Photo: fizkes (Shutterstock)

I was on a sales call once and at a crucial moment a senior salesperson asked the customer if our service was meeting their needs. There was just silence on the other end of the line. A Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Nothing. Maybe the customer didn’t hear the question? Four Mississippi. Five Mississippi.

Sensing that I might throw in, the seller raised his hand to stop me. Finally, the customer responded. I had just experienced my first “golden silence” – a sales technique used to lead a conversation to a solution. Here’s how it works and how to tell when you’re using it.

This is how the golden silence works

The “golden silence” is a Sales concept developed by Miller Heiman, a sales training company. In practice, it’s very simple: after you’ve asked a question, wait at least four seconds for the answer (or longer, depending on the situation). It’s “golden” because, as the company puts it, a well-placed silence “vastly improves the quality and quantity of information the seller receives”.

Why should that be? People find pauses in conversation so uncomfortable that they can be subtly encouraged to break the silence. research found that this phenomenon is particularly acute in English speakers, as they feel unsettled after about four seconds of silence (for Japanese speakers it is twice as long). Plus, a sales pitch is really about understanding the customer’s needs, something that doesn’t happen when the salesperson has the whole conversation. A well-placed conversation can ensure that the customer is really heard. It’s like the old saying, “Slower, you’ll get there faster.”

How a golden silence can also help when negotiating

Well-placed silence isn’t just for sales pitches as it can be useful in pretty much any situation that requires negotiation. Since it is hard to read people’s minds, staying silent while negotiating can signal a position of strength, a willingness to leave a negotiation if you prevail. Also, if the other party is not speaking, they may rush to fill the void by saying things that are not fully thought out and maybe even jeopardize their position. The BBC has a good example of how this can work:

Katie Donovan sticks to the adage “first speak, lose”. At the beginning of her career, the founder of the US consulting firm Equal Pay Negotiations conducted an interview for a position in sales and was offered this on the spot. When the interviewer mentioned a salary, she said she would get back to him next week and then sat still. He raised the offer. She repeated her tactic. Eventually he made a third offer, 20% more than the first. She accepted.

G / O Media can receive a commission

Don’t overdo the golden silence

The golden silence is a bit of a one-trick pony. When it works well it can either strengthen your position or spark discussion, but when overused it can be annoying and manipulative for the other party, especially if they are aware of the tactics. Instead of viewing silence as a gimmick that will “win” a conversation, consider it a way to communicate more effectively, especially if you’re an undisciplined speaker who loses ground by talking too much.

A dedicated web browser app is one of the few PlayStation 4 features Sony hasn’t brought to the PlayStation 5 – at least not officially.

It turns out there is a built-in web browser on the PS5. As you navigate through the PS5’s menu, you’ll come across a range of web browser settings – including options to clear cookies, change Javascript settings, and more. So where the hell is it and how do you use it?

Accessing the browser is not difficult; You can open it in several places from the console’s settings menu, such as: B. by going to the online user manual at. access Settings> User Guide, Health and Safety and Other Information> User Guide. It can also appear in-game to load announcements, user agreements, and other documents.

Unfortunately, the browser doesn’t include an editable URL bar (or most of the other modern browser features) so you can’t use it to navigate to other websites.

That said, there is a way to open pages and browse the web on PS5. The trick is to link your Twitter account and access web pages through your Twitter feed, as follows:

1. Press and hold the PS button on the PS5 controller to bring up the menu.
2. Scroll over and select that settings Symbol.
3. Go to in the settings menu Users and accounts> Link to other services.
4. Select Twitter from the list, then “Connect account.” This will open the Twitter login page in the PS5’s browser.
5. Sign in with your Twitter account.

Once you are logged in, you can open links from your Twitter feed and the pages or media will load in the browser. Although you still can’t paste a URL, you can use this workaround to link yourself on the web. Note that some pages may not load at all, or load slowly at first – but there are ways that things may be faster (if only slightly).

G / O Media can receive a commission

Screenshot: Brendan Hesse

1. Go to Settings> System> Web Browser.
2. turn on “Allow cookies” and “Enable Javascript.”

Disabling these settings is better for your privacy, but they can help some pages display properly and load faster when enabled.

Speaking of privacy, the PS5’s web browser menu also offers settings to prevent cross-site tracking and clear cookies and website data. These settings imply that Sony expects users to open pages beyond user guides and social media login screens despite the current limited functionality of the browser. It is possible that the app could evolve into a full-fledged web browser after a future update, allowing users to browse the web on the PS5 just like they did on the PS4, but for now it’s at least a new way to load links, if you happen to be using Twitter on your PS5.

To be fair, most people don’t need a web browser on their game console – their phones or computers will likely be right next to them while they are playing, and you can always download the YouTube app or other streaming apps like Hulu if you want to watch something on your PS5. That said, there will surely be someone out there who really wishes the PS5 had a dedicated web browser, and that’s the closest thing to that for now.

[TechRadar]

Installing a beta on your device gives you access to new features and changes before almost anyone else on the platform. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and most other tech companies have an open beta for their users that they can sign up for when needed. However, installing a beta on your phone, laptop, or tablet is not risk-free. In fact, if you do this, you might lose all of your data.

What are betas really for?

Beta programs are designed for two main purposes, depending on the type of software used. The most common reason is to test unfinished programs for errors or other instabilities. If the tested software is an operating system such as Android or iOS, beta tests also offer app developers the opportunity to get to know the new software and test their apps with it.

Betas are inherently unstable. The company that makes the beta software doesn’t expect it to run smoothly. In fact, it expects the opposite – it wants to know what is wrong with the software so that it can fix these issues before it is officially released.

Therefore, if you choose to download and install a beta version on your device, you are choosing to use unfinished, unstable software. You have to take the risk of encountering bugs that affect day-to-day performance, app compatibility, and even your ability to use your device in the first place.

G / O Media can receive a commission

Can’t you just uninstall a broken beta?

Well you can, but it’s not pretty. In order to uninstall a beta operating system from your device and downgrade to the latest official version, you need to do two things: remove the beta and install a new version of the stable software. In short, you need to fully restore your device, sacrifice all the data on it.

(The Apple Watch is the big exception to this rule –Our explainer explains why you can’t uninstall a watchOS beta.)

Can you recover your data after uninstalling a beta operating system?

Well, it’s not all bad. As long as you have backed up your data before installing the beta version, you can use this backup to restore your device. However, if you made a backup during the beta, you will not be able to restore that backup because you will be running a different version of the software on your device after downgrading.

For example, let’s say you have this iOS 15 beta run on your iPhone. You will remove the beta profile and restore your iPhone to iOS 14.7. If you have a backup of your iPhone that you made on iOS 14.7, you can fall back on it and only lose the data that you accumulated while running the beta. However, if you created a newer backup while running iOS 15 beta, that backup will be inaccessible while iOS 14.7 was running.

There is an exception to this for data that is tied to cloud accounts such as iCloud or Google and that fills your device when you log into your account, as well as files that you back up to external sources such as an external hard drive or a cloud Drive. You should still be able to access all data within these services, but not your full device backup.

How can I protect my data before installing a beta?

If you’re okay with taking the risks of installing beta software, there are a few best practices that you should follow to keep your data safe, some of which we’ve already touched on:

• Back up your device immediately before installing the beta software.
• Back up your data in accounts and cloud services when available. Use for example Messages in iCloud to tie your messages to your Apple ID; Keep your notes and reminders with an account like iCloud or Google. The takeaway here: Try not to store any important information exclusively on your device.
• Back up other important information to external sources: use a cloud drive like iCloud, Google Drive, or OneDrive to store individual files, or get the same result with an external hard drive.

Which data is not at risk when installing a beta?

Not all data needs to be micro-managed. Many of the third-party apps you use have your data tied to your account and not to your particular device. Some examples:

• Instagram stores all of your posts and DMs on your account.
• Snapchat keeps your memories tied to your account.
• WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and most messaging apps save your chat history with your account.

If your data is saved this way, it will instantly reappear when you reinstall the apps on your device after downgrading. The same thing happens when you log into these services from a new device, so you don’t have to worry about data loss when erasing and resetting your phone, for example.

Stay safe out there, beta tester!

This week is all about forbidden knowledge, so read on for a look inside the hidden worlds of YouTube celebrities, superhero sexuality, fast food fries, and the White House itself.

Celebrity You’ve Never Heard Of Before: Emma Chamberlain

You’ve probably never heard of it Emma Chamberlain, but the 20-year-old has nearly 20 million followers on her YouTube and Insta, a hit podcast, and millions of dollars, and she did everything by being authentic.

While most internet influencers spend a lot of time and money presenting themselves in a perfect light and carefully controlling every aspect of their personal brand, Chamberlain lets it all hang out. She wears no makeup, her hair is messy, she doesn’t censor her strangest thoughts, and her videos are shaky real documents shot on her iPhone instead of cleverly produced self-promotion. The children identify with her.

Chamberlain’s newest video, Changes, is a 20-minute excerpt from life in Emma’s world, where she says to the camera: “I’m the worst with avocados” and “in most of my pants it’s like a limp town in my buttocks region”. and “I love wearing a hat, but I get the next level of sweaty forehead.”

G / O Media can receive a commission

If I ignore the fact that her “authenticity” is made up as much as anything else, I have to admit that Emma’s videos really feel like hanging out and talking to a 20 year old; mainly because they make me scream, “Jesus, who cares?” Then I remember that other 20-year-olds clearly care and that boys’ narcissism is a necessary step in forging an identity and realizing how little you count.

This week in Memes: The Delta variant is coming for your autumn plans

This week’s hot meme on the internet sheds light on the rise of the delta variant of COVID-19. And this is how it works: You label a picture of a hopeful thing – let’s say a figure from a film or a historical figure – with “My Autumn Plans”, then label a second picture “The Delta Variant”, which shows the thing, the Brings tragedy. So a southern plantation could be called “My Autumn Plans” and Sherman marches to the sea would be “the delta variant”. (In practice, it’s funnier than the description, trust me.) Anyway, here are some from my Favorites.

This week in the comic: Robin likes men

It’s not exactly a surprise – I mean, they call him “Boy Wonder” – but it turns out that Batman’s pal Robin likes other men. The third “Robin” in particular, Tim Drake, is bisexual. Drake, who has supported Batman since 1989, can be seen in the comic book anthology Batman: Urban Legends, and in issue # 6, Drake goes out with another boy and confesses his feelings – gay feelings. Drake joins Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, and Loki as superheroes who enjoy same-sex relationships. I don’t want to spread rumors, but I’m pretty sure Aquaman is playing both sides of the fence, too.

This week in TikTok Trends: Sisterhood Girl Invasion

I love using TikTok to examine weird subcultures that I avoid all my life, such as college girls inciting student unions at the University of Alabama. The almighty TikTok algorithm (praise its name) started serving a boatload of would-be Greeks from ‘bama this week, with PNM (potential new members) uploading videos of themselves showing theirs OOTD (Outfit of the day) detailed the Brands that wear them, Parties they go to, and otherwise very… being blonde. You are so blonde.

As you’d probably expect, TikTok’s non-Greeks first responded by asking, “Why are all these stupid freaks on my feed?” then “what the hell is”Trouser shop?” doing then hilarious parody Videos. Anyway, check out the madness of the #BamaRush and #AlabamaRush tags on TikTok.

This week in the food: How the fries are made at Five Guys

We continue our look at forbidden knowledge and now go to TikToks @Maezthegreat who made a couple of videos that reveal the secret behind Five Guys French Fries. Most shocking finding: you are making french fries right.

Five guys don’t thaw a company-approved starch slurry and stick it in two-day-old fat. You take real potatoes, cut them into slices, put them in a tub of water to remove dirt and starch, then soak them in the deep fryer for two minutes.

You’d think they’d be put in a paper bag and I’ll eat them, but no. Here they are waiting. Then when someone orders something, they are fried again. Once fried, the cook shakes the basket exactly 15 times to remove excess fat, adds a little salt, then I eat them. Then the regret.

Viral Video of the Week: Benny Drama Promotes Gen Z Vaccinations

In its ongoing effort to get young people to take the stupid vaccine already, the federal government has teamed up with Gen-Z influencer Benny Drama. In his role as “Kooper the Intern,” Drama visited the White House this week, wreaked havoc and shot hilarious video Video. In it, Kopper works for press spokesman Jen Psaki. Cooper asks, among other incompetence, whether Olivia Rodrigo is still there and a petrified face psaki says “no”. (Our press secretary is an excellent straight woman.) It ends with “Get the vaccine, ya damn kids,” as you’d probably expect.

As would be expected, the flamboyant personality of Drama reads as “gay” to our nation’s Conservatives who have widely distributed the video. Even the idea that it would prevent some Discouraging people from getting vaccinated so they are unlikely to become gay. Better to inject yourself with bleach like the last man suggested I think.