how to use the weekends to make money in a side business. Hey guys, I'm back, J.R. Fisher's here, and I want to talk to you specifically about your weekends. What's going on with those weekends? You know, weekends are very, very valuable. They're super valuable. I think a lot of people say, well, that's just my downtime. That's time that I just, you know, kind of chill and relax. No, your weekends, your weekends are the time where you can really get stuff done because you have large chunks of time. You know, if you try to work during the week, it's a little bit tougher because you got a job you're going to. You have other obligations. But the weekends are big chunks of time that you could use. You could use these things to really build a substantial business. Now, in this video, I want to show you exactly how to do that. How to set yourself up for success using the weekends to make some big money. The first thing I'm going to tell you is switch your mindset. Switch your mindset. What you want to do during the week is to set up all the stuff that you're going to need on the weekend to really get stuff accomplished. An example would be maybe you're going to make a website. That's what you choose to do. Well, during the week, when you come home, maybe you want to pick some of your templates. Maybe you want to pick your colors. Maybe you want to gather some of the content and all those things and organize all that so that on the weekend, when it comes time to actually build the website, you have all this stuff together. You don't have to go searching for it and you can get a large amount of stuff done because you're probably going to spend hours on the weekend working on this. During the week, you can spend 15 minutes here and 20 minutes there and just kind of gather all this information that will help you be more successful on the weekend. Next thing you want to do is make your weekdays support your weekends. Now, there's a lot of things that you may be thinking about during the week, but you just can't get them done. You just can't do them. So what you want to do is put all those items into an action list. So during the week, you can do a little bit of brainstorming. I want to show you an example of a list like that. Let's take a look at the screen real quick. And as you see on there, this is a next actions list. So this is somebody here who's working on their website. They have add three new products. That's a simple thing you can do on the weekend. Take new photos of products. That's something you could do. Brainstorm 10 blog post ideas. Write at least one blog post. Set up Facebook tracking pixel on website. Schedule social media posts. Now, all of these items, if you notice, are non-actionable during the week. These aren't things that you could get done during the week, because you get the job, you get the kids, you get all this stuff going on. But you can certainly put these on a list. And these action lists, when you have these action lists, they will help you get stuff done. I know I use action lists all the time. And they remind me of things. It's like, if I don't have an action list, I'm gonna forget I need to do that thing. And that thing's not gonna get done. So put it on an action list. There's so many apps for this now. You can put it in your notes section on your phone. You can use Google Keep. I like Google Keep a lot. You can Google that and it's free. Google Keep is really nice. That's a great thing for action lists. So if you do that during the week and you have those weekdays supporting the weekends, you're gonna get a lot more done. And it starts before the weekend on Friday. Friday is a good day to really, when you get home, kind of reflect on what you got done. Think about what you got done over the previous week. Sit back and reflect on it. See what things are working for you, which things aren't working for you. Just spend five or 10 minutes at this. This is not a real lengthy process.  So let's look at some of the questions you could ask yourself. I'll put them up on the screen here. What were my top wins this past week? Just look at that. If you don't go through this guys and you don't look at the right and the wrongs, it can really stunt your growth as an entrepreneur. Next one up here, what didn't I get done? What did I not get done? Did I say I was gonna do things and didn't get them done? Where did I waste time this past week?  Okay, or you're not really paying attention. So you always have times that you waste time, but let's see if we can minimize that. And what was the best part of the week? Because we certainly wanna do more of that. Now we can put this in Google Docs, we can put this in Evernote, we can put this on Google Keep, whatever you wanna do, but go through this list every Friday and say what's happening? How am I progressing right now? You need to progress. Okay, let's look at our plan of attack. That's super important.  I mean, you just gotta get these things done. These are the top priority things. These are the things you wanna put at the top of your list. These are the things you wanna work on first. Because you may not get to every single thing on your list. I know my list is way bigger than my day is. Okay, so my list is always bigger than my day. So if that's the case, I'm gonna work on the things that have to get done. The next way you wanna look at this, what are the things that get you the most progress? They say that 20% of the things you do account for 80% of your progress. So if that's the case, I wanna try to identify what those 20% are. Now I wanna get this organized. So I'm gonna show you a Trello board so you can kinda look at this and see how this pans out. Check out the screen here real quick. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Now this is a Trello board here. It says Thursday, nothing. Because we're not doing anything Thursday. We're just not gonna do it. Friday reflection, Friday, we're gonna plan out the weekend task. And then Saturday, finish adding products, create new about us page, create a short list of blog websites to pitch to, add Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. Take new product photos, schedule out social media posts, reflect on weekend wins, set goals for the week, and then relax. I've even scheduled relaxing in there guys. So there's a lot of things that we need to get done on the weekend. Now understand you're gonna do this in chunks of time. So maybe from 10 to 12 you plan on doing X and then from one to three you plan on doing something else. Don't get stuck in that rut where you're doing this one thing all day long and you never get to anything else. Unless it's something you have to get done on the weekend. Just work on it. You may have a thousand products you wanna put on your website, but let's say 10 to 12 you're gonna put as many products on as you possibly can. But you're not gonna do it all day long, Saturday and Sunday because there's other things you need to get done. You're just gonna know that you need to stop at 12 and then at one o'clock you can start working on some other tasks. So make sure you're breaking up your weekends that way too. Okay, now one of the biggest problems I see with people on the weekend is they don't stay focused. They gotta stay focused. So there are certain things that will take your focus away from what you're doing.  As a matter of fact, I would shut down Facebook. I would shut down LinkedIn. I would shut down Twitter and TikTok and all those things while you're working on your business. You'll always have time to go back to that. There's nothing earth-shattering happening on any of those platforms that you need to know about. So I would say shut down all those and cut out some of those distractions. Those distractions will steal your weekend. The next thing I want you to think about is the Pomodoro principle. The Pomodoro principle says that you work a whole lot better if you work for a chunk of time and then you take a five-minute break. And you work for a chunk of time, you take a five-minute break. The way they say you should set up is 25 minutes of work, five minutes of relaxation. 25 minutes of work, five minutes of relaxation. I know if I stare at this screen too long, I kinda get blurry-eyed. I can't see things too well. And I lose my focus because I'm just looking at the same thing over and over.  But break it up. Don't work for four or five hours on end. You know, my watch will tell me it's time to stand, okay? If my watch is telling me it's time to stand, then I better stand up and go do something. I'm often tempted to keep working, but I do my best. I go ahead and stand up, walk around, take a little bit of a break. Now we're kinda to Sunday at this point. On Sunday, you know, there's things you gotta do. You gotta run around. You gotta get groceries. You got errands to run. There's things that have to be done. Make time for those things, but make sure you also schedule some time to get your business stuff done too. I do believe that we should work every single day. Some people don't believe that.   I will tell you this. You can make time for your family, your religion, whatever it is you wanna do and still get some work done that day.  But if you wanna do that and that's your belief, I'm not saying anything negative about it. I'm just saying that you can have a nice, healthy mix. I never, well, I don't wanna say never, I've done it. I was gonna say I never worked like an entire day on Sunday from morning to night, but I have when I had a project going on, I had to get stuff done. I've done that. I definitely have done that. But I try not to. I try to leave some time for family, for personal errands and tasks like that. And then at the end of Sunday, I like to start getting organized for the week again. Start setting up my week for success. I will say automations are great anything that you can automate will really help you if you can set up any type of automations. I do live videos during the week. And when I do a live video during the week, I need several things. I have to schedule it. So I have to go into StreamYard. And that has an automation in there because when I schedule it, I can select the social platforms I want it to be on. So I may want it on YouTube. I may want it on Facebook. And I can just click those boxes. I don't have to go to each platform and schedule them. I can also upload my thumbnail there. So I don't have to go to YouTube and upload a thumbnail. It automatically does it in StreamYard. And then I can set up the date that that's gonna go and the time it's gonna go. And it automatically will schedule it on those different platforms. So that helps a lot because it does this automation for me. Any automations that you can do, take advantage of them. Take advantage of technology. I don't know why I hear people say all the time, well, I'm just not that technologically advanced. Well, get advanced. Learn some of this stuff. It's gonna save you time and money and effort, right? Technology does save us time, money and effort. If you use it wrong, yeah, it can eat up your time. But you're not gonna do that, are you? You're gonna do it right. And you know, set up some goals. Have some goals set up that you're trying to achieve. I'll put some up on the screen here. Here's a few of them. I will easily launch my new e-commerce website by Saturday this week. I will easily go to the gym at least three times a week. And guys, gotta go to the gym. You gotta work out. Even if you don't go to the gym, get down to the floor to do push-ups, do sit-ups, you know, do leg lifts, whatever you gotta do. I will easily get 10 sales to my store by Saturday this week. I will easily double my store's weekly traffic from 100 visitors to 200 visitors by Saturday this week. Not only are there goals here, there are specific times, if you know this, guys, specific times. X has gotta be done by Saturday. I have to do, you know, work out three times this week, period. Those are things that are non-negotiable, okay? I think exercise is non-negotiable. I think your health is non-negotiable because without your health, you're screwed, okay? Health is not a gift. It is earned, okay? You're not born with great health. Well, we all are kind of born with great health with few exceptions. But the bottom line is you have to maintain it and you have to earn it. And the only way to maintain it and earn it is to eat, write, and exercise. These things have to be done. I've been trying to explain to people for years, you gotta exercise. I don't wanna exercise. I never wanna exercise. But I do it because I want the results of exercise and that's good health and looking decent, okay? If you don't have good health and you don't look decent, you look like a slob, you look unhealthy, you're gonna get different reactions from people. I can promise you that. They're gonna react differently to you. You are gonna be shunned in a certain psychological way. Get healthy, stop making excuses for your health. Change your opinion of the days of the week too. So many people are like, oh my God, I dread Sunday night, I gotta get ready for work and I dread Monday because I gotta get up and go to work. Hey, Monday is a gift. Monday is a gift. There's a lot of people that don't have Mondays anymore. There's people that aren't with us anymore. They would gladly trade for your Mondays, okay? Make your Mondays count. Be thankful when you wake up in your bed and it's Monday morning and you get to go to work or you get to go to your job or you get to work on your business or whatever. Be thankful. Quit dogging the days of the week. Don't dog the days of the week. Stop that. You gotta stop that. Every day of the week is a precious gift and if you look at it like that and you start changing your way of thinking, guess what? They become precious gifts. I know my wife and I decided a number of years ago that we're lucky people. We're just lucky people. That's the way we are. And I think that's kind of funny, but we've had so much luck since we decided that. Recently, we came to Texas because we wanted to rent a home in Texas. We lived in San Diego and we wanted to rent a house for a year and get the lay of the land and then maybe buy something. As it turned out, we couldn't find a single house to rent that we really wanted, not a single house that we wanted to rent. So before we left town, we looked at some houses that were for sale. We looked at some developments and lo and behold, we found a house we really liked. We put a deposit on the house. We bought the house and here I am nine months later sitting in the house. Now you can say, well you were unlucky at renting a house. Yeah, you could say that. You could say that or you could say, I bought in the market right before it started to boom and my house went up $250,000 in nine months, which it did. I think that's pretty lucky. I think I'm a lucky person, but it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't put forth effort, if I hadn't gone here and tried to do something, okay? So you got to get out there. You got to do things. The more things you try, the more things you'll fail at, the more things you'll be lucky at though. That's the key. I failed at renting a house, but I was lucky and I got a house and it went way up in value. So guys, start appreciating every single day. I hope you appreciated this video. If you did, you can show me by hitting that subscribe button down there, clicking that button, turn that from red to gray. Don't forget, turn on all bell notifications. If you set up your bell notifications, you'll be notified every time I upload a video or I go live. Thanks so much for watching this video. As a gift, there's a course down there, a $97 course you can absolutely free. All you got to do is click and learn. Thank you so much for listening. Put your comments below. Tell me how you got organized. Tell me what you do on the weekends. Tell me what questions you may have and I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks so much for watching this video, guys. I'll see you in the next one. Hey, thanks for watching my video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and click that little bell right there so you can be notified every time I do a new video. Also, click on one of those videos there. Keep watching on my channel.


That concludes General Questions. We turn now to First Minister's Questions and we start with question number 1 from Jackson Carlaw. We have learnt over the last two years that the First Minister has become a great fan of unions. So can the First Minister explain why would it be in Scotland's interests to fracture the one union that matters most to us are on with the rest of the United Kingdom? First minister. Well of course, The The European Union is a union of independent countries and look out it and stood up for Ireland over the past two years. By contrast, as I said to the Prime Minister on the telephone just last night, the United Kingdom Government has ignored Scotland, sidelined Scotland, cast aside Scotland's interests, now stands on the brink, not just of taking us out of the European Union against our will, or taking us out of the single market against our interests. They now stand on the brink of placing Scotland at a real competitive disadvantage with Northern Ireland. That is not an academic or an abstract argument. That will have real implications for jobs and living standards and investment in Scotland. I do not think that the Tories care a jot about that. Of course, it is not so long ago that the Secretary of State for Scotland, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, was saying that if there was a separate relationship with the UK for Northern Ireland, they would resign. Wait, it is David Mundell today. Jackson Carlaw. Order, please. Jackson Carlaw. Let me be absolutely crystal clear. Others may be abandoning their post, but none of us in those benches are going anywhere. We will be staying right here every day, every week holding this First Minister and this Scottish Government to account. Let me be also clear that Ruth Davidson and David Mundell have spent the last year fighting for the United Kingdom. They are not going to take any lessons from anyone else, not any carpetbagger who has come late to the defence of the United Kingdom, and certainly not from this First Minister. First Minister. Can I just try to strike one note of consensus here? I agree with Jackson Carlaw when he says that the Tories are staying exactly where they are. It is called opposition, and they do not deserve to be anywhere else. I always thought that it was a really odd position for Ruth Davidson and David Mundell to argue against Northern Ireland getting a deal that protects their vital interests. Instead of arguing for Scotland to get a similar deal, it was standing up for the DUP rather than standing up for Scotland. Having chosen that red line is really hard to see how they stay in office after today with a shred of credibility. Let me quote the letter from David Mundell and Ruth Davidson just a few weeks ago. Any deal that undermines the integrity of the UK internal market or of the United Kingdom was a red line. They were briefing. That was a resignation issue. Dominic Rabb, the Brexit Secretary, who has been involved in those negotiations, has been very clear that the deal presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom. Esther McVeigh is saying exactly the same. If I was as cynical and as completely self-serving as the Tories, that might take me to vote for the deal, but I am not. What is absolutely unclear to me is how David Mundell or Ruth Davidson can have any other option but to follow through on the principled commitment that they made. Let's see over the course of today whether they have any principle, whether they have a backbone between them. I suspect that that answer is going to be a resounding no. Jackson Carlaw. First Minister, let's be candid with the chamber. You and I have one very particular thing in common. Neither of us is going to be First Minister after the next Scottish election. But I know a woman who will be and I'm just keeping her seat warm. Fracturing the UK internal market is exactly what the First Minister continually proposes. How if Scotland were to have a different trading arrangement from England, then as night follows day, we would create a problem where none currently exists. A border at Berwick. Scotland facing restrictions on a trading market four times as important to us as the EU. How is that standing up for Scotland? How can this possibly help our country prosper? Jackson Carlaw used to have a reputation for half decent jokes. I think that reputation has been completely shattered over the course of this session, but Jackson Carlaw has just stood here and uttered the phrase, no problem currently exists. Is he watching what is happening in the House of Commons right now? The Tory Government is imploding as we speak. People, the length and breadth of the UK are seriously worried about their jobs, about their living standards, all of which are on the line because of the ideology of the Tory Government and the complete shambles that they have made of the negotiation. How dare Jackson Carlaw stand in this chamber and say that there is no problem? Scotland. Let me spell it out to Jackson Carlaw. Scotland faces being taken out of the European Union against our democratic wishes. Scotland faces being taken out of the single market against our economic interests. Now we face being put at a competitive disadvantage to Northern Ireland. That is what the Tories are presiding over. Jackson Carlaw and every single member of the Tory benches should be completely and utterly ashamed of themselves. Jackson Carlaw is the same tired old lines from the same tired old First Minister. You know, this First Minister made her priorities clear the morning after the 2016 referendum result before even the votes have been counted. Her first actions were to get on to her civil servants demanding that they start drafting a bill for an independence referendum. It has been that grudge and grievance agenda that has seen her act in a way that is nothing other than destructive to the negotiations that have been taking place over the last two years. Everything that she has said and done since has been pursued relentlessly with that goal in mind, even now using the history of Northern Ireland with all the desperate turmoil that is involved for her singular political advantage. That is the disgrace today. To turn the First Minister's cliche in its own head, she should be thoroughly ashamed of herself. The First Minister exploiting the coming days to pursue her own goals as she has done over recent months, over and over again, is fundamentally against the country's interests. We need a First Minister acting for all of Scotland. Is it at time that she acted in the national interest, not the nationalist interest? With everything that is going on and acknowledging that, will she now take her threat of a second independence referendum and all the additional disruption that would cause off the table? Will she, yes or no? Talk about tired old rhetoric. There is only one person in this chamber indulging in that today. What an air for Jackson Carlaw to come to this chamber and to talk about the importance of finding solutions for Northern Ireland? It was David Mundell and Ruth Davidson who wrote to the Prime Minister opposing a separate deal for Northern Ireland. All I am asking for is if the Northern Ireland is to get a separate deal for very good reasons—I support that—then Scotland should not be placed at a disadvantage as a result of that. As for Jackson Carlaw's statement that the Scottish Government has been, what was it, destructive to the negotiations? Scotland hasn't been allowed into those negotiations. We haven't had the opportunity to be destructive to the negotiations. I do support remaining in the European Union. I have been consistent about that, but, from day 1, I have put forward compromises. I have put forward the compromise of the UK, staying in the single market and the customs union. I have lost count of the number of times I have asked the Prime Minister to consider that sensible option, but she has been too busy pandering to the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg. I think that the chickens are going to come home to rust on that today, as Jacob Rees-Mogg and his colleagues will probably bring her down. I am pretty confident, because I will put my case to the Scottish people that I will be First Minister after the next Scottish election. I am not confident that the Prime Minister will be in office by the end of today, such as the shambles that she has created of those negotiations. As I said earlier on, she should be ashamed of that. Jackson Carlaw should be ashamed of that, and every single Tory in the country should be ashamed of the mess that they are creating for people, the length and breadth of the UK. Question 2 Richard Leonard Presiding Officer, Theresa May's Government is falling apart before our very eyes. The Northern Ireland Minister, gone. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, gone. Even the Secretary of State for Brexit, gone. So can I ask the First Minister, does she agree with me that it is time for the wretched Tory Government to go as well? First Minister. Richard Leonard Presiding Officer, nothing is more emblematic of this Tory Government's bankruptcy than universal credit. The roll-out of the flawed universal credit is not only socially unjust, it is morally wrong. It is pushing people into poverty, into homelessness and into debt. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has just resigned, and why? Because of David Cameron's arrogance in calling a referendum and because of Theresa May's desperation in making promises that she knew she could never keep. Will the First Minister instruct her Government this afternoon to urgently contact the DWP to press again for the roll-out of universal credits to be halted? First Minister. Richard Leonard wants me to do that. Yes, I will do that, but I have also lost count of the number of times the Scottish Government has contacted the DWP asking for universal credit to be scrapped for roll-out to be halted. Can I make a better suggestion to Richard Leonard? Can I ask that he joins me? We can do it together. This afternoon I will sign a joint letter with him that we write a letter to the Prime Minister if she is still in office or to her successor or to the DWP, and we ask for power over universal credit to be taken out of the hands of the Tories and put into the hands of this Parliament. That is a better suggestion. I know that it is First Minister's questions, but it indulges me in asking Richard Leonard a question. Will he join me in making that call this afternoon? Richard Leonard. First Minister, I have got a better idea. Let's call for a general election. The First Minister and I do not agree on many things, but I think that we do agree that Theresa Mayle's Brexit deal is a bad deal, and that is why Labour MPs will vote against the deal. As I understand it, SNP MPs will do the same. It is my firm belief that this deal will not be agreed to by the House of Commons, that this shambolic Tory government needs to go, and that the people need, more than anything, a general election as a matter of urgency. So First Minister, will you join with Labour to defeat the deal and will you back an early general election? First Minister, I think that we have just had confirmation yet again that Richard Leonard would rather leave powers over welfare in the hands of a Tory Government than bring them back to this Parliament. Shame on him for that. As people suffer under universal credit and all of those welfare cuts, they will look at Labour and wonder why that is the case. It is reasonable to say, if memory serves me correctly, that the SNP made clear—I may get clear to Willie Rennie in this chamber this afternoon—that the SNP MPs would vote against this deal. I think that we did that before Labour did, so it is perhaps Labour joining the SNP. However, I hope that no party in the House of Commons falls for the Prime Minister's spin that it is a case of accepting a bad deal for fear of no deal. No deal is not inevitable if this bad deal is voted down. However, there is one question that remains to be answered. If that happens, what actually is Labour's position on Brexit? Again, I do not know if he has got another question, but perhaps he can enlighten us today. Do they favour a single market in customs union? Do they favour another vote? What exactly would Labour do on Brexit that is different to what Theresa May is doing? I do not have a clue. Maybe Richard Leonard can tell us. We have a number of constituency supplementaries. The first is from Johann Lamont. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. The First Minister is all too aware of the terrible impact of the contaminated blood scandal on so many Scottish people and their families. Indeed, the First Minister has played an important role in seeking to address the disgraceful injustice that so many have suffered, and is critically confirming that she and her Government accepted the moral responsibility to provide support, including financial support, to all victims. A constituent met me this week to highlight her concerns, and those of the Scottish Infected Blood Forum and Hemophilia Scotland about imminent decisions by her Government on financial support, which are in danger of continuing the inconsistent gap in financial support between the advanced as opposed to chronically infected, a gap that is simply unjustifiable. Would the First Minister reflect on the distress that is being caused by reports that decisions to financial entitlement may be determined not by the clear evidence of need, but by pre-determined budget constraints? Given the important role of Scotland in seeking justice for victims, will the First Minister agree to meet me, my constituent and those who have supported victims to ensure that we in Scotland live up to our moral responsibility to all victims of contaminated blood? I thank Johann Lamont for raising an issue. As she says, I have had a long-standing involvement in the issue. It was an issue that I campaigned on when I was in opposition, and I have retained that interest as health minister and laterally as First Minister. I know many of the people who have been affected. I have one in particular constituent of mine that I understand the issues from very clearly indeed. I want to, and the Scottish Government is determined to see justice delivered. I will ask the health secretary to meet with Johann Lamont, where we can discuss where we are in terms of the progress around amended payments, and we can ensure that we listen to the representations that a constituent has made to her and that my constituents make to me. I will ensure that that meeting can happen as quickly as possible. Would the First Minister agree that the decision by Talgo to choose Longannet as a site for their train manufacturing base, creating 1,000 jobs, could be a wonderful legacy for the communities who serve the power station? Does she also believe that reopening the Allwood Unferm in Rail route to passengers should also be part of that legacy for workers and for their communities? I warmly welcome Talgo's announcement. This week, Michael Matheson was in London for that announcement. I met the senior executives of Talgo some time ago to make the case for Scotland, so I think that all of us are delighted that this announcement has been made. It is good news for Longannet and the surrounding area. Mark Ruskell is right to talk about the legacy benefits of that, and transport links will be a key part of that, so we will absolutely consider all of that as we work with Talgo to make the preparations. Obviously, the decision is, to some extent, dependent on that company winning the contract for HS2 that they are bidding for, but we would hope that, regardless of the outcomes of that, we can persuade Talgo to go ahead with that manufacturing site for all of the benefits that we know that it will bring, including the ones that Mark Ruskell raises. Finlay Carson Given the huge success of the Galloway National Park Association conference, with overwhelming support from young and not so young constituents of Galloway and West Dumfries, will the First Minister recognise the work of the Galloway National Park Association and give a commitment to initiate preliminary investigations into the feasibility of a kingdom of Galloway National Park, which can now clearly be seen to have community and local authority support? The First Minister I thank the member for raising the issue. Of course, this was an issue that our late Presiding Officer took a very close interest in and worked very hard to progress. I understand and appreciate the arguments that are made for a Galloway National Park. It is certainly something that we want to give full consideration to, and I am happy to ask the relevant minister to engage with the member and others in an interest to look at how we take those things forward properly. Mark Griffin I want to raise the case of Sebastian Skelton, a 13-month-old infant whose mother, Siobhan, is struggling to get the treatment that he needs from our national health service. Days after he was born, Sebastian developed food intolerances that have now developed considerably. More than a year later, he still has not been seen by the allergy specialist and is still going without an NHS prescription for the medication that he needs. As Siobhan's mother has been forced to take matters into her own hands and sought help from private, specialist doctors in London and Glasgow, having written to the health secretary seven weeks ago to seek urgent intervention and support, I have still to receive a response. Can I ask the First Minister to look into Sebastian's case and give him and his family the help that they urgently need? The First Minister Yes, I will give the undertaking today beyond what Mark Griffin has narrated in the chamber today. I do not know the full details of Sebastian's case, but clearly we are talking about a young baby. I can understand the distress of his parents, and we would all want to see that baby get the treatment that he needs as quickly as possible. I will ask the health secretary to look into it as a matter of urgency and to come back to the member as soon as we have had the opportunity to do so, but I would also ask him to convey my very best wishes to Sebastian and to his family. Question 3, Patrick Harvie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is another day. It is another dose of Brexit chaos. The Prime Minister's deal, so-called, satisfies almost nobody from Brexiteers to Remainers. It is unlikely to pass at Westminster, and the public must ultimately be given the chance to kill off Brexit in a people's vote. However, if the last two years have made anything clear, it is that Scotland's future is best secured as a full, independent EU member state. The First Minister stated in this chamber in summer last year that, at the end of the period of negotiation with the EU, when the terms of Brexit will be clearer, we will come back to Parliament to set out our judgment on the best way forward at that time, including our view on the precise timescale for offering the people a choice over the country's future. Jackson Carlaw might not want to know the answer to that, but I want to know the answer to that, and I do not think that I am alone in wanting to know the answer. Will the First Minister now confirm to us that Scotland will be given that choice and when? I will, as I said, at the time that Patrick Harvie has alluded to. I will come back to the chamber and set out my views on the precise detail of that. When we have clarity, obviously we have now seen the terms of the deal. It remains to be seen whether that makes it a vote in the House of Commons over the next couple of weeks. We will see how that whole sorry saga plays out, and then I will undertake that commitment, as I said, Let me say two things in addition. First, I have no doubt that Scotland will get an opportunity to choose again on the question of independence, and when it does, I am confident that Scotland will choose to be an independent country. The last two years, from the decision that risk taken is out of the EU against our will, to the way in which the Scottish Government is trying to represent the interests of Scotland has been sidelined, to the way in which the powers of this Parliament have been undermined. The case for independence has grown stronger each and every single day. The sooner this Parliament is independent, the sooner this country is independent, no longer at the mercy of Tory Governments who do not have our interests at heart, the better. That time will come, and when it does, I have no doubt that the people of Scotland will choose to be independent. Patrick Harvie Well, the First Minister is right that we have only just seen this deal, and it is conceivable that MPs might vote for it. I think that it is highly unlikely, but there is already, surely, enough clarity to make a judgment, because there is nothing in Theresa May's plan that protects the social, economic and workplace rights that we have, nothing that protects the environmental rights and protections that we have, nothing to guarantee the future rights of EU citizens living here, or our ability to attract more of the people we need for the strength of our economy, the delivery of our public services, or the diversity of our society. There is not a single reference to Scotland either in the withdrawal agreement or in the absurdly simplistic paper on the future relationship. Look, the chaos of Brexit was inevitable, but we also need to face up to the equally inevitable fact that Scotland will only get the strong future relationship that we want with Europe, as the overwhelming majority of people in Scotland voted for. If we get out their campaign for it and persuade people to vote for Scotland to become a full independent EU member country, the Greens are ready to start that campaign, is the First Minister? The First Minister The SNP started a long, long time ago, when I've never stopped campaigning for independence, so my message to Patrick Harvie was what's holding you back. Get out there and make the case for Scotland to be an independent country. Look, I agree with everything Patrick Harvie said there. I think that the case for independence, which I have long thought has been made, has got stronger with every day that has passed over the last two years. In terms of the precise timing of Scotland having that opportunity to choose, I think that people deserve a bit of clarity about what else might unfold over the next period. Are we going to have another general election? Is there going to be a second EU referendum? It is reasonable to wait and allow this to play out over the next few weeks, but there is no doubt in my mind that this country is going to become an independent country and it will be a far more prosperous, fairer and better country when it does. It will be able to choose its own place in the world. It will be able to make its own decisions. Undoubtedly, it will make its own mistakes, but it will not be at the mercy of a Tory Government imposing policies on us that we did not vote for. That will be a far stronger position for this generation and for future generations to be in. We were promised that Northern Ireland would not be affected, but it is. There would be a free trade deal, but there is not. The UK would not be subject to EU laws, but it will be. Our fishing grounds would be protected, but they will not. The biggest lie of all is that there is not £350 million a week for the NHS. The people have been cheated. Can the First Minister think of a single reason why there should not be a people's vote so that we can stop Brexit now? I have made my views on this clear. Willie Rennie and I have had this exchange now many times. If there is a proposal for a people's vote, I think that we should support that. I think that people across the UK should have that opportunity. I guess that the same question that I have posed to Willie Rennie remains. What if the result in a second referendum is the same as it was in 2016? Scotland votes overwhelmingly, probably even more overwhelmingly, to remain in the EU, but the UK is a whole vote to leave. I will posit that again to Willie Rennie. What would he suggest Scotland does in those circumstances? Willie Rennie knows that I think that we can win this people's vote. I want to keep the United Kingdom together and I want to keep us in the European Union as well. The future of this deal could lie in the hands of Scottish Conservative MPs. They have been ignored on fishing, ignored on Northern Ireland, but they still do nothing. They are as useless as a piano in a pigsty, as ministers resign on principle. Where are the principles of the Scottish Conservatives? The Prime Minister said that stopping Brexit is now an option. With the Cabinet divided and the Parliament split, the case for a people's vote grows stronger every day. Now is the best chance. Does the First Minister agree that this Parliament and her Government's first priority should be to secure that people's vote? I have a feeling that there was an insult to pigs somewhere in Willie Rennie's question, but I cannot quite work out where it was, so I probably should not go any further down that road. I would say that if he is right and the future of the deal and the future of the country depends on the 13 Conservative MPs, then we are all doomed. The Conservatives have demonstrated that they do not have a backbone between them and that they will sell Scotland out as quickly as anything. On the issue, I think that if there is an opportunity to stop Brexit in its tracks across the whole of the UK, we should take that. I have no doubt in my mind about that, because the promises that were made in 2016 have been proven to be, in most cases, lies. The negotiation has been shambolic, and we are left in the position that we are in today where there is a bad deal, and the Prime Minister, having spent the last two years saying that no deal is better than a bad deal, is now in the ridiculous pathetic position of saying that a bad deal is better than no deal. If that opportunity to stop in its tracks is there, yes, I think that people across the UK should take that. However, I want to do more than that. I want to make sure that, as well as, hopefully, stopping Brexit in its tracks, we can ensure that, never ever again, is Scotland putting the position of facing something like Brexit against our democratic wishes. A second EU referendum, although it might stop Brexit, does not guarantee that that will be the case. Willie Rennie dodged that question at the first time, but he cannot continue to dodge that question. I will support a people's vote to stop Brexit, but if Scotland yet again finds itself in the position of facing Brexit against it as well, will Willie Rennie support independence so that we can take control of our own future? Thank you. We've got a quite a lot of interest in asking supplementaries. The first is from Stuart McMillan. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Does the First Minister, like me, welcome the U-turn by the UK Government and, at long last, the reduction of the stakes of FOB team machines to £2 will finally be introduced from April 2019? What steps can the Scottish Government also take? Will it help to take to tackle the issue of problem gambling, particularly with young people? Yes, I do welcome the U-turn, although it is long overdue. Let me also take the opportunity to congratulate Stuart McMillan on all of the very good and hard work that he has done on this issue. We've been clear for a long time that action like this is needed earlier this month. The community safety minister wrote to the UK Government expressing concern about the delay in the implementation of the policy. I commend Stuart McMillan and all campaigners on the issue following a sustained and effective campaign for such a move. The Scottish Government encourages any actions that can help to reduce the harmful impact of problem gambling.  Those seeking clinical support will benefit from the work that has been done also through the mental health strategy. The Scottish Government will continue to take action where we can, but we look to the UK Government to take action that is, as I say, long overdue, but I am glad that it is happening now. Today, the first multi-faith remembrance service will be held in Canussy for the soldiers of the British Indian Army whose graves have been discovered there and elsewhere in Scotland. The 13 young men who came to Scotland have been evacuated from Dunkirk during the second world war. They are our forgotten heroes. Ali Bahadur, Barry Share, Dadan Khan, Fuzzal Ali, Khan Muhammad, Khushi Muhammad, Muhammad, Muhammad Sadiq, Mushtaq Ahmad, Mir Zaman, Abdul Rahman, Ghulam Nubi, and Karam Dad. Does the First Minister agree with me that their names should be forgotten no more? There should be a permanent memorial in Scotland to commemorate their lives and that of the 161,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who lost their lives in defence of our country, so that their contribution is remembered for generations to come. I agree with Anna Sarwar and thank him for raising the issue and for raising it in the way that he did. He is right to say that those were forgotten heroes today. As a result of that question, their names are on the official report of the Scottish Parliament and they will be forgotten no longer, so let me thank Anna Sarwar. I welcome the multi-faith remembrance service that is taking place today. That is very fitting and it is an opportunity to remember and to remember with gratitude the contribution of the British Indian Army to the war effort. Of course, we have just passed arms this day where we commemorated the centenary of the end of the First World War and remembered all those who have lost their lives in conflicts throughout the last century. We must make sure that when we do that, we remember everybody. I certainly would be very happy to take forward discussions about the possibility of a permanent memorial and I will ask the relevant minister to contact Anna Sarwar to kick off those discussions as soon as possible. Bruce Crawford, to be followed by Polly McNeill. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Given that it is now clear that the Prime Minister's Brexit deal is dead in the water and it cannot command a majority in the House of Commons, will the First Minister commit to working with others so that we can replace the current Westminster chaos with a common-sense plan to keep Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom in the single market and the customs union? The people of this country who are very worried at this very moment about what is going on deserve a pragmatic and sensible solution. How can the First Minister help? Bruce Crawford is right to say that the deal that the Prime Minister has brought forward is dead in the water. She does not need me to tell her that. Her own benchers have been lining up in the House of Commons this morning to tell her that. Let me say a word about the Prime Minister, because she deserves a degree of respect for the resilience that she has shown and is trying to bring forward a deal that she thought was the right thing to do. I will gladly say that about her, but she has to recognise the reality of the position that she faces. The deal is not going to get through the House of Commons and therefore it is wrong for anybody to suggest that that means crashing out with no deal on 29 March next year is an inevitability. It is not an inevitability. There is now a duty on everyone, principally in the House of Commons, because that is where the decisions are taken, to come together to look at sensible alternatives. I have consistently said that single market customs union membership for the whole of the United Kingdom would be the best possible compromise position. It is not my top preference that I would rather stay in the European Union. However, if we are looking at compromises, that is both the best one and it is also the one—I readily say that there is no guarantee of this—but it is the only compromise that I can look at the House of Commons and actually see a path to a majority for. That is the moment for people to put party interests aside and to come together and find a way through this. Simply blundering on with a deal that is destined to fail is not putting the interests of the country first, and I appeal to the Prime Minister not to do that. Pauline McNeill, to be followed by John Finnie. Thank you. The tragic death of 16-year-old William Lindsay in polemant prison, whilst on remand, raises many sharp questions about our criminal justice system and, in particular, the availability of secure accommodation. I am sure that the First Minister will join with me in offering control assistance to William's family. However, is the First Minister aware that, by all accounts, those who worked with William said that he was crying out for help and that prison was not the right place for a young man who spent his life in care? Can the First Minister explain why the 2016-17 figures show a reduction of 11 per cent in the number of secure places and the complete closure of one unit where 29 per cent declined in the use of residents in Scotland? Does the First Minister agree that, for those reasons and many more, there is a need for an urgent review of the availability of secure accommodation? That is a serious issue that, yes, has to be seriously looked at. The cabinet discussed that at some length in the context of this tragic case just on Tuesday. Let me start, of course, by putting on record my sincere condolences to the family of William Lindsay, who I know is also known as William Brown. I would also take the opportunity to put on record my condolences to the family of Katie Allen, who also died in poemant recently. Humza Yousaf met her family earlier this week, and I am grateful to them for taking the time to attend that meeting and to allow us to hear their views about their dreadful experience. I do not think that any of us can imagine the distress that both families are going through. Clearly, we are determined that any lessons that need to be learned will be learned. All appropriate agencies must look closely at what has happened here. There will be mandatory fatal accident inquiries in those cases, of course, and, while those processes are on-going, I think that it would not be appropriate for me to get into the details of the individual cases. However, what I will say, looking in particular right now at the case of William Lindsay, there are a number of things that I know, as First Minister, that I want to address and make sure that we look at properly. Experiencing the care system, for example, we have the independent review of the care system under way right now. The issue of secure care provision is certainly one of those issues. How we do even more to keep young people out of the criminal justice system altogether and, of course, the issues of mental health support within poemant itself. Those are all issues under the active consideration of the Scottish Government. As I said, there will be mandatory FAIs in those cases rightly so, but we will not wait for that before taking action that we consider is necessary to make sure that any issues here are properly addressed. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The First Minister may be aware of two instances of illegal scallop dredging in protected area of Western Ross. I have consistently raised the issue of maritime protection and enforcement, particularly with regard to the expansion of MPAs and Brexit, and I have been assured that it is under review. Does the First Minister agree with Open Seas that there is now a clear case for robust tamper-proof vessel tracking? I have seen some reports of the instances that John Finnie has raised this morning. I have not yet had the opportunity to look into all the details of that. Certainly, the suggestion that John Finnie is made is one that is worthy of our consideration. I will ask the Environment Secretary to look into the issue in more depth and then contact John Finnie to discuss the matter further. To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government is marking anti-bullying week. Anti-bullying week 2018 provides us with the opportunity to send a clear and positive message that bullying of any kind is totally unacceptable. When it happens, we all have a responsibility to address it. The theme is choose respect, which reinforces the messages of respect, positive relationships and empathy. I encourage everyone to spread that message. I was particularly pleased that, in time for the start of anti-bullying week last Thursday, the Deputy First Minister was able to announce that we have accepted in full the recommendations of the LGBTI inclusive education working group report, including its recommendations on tackling bullying. That is just the latest substantial step forward that we are taking. I am sure that the whole chamber will agree that we must always look to instill the values of tolerance and respect in our children and young people to help them to develop positive relationships. I thank the First Minister for that response. We know that bullying can have an extremely damaging effect on a young person's mental health and, in some tragic cases, can result in suicide or attempted suicide. What can be done to assist schools to better support those who are bullied at school, as well as those who perpetrate bullying, who may also be experiencing difficulties elsewhere? First Minister. Fulton MacGregor is right to raise this issue. We take child and adolescent mental health very seriously. We have discussed in this chamber many times previously the challenges of making sure that services are there in the right places for young people. Our commitment to invest over £60 million in additional school counselling services supporting 350 counsellers will, however, help to ensure that support is in place. Respect for all is our national approach to preventing and responding to bullying incidents. It makes clear that bullying is not just the responsibility of schools, but of all adults involved in the lives of young people, including supporting the child experiencing bullying and the child displaying bullying behaviour. Respect for all includes an expectation that all schools develop and implement an anti-bullying policy, which should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Seven weeks ago, First Minister, you would not agree to a full independent inquiry into allegations of bullying at NHS Highland, given that we are now going to have an independent inquiry. Can you confirm that the Scottish Government will encourage all those that they believe that were bullied, including any that have signed non-disclosure agreements, to give evidence? I would not just encourage, but support anybody who has experience of bullying in NHS Tayside or anywhere else to come forward and discuss their experience. I absolutely agree with that. I hope that all of the chamber will welcome the action that the health secretary is taking, which sends a very clear message that we will not tolerate bullying in any organisation. To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Government has to evaluate the impact on sales of minimum unit pricing of alcohol. First Minister. Scotland's world-leading minimum pricing measure targets the low-cost, high-strength alcohol, which causes so much damage to our communities. It has been in place now for just six months. A reason for introducing minimum unit pricing is specifically to reduce alcohol-related harms. It will, of course, be at least a couple of years before necessary data is available to analyse impacts robustly. Our extensive monitoring and evaluation programme is led by NHS Health Scotland, and it includes examining implementation and compliance, price and product range, alcohol sales and consumption, alcohol-related harm and the economic impact on industry. I look forward to seeing full and robust data when considering the range of impacts that the policy is having. Jamie Greene I thank the First Minister for the confirmation of that on-going monitoring, but she may be aware that, since the legislation came into effect six months ago, sales of one well-known and quite potent drink has increased by 11 per cent, and what some people regard as a trade-off is drinkers' move from one high-strength product to another. We all hope that this is not an unintended consequence of the policy, and whilst it benefited from cross-party support at the time, it was conditional on a sensible sunset clause. That will ensure that a fact-based approach would form the basis of the success, or otherwise, of the legislation. What public health targets were set in relation to the introduction of minimum unit pricing, and are those targets being met? It was to the credit of the Tories, and Jackson Carlaw in particular, if I may say so, that the Tories supported minimum unit pricing. They did so before—I do not even know if Labour still supports minimum unit pricing—but, really, it has not been in place for more than six months yet, and already Jamie Greene appears to be shaping up to criticise it. For goodness sake, let us give it a chance. The sunset clause was put in place—I think that it was Jackson Carlaw that proposed the amendment for that. The Government accepted it. We put in place robust monitoring and review procedures, and all of the indicators around that will be properly monitored. Of course, the experts here point out that it is far too early to judge the success of the policy. We also have seen some indication of a rise in alcohol sales—a substantial rise in sales in England—more than in Scotland, which, if there are any early indications, might be that minimum unit pricing has helped to peg that back in Scotland. I hope that we continue to have the support of the Scottish Conservatives. That is an important policy. It was a brave move of the Parliament to put it in place. I believe that it will work, but let us give it a chance and let us do the monitoring in the proper and full way. Thank you very much. That concludes First Minister's questions. We will move on shortly to members' business in the name of Ruth Maguire on day of the imprisoned writer. Until then, just to allow the gallery to clear and for members and ministers to change seats, we will have a short suspension.


In this video I will present the concept of architectural style or pattern because we will talk a lot about them. Patterns are a means of representing sharing and reusing knowledge. Patterns are kind of the recipes in software engineering and the recipe of an architectural pattern is a stylized description of reusable design solutions to the commonly occurring problems which have been tried and tested in different environments. It's like a chess etude or chess quiz when a situation is presented on the chess board and one needs to find an elegant solution to beat the opponent. The more situations and elegant solutions software engineer already knows the better design decisions one can make. Architectural patterns are similar to software design patterns but have a broader scope. An architectural pattern is more like a strategy when a design pattern is a tactical solution that implements a strategy. Anyway you need to keep in mind that a line between those terms is blurry. Patterns should include information about when they are and when they are not useful. Patterns may be represented using tabular and graphical descriptions. Although we will investigate architectural patterns one by one I want to stress that the architecture of a software system is almost never limited to a single architectural style but is often a combination of architectural styles that make up the complete system. For example you might have an sword design composed of services developed using a layered architecture approach and an object oriented architecture style. We will see many examples in other videos. Most engines like game engines and frameworks use at least several architectural patterns. Here are listed all the architectural patterns that we will investigate in detail except for the last three. The main driven architecture, CQRS and even sourcing. If you will find that architectural patterns are fun and useful take a look at these modern patterns. To summarize, patterns aim to present, share and reuse knowledge. An architectural pattern is a reusable design decision to the commonly occurring problem that has been tried and tested in different environments. The architecture of a software system is almost never limited to a single architectural style but is often a combination of architectural styles that make up the complete system. It is useful to know when specific patterns are useful and when they are not. You always can investigate the details of the patterns later. You know what to look for. So let the fun begin. Thank you for watching.


Next up we have a presentation titled Permissionless Consensus to Infinity and Beyond by Patrick Lamby and Manette from the University of Paris. So I'll let you take it from here. To share today, I propose, well, it's already quite late here. I propose going with something slightly lighter in content and beyond what we've seen in terms of topics so far. So during my PhD, I worked a lot at the intersection of distributed consensus as this very traditional in computer science and distributed computing and applied math where they also have different kinds of consensus systems and trying to make those two models talk to each other. And that gave me a lot of idea about, among other things, what blockchain could learn from the systems and my talk today is about that. And also about one of my pet peeves, which is that according to Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin solves the Byzantine general problem or classical consensus or atomic broadcast. And I'm going to try to argue that that's actually not what it does. And I find it very annoying when people talk about this, about it this way on the internet. If you need to take one thing out of this talk, it would be that Bitcoin does not solve the atomic consensus problem, the atomic broadcast problem and probably a small something like an atomic problem that I'm going to present next. One starting point of the theory I'm going to present is the first paper in 1974 called, Reaching the consensus. And what he considers is a group of experts trying to reach agreement on correct opinion on something. And to do this, they exchange and then reflect and then exchange again and then reflect and the way he models that is a very simple mathematical model where they have an initial opinion and then in rounds, they weigh each other's opinions according to how much they trust one another and then that forms a new opinion and you just iterate over that process. So there's an equivalent metric form with a fixed matrix A and then a vector X and X of T is just the matrix A applied to the vector X of T minus one. And A is the stochastic matrix which means that the updates are convex. And the code gives a very simple theorem. That's actually a much older theorem in math that if the matrix A to the power of N has a positive problem with all positive entries, then the opinions asymptotically converge to the same value. And that leads me to define the asymptotic consensus problem which is, I'm going to give you the presentation like we find in traditional computer science. So there's the convergence property with all opinions converging to one final value and then there's the vanishing disagreement property where the distance between any two values two opinions vanishes over time and then there's the validity property where all opinions always say between the minimum and the maximum input opinions. That's the starting point but there's been many other applications using the same kind of model. So there's opinion dynamics as is in the host model but also is very used in everything modeling how to coordinate clocks of robots and collective motion and specific problems while flocking rendezvous coverage protocol. All those are specific problems that this refers to. And then a lot of synchronization problems for clocks and also this is used to model natural systems like cells, especially seismic cells for instance or flux of birds orienting in the sky. That's more of a motion coordination problem but it's a natural one. Overall, anything that pertains to the synchronization of control system falls into that category. And then distributed data aggregation especially in sensor networks it's a model that's used very much and distributed load balancing and distributed signal processing and data science application in a distributed context. And so all of these applications share a similar set of properties. Well, a big set of each time. So they are concerned with low powered agents especially when we look at cells or autonomous nodes in remote networks. One of the aspects of this being low powered is that agents typically do not have personal identities or do not possess global information like the number of nodes or the degree of the network of things like that. So in a way it's another sort of permissionlessness not because new agents can enter the system but because they don't have identities. It's okay to be approximate. Not everyone needs to have the exact same behavior so long as it remains within a range of error that's acceptable. On the other hand, things should go fast. When you're trying to synchronize clocks you want them to be running so that your application can start. And then a consequence of that is that you should be making regular progress and it's more important to be making regular progress towards a goal than to wait and be absolutely sure that you're correct. To discuss extensions to the host model, well, there's been a lot of work in the kids' sense but I'm going to focus on dynamic graphs which is the fact that you have a partial communication graph whereas in the host model all experts communicate with one another and this partial communication graph is subject to changing over time. And also you're going to have dynamic weights, A because maybe you've lost communication and also because you may want to adapt weight over time. And so the general shape of the update is this one. Agent I takes as new value the weighted average of the old values of his neighbors in round T. And so I'm speaking in rounds but these models actually are fairly tolerant of ethnicity. It's just that it's much more comfortable to express them in a synchronous context. We have a few theorems, there's many, many theorems about the systems but a few that are very important is that if you have a system with bidirectional interactions then you're going to get a synthetic consensus whenever the network never goes into a permanent split. So if regardless of how long it takes some agents ends up hearing from another one at all times then eventually you'll read some sort of consensus and that's modulo some small technicalities that I don't want to get into. And then another one is that for non-bedirectional networks if the network has a radius, so that means if some node is able to broadcast in a constant time all the time and that node maybe changes then this agreement also vanishes geometrically. And what this means is you should be thinking of maybe go back to physics, high school physics. So if you've got a circuit with a resistor and a capacitor it's regulated with a first degree linear differential equation. So the solution is an exponential and you see this nice little curvy shape. And so you've got an exponential decrease of the tension at the extremities of the resistor. And maybe some of you are already seeing what I'm going with this. So just to give it a little more picture things a little more clearly, this is a figure from a recent paper of mine. And on the right side you actually see a pathological example where this characteristic time before convergence is very, very long. It's exponential in the number of nodes whereas on the right side it's much faster. But on both sides you see this smooth exponential contraction of this agreement. We all know that it's got three main properties. One is that all nodes should decide. The other one is that if they've decided then the decision should be the same. And then the validity condition is that the decision should belong to the input of the nodes. And I'm not putting any sets here because, well, the specific condition depends on the problem. If you're considering Byzantine problem for instance you maybe don't want the input to be among the input proposed by the malicious nodes. And it's a very hard problem because it's basically undoable if you've got spacing for the systems and if you've got more than a third of Byzantine faults it's not doable either. Just to give you a feeling of what a solution to this problem looks like in Beno's consensus, a randomized consensus algorithm nodes keep trying to find a majority or supermajority for the Byzantine case of similar opinions. And if the third one they just re-broadcast it and then if enough nodes have re-broadcasted this opinion to go above the Byzantine quorum threshold then they decide on the value. Otherwise they propose again random value and try again to go through the protocol. And the one thing I wanted to say about this algorithm is that you see that it is valid and unanimous if decisions happen. And the one thing is decision may actually fail to happen but they happen with probability one and that's the tricky part of the proof in the algorithm. Let's compare this to Bitcoin because in Bitcoin you've got miners who try to expand the chain and how the players, the definition of what the object of consensus is is the longest chain, right? Safety is supposed to come from the fact that if prefix of the chain is very deep then it's hard to reverse. But there's always a non-zero chance of getting it re-written because maybe we're very, very unlucky and an adversarial player even if he doesn't have any overpowering power or computing power just gets very lucky and is able to rewrite the entire chain. So that's very unlikely but non-zero event. More importantly for us, the safety of the agreements meaning the fact that my chain is a prefix of a future chain and so the transactions that are in it are valid depends on the system keeping being online all the time forever. That was Victor's point. So it's a never-ending process. And I just wanted to point out to you the similarities between this safety condition and its specificity. So the one informally explained by Satoshi in his paper that the probability of rebooking a prefix that's K blocks deep is diminishes internationally in K. It's actually very infested in paper because it doesn't say exactly what the conditions are but what it kind of looks like is especially with the fact that blocks are that linearly in time to the chain that if over some periods you've got a harness majority and that your chain remains a valid prefix of the chain during that period then you kind of have this explanation of the potential decrease in the probability of getting your chain rebooked. It kind of looks exactly the same as before as the kind of behavior that you observe in asymptotic systems. So that's what I wanted to say. It's kind of not so atomic broadcast because don't decide one and then stop. They actually elect a value that's going to be the decision for the time being and it can change in the future and the system needs to stay up forever if they want to hope this value to remain correct forever. What it would mean to solve atomic broadcast is not clear because in a permission the system maybe almost that were presented at the time at the beginning left and were replaced. And so what does it mean to select a value among the inputs is not well-defined. And what it does do is over segments of time it hopefully gives some this property of the probability of your prefix being rebooked diminishing with time exponentially. And so the method point of all this is when we're thinking about guarantees provided by systems by blockchain systems maybe we shouldn't be looking at two half problems like BFT but because these are very hard to solve but instead maybe getting solutions from this kind of problems which are much easier to solve and might still be useful for practical application. Thank you.


SOMISI on criticism, imagine if I apologized for the talents I've been blessed with. As the storm around his latest cooking talk show rages on, SOMISI has penned an open letter addressing criticism and those who may not be as strong and thick-skinned as he is. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday evening, the Idols essay judge shared a message to those who found themselves bogged down by hate, saying that it's important to not give up on your goal and distinguish between a hateful or jealousy-driven or constructive criticism. He brought it back to his own life, asking what would have happened if he had let the hate stop him from grabbing every opportunity he got. Imagine if I believed everyone I heard or everything I, was told. Where would I be? he asked. He then recounted all the gigs he had got since Seraphina, saying he never would have landed them if he was apologetic about his talents. Imagine if I apologized for the many talents I've been blessed with. I would have ended in Seraphina. I'd never have choreographed Ms. S.A., Ms. World, the World Cup opening and closing ceremonies. I'd never have hosted the SOMIS three times in a row. I never would have been a judge on Idols essay, a radio host on Metro FM, the face of a makeup brand, an author, singer, entrepreneur, TV presenter. SOMIS also revealed that he is working on a cookbook and said he will continue to do anything he wants. The star dominated the Twitter trends list earlier this week after he announced his latest project, a cook slash talk show. While some were excited at the project, others accused him of being greedy. They said there were other far more deserving chefs that could have landed cooking shows. SOMISU responded to the criticism, saying that his haters forget the work he has put in. They just need to put in the work to even be in the same conversation as SOMISU. You forget that this man has hustled and put in the work for decades. SOMISU wasn't built in a day.


Welcome! This is the beginning of your journey at TSE, but this is also where your career starts. The friendship you will develop at TSE will set you up for success with your professional network in the future. The TSE Alumni Association is here to help you connect to those that are already a few steps ahead and to support you with your career choices. There are currently more than 2800 TSE alumni all over the world. Meet Sarah who graduated in 2016 and now lives in Sydney, Australia. Hi and congratulations for making it into TSE. You will be difficult, you will have to work hard, but it will be worth it, some of my fondest memories up in at TSE. Since I moved to Australia I received a lot of messages from students and alumni interested in moving here. This is what the alumni network is about. We help each other out. There is no TSE community without you. We will help each other out as much as we can and we can't wait to meet you at our future events. So join the TSE alumni network website, fill out your profile and start connecting. Welcome on board!


Mind-centered action, or as I call it, mind-guided action, is the key to human flourishing. All of those things that the brain, as an organ of homeostatic self-regulation can do, aren't enough, right? The neural systems, the brains, the consciousness of other creatures is sufficient for their survival and indeed for their flourishing, for reproductive success, for finding food, for creating shelter. Humans, you don't want to rely just on those automatic functions of your brain. You've actually got to assert conscious control of your brain to do any of the really important stuff that adds to the value of your life. So, if the brain isn't the best thinking organ, it's probably because we're unable to survive via this auto-regulation. Thinking, however, thinking in the way that I mean slow, hard, effortful, consciously directed thought that in the end is uncertain, right?  It can oversecrete or undersecrete. It can raise your respiration too much. It can raise your heart rate not enough, et cetera. But generally speaking, its automatic responses to the situations are appropriate. Even if you're dysregulated because of some external stimulus or because of some internal pathology, it nevertheless is responding in the way that it's designed to respond. Thinking, however, is uncertain. You can mess up. You can think the wrong conclusions. You can come up with the wrong answers. And so you need to exert much more conscious control over how you do this.  And if you look at the real estate of the brain, right, how much tissue is there, how many neurons, axons, all the rest of their brain, very little of it is dedicated to this conscious thinking. You have to be very, very intentional about it. And it's driven by your value orientation. What are you actually seeking? Brains, as I said, in the absence of any kind of external distortions or internal pathology, brains as automatic regulators are working in your interest. They're actually choosing the things.  They're not going to throw your hormonal regulation off in the absence of any kind of bad stimulus or internal pathology. They're going to respond exactly how they should respond. Thinking? Man, people can screw up what they're thinking and they can do all kinds of things that are incredibly bad for themselves.  A lot of the things people are doing consciously are really bad for them. So the reality is most people are pretty bad at the habit of actual conscious deliberate thought. Why? Well, because it's hard, it's effortful, it's uncertain, but it's also because in a very fundamental way, this is not possible. You just say, okay, well, like, let my brain take care of all those other functions. Let me take care of the thinking. Everybody will be happy. I'm like in the driver's seat of this chariot that is my, you know, my body. I'm going to do all the thinking. But again, you can't. A good example of this is thinking about what happens when you go to a foreign country where you barely can get by in the language. Maybe you don't even really understand the language, but you at least know a few phrases so that you can order food and do things like this. And think about what kind of effort is required for you to do even the most basic tasks. You have to think through what are these foods? What am I about to order? What am I doing? Am I following the proper cultural protocol? Am I following the proper language protocol? And it becomes very, very difficult. And at a point when you're a tourist in a foreign country where you don't know the language, you don't really know the culture, you become exhausted a lot more easily, cognitively exhausted. It's hard work thinking through every step that you normally would just do automatically walking through any American city. And so that hard work ultimately can't be possible every day all the time. So we develop heuristics. We develop algorithms. Basically, we develop shortcuts to help us do the things that we do every day. And the problem is these shortcuts, these habits of thought or these ways of solving the same problem or the same kinds of situations over and over again can lead to a very, very characteristic error. The danger is when heuristics, habits of thought become biases. They become ways that we actually short-circuit the process of reasoning. So the best understanding of this is one convention returning speaker from Austin, Texas 2012 and actually Anthony Johnson, the CEO of the 21 convention said it's one of his favorite speeches. The Austin, Texas one and let's hope this one is two. Eric Daniels, let's do it. Alright, thanks. Alright guys, hopefully you're fully caffeinated and ready to go. The two systems model. Okay, and this is basically what I'm talking about with the two ways that you can forget about the auto-regulation of the brain. That's primarily what the brains work. Once you start thinking, there's really two systems he says that you can think incredibly, incredibly distorting. So one of these is the illusion of precision. Had this result and therefore it's going to apply to this group. You see this all the time and not the least of which is mice or lab rats or whatever comparing to humans, but even different groups of humans with different ages, different profiles, etc. Prince Businesses to Great Businesses published this book, claimed that he understood everything that the CEOs and leadership teams did to make them great, published the book, made lots of money, and guess what?


Shane Steichen is now the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. We got our guy. I saw a video of him talking to the boys in a team meeting or the night before a game. And he had been taking over play calling duties I think since week five last year. And he did not get a lot of credit for that publicly. I did not know that literally until like yesterday when he and Rapport told us that. Everybody assumed in myself included that Siriani was the mastermind behind that offense. Steichen has been the guy that has taken Jalen Hurch from where he was to where he is and what that team was able to accomplish. Obviously they do the first team in the history of the NFL to score 35 points in a Super Bowl and lose. Jalen throws for 300 runs for another two touchdowns. I mean that offense very efficient, very talented. And in a team meeting I saw Shane Steichen say it starts tomorrow. So he says the word I love this guy. Huge. I love his energy. I love his resume. I love his success. And I love what we're going to do here in Indianapolis.