Non-violent Communication

by Sean Aubin at University of Tokyo

People are an unavoidable part of life. Humans have a natural tendency to want to be with other people and we often need help to pursue the things we value. So you’d think we would have developed a better way of working together that didn’t usually end up with people getting angry and hurt, or worse never being able to feel connected to anyone you’re around at all.

Marshall Rosenberg tried to fix our ability to understand each other. He developed this system called Non-Violent Communication (NVC), which he used in a ton of different conflict situations, ranging from couples therapy to negotiating peace between warring states. There are a bunch of ways to approach and describe NVC, but today I’m going to talk about it like a system or a strategy that you can use and adapt as part of your “emotional toolbox”. So the next time you’re in a situation where there’s a lot of strong emotions, like “anger” or “sadness”, you can think about NVC and maybe it will help you.

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Graphs Graphs Graphs

by Jack Gao at Christina’s House

A talk based on Edward Tufte’s book “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”. In the history of graphs, some are exceptionally good at representing their information, others use trickery to mislead readers. Graphs should include a certain degree of context to fairly represent the big picture. You’ll be surprised at the range of information that graphs can effectively represent! (Train schedules, Napoleon army’s size and how it correlates to the temperature and the army’s proximity to Russia)

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How to Get Started with DJing

by Anastasia Sa at Christina’s House

An overview of the user interface of a DJ software that integrates with Spotify. The talk also demo-ed a real DJ mixer and how the buttons correspond to the different functions on the DJ software. DJs use the software and the mixer to edit tracks such that two overlapping tracks can sync to the same key and tempo. The software and mixer also allow for seamless transition from one song to the next.

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