Walking, even after a while

I’m waiting for code to compile data to scrape, with A on my lap, crickets and birds outside, and happily sore(ish) legs. It’s that lovely mix of later summer / early fall weather, and yesterday I celebrated with a long(ish) walk.

I’ve noticed and felt a loss of muscle for the last while, with more noticeable side effects cropping up in the last few months. I’ve walked less frequently and less far in recent years, my time filled with other things, but that’s the beauty of walking: even if it’s been a while, the body can usually handle a walk long enough to set the mind straight. So, more of that this fall.

This week also featured some lovely catch-ups with friends passing through town (plus some serious nostalgia for early days at CDS)—pressure and stress seem to melt away after even just an hour or two in good company, putting work in its proper perspective.

Looking ahead, tomorrow marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day. If you’re looking for resources or events on / around the day, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation maintains a list of reports and is co-hosting an in-person / broadcast event tomorrow, “Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation”.

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Two sets of links for you today. First, three government-y / work-y ones:

• Two of my favourite complex systems thinkers (Patrick McKenzie and Dave Guarino) talk about government, aka “Decisions Nobody Made”. Why rules pile up, and why governments often don’t have a single person who can say “yes” or “no” on a thing, making change veeeeery hard.
• Riffing on the idea of the “the inflation rate of bureaucracy”, Jennifer Pahlka talks through how such expansion is akin to cancer, consuming essential functions and limiting the body’s (government’s) ability to function as we need it to. (Also, F cancer—here’s to Jen, yourself, and any loved ones faced with it.)
• This discussion of productivity issues facing Britain sounds really familiar from the Canadian vantage point. But I’m mostly glad I read it because it introduced me to a very digestible, useful description of strategy (drawing from the work of Richard Rumelt). there have been many days, even while working in a “strategic policy” role, that I’ve had little grasp of what strategy meant for that moment; this is a good reference.

Second, three “this country these days” links (all from CBC, because no paywalls):

• Of course, of course there’s discussion of a “401 tunnel” as if it’d be an effective solution to congestion. It’s already been eviscerated enough for missing the point (it’s not the underlying road infrastructure that’s the problem, it’s the lack of any viable alternative for getting around), but my goodness this country / continent is depressing.
• I’ve linked in the past to coverage of battery fires, the challenges they’ll pose for firefighting and the new risks they’ll introduce to the roads (to say nothing of the minerals mined for them, or the immense weight they add to any vehicle carrying one… hopefully they account for that wear and tear when they build the 401 tunnel!). A recent fire in Montreal has surfaced another risk of this technology: the dangerous air quality of the smoke that comes off a burning battery. (And the need for safe transportation measures, evidently!)
• Basements feel quintessentially Canadian, but they’re probably… unnecessary? And likely pose a greater-than-desired flooding risk, with significant carbon implications due to the amount of concrete involved. I appreciated how the article dives into a reason basements are so standard: height restrictions limit the ability to go up, so those desiring more space (for, y’know, their stuff) build down. (Look, I get it, basements are handy! We have one, it lets me have a little workshop at home and gives us storage space! But is it necessary? Nah, not really.)

All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas