well as knowledge  that may lead you into successful fit-transformation. It is a great start for Omni FitViews  - interviews with people who well know how to do fitness math in daily practice. We’ll come back to you soon, with another insight. <br/></p><p>Read also<strong> <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/fitviews/">What is FitViews</a>?</strong></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[FitViews | Do the fit math like a pro!]]></title><description><![CDATA[We all know that losing weight or getting fit is a lot about numbers. We have built fitness calculators to help and see them in use :) But I can often hear people complaining about their results. They follow diets, run like crazy, do burpees and pushups and still do...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/fitviews/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c75396400da7300255c7ccb</guid><category><![CDATA[fitness]]></category><category><![CDATA[lean body]]></category><category><![CDATA[training]]></category><category><![CDATA[sport]]></category><category><![CDATA[weight loss]]></category><category><![CDATA[running]]></category><category><![CDATA[gym]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Magdalena Plewniak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:11:48 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Fitviews_1.jpg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/03/Fitviews_1.jpg" alt="FitViews | Do the fit math like a pro!"/><p>We all know that losing weight or getting fit is a lot about numbers. We have built fitness calculators to help and see them in use :) But I can often hear people complaining about their results. They follow diets, run like crazy, do burpees and pushups and still do not achieve what they want. WHY is it so? I started to wonder and came to the conclusion that there are much more in it than just body fatigue. Sure you need to employ science and understanding and do the fit-math right. But you also have to take care of something called <em>“soft stuff”</em> - motivation, self-esteem, leadership and goals. No kidding, your fit-dream may require the whole scope of project management skills ;) </p><p><br>That’s how we at <strong>The Omni Calculator Project</strong> came up with the idea of inspirational FitViews. My team and I decided to search and interview experts who succeeded with their fitness goals - real activity geeks. The practitioners with own stories, able to share their experiences and knowledge, willing to help, lead and to encourage. I imagined we need someone who has already  “broken the code” so to say, who can widen the perspective, set the route and be the example. I felt the insights we will get significantly enrich the knowledge we deliver you in calculators.  I’m convinced that you will benefit from this project, so do follow us in our journey to discover the fitness mystery.</br></p><p>Read also <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/blog/fitview-1-serdar-tuncali/">FitView #1</a><br/></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Quick Recap of 2018]]></title><description><![CDATA[People ask "how are things at Omni", so here's a super quick view at last year's progress.2018 was amazing in many respects - the team grew from 5 to 20 people, we streamlined the process of calculator creation and more than doubled the total number of tools on the site....]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/2018-recap/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c796567c667c200257ab47d</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Mateusz Mucha]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2019 17:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>People ask "how are things at Omni", so here's a super quick view at last year's progress.<br>2018 was amazing in many respects - the team grew from 5 to 20 people, we streamlined the process of calculator creation and more than doubled the total number of tools on the site.  Had a number of successful marketing campaigns.  The traffic grew nicely, but it's becoming harder  and harder to achieve high growth. After all, you can't grow 300% per year forever. Here are the numbers for the month of January... all of our Januaries :-)</br></p><p>January 2017 - 260k sessions.<br>January 2018 - 1.87M<br>January 2019 - 3.75M</br></br></p><p>We'll hopefully unlock new areas of quick-n-easy growth this year, but it probably won't be soon enough to see +100% next January.  As someone once told me, it's a long-distance run, not a sprint :-)</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[8 new calculators that will make you cool]]></title><description><![CDATA[And help you learn physics.
Geeks and nerds are cool again, thanks to 'Stranger Things,' but being a member of Hawkins AV Club is much more than watching superhero movies, reading comic books and playing RPG games.
It's learning physics, biology, chemistry, math, and programming. And all that knowledge made the gang...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/new-calculators-lets-learn-physics/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c5952c5fd76180025a8bf54</guid><category><![CDATA[new calculators]]></category><category><![CDATA[physics]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 21 Nov 2017 07:47:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/stranger-things-1.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/stranger-things-1.png" alt="8 new calculators that will make you cool"/><p><strong>And help you learn physics.</strong></p>
<p>Geeks and nerds are cool again, thanks to 'Stranger Things,' but being a member of Hawkins AV Club is much more than watching superhero movies, reading comic books and playing RPG games.</p>
<p>It's learning physics, biology, chemistry, math, and programming. And all that knowledge made the gang ready to fight demons.</p>
<p>Whether you're planning on fighting demons from another dimension or not, we've created a couple of cool new physics tools in recent weeks. What are they?</p>
<h2 id="efficiencycalculator">Efficiency Calculator</h2>
<p>It's hard to go through the full 8 hours of work without checking Facebook or Twitter once in a while. But if you're organized and don't get that easily distracted, you can finish all your tasks in less than 8 hours and have plenty of time to watch more episodes of 'Stranger Things.'</p>
<p>That's called efficiency. And it has different applications and names. There's Rate of Investment, and there's fuel usage. There's player efficiency rating in basketball and engine efficiency in thermodynamics.</p>
<p>Which brings us to our Efficiency Calculator. It's as simple as it gets. Just divide the energy output by energy input, and you get the efficiency. The bigger the percentage is, the less energy is wasted in the process.</p>
<p>Like in life, the more you can do with the small amount of energy, the more efficient you are.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="physics/efficiency" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549457183050">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Efficiency Calculator</div>
  <div class="omni-calculator-footer">
    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/efficiency" target="_blank"><img alt="8 new calculators that will make you cool" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/>
<p>We've also created <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/carnot-efficiency">Carnot Engine Efficiency Calculator</a>.</p>
<h2 id="acousticscalculator">Acoustics calculator</h2>
<p>Those calculators would be handy if you're running away from monsters and you guide yourself by their growling and roaring. But they are also pretty useful for architects and builders. Especially this <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/reverberation-time">Reverberation Time Calculator</a>.</p>
<p>Any sound is a wave and behaves like one completely. When you have a wave hitting an obstacle (like a wall), part of it gets absorbed, and another part is reflected and starts to travel in an opposite direction. The bigger of a room you have, the longer it will take for a sound to travel and longer you'll hear it.</p>
<p>That's why in big halls a regular murmur can become tiring.</p>
<p>Reverberation Time Calculator will tell you how long sound waves will travel in a certain room. You provide its length, width, and height, as well as the dimensions and number of doors and windows and you'll get the reverberation time.</p>
<p>You can also try the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/db">dB Calculator</a> which will help you find the sound pressure and intensity levels or the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/distance-attenuation">Distance Attenuation Calculator</a> that calculates how the sound level decrease with distance from the sound source.</p>
<h2 id="mechanicscalculator">Mechanics calculator</h2>
<p>In next season of 'Stranger Things,' the folks will get older, and they will learn more complex physics in school. They will certainly find these calculators useful.</p>
<p>First up is the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/harmonic-wave-equation">Harmonic Wave Equation Calculator</a> that helps you find the displacement of any point in the oscillating wave.</p>
<p>Any wave moves in time and space in an oscillating fashion. This movement depends on amplitude, wavelength, and velocity of the wave.</p>
<p>The displacement can be found by providing time, initial phase (in radians) and distance from the source.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can try the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/simple-harmonic-motion">Simple Harmonic Motion Calculator</a> which helps you find out the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of an oscillating particle in a simple harmonic motion.</p>
<p>And, last but not least, is the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/rotational-kinetic-energy">Rotational Kinetic Energy Calculator</a>, which will fast give you the answer of the rotational kinetic energy of an object in rotary motion.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How many calories are there in a Thanksgiving Dinner?]]></title><description><![CDATA[If you happen to live outside the U.S., then Thanksgiving for you is probably just the day before Black Friday, when you can find those big discounts and buy plenty of good stuff for low prices.
Thanksgiving Dinner: Questions and answers
But if you live in the USA, then you probably know...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/how-many-calories-are-there-in-a-thanksgiving-dinner/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c595254fd76180025a8bf4b</guid><category><![CDATA[thanksgiving calories]]></category><category><![CDATA[thanksgiving dinner]]></category><category><![CDATA[omnipedia]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 21 Nov 2017 07:47:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/thanksgiving.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/thanksgiving.png" alt="How many calories are there in a Thanksgiving Dinner?"/><p>If you happen to live outside the U.S., then Thanksgiving for you is probably just the day before Black Friday, when you can find those big discounts and buy plenty of good stuff for low prices.</p>
<h2 id="thanksgivingdinnerquestionsandanswers">Thanksgiving Dinner: Questions and answers</h2>
<p>But if you live in the USA, then you probably know everything about Thanksgiving. The dishes, the recipes, your place near the table, the schedule of Thanksgiving football, the teams of your local Turkey Bowl game and so on. It's possible that you know already what will be discussed during the Thanksgiving Dinner. Thankfully, there were no national elections this year.</p>
<p>We may not know the answers for all the questions that get asked during the Thanksgiving Dinner, especially when your granny asks you about why you're not married yet, but we have an answer to one specific question.</p>
<p>We bet you that after all plates become empty, someone at your table will start the conversation about how they feel full, and this was too much to eat. Someone might even wonder how many calories were this full Thanksgiving Dinner. And the one crazy about fitness will try to estimate the number.</p>
<h2 id="thanksgivingdinnercaloriescalculator">Thanksgiving Dinner Calories Calculator</h2>
<p>That's why we created this Thanksgiving Dinner Calories Calculator. We want to help you find out the number of calories you've eaten during your Thanksgiving feast, and maybe more importantly, how can you burn those calories.</p>
<p>We used the data provided by <a href="http://caloriecontrol.org/wp-content/uploads/Typical-Thanksgiving-Calorie-Meal.jpg">Calorie Control Institute</a>, which measured the calorie and fat intake of an average Thanksgiving Dinner. It's 3150 calories and 159 grams of fat.</p>
<p>But not everybody will eat the same amount of turkey and casseroles. Not everybody likes the stuffing or the pecan pie.</p>
<p>So we used this data to create a calculator in which you can type your dinner and find out how many calories you've eaten.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="food/thanksgiving-calories" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549457035820">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Thanksgiving Calories Calculator</div>
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    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/thanksgiving-calories" target="_blank"><img alt="How many calories are there in a Thanksgiving Dinner?" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<h2 id="howtoburnthosethanksgivingcalories">How to burn those Thanksgiving calories?</h2>
<p>You can see the 'burning these calories' section in the bottom of the calculator. That's where things get interesting. You burn calories even when you're sitting on your couch and watching the Vikings - Lions game Thursday afternoon. But it will take you 40 hours* of that activity to burn all those Thanksgiving calories.</p>
<p>If alternatively, you pick up the ball and play football, it will just take you 5 hours to get rid of all Thanksgiving calories.</p>
<p>There are plenty of stuff you can do with this energy. Sex? 14 hours of lovemaking will burn those 3150 calories. Running? Over 5 hours. Yoga? 13 hours.</p>
<p>As you can see, burning all those Thanksgiving calories is hard. You can sweat just by thinking about it. So... maybe another slice of turkey? It's just 190 calories, virtually nothing compared to what you've eaten already.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Black Friday is not a piece of cake]]></title><description><![CDATA[But it can be, if you grab a piece of paper.
Halloween was less than two weeks ago, and now the traditional Rockefeller Center Christmas tree arrived in New York. Meanwhile, Chicago experienced its first snowfall of the season. It’s this time of year when people start googling ‘Last Christmas.'
The Black...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/black-friday-is-not-a-piece-of-cake/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c595151fd76180025a8bf43</guid><category><![CDATA[black friday]]></category><category><![CDATA[discount calculator]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:36:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/black-friday.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/black-friday.png" alt="Black Friday is not a piece of cake"/><p><strong>But it can be, if you grab a piece of paper.</strong></p>
<p>Halloween was less than two weeks ago, and now the traditional Rockefeller Center Christmas tree arrived in New York. Meanwhile, Chicago experienced its first snowfall of the season. It’s this time of year when people start googling ‘Last Christmas.'</p>
<h2 id="theblackfridaycraze">The Black Friday craze</h2>
<p>But we’re not in the Christmas time yet. Not until the Thanksgiving dinner has finished, at least. Or, to put it differently, when Black Friday starts.</p>
<p>Not that long ago Black Friday mostly meant that people went to malls and stores and queued for hours in the cold to be the first customer and make sure that ridiculously underpriced TV.</p>
<p>There are still those that like to hunt for bargains outdoors, but more and more people do it in their living room on their laptops. According to Blackfriday.com, last year 44% of consumers did their Black Friday shopping online (although they still have Cyber Monday), whereas 40% went to the stores.</p>
<p>But the bottom line is - the Friday after Thanksgiving is for shopping. Hence the name: the most common explanation is that the day after Thanksgiving was the day when retailers’ books turned black. Before Excel, bookkeepers wrote profit in black and loss in red.</p>
<p>The tradition goes for decades, but only a few people can boast that they have found a bargain on Black Friday.</p>
<h2 id="howtowinonblackfriday">How to win on Black Friday?</h2>
<p>Nothing beats a blank piece of paper. We can’t stress enough how important is planning in any financial decisions, not only in investment, retirement but also in everyday spending. If you track and plan every dollar you spend, you can save plenty every month.</p>
<p>Write down what you need and what’s your budget. That will help you buy the essential stuff for low prices. Otherwise, you’ll end up with plenty of unnecessary things and no money.</p>
<p>Plus, you can save plenty of time on Black Friday. With a shopping list all there is to do is to find the product, go to the cash register and leave the store.</p>
<p>‘Easy-peasy,' as Bob from ‘Stranger Things 2’ would say.</p>
<p>The same rule applies to online shops. If you know what you’re looking for, it takes just a couple of minutes to finish all your shopping.</p>
<h2 id="dontthinkonlyaboutyourself">Don’t think only about yourself</h2>
<p>Remember that Black Friday is the best time to buy Christmas gifts for your friends and family, not only stuff for yourself. Decide what they need and do a little research where you can find the things that will make them smile.</p>
<p>You’ll still have to buy those presents, so it’s better to do it when those products are cheaper.</p>
<p>If you can buy all presents a month before the Christmas Day, you can consider yourself the master of Black Friday.</p>
<h2 id="blackfridaytactics">Black Friday tactics</h2>
<p>Sometimes it’s better to spend more on one underpriced, yet a quality product, than buy plenty of stuff just because it was discounted.</p>
<p>Track the discounts. Retailers advertise their Black Friday offers way before the day comes. You’ll know in advance what you can buy and for how much. Some stores discount the same product but at a different rate. Research is your friend.</p>
<p>To check how much you’ll save with those Black Friday offers, feel free to use our tools for discounts. For example, this <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/discount">Discount Calculator</a>.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/discount" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549456934538">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Discount Calculator</div>
  <div class="omni-calculator-footer">
    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/discount" target="_blank"><img alt="Black Friday is not a piece of cake" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/>
<p>If you got lucky and found out about a very special offer, you can check the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/double-discount">Double Discount Calculator</a>.</p>
<p>We also went full Xzibit and made this wonderful <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/triple-discount">Triple Discount Calculator</a>!</p>
<p><img src="https://uploads-cdn.omnicalculator.com/images/1zahuo.jpg" alt="Black Friday is not a piece of cake"/></p>
<p>Consider the Discount Calculator ‘pimped’.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/triple-discount" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-currency="PLN" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549456963086">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Triple Discount Calculator</div>
  <div class="omni-calculator-footer">
    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/triple-discount" target="_blank"><img alt="Black Friday is not a piece of cake" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/>
<p>With those tactics and tools, you’ll most certainly earn the right to call yourself the ‘Black Friday ninja.'</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What is Golden Ratio and how to use it?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Humans know it for ages.
Take a look at this graphic. The golden ratio means that a+b to a is around 1,618, which is what thousands of years of research proved. Mathematicians in ancient Greece knew about this proportion because it often popped up during their geometry studies. In more modern times,...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/golden-ratio/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c5950f1fd76180025a8bf3b</guid><category><![CDATA[omnipedia]]></category><category><![CDATA[golden ratio]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 07 Nov 2017 10:42:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/zloty-podzial.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/zloty-podzial.png" alt="What is Golden Ratio and how to use it?"/><p><strong>Humans know it for ages.</strong></p>
<p>Take a look at this graphic.</p>
<p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Golden_ratio_line.svg" alt="What is Golden Ratio and how to use it?"/></p>
<p>The golden ratio means that a+b to a is around 1,618, which is what thousands of years of research proved. Mathematicians in ancient Greece knew about this proportion because it often popped up during their geometry studies. In more modern times, 1,618 (or φ) appeared in biology, architecture and art studies. It's universal, hence the name: <strong>the golden ratio</strong>.</p>
<p>Of course, multiplying most numbers by 1,618 is pretty hard, so feel free to use this handy calculator that will help you in your creative work.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="math/golden-ratio" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549456887714">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Golden Ratio Calculator</div>
  <div class="omni-calculator-footer">
    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/golden-ratio" target="_blank"><img alt="What is Golden Ratio and how to use it?" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<p>Try putting Fibonacci sequence numbers in the calculator, for example in the shorter section. You’ll get the next two numbers of the sequence. That’s because each number is larger by 1,618 than its predecessor.</p>
<h2 id="whyisitsoimportant">Why is it so important?</h2>
<p>György Dóczi, a Hungarian architect, was famous for his works on the golden ratio. He wrote in his book ‘The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art and Architecture’ that golden ratios essentially provides harmony to the whole and its different parts ‘so that each preserves its own identity and yet blends into the greater pattern of a single whole.’</p>
<p>One of the main applications of the golden ratio is purely aesthetic. Paintings, sculptures, and buildings just look better when the golden ratio is applied.</p>
<h2 id="goldendavinci">Golden Da Vinci</h2>
<p>Luca Paioli, who was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, published a book on proportions and ratios and how they are used in everyday life. The book contains illustrations from Da Vinci.</p>
<p>Still nowadays, if you want to find any applications of the golden ratio, you’ll most likely turn to the great Leonardo and his famous ‘Vitruvian Man,' a drawing that embodies harmony of the human bodies. It is also called the ‘Canon of Proportions,' after all.</p>
<p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Leonardo_da_Vinci-_Vitruvian_Man.JPG" alt="What is Golden Ratio and how to use it?"/></p>
<p>There are studies of other Da Vinci's works as examples of the golden ratio, including ‘Mona Lisa’, but science is more speculative than conclusive here.</p>
<h2 id="goldenratioinarchitecture">Golden ratio in architecture</h2>
<p>Another great proponent of the golden ratio was Le Corbusier, who in the 20th century revolutionized approach towards architecture. He cared about the common citizens of urban areas and used golden ratio as his main mean of designing.</p>
<p>He developed ‘modulor’ (which name is a condensation of two French words that can be roughly translated into ‘golden ratio’), a scale based on the height of a man (some sources say it was a policeman) with his arm raised.</p>
<p>Le Corbusier applied golden ratio into every part of human’s body and used those proportions to design buildings, apartments, and neighborhoods.</p>
<p>With this approach, he was able to provide residents with enough sun and area for each and one of them. His designs just fitted human scale. His first building of that kind was Unite D’Habitation in Marseille, built in 1952.</p>
<p>Le Corbusier’s modern ideas revolutionized architecture. His disciples changed the landscape of cities not only in France but in other European and American countries.</p>
<h2 id="goldenratioinnature">Golden ratio in nature</h2>
<p>But not all golden ratio examples can be made; some can be found in nature. Fibonacci’s sequence was developed to predict the rabbit population, but with every passing century, mathematicians discovered different examples of nature’s own patterns.</p>
<p>Sunflower seeds grow from center to the outside in spirals in two different directions. The number of those spirals is usually a Fibonacci number. Same thing happens with pinecones or shells (logarithmic spiral).</p>
<p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/NautilusCutawayLogarithmicSpiral.jpg" alt="What is Golden Ratio and how to use it?"/></p>
<p>The golden ratio can be found everywhere. You just need to know where to look.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[3 ways to prepare for fall with TV series]]></title><description><![CDATA[Simple hacks to enhance your binge-watching experience.
It's getting colder and darker here in the northern hemisphere. After returning home from work, nothing beats jumping into sweatpants and enjoying a couple of episodes of a TV show, right? Binge watching has a dress code, too.
You open your browser or turn on...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/3-ways-to-prepare-for-fall-with-tv-series/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c59509afd76180025a8bf35</guid><category><![CDATA[binge watching]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 27 Oct 2017 06:16:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/tv-binge-watching.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/tv-binge-watching.png" alt="3 ways to prepare for fall with TV series"/><p><strong>Simple hacks to enhance your binge-watching experience.</strong></p>
<p>It's getting colder and darker here in the northern hemisphere. After returning home from work, nothing beats jumping into sweatpants and enjoying a couple of episodes of a TV show, right? Binge watching has a dress code, too.</p>
<p>You open your browser or turn on the TV and then... there is a problem. Which show to watch? Stranger Things? Peaky Blinders? Maybe a rewatch of some of the first ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes?</p>
<p>Some say that we’ve reached the ‘Peak TV’ phase. According to FX Networks research, there were 412 scripted shows on air in 2015. The number of TV series almost doubled since 2009 (211). Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are one of the reasons, but cable networks also decided to produce more content.</p>
<p>There is a downside that comes with this: there are just too many shows. One just can’t watch them all. And even if you try to watch a handful of them, you’d struggle with finishing any of them because the new ones come thick and fast.</p>
<p>So… what to do?</p>
<h2 id="1createyourtvshowschedule">1. Create your TV show schedule.</h2>
<p>Decide which shows you want to watch and put them on your calendar. That way you’ll progress in all series at the same rate.</p>
<p>To create a TV show schedule, you can try our TV Series Duration Calculator which will tell you how much time you’ll spend watching your favorite shows.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="everyday-life/tv-series-duration" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549456843688">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">TV Series Duration</div>
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<p>With a schedule, you can avoid scrolling through your show library and decide what to watch for eternity. If you stick to it, of course.</p>
<h2 id="2watchitfasterorslower">2. Watch it faster. Or slower</h2>
<p>In June 2016, Jeff Guo wrote in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/22/i-have-found-a-new-way-to-watch-tv-and-it-changes-everything/?utm_term=.cb099e8eff20">Washington Post</a> a long piece on how to watch TV more efficiently. It’s simple: watch them at 1.5x or even 2x speed. You can do it in your video player, or you can <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-controller/nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk?hl=en">download a Google Chrome plugin</a> that gives you that option.</p>
<p>It’s controversial, TV shows purists will condemn the idea, but pragmatists will love it. 30 minutes of ‘House of Cards’ instead of a full hour? That way you can watch the entire season in one afternoon.</p>
<p>I did it for some time when catching up with ‘Game of Thrones’, but if I don’t have such amount of content to watch, I still do it old-school style. The story has a certain pace for a reason, after all.</p>
<p>Guo compared watching TV series to reading a book. Sometimes you read every word carefully, and sometimes you just skim through pages. ‘Accelerated speeds make it easier to perceive the structure of a story; slower speeds allow me to savor the details of the filmmaking,' he wrote.</p>
<p>Watching at a faster speed will help you get through the series you need to catch up on that all your friends are familiar with and can’t stop talking about them.</p>
<h2 id="3avoiddistractions">3. Avoid distractions</h2>
<p>We live in times when it’s very difficult to concentrate on a single task. Now and then we tend to check our phones because someone wrote us on Messenger or some other apps notified us of something urgent.</p>
<p>It doesn’t help the experience. If you tend to pick up your phone every few minutes, you might miss something important in the series. Or, if you pause every time you do it, an hour-long episode will take you two hours to watch.</p>
<p>But most importantly, you probably won’t enjoy it watching the show. That way, it doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>With those three simple hacks, you will make your watching sessions a pleasure, not a duty. Are you ready to tune in?</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[3 new calculators that will help you run your business]]></title><description><![CDATA[How to run a company? For many, the art of entrepreneurship requires that little bit of luck.
Meeting somebody influential who will help the growth of your company, finding your niche or, if you’re unlucky, problems with contractors or storage. It all can determine your fate.
Luck helps and can be the...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/3-new-calculators-that-will-help-you-run-your-business/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c595038fd76180025a8bf2c</guid><category><![CDATA[cross price elasticity]]></category><category><![CDATA[optimal price]]></category><category><![CDATA[price elasticity]]></category><category><![CDATA[new calculators]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 26 Oct 2017 11:55:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/new-calculators-1.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/new-calculators-1.png" alt="3 new calculators that will help you run your business"/><p><strong>How to run a company? For many, the art of entrepreneurship requires that little bit of luck.</strong></p>
<p>Meeting somebody influential who will help the growth of your company, finding your niche or, if you’re unlucky, problems with contractors or storage. It all can determine your fate.</p>
<p>Luck helps and can be the missing factor for many entrepreneurs, but all entrepreneurs should help lady luck. Not many can say they had success without being patient, frugal and rational. Intuition can only take you so far, but with data-driven and factual management you can go a long way.</p>
<p>In October, Omni Calculator has created tools that will help entrepreneurs run their businesses. Or students that want some help with learning microeconomics. Either way, feel free to do some math in our shiny new calculators.</p>
<h2 id="priceelasticityofdemandcalculator">Price Elasticity of Demand Calculator</h2>
<p>It’s a tool for those that need to find out the perfect price for the products they sell. <strong>Price elasticity of demand</strong> measures the changing behavior of customers after changing price. In many branches, when prices soar, producers start to sell fewer products. Likewise, if the prices go down, there’s a bigger demand for products.</p>
<p>With this <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/price-elasticity-demand"><strong>Price Elasticity of Demand Calculator</strong></a> you can measure the effect. Just type the initial price and quantity sold and what happened after the price changed. Then, you find out the elasticity.</p>
<p>Thanks to this calculator, you will be able to decide whether you should charge more for your product (and sell a smaller quantity) or decrease the price, but increase the demand.</p>
<p>What you are actually thinking about is the price elasticity of demand. It describes the behavior of customers once the price has been changed.</p>
<p>High <strong>price elasticity of demand elasticity</strong> (bigger than 1) means that price and demand are highly correlated and lowering prices is profitable. It happens with luxury products. Remember those lines of people wanting to buy a discounted TV on Black Friday? It’s an effect of high elasticity.</p>
<p>Conversely, low elasticity (close to 0) means that any price decrease has only a slight increase in demand. The same goes with increasing prices. Low elasticity products are those essential like salt or fuel or those that people are addicted to (alcohol, cigarettes).</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/price-elasticity-demand" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549375254460">
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<h2 id="optimalpricecalculator">Optimal Price Calculator</h2>
<p><strong>Optimal price</strong> is the effect of price elasticity. If you know how the behavior of your customers changes after you changed the prices of your products, then we can use that to calculate what’s the best price. Simple.</p>
<p>Aside from providing the same numbers as in the Price Elasticity of Demand Calculator, we also ask you to type marginal costs of producing one item of your product in our <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/optimal-price"><strong>Optimal Price Calculator</strong></a>. In optimal price, marginal costs are the same as marginal revenue, so it has to be the same by default.</p>
<p>Type those numbers and you get your <strong>optimal price</strong> and quantity of products you want to sell.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/optimal-price" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549375309511">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Optimal Price Calculator</div>
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    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/optimal-price" target="_blank"><img alt="3 new calculators that will help you run your business" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<h2 id="crosspriceelasticitycalculator">Cross Price Elasticity Calculator</h2>
<p>It’s a tool that helps you find out if the goods are substitute or complementary. To help illustrate this, let’s take an example. Video game producer makes a game and a series of add-ons that enhances the gaming experience. Once he lowers the price of the initial game, the demand for add-ons should increase.</p>
<p>Those are complementary goods. Substitute goods are like butter and margarine. If the price of butter soars, more people turn to margarine.</p>
<p>How to measure it? We use a formula to calculate the <strong>cross price elasticity</strong>. If it’s positive, then products are substitute. But if the cross price elasticity is negative, then goods are complimentary.</p>
<p>Try using our <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/cross-price-elasticity"><strong>Cross Price Elasticity Calculator</strong></a>.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/cross-price-elasticity" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549375335721">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Cross Price Elasticity Calculator</div>
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<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The eternal question: How to retire early?]]></title><description><![CDATA[It requires a great deal of patience.
For many young people, retirement is an almost non-existent word in their dictionary. Why should it be? 20s are the ‘work hard, play hard’ times. You spend everything you earn and wonder why there’s still plenty of month left at the end of your...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/the-eternal-question-how-to-retire-early/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c594fdcfd76180025a8bf25</guid><category><![CDATA[Early Retirement Calculator]]></category><category><![CDATA[How to retire early]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 24 Oct 2017 07:07:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/early-retirement-3.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/early-retirement-3.png" alt="The eternal question: How to retire early?"/><p><strong>It requires a great deal of patience.</strong></p>
<p>For many young people, retirement is an almost non-existent word in their dictionary. Why should it be? 20s are the ‘work hard, play hard’ times. You spend everything you earn and wonder why there’s still plenty of month left at the end of your money.</p>
<h2 id="smashedavocadosareanono">Smashed avocados are a no-no</h2>
<p>We’re surrounded by all those ‘indispensable’ tech gadgets, apps, subscription-based movies and music services. Then there’s gourmet cooking, eating out, drinking craft beer and prosecco. And traveling. There are plenty of things you can spend money on. After all, they give pleasure and, sometimes, happiness.</p>
<p>Before we step into the ‘When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying a smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each’ (courtesy of Australian property developer Tim Gurner) territory, there’s a significant thing to say: if you want to retire early, you need to save plenty of money. Around $50,000 per year should do the job. But if you plan to retire at 50 and live off your passive income until 80, then you need $1,500,000 saved.</p>
<p>So putting that couple of dollars you have on your account the day before your paycheck comes is not enough.</p>
<p>Maybe avoiding smashed avocado is a good first step. But there are hundreds more still to come.</p>
<h2 id="earlyretirementcalculator">Early Retirement Calculator</h2>
<p>Take a look at this Early Retirement Calculator. Feel free to use it in different ways. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li>How long will it take to earn as much money as I need? Remember that you’ll need around $50,000 every year to have a comfortable life. And the younger you retire, the more investment balance you’ll need.</li>
<li>What can I get if I invest $200 every month for 30 years?</li>
<li>How much do I have to deposit every month, if I want to earn $1,000,000 before I turn 50?</li>
<li>I have such-and-such net income; I want to retire at 55. Show me what should I do.</li>
</ul>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/early-retirement" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549375206847">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Early Retirement Calculator</div>
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    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/early-retirement" target="_blank"><img alt="The eternal question: How to retire early?" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<p>Whichever way you look at it, it always shows the same thing. Unless you earn enough money so you can already retire, you have to put an enormous chunk of your salary on your investment account to stop working by the time you’re 50. And the older you get, the more money you have to put aside every month.</p>
<p>Why? We’ve explained that in the piece about compound interest. <a href="https://blog.omnicalculator.com/start-saving-early-compound-interest/">Take a look</a>.</p>
<h2 id="itsjustaroadmap">It’s just a roadmap</h2>
<p>But there’s an upside to that basic math. If you’re patient and invest rigorously every month, you end up with plenty of money. If your investment plan gives you 4% growth every year, then after 17 years, you have twice as much cash.</p>
<p>Treat what you learned from our Early Retirement Calculator as a roadmap. It’s a long journey, but as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in ‘The Lord of the Rings’: ‘The Road goes ever on and on / Down from the door where it began.'</p>
<p>There always has to be the first step.</p>
<p>How to take it?</p>
<h2 id="firststepandthenahundredmore">First step and then a hundred more</h2>
<p>To invest money, you need to have money.</p>
<p>Start with writing down all your expenses and incomes. Whether you do it in a dedicated app, spreadsheet or just a piece of paper, it’s all up to you. But you have to do it every day. Write down every little thing you spend money on.</p>
<p>Then, categorize your expenses and figure out what you can save on. Every person defines ‘frugal living’ differently. Some just cut down on luxury stuff like the proverbial smashed avocado, because believe it or not, saving $2 every day means you saved $730 in a year.</p>
<p>But some go all the way and do weird stuff like put a bottle filled with sand in their toilet tanks so there will be less water to flush.</p>
<p>Whether you want to belong to the former or latter category is completely your decision. But unless you buy a new gadget every month, the secret lies not in cutting down on one thing, but finding a marginal saving in every little one.</p>
<h2 id="saveinvestrepeat">Save, invest, repeat</h2>
<p>For example, try stocking up on cosmetics when they’re discounted. They will last for quite some time. At best, until you find another discount. You can also use them more sparingly.</p>
<p>Combine those little savings, and you end up with a quite solid amount of cash at the end of the month which you can put in an investment account.</p>
<p>The real problem is that it has to become your lifestyle. So you have to do it every month for more than 10 years. That’s 120+ months!</p>
<p>Remember that what you learned from the Early Retirement Calculator: it’s a roadmap.  Go back to it every time you cannot find the motivation. It may show you how far you’ve come.</p>
<h2 id="itsnottheendoftheworld">It’s not the end of the world</h2>
<p>If you don’t have the money you need to invest every month, then keep your head high, save as much as you can and do your job. Good times will come.</p>
<p>If you invest the money you can save, you’ll still get plenty of cash at your retirement age, which will give you an enormous boost after 65. You’ll need that money when you are old.</p>
<p>And don’t try to cut every way of spending money. Avoiding social interaction is not healthy. You might save money, but you can lose plenty of important things. We won’t get into details, but it’s obvious that mental and physical well-being are connected. There’s still plenty of life to live.</p>
<p>Early retirement is a wonderful perspective, but it requires severe austerity. If you can pull it off, then massive kudos. But if you just save money to use it after retiring at 65 (or later), then you’ll still live comfortably with that amazing feeling of a well-done job of saving money your entire life.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[5 reasons Gender Wage Gap hurts everybody]]></title><description><![CDATA[Nobody benefits from Gender Wage Gap.
Experts define the gender wage gap as the difference between typical male and female (of the same productivity) earnings. In most countries, women earn less doing the same jobs than men. In many places, the difference is enormous (South Korea - 36,7%), in others it’s...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/five-reasons-gender-wage-gap-hurts-everybody/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c594edafd76180025a8bf1e</guid><category><![CDATA[gender wage gap]]></category><category><![CDATA[equal pay]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2017 10:52:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/gender-wage-gap.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/gender-wage-gap.png" alt="5 reasons Gender Wage Gap hurts everybody"/><p><strong>Nobody benefits from Gender Wage Gap.</strong></p>
<p>Experts define the <strong>gender wage gap</strong> as the difference between typical male and female (of the same productivity) earnings. In most countries, women earn less doing the same jobs than men. In many places, the difference is enormous (South Korea - 36,7%), in others it’s pretty slim (Slovenia - 2,9%).</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="other/gender-wage-gap" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549375166582">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Gender Pay Gap Calculator</div>
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    <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/gender-wage-gap" target="_blank"><img alt="5 reasons Gender Wage Gap hurts everybody" class="omni-calculator-logo" src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/embed/omni-calculator-logo-long.svg"/></a>
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<p>If you want to find out how far from equal pay are other countries, you can try this Gender Wage Gap Calculator.</p>
<p>In the US, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/15/the-gender-wage-gap-just-shrank-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade/?utm_term=.f848be6ddcff">according to Washington Post</a>, a typical woman earned $41,554 in 2016, while an average man earned $51,640 during the same period. Although compared to 2015 the gap narrowed, it still is a whopping 19,2%. And, according to Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the gap will still exist until at least 2059.</p>
<p>So, what does that exactly mean?</p>
<h2 id="1thesecretliesinbignumbers">1. The secret lies in big numbers</h2>
<p>$10,000 of a difference in earnings between women and men does not tell a whole story. If both women and men will work for at least 40 years of their lives, that means that when women retire, they will earn $400,000 less than their male counterparts.</p>
<p>If they put that money into a modest investment plan that grows 4% per year, they could earn close to a million dollars ($984,967, to be exact) just by putting that money aside.</p>
<p>And that’s the kind of money every marriage will need when both spouses retire.</p>
<h2 id="2becauseofwagegapwomenareconcernedabouttheirfuture">2. Because of wage gap, women are concerned about their future</h2>
<p>In their 20s, many women don’t experience the gender wage gap. ‘Young women think there is only a small pay gap now, but if they wait long enough, they will find there is one,’ said (<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/11/gender-pay-gap-hurts-more-than-your-paycheck.html">quoted by CNBC</a>) Catherine Hill from Association of American University Women.</p>
<p>But when women reach their 30s, they will start to see the difference in wages. An average 55-year-old woman earns just $76 to every $100 than a man of the same age does.</p>
<p>And that changes women’s perspective drastically because lower wages mean lower pensions and a lower standard of living which is very important when we retire. <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2016/4/new-report-examines-the-causes-and-effects-of-gender-pay-inequality">U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee’s report</a> on gender wage gap said that women aged 65 and older earn 44% (so almost a half!) of what men in the same age group do.</p>
<p>That, of course, puts more burden on men to provide a living for both.</p>
<p>A study done by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/11/gender-pay-gap-hurts-more-than-your-paycheck.html">Allianz Life</a> showed that 53% of women are ‘very concerned or terrified’ that the rising cost of living will affect their retirement plans.</p>
<h2 id="3itenhancesdiscrimination">3. It enhances discrimination</h2>
<p>That Joint Economic Committee’s report states that the <strong>gender wage gap</strong> is ‘caused by complex factors.' Some economists point out that employers are afraid to give women higher wages because they might get pregnant which supposedly will make them take a time out of work.</p>
<p>But all (more or, quite often, less rational) factors aside, 40% of the gender wage gap may be an effect of discrimination.</p>
<p>So in 40% cases, a woman earning less than her man colleague is just plain discrimination. But because the <strong>gender wage gap</strong> is very commons, society decided to normalize that.</p>
<h2 id="4itsbadfortheeconomy">4. It’s bad for the economy</h2>
<p>According to a report from <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/paying-women-equally-would-be-a-boon-for-everyone-else-too/477582/">McKinsey</a>, which estimates the effect of equal pay in every branch of the economy, by 2025 women would add $4.3 trillion to the U.S. GDP. It is a very generous estimation, but it shows what equal pay means for the economy.</p>
<p>In more restrained reports, like the one from Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. economy made $2.0 trillion more because of the progress made in the pursuit to equal pay (which still feels lethargic) since 1970.</p>
<h2 id="5itputswomenindirestraits">5. It puts women in dire straits</h2>
<p>Closing the <strong>gender wage gap</strong> won’t only benefit the economy as a whole (which doesn’t necessarily mean that it will benefit every citizen), but also almost every member of the society.</p>
<p>Joint Economic Committee’s report has a very simple summary: equal pay (and more women working full time) will lift many people out of poverty. More money gives people more incentive to finish higher education and eventually get better jobs and make the country better.</p>
<p>It applies not only to the U.S. but universally in the whole world.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What’s the difference between salary and hourly wage?]]></title><description><![CDATA[It’s more than just arithmetics.
Monthly (or weekly) salary and hourly wage both get you the money you deserve (you can check it in Salary to Hourly calculator), but they are very much different in essence.
Both are like two roads that can lead you to the same place: The Paycheckville, but...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/whats-the-difference-between-salary-and-hourly-wage/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c584795ce1a430025824fb6</guid><category><![CDATA[salary]]></category><category><![CDATA[salary to hourly]]></category><category><![CDATA[hourly wage]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 12 Oct 2017 11:39:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/hourly-salary.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/hourly-salary.png" alt="What’s the difference between salary and hourly wage?"/><p><strong>It’s more than just arithmetics.</strong></p>
<p>Monthly (or weekly) salary and hourly wage both get you the money you deserve (you can check it in <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/business/salary-to-hourly"><strong>Salary to Hourly calculator</strong></a>), but they are very much different in essence.</p>
<p>Both are like two roads that can lead you to the same place: The Paycheckville, but one is a highway and the other is a bumpy mountain road. The problem is, you cannot tell which one is which in your case.</p>
<h2 id="salary">Salary</h2>
<p>You are guaranteed a certain amount of money every week or month (depending on your paycheck schedule). You don’t have to worry at the beginning of a month that you have to work for your money for a specified period of time. If you’re doing your job correctly, there’s nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>In short: with <strong>salary</strong>, you don’t have to clock in or keep a timesheet. Also, your employer tracks only your completed tasks.</p>
<p>That sense of security is sometimes more important than what you can earn.</p>
<p>Plus, in many cases, employers give you some benefits: vacations, additional insurances and the ability to take sick leave, go to a doctor without worrying that it might impact your paycheck.</p>
<p>But there are some problems with <strong>salary</strong>. Sometimes you have to stay overtime to get your job done. It’s just the nature of it. But in many cases, you don’t get any additional money from that.</p>
<p>And all that sense of security can be shadowed by the realization that you’re staying late and getting no extra reward for that.</p>
<h2 id="hourlywage">Hourly wage</h2>
<p>When you’re an <strong>hourly employee</strong>, you get a certain amount of money for every hour you spend in your job. You have to keep track of your hours worked, or your employer does it for you when you clock in.</p>
<p>In some cases, you’re not guaranteed 40 hours of work during the week. It’s a common policy in the UK, where so-called employees have to sign „zero-hour contracts” which are connected to on-call shifts jobs but during the financial crisis became popular among retailers and big restaurant chains.</p>
<p>Theoretically, <strong>hourly wage</strong> should give young employees (and among them: students) more flexibility in their job, but in many cases it gave more power over wage to employers. You’re only paid for the hours you’re scheduled to work, but if it’s just a couple of hours per week then that becomes a massive problem. Employees of McDonald’s in the UK even <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/04/mcdonalds-workers-in-the-uk-go-on-strike-for-first-time.html">went on strike</a> about that.</p>
<p>In the US, <strong>hourly employees</strong> get paid for overtime work, and in some cases, their overtime wage is higher than standard one which gives them the incentive to work more extended hours.</p>
<h2 id="sowhatsthedifference">So what’s the difference?</h2>
<p>Essentially, it's about emotions. If you’re on <strong>salary</strong>, then you know when to expect money and how big your paycheck will be. You can plan your expenses better, and there are not many things that can surprise you.</p>
<p>When you’re an <strong>hourly employee</strong>, if you happen to get sick, then it becomes much big of a problem then when you’re on salary. But, on the other hand, you know that you worked hard for your money and stayed in your job for quite an amount of hours.</p>
<p>It all depends on how you want to feel about your job. And, of course, the money. You can check your paycheck on this <strong>Salary to Hourly</strong> calculator.</p>
<div class="omni-calculator" data-calculator="finance/salary-to-hourly" data-width="300" data-config="{}" data-show-row-controls="false" data-version="3" data-t="1549375048015">
  <div class="omni-calculator-header">Salary to Hourly - Paycheck Calculator</div>
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]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to make perfect pancakes every time? Try Pancake Recipe Calculator]]></title><description><![CDATA[Pancake lovers, we've made something just for you.
Johan Cruyff, the legendary Dutch football (or soccer if you’re American) player, and coach, used to say that playing simple football is the hardest thing. Some would say that cooking the simple dishes is the hardest thing and not many things come closer...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/the-pancake-recipe-calculator/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c581345ce1a430025824fa7</guid><category><![CDATA[pancake recipe]]></category><category><![CDATA[pancake recipe calculator]]></category><category><![CDATA[pancakes]]></category><category><![CDATA[pancakes recipe]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 09 Oct 2017 12:16:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/pancakes-blog.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/pancakes-blog.png" alt="How to make perfect pancakes every time? Try Pancake Recipe Calculator"/><p><strong>Pancake lovers, we've made something just for you.</strong></p>
<p>Johan Cruyff, the legendary Dutch football (or soccer if you’re American) player, and coach, used to say that playing simple football is the hardest thing. Some would say that cooking the simple dishes is the hardest thing and not many things come closer to this than pancakes.</p>
<p>Almost everybody will agree that it’s a very simple recipe. Eggs, milk, flour and baking powder. Nothing fancy, hold your avocado horses. You can be sophisticated when you think about the toppings.</p>
<h2 id="pancakesareeasytoscrewup">Pancakes are easy to screw up</h2>
<p>People made pancakes for centuries, and some sources date the creation of this wonderful meal in ancient Europe.</p>
<p>But recipe’s simplicity and popularity mean that a single small mistake can ruin your plans for a perfect morning. Everything matters. That’s why it’s sometimes the hardest thing to cook.</p>
<p>You can just estimate ingredients and fail spectacularly with having too dense pancakes (or too watery), you can have a too hot of a pan, you can be impatient with flipping them and ruin them completely. You can also make too many pancakes because you followed a recipe for four people and you just wanted to make a dish just for yourself.</p>
<h2 id="howwemadethepancakerecipecalculator">How we made the Pancake Recipe Calculator</h2>
<p>We’ve also had problems with making the perfect pancakes and crêpes. <em>‘I don’t know how many pancakes I can make with the pan that I have,'</em> said Kasia, our social media specialist, during one of the brainstorms.</p>
<p>It quickly turned out that almost all of us have a Pancake Problem. There was a mention of making too many pancakes. One person also said that they often want to make pancakes with the eggs left in their fridge but don’t know how much of flour and milk they need.</p>
<p>Many Pancake Problems are just math problems. Good thing we're a calculator company.</p>
<p><strong>Enter: <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/pancake-recipe">The Pancake Recipe Calculator</a></strong>.</p>
<p>We’ve made a tool for those that want to make the perfect pancakes without much of a fuss. You just type how much of serves you need (per person or overall), and we calculate the rest: how many of flour, milk, and eggs you’ll need.</p>
<p>We created the formula by using the Jamie’s Oliver recipe for pancakes and crêpes. It’s one of the most popular recipes on the Internet and one of the simplest. All calculations are done in metric system, but depending on where you’re using the Pancake Recipe Calculator, you will see how much of ingredients you need in your most convenient units, including cups (not everyone has a weighing scale in their kitchen).</p>
<p>Below the calculator, you’ll find the full recipe for pancakes. Enjoy and bon appétit!</p>
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<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why do we waste so much time on social media?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Our brain demands it.
In theory, social media are hugely beneficial for people. Facebook helps them connect with each other and be closer to their interests. Twitter is a perfect place to discover the news the fastest and Instagram is for aesthetic pleasures.
Is social media addiction?
But in 2017 we know that...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/why-do-we-waste-so-much-time-on-social-media/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c5812bdce1a430025824f9e</guid><category><![CDATA[social media]]></category><category><![CDATA[social media calculator]]></category><category><![CDATA[social media time alternatives]]></category><category><![CDATA[social media time waste]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 06 Oct 2017 12:13:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/social-media.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/social-media.png" alt="Why do we waste so much time on social media?"/><p><strong>Our brain demands it.</strong></p>
<p>In theory, social media are hugely beneficial for people. Facebook helps them connect with each other and be closer to their interests. Twitter is a perfect place to discover the news the fastest and Instagram is for aesthetic pleasures.</p>
<h2 id="issocialmediaaddiction">Is social media addiction?</h2>
<p>But in 2017 we know that reality is very far from theory. In fact, science starts to explore the effects of social media not only on society as a whole but also on humans and their brains.</p>
<p>And many agree on one thing: we can easily get addicted to social media.</p>
<p>Dr. Robert Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist who recently gave an interview to ‘Financial Times’ and talked about his new book ‘The Hacking of the American Mind.' In its essence, this book is about addictions: how they work and why are people so prone to them.</p>
<h2 id="pleasurevshappiness">Pleasure vs. happiness</h2>
<p>Dr. Lustig thinks that part of the problem lies in the dichotomy between pleasure and happiness. The former is quick and instant. The latter is long-term, is more of a state of mind than a flash feeling. People mistake one and another.</p>
<p>The feeling of pleasure comes from the reward system embedded in our brain. Every time we do something that we are addicted to, we get a dopamine hit (and then we want more of it). But dopamine decreases serotonin, which makes us feel calm and happy.</p>
<p>To put it shortly: you feel pleasure for a couple of seconds, but eventually, you experience no happiness.</p>
<p>And that’s why addicts in the long term look miserable.</p>
<h2 id="slotmachinesinyourpocket">Slot machines in your pocket</h2>
<p>Opening your smartphone does not require much energy, plus it informs you constantly that he needs your attention because of all those push notifications. And even if nothing worth notifying is happening, many just can’t help but turn their phone on to see what’s going on and scroll through Instagram feed for several minutes and see nothing worthy of attention.</p>
<p>Smartphones, which Dr. Lustig calls ‘slot machines in your pocket,' also give people a dopamine hit. He compares social media to drug dealers in schoolyard which provide teenagers with free drugs and guarantee themselves a client for life.</p>
<p>At first, people just need a couple of minutes of social media time to feel some pleasure. But because they need more and more of dopamine, that time quickly grows. Eventually, social media addicts will require an enormous dopamine hit (so plenty of minutes on Facebook or Twitter) and feel absolutely nothing.</p>
<h2 id="socialmediaandunfinishedprojects">Social media and unfinished projects</h2>
<p>In some cases, social media can then lead to sadness and even depression. It’s not an addiction that manifests itself in destroyed families and careers, but even in mild cases of social media addiction people become worse in their jobs and personal relationships. How many times did you struggle with finishing your project because something urgent was happening on Facebook? Ultimately most people get the job done, but it might not be a masterpiece.</p>
<h2 id="disableallnotifications">Disable all notifications</h2>
<p>Fighting every addiction is hard, and it’s the same case with social media and how it is embedded in our life. For example, many projects have a Facebook group that helps coordinate any activities so it may be even impossible to quit social media entirely.</p>
<p>But cutting your social media time significantly is indeed achievable. The first step is disabling social media notifications. You could also try to remove as many apps as possible.</p>
<p>Many need external motivation to do it. At Omni Calculator we’ve created Social Media Time Alternatives Calculator which tells you what can you achieve if you spend your social media time differently. Look how many books you could read!</p>
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<script async src="https://cdn.omnicalculator.com/sdk.js"/>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why is it important to start saving early?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Because math says so.
If you’re in your 20s, you probably don’t think much about your retirement and how to spend those years comfortably. There are more important things to care about, after all. You’re still just starting your career and earning just enough money to get through the month.
How to...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/start-saving-early-compound-interest/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c581141ce1a430025824f92</guid><category><![CDATA[compound interest]]></category><category><![CDATA[investment]]></category><category><![CDATA[investment calculator]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2017 11:02:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/compound-interest.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/compound-interest.png" alt="Why is it important to start saving early?"/><p><strong>Because math says so.</strong></p>
<p>If you’re in your 20s, you probably don’t think much about your retirement and how to spend those years comfortably. There are more important things to care about, after all. You’re still just starting your career and earning just enough money to get through the month.</p>
<h2 id="howtoturn7000into100000">How to turn $7000 into $100,000?</h2>
<p>So why is it so important to start saving now? Everybody keeps saying it, and it feels like a right thing to do.</p>
<p>Just take a look at this chart. We wanted to find out how much you need to invest to get to $100,000 when you retire at 65. It’s not much, but it certainly is a help when you stop working.</p>
<p><img src="https://uploads-cdn.omnicalculator.com/images/compound-compound.png" alt="Why is it important to start saving early?"/></p>
<p>If you’re 20 years old, all you have to do is gather $7265, put it in an investment plan that gives you 6% per year and in 45 years time you’ll get your needed $100,000. Not many 20-year olds have it, but it gives a perspective.</p>
<p>Because if you decide to start saving when you’re 40, then you’ll need three times as much money - $23,299 to get to $100,000 by the time you’re 65.</p>
<p>6% investment rate means that in every 12 years your <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/rule-of-72">money doubles</a>. The sooner you start your investment; you give your money more time to grow. And the less you need to invest to get to earn what you want.</p>
<h2 id="mathknowsbestcompoundinterest">Math knows best: compound interest</h2>
<p>How does it happen? Because of <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/investment">compound interest</a>. It’s a simple arithmetic. You’ve heard about it in school, but it still is very underrated.</p>
<p>It’s a formula that calculates how big will something become if it will grow steadily for a particular period. Compound interest calculates the initial balance and the interest which it accumulated during the consecutive periods. Because of adding carrying charge deposit grows at a faster rate.</p>
<p>But not everybody wants to save by investing all their money. Some (maybe most) want to do it with little money, but regularly, every month.</p>
<h2 id="startinvestingearlythedefinitiveargument">Start investing early, the definitive argument</h2>
<p>Does it make a difference? In fact, it only enhances the point that you need to start investing your money early. Yes, at first it requires a serious commitment and austerity, but when it becomes a habit (and you start earning more money), it’s an easy task.</p>
<p>If you want to have $100,000 in 40 years, all you need to do is to put $65 every month into your investment plan. It’s not a lot, right?</p>
<p>Look at this <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/investment">Investment Calculator</a>. You can find out how much you need to invest every month if you want to get where you want to be when you decide to retire.</p>
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<p>If invest your money for long enough, the interest will become bigger than the contribution to the investment.</p>
<p>There are very important things happening in your 20s, but a couple of thousand dollars saved in your early adulthood can mean hundreds of thousands near your retirement age.</p>
<p>And that’s why you need to save money when you’re young.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[What is Rule of 72?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Albert Einstein is said to have told that ‘compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.' It may not be his quote, but he’d certainly agree that the meaning and consequences of compound interested are very underrated.
For many, compound interest and exponential growth are terms that evoke bad memories...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/what-is-rule-of-72/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c57e79dce1a430025824f8c</guid><category><![CDATA[rule of 72]]></category><category><![CDATA[compound interest]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 25 Sep 2017 12:03:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/rule-of-72.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/rule-of-72.png" alt="What is Rule of 72?"/><p>Albert Einstein is said to have told that ‘compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.' It may not be his quote, but he’d certainly agree that the meaning and consequences of compound interested are very underrated.</p>
<p>For many, <strong>compound interest</strong> and exponential growth are terms that evoke bad memories from school math. They just sound too complicated.</p>
<p>But <strong>'Rule of 72'</strong> doesn’t sound so tough, right? It sounds like a movie title (think a sports documentary or something). And it’s just a different way to illustrate the power of compound interest and the exponential function.</p>
<h2 id="howdoesitwork">How does it work?</h2>
<p>You cannot talk about the Rule of 72 without talking about <strong>compound interest</strong>. Basically, it’s a function that helps you find out how much money you will earn if you invest it at a fixed rate for a certain amount of time.</p>
<p>If you put a $1000 in a 5% per year deposit for 5 years, it means that every year that money will grow 5%. So in the first year, you’ll have $1050, next year it will be $1102 and in the final year, you’ll receive $1276.</p>
<p>So.. what does ‘Rule of 72’ mean in this context?</p>
<p>It lets you find out when will your investment double given the rate at which it grows in compound interest function.</p>
<p>The calculation is really simple: you just take 72 and divide it by the percentage of your investment. Why 72? Because it’s a close approximation of natural logarithm of 2 times 100.</p>
<p>You can check it in this <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/rule-of-72">Rule of 72 Calculator</a>.</p>
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<h2 id="whyisitimportant">Why is it important?</h2>
<p>Because it gives you perspective on how fast things can grow. If you see that cinema ticket prices go up 7% per year, you’ll probably not bat an eyelid. What’s 7%, after all?</p>
<p>But that means that in roughly 10 years you’ll have to pay twice as much to see a movie than now. And that’s is an entirely different story.</p>
<h2 id="thelegendofruleof72">The legend of Rule of 72</h2>
<p>Remember the legend of how a king wanted to reward his mathematician for beating him at chess? ‘You can have anything you want,' the king said.</p>
<p>‘Alright, please put one grain of wheat on the first chess field and then twice as much on the second one. Then twice as much on the third and continue until the last field on the chessboard’, the mathematician replied.</p>
<p>The king thought it was foolish because the mathematician could have asked for much more and ordered his staff to fulfill that request. But soon he discovered that he wouldn't have enough grain. Because on every field, there would be twice as much grain as ever before combined.</p>
<p>It’s a general rule. If we double our oil consumption in a decade, we use more oil than in every decade before, combined. That’s the power of compound interest that Einstein spoke of. And the ‘Rule of 72’ helps us understand it better.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Sleep Calculator: When you should go to bed?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Omni Calculator introduced a new tool that helps people in their everyday struggle with lack of proper sleep.
The Sleep Calculator helps you determine when you should go to sleep to not only feel rested during the day but also, most importantly, fresh in the morning. Those two things are not...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/the-sleep-calculator/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c546edc860586002585b4af</guid><category><![CDATA[sleep]]></category><category><![CDATA[sleep calculator]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 21 Sep 2017 06:40:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/cover-photo-bloga.png" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/cover-photo-bloga.png" alt="The Sleep Calculator: When you should go to bed?"/><p><strong>Omni Calculator introduced a new tool that helps people in their everyday struggle with lack of proper sleep.</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/sleep"><strong>Sleep Calculator</strong></a> helps you determine when you should go to sleep to not only feel rested during the day but also, most importantly, fresh in the morning. Those two things are not always connected.</p>
<p><strong>Don't hit the snooze button</strong></p>
<p>Whether it’s a necessity or choice, many people decide they don’t need to sleep that much. ‘I’ll rest after death,’ they say, carelessly. But good sleep is just as important as a productive day - it regenerates your cells and makes your brain ready for when it needs to be in best shape.</p>
<p>The hours you need to spend with head on a pillow are one thing, but the other thing is knowing when you should go to sleep to wake up exactly when you need to wake up.</p>
<p>We all know the feeling. When the alarm starts ringing, you feel so sleepy that all you want to do is hit the snooze button and get five more minutes of sleep. It's a dead end. You don't have the time to fall into deep, regenerative sleep and you make your morning routine shorter.</p>
<p>And that's just a recipe for a bad morning.</p>
<p><strong>How to wake up refreshed?</strong></p>
<p>Scientists have discovered that this feeling means you woke up in the wrong phase of your sleep.</p>
<p>All you need to do to be refreshed when the alarm goes off is to wake up at the end of your cycle, or when the REM phase (when you’re dreaming) ends. It’s when your brain is just as active as during the day. If you wake up earlier or later, during deep sleep, it can take a couple of hours to get back to life.</p>
<p>How long does one cycle last? Around 90 minutes, but you can change that in the <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/sleep"><strong>Sleep Calculator</strong></a>, when you feel that it doesn’t apply to you.</p>
<p><strong>How many hours of sleep do I need?</strong></p>
<p><em>‘So can I sleep for 90 minutes and feel refreshed?’</em>, one can ask.</p>
<p>You may wake up feeling pretty well, but you’ll still be sleep deprived. In a couple of hours, you’ll get those familiar symptoms - lack of concentration, sleepiness and so on.</p>
<p>Everybody needs between 6-8 hours of sleep for proper rest. In the Sleep Calculator, you can check the best hours to go to bed if you want to wake up ready to attack the day when your alarm goes off.</p>
<p>To get a decent sleep, you need 7 hours and 30 minutes of Zzzs, but you can also hit that balance between getting full cycles under your belt and a good rest if you slept for just 6 hours.</p>
<p>If you have time, you can sleep for 9 hours, but for many it's a luxury. Anything less than 6 hours is an affair with sleep deprivation, and you shouldn’t take that road.</p>
<p><strong>Use the Sleep Calculator and check when you should go to bed to get a proper sleep!</strong></p>
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]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Plug-in Hybrid MPG: What Would Yours Be?]]></title><description><![CDATA[What is the real MPG of a Plug-In Electric Vehicle? It's not as straightforward as in electric cars or gas engines. We've discovered that benefits of driving PHEVs depend on one factor.
You.
It turns out that due to a vast difference in effectiveness between electric and combustion engines, the real MPG...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/phev-mpg/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c546b44860586002585b48b</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacek Staszak]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jun 2017 09:16:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/phev-charging.jpg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omniblog/2019/02/phev-charging.jpg" alt="Plug-in Hybrid MPG: What Would Yours Be?"/><p>What is the real MPG of a Plug-In Electric Vehicle? It's not as straightforward as in electric cars or gas engines. We've discovered that benefits of driving PHEVs depend on one factor.</p>
<p><strong>You.</strong></p>
<p>It turns out that due to a vast difference in effectiveness between electric and combustion engines, the <strong>real MPG of your plug-in hybrid varies greatly depending on your car usage patterns</strong>.</p>
<p>All you need to do is calculate how many miles per month you’ll be able to drive on the battery.</p>
<p>All of us at Omni Calculator are nuts about numbers, so we built a tool that lets you see <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/phev-economy">what PHEV MPG would you get with your own driving habits</a>.</p>
<h3 id="sandraandpete">Sandra and Pete</h3>
<p>Let’s use an example. Sandra and Pete both live in San Francisco.</p>
<p>Sandra works in the Bay Area. She's a commuter and drives 25 miles on working days to and from work, stopping to get some groceries.</p>
<p>Pete commutes by bike but he spends every weekend in Big Sur, so he drives 200 miles eight times a month. He’s a long-distance driver.</p>
<p>They both wanted a PHEV, but they didn’t know which one. Which vehicle is tailored to their needs? That's what Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Calculator is all about.</p>
<h3 id="commuter">Commuter</h3>
<p>Sandra wanted a car that has an electric range of more than 25 miles. With such vehicles, she uses her car only on electricity on most days.</p>
<p>That is a massive boost to her car's MPG. She knew that with the right choice, she might drive a car with a real MPG of over 100.</p>
<p>Toyota Prius Prime is able to reach 135 MPG with Sandra's journeys. Not so long ago it felt like a fantasy. That means she will only spend $20 a month to charge her car.</p>
<p>She also visits a gas station only once a few months when she decides to take a longer trip outside the city. Sandra can also charge her car at her workplace which might take her spending on a PHEV to single digits.</p>
<p>Are you a commuter? You can find the best PHEV for you by using our Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Calculator.</p>
<h3 id="longdistancedriver">Long-distance driver</h3>
<p>Pete's daily 200 miles is three times as much as the Chevrolet Volt's range on battery. But does battery range matter in this case?</p>
<p>There’s a different rule for long-distance drivers. When in doubt, look at the gas engine MPG. That's what Pete did. Battery range matters little for those who drive more than 120 miles a day.</p>
<p>Even for long-distance drivers, PHEVs can be fuel-efficient. Manufacturers usually install smaller gas engines in their hybrids than in other models.</p>
<p>Pete's 200-mile journey costs him only 5 gallons of gas, half of what an average car consumes. Monthly, he spends only 74 dollars on using his car.</p>
<h3 id="amatteroftime">A matter of time</h3>
<p>You can find the best PHEV for you by using Omni Calculator’s Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Calculator. Check what hybrid you should buy to be most fuel-efficient if you're a heavy driver or a commuter.</p>
<p>Plug-in hybrids are an emerging market. It’s not hard to imagine that in two year’s time PHEVs can have an electric range of 70 miles, making much more people interested in buying them.</p>
<p>The rapid progress of PHEVs is mainly connected to better battery life with each passing year and lower costs of producing them.</p>
<p>Thus, PHEVs will gradually become a better proposal for both commuters and heavy drivers.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why We're Not Raising Funds (Yet)]]></title><description><![CDATA[A short intro: we’re Omni Calculator. We're working on calculators that (will) already know how to solve most of short math problems people encounter. We will replace default calculators pre-installed on smartphones. Our MVP, the Percentage Calculator (iOS, Android) was downloaded 1.5 million times and we haven't spent a penny...]]></description><link>https://omni-blog.herokuapp.com/not-raising/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5c4f362f84670700251657f7</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Mateusz Mucha]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:31:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A short intro: we’re <a href="http://omnicalculator.com">Omni Calculator</a>. We're working on calculators that (will) already know how to solve most of short math problems people encounter. We will replace default calculators pre-installed on smartphones. Our MVP, the Percentage Calculator (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/percentage-calculator-for/id886389557?l=pl&amp;ls=1&amp;mt=8">iOS</a>, <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.percentagecalculator">Android</a>) was downloaded 1.5 million times and we haven't spent a penny on marketing.<br>
We've been a part of Batch V of <a href="http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/">Axel Springer Plug and Play</a> accelerator. One day before the Demo Day I decided: <strong>we're not fundraising</strong>. Here's a rationale behind that decision.</br></p>
<p>Ready? Good.</p>
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<p>Because <strong>I can’t afford to allocate the time needed</strong>. Not now. It’s a weird situation — pursuing investors takes time and what you get is faster growth. So you spend time to get time. We’re (rather slowly) bleeding money and it shouldn’t be very hard to reduce our burn rate to zero, but if instead of working on that I spend my time on chasing VCs, I risk getting into a rather gloomy place if I'm not successful. And as much as I'm confident in my company, I'm not willing to bet everything on us convincing investors.</p>
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<p>Because <strong>we simply can</strong>. This answer might be a bit silly, but VC money doesn't come free and I believe avoiding taking it should always be placed under a serious consideration. Our situation is somewhat atypical - we already have traction, we do have some revenue and we'll try to do it on our own for as long as possible. It will be slower and possibly harder, but I’m fairly certain that it’s doable.</p>
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<p>Because <strong>fundraising is not something I want to do with my life</strong>. I’m a product person and I love doing it. I have talked to quite a few CEOs from funded startups and all of them said fundraising took and still takes them a considerable amount of time. Some said 30%, while some said that’s all they do. Once they get funding, they start seeking investors for the next round almost immediately.<br>
Again, it's not that I wouldn't enjoy parts of it; talking to investors is often great - more often than not they're smart people who can give valuable feedback. Pitching forces you to constantly work on your business plan and keeps you in touch with reality, which is a big advantage to consider. But still, there are unpleasant parts (negotiations, legal crap, being in a disadvantageous position inherent in a world where the demand for money is always bigger than the supply). I don't want my whole day to revolve around it, I'm a product guy.</br></p>
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<p>Because <strong>boostrapping is more challenging</strong> in those areas that I want to be challenged in. Sure, running a VC-backed startup is hell of a ride. It's stressful, it's crazy fast (or at least should be, if you're doing it right), it's quite a different game. On the other hand, bootstrapping forces you to do more with less. And I love it; it feels like building your first house in Minecraft. Maybe without soiling your pants when zombies come.</p>
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<p>Because <strong>our goals are different</strong>. VCs <s>want</s> need huge returns and are willing to take high risks. That’s their reality and we can’t blame them for only wanting to invest in potentially billion-dollar companies; however, going for such ambitious goals comes with a risk of an uncontrollable nosedive and a rather unpleasant death (you get the money, you have to scale fast... the revenue might not catch up and a follow-up investment is never a sure bet).<br>
Founders won’t admit it, but for most of us, a $50MM exit is functionally pretty much the same as $1B. But they can’t claim they build a $50MM company, because that’s not something VCs want to invest in. Don’t get me wrong, I want us to grow and do great things, but before we get there, there are plenty of smaller goals to achieve, so I’d rather focus on them and not bullshit roadmaps to $1B over the next year. What I want is to make an impact (solve problems for as many people as possible), work on interesting things every day, while simultaneously providing for my family.</br></p>
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<p>Because <strong>the game is counterproductive</strong> in many cases. VCs look for patterns. They have a checklist in their heads and this is how they filter projects - when you fit into the pattern, you're worthy of looking into. It makes a lot of sense, but it also encourages founders to pretend they fit into those patterns or even worse: to make conformist changes when they don’t make much sense in their startup's particular case. Just filter your decisions through a question: would I have done the same if the investor's opinion wasn't an issue? So instead of making sure I look pretty, I'd rather get shit done.</p>
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<p>Because <strong>it's not the right time</strong>. We spend the last few months developing a post-MVP technology and preparing for the next stage of growth. We'll see fruits of that work over the next few months and we'll be stronger. Simple, let's move on.</p>
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<p>Because <strong>the moment we become a no-brainer to VCs is the moment we stop needing money</strong>. My business is not money-intensive.<br>
Because I’d much rather be in a position when they want us more than we need them. We’re not that far away from that, just give us a bit more time.</br></p>
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<p>I haven't mentioned things that might seem obvious reasons to some: losing control, getting screwed with the terms, etc. These are not problematic in my opinion, as they can be easily avoided if you're well prepared and are not willing to get strong-armed into a lousy deal just to get the cash.</p>
<p>I’m not fundamentally opposed to the whole VC model, as it's clearly working and it made countless awesome businesses possible. I'm not even opposed to us going down the VC route. What I'm mainly against is the costs inherently tied to fundraising: time, focus and staying in line with your true vision (not the one you're selling). So, if it's going to happen, it will be because they will have knocked on our door, not me knocking on 50 of their doors.</p>
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