“Journalist and policy analyst Chideya tackles how to survive in a time of broadening inequality and dwindling job market prospects…The Episodic Career is part policy summary, part journalistic narration, part self-help book” (The Guardian). Award-winning author Farai Chideya provides a “must-read for anyone seeking to navigate the new world of work” (bestselling author Daniel Pink) in this “smart and savvy” (Publishers Weekly), clear and accessible guide to finding your best, most fulfilling work in an age of rapid disruption. Understanding how America is working (and not working) is a critical first step to finding your best place in the employment world. Chideya brings her extensive research and her own solutions to work/life balance in The Episodic Career, an accessible manual to help you chart your course in the workplace, use your skills, and find your “sweet spot” within the variety of independent and corporate work structures today. The Episodic Career is a powerful new tool for determining success on your own terms. “Numerous interesting stories about people in a wide range of careers…are woven through this well-written book, which has at its center a Work/Life Matrix that… will help you ‘Know yourself, set your goals, play by your own rules’” (BookPage).

“Journalist and policy analyst Chideya tackles how to survive in a time of broadening inequality and dwindling job market prospects…The Episodic Career is part policy summary, part journalistic narration, part self-help book” (The Guardian). Award-winning author Farai Chideya provides a “must-read for anyone seeking to navigate the new world of work” (bestselling author Daniel Pink) in this “smart and savvy” (Publishers Weekly), clear and accessible guide to finding your best, most fulfilling work in an age of rapid disruption. Understanding how America is working (and not working) is a critical first step to finding your best place in the employment world. Chideya brings her extensive research and her own solutions to work/life balance in The Episodic Career, an accessible manual to help you chart your course in the workplace, use your skills, and find your “sweet spot” within the variety of independent and corporate work structures today. The Episodic Career is a powerful new tool for determining success on your own terms. “Numerous interesting stories about people in a wide range of careers…are woven through this well-written book, which has at its center a Work/Life Matrix that… will help you ‘Know yourself, set your goals, play by your own rules’” (BookPage).

Are you Future Ready? McKinsey, the global consulting firm, estimates that between the present and 2030, 75 to 375 million workers need to switch jobs that will require new skills and new education just due to automation and tech disruption: “In terms of magnitude, it's akin to coping with the large-scale shift from agricultural work to manufacturing that occurred in the early 20th century in North America and Europe, and more recently in China. But in terms of who must find new jobs, we are moving into uncharted territory. Those earlier workforce transformations took place over many decades, allowing older workers to retire and new entrants to the workforce to transition to the growing industries. But the speed of change today is potentially faster. The task confronting every economy, particularly advanced economies, will likely be to retrain and redeploy tens of millions of midcareer, middle-age workers.” In this book, we explore the Future of Work and how it’s going to affect all of us in critical ways. We look at Disruption Rules through the lens of paradigm shifts, disruptive forces, and VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity). We look at what causes these changes, why it matters to you the reader, how it impacts you, and most importantly, what you can learn and do as a result of these disruptions. The main title of this book is Working It. As the title implies, Working It can be what you do to earn a living or what you do to have fun or how you live your life. In other words, Working It is all the stuff you do that have meaning and value for you. So when you go through this book, you’ll notice that many of the stories go beyond what you do at the place that provides you income. We focus on the meaning and things that are important to your Working It - Disruption Rules. When there’s a disruption, most of us find a job or career book to find answers and encouragement. Most old-school job books provide life, career, or job road maps. Follow these steps and you’ll get to where you want to be. If you believe these principles and follow these practices, you’ll find a satisfying job and enjoy a substantial salary with guaranteed yearly increases. In this book, we want to get real, provide insights, and tell it like it is! The Future of Work impacts people on a daily basis since it deals with our human needs, wants, and expectations. The Future of Work is now! So, we’d say that the Future of Work is important and relevant to the vast majority of people worldwide.

A hands-on guide enriched with examples to master deep reinforcement learning algorithms with Python Key Features Your entry point into the world of artificial intelligence using the power of Python An example-rich guide to master various RL and DRL algorithms Explore various state-of-the-art architectures along with math Book Description Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the trending and most promising branch of artificial intelligence. Hands-On Reinforcement learning with Python will help you master not only the basic reinforcement learning algorithms but also the advanced deep reinforcement learning algorithms. The book starts with an introduction to Reinforcement Learning followed by OpenAI Gym, and TensorFlow. You will then explore various RL algorithms and concepts, such as Markov Decision Process, Monte Carlo methods, and dynamic programming, including value and policy iteration. This example-rich guide will introduce you to deep reinforcement learning algorithms, such as Dueling DQN, DRQN, A3C, PPO, and TRPO. You will also learn about imagination-augmented agents, learning from human preference, DQfD, HER, and many more of the recent advancements in reinforcement learning. By the end of the book, you will have all the knowledge and experience needed to implement reinforcement learning and deep reinforcement learning in your projects, and you will be all set to enter the world of artificial intelligence. What you will learn Understand the basics of reinforcement learning methods, algorithms, and elements Train an agent to walk using OpenAI Gym and Tensorflow Understand the Markov Decision Process, Bellman’s optimality, and TD learning Solve multi-armed-bandit problems using various algorithms Master deep learning algorithms, such as RNN, LSTM, and CNN with applications Build intelligent agents using the DRQN algorithm to play the Doom game Teach agents to play the Lunar Lander game using DDPG Train an agent to win a car racing game using dueling DQN Who this book is for If you’re a machine learning developer or deep learning enthusiast interested in artificial intelligence and want to learn about reinforcement learning from scratch, this book is for you. Some knowledge of linear algebra, calculus, and the Python programming language will help you understand the concepts covered in this book.

'A gorgeous literary novel that asks us to imagine all the possible versions of ourselves that we can imagine' J COURTNEY SULLIVAN 'A suburban srama build to leap form page to screen' Kirkus Reviews 'Fascinating and moving' EOWYN IVEY ----------------------- In a sleepy Oregon town at the base of a dormant volcano, four neighbours find their lives upended when they see visions of themselves in an alternate reality, and have to question the choices they’ve made as natural disaster looms. For fans of Celeste Ng's LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and TV serial SIX FEET UNDER. In the shadow of a dormant volcano in Oregon lies a small town much like any other – though mistier perhaps, and greener. Look closely and you’ll see four neighbours plagued by strange visions. Ginny, a devoted surgeon, is troubled by thoughts of a beautiful colleague in her bed. Mark, a wildlife scientist, foresees imminent and devastating natural disaster. Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of a small baby, envisages herself pregnant once more – just as she is returning to her game-changing research. And then there’s Samara, a young estate agent, who glimpses images of her dead mother alive again, healthy and vibrant. As the volcano begins to rumble, it becomes clear that these visions mean more than at first it seemed, and that the fate of this close-knit community hangs in the balance.

[A] useful reference book. Readers will find themselves returning to chaptersagain and again..." --PsycCritiques This is the 20th and final volume in the "Societal Impact on Aging" series. It focuses on what has been learned over the span of the previous volumes regarding the continuing challenges for older persons in a rapidly changing society and tries to forecast what may be the next set of issues to lie at the intersection of social structures and the individual aging process. The editors therefore invited major organizers of, and contributors to, the 19 earlier volumes to review both the accomplishments and omissions of their efforts, discuss some timely new topics, and provide guidelines for future research and theoretical explanations. The book is divided into five broad topics: health and wellbeing, including the role of religion; personality and cognition; the impact of changes in technology and the work place; issues of socio-cultural change and historical context; and the familial and societal contexts of aging.

Being laid off can be a traumatic event. The unemployed worry about how they will pay their bills and find a new job. In the American economy's boom-and-bust business cycle since the 1980s, repeated layoffs have become part of working life. In A Company of One, Carrie M. Lane finds that the new culture of corporate employment, changes to the job search process, and dual-income marriage have reshaped how today's skilled workers view unemployment. Through interviews with seventy-five unemployed and underemployed high-tech white-collar workers in the Dallas area over the course of the 2000s, Lane shows that they have embraced a new definition of employment in which all jobs are temporary and all workers are, or should be, independent "companies of one." Following the experiences of individual jobseekers over time, Lane explores the central role that organized networking events, working spouses, and neoliberal ideology play in forging and reinforcing a new individualist, pro-market response to the increasingly insecure nature of contemporary employment. She also explores how this new perspective is transforming traditional ideas about masculinity and the role of men as breadwinners. Sympathetic to the benefits that this "company of one" ideology can hold for its adherents, Lane also details how it hides the true costs of an insecure workforce and makes collective and political responses to job loss and downward mobility unlikely.