Russell Davies

Infrastructure, justice, uncertainty

This by Debbie Chachra is magnificent.

"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is allowed to go everywhere. People are not."

"The true promise of renewable energy is not that it doesn’t contribute to climate change. It’s that renewable energy is ubiquitous and abundant." 

Futuring

This feels like something. Not just the future. My future. Frankly I'd install this tomorrow. It would be so gloriously clear and easy to read.

Upgraded my half-blind 91-year old dad to an M1 Mac Mini & a cheap 75-inch TV as a computer monitor

Set the Mac to 720p screen resolution (1280x720), the lowest possible

Now he can read the words again pic.twitter.com/M40pVndyeg

— Matt Mireles (@mattmireles) August 22, 2021

Well behaviour

Back once again with the condiment cluster.

Good question

I noted this down a while ago as a good interview question. It occurs to me, looking back at it now, that it's also a really good strategy question:

"What can you do really well that is also really hard?"

Notes from the deli: milk norms

“Can I get a cappuccino with normal milk? And one with oat milk if you’ve got it. If you’ve not then almond’s OK”

Good streams: 65,000 perfect sentences

Alex Mitchell did one of the best projects of the last several years: creating a collection of the complete short stories of F Scott Fitzgerald.

That's a lot of stories.

She also creates the smartest newsletter Feminist Friday. Lots of goodness every week. Like this one: Very Scone.

The friends we made along the way

I first wrote a post on this blog on 22 August 2003. It wasn't much, just a bunch of quotes, rather like I do today. But it was the beginning of one of the things I've done most in my life. I haven't done many other things for 18 years. Been a father, lived in our flat, been a partner.

I think it's been worth it. Overall. It's worked at the scale of a good career decision. It's mattered in my life at about that size - choosing the right job, meeting the right people.

I've loved bits of it. And bits of it have scared me.

It's one reason I'm slowly withdrawing from social media before my book comes out. I can't take feedback from the crowd.

But the best bit has been meeting all the people. The people I've met via this thing have been great. That and all the bizarre spam.

 

It is what it was be

This Word of Mouth episode about the language of cults introduced me to the idea of the Thought Terminating Cliche: a bit of language used to stop further discussion or questioning. It was first used to describe language structures of the Chinese Communist Party. In everyday life it's things like: 'it is what it is' or 'I'm just saying' or 'that's just your opinion'.

It struck me that corporate life is full of these things too. Injunctions to, basically, please stop asking questions and just get on with stuff. 'Carpe diem'. 'JFDI'.

And in some senses, and in regular life too, a thought-terminating cliche might have some utility. Sometimes the thinking has to stop. Sometimes we need something to gee us out of our analysis paralysis. 

Doing nothing, being wrong

Max Barry on the lowness of the bar for 'good' men. And being wrong about it.

Utilijog

I heard on a radio panel show that Jeremy Bentham invented jogging. Turns out it was true.

And next came one of the best pictures ever.