Lucas Cherkewski

Snow, spring, let’s goooo

Hit and Miss #447

Why hello there! It’s good to be typing to you with a full-sized keyboard.

I’m back in Canada after some delightful time in Denmark. Though there for work, it was inspiring and energizing for me personally, too. I’ll be processing this trip for a long time, but some odds and ends I noted:

  • On my first day, it felt like everyone was looking at me as I walked along. The next day, no one seemed to. The difference? Not some sudden relaxation of my “I’m in a foreign land” self consciousness, but my outfit: on the first day I wore a yellow rain jacket, while on the second I wore a drab overcoat. Almost nobody local seemed to wear bright colours. And yet, such happy people!
  • SO MANY YOUNG CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. Denmark’s fertility rate isn’t particularly high, but it was a striking difference to life here to see just how present family life was in even a dense, urban place like Copenhagen. It felt like every other bike going by had a carrier or second seat for a child (who’d be happily snacking away on the way home, as T often pointed out), while apartment courtyards seem to often feature playgrounds or other shared infrastructure for play. To see family living be so common and accessible even in a relatively big, dense city was inspiring.
  • Yes, what they say about cycling is definitely true—and T and I both made great use of the infrastructure during our time there. But it also struck me how common and ever-present cars are. I think it’s easy for debates about prioritizing better infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians in places like Canada to be read as “get rid of the cars”, but Copenhagen proves you can definitely have both. (Though some Danes I spoke with also emphasized how important the good public transit is to this equation—prior to the expansion of the metro, Copenhagen traffic was reportedly awful. Even now, cycling will often be the quickest way around!)
  • Museum wayfinding was often confusing, surprisingly so for a country so attentive to design?? Or, at least, I could rarely sort out a sensible way to get to the start of an exhibit, or to move myself through it. Maybe a consequence of museums often occupying old, difficult-to-modify buildings, but funny nonetheless.
  • People seemed generally unhurried (even if they were walking briskly). In Canada, by contrast, I feel a general sense of stress or hurry, of striving. In Denmark, it was… contentment? (Insert “Is this… happiness?” meme here!)

By reputation, Danes can be a bit difficult to get to know. But those that welcomed and invited me in were incredibly kind and generous. It was a trip that’ll stay with me for a long, long time—I’ve many more reflections, both professional and personal, which I’m sure will slowly make their way here and elsewhere. Photos, too, but I remain perpetually behind in putting those online!

A few links!

  • “This Is Not The Computer For You”, Sam Henri Gold’s quasi-review of the MacBook Neo, made the blogging rounds when it came out a few weeks ago, and for good reason. But the part most people quoted wasn’t my favourite bit, which was this: “Somewhere a kid is saving up for this. He has read every review. Watched the introduction video four or five times. Looked up every spec, every benchmark, every footnote. He has probably walked into an Apple Store and interrogated an employee about it ad nauseam. He knows the consensus. He knows it’s probably not the right tool for everything he wants to do. // He has decided he’ll be fine.”

  • This nerdsnipes me in every way possible: an open-source, browser-only tool for time tracking using statistical principles to request random samples of your activities, instead of requiring strict, regular timekeeping. There’s also a delightful issue / resolution tracker in the project’s repository.

  • Regarding LLMs, Rachel Andrews advocates neither an “always for” nor “always against” position, but to instead be discerning in when AI is well placed to do the job at hand.

  • I always enjoy Simon Collison’s photo essays from his travels, so of course enjoyed his latest from Tokyo (a series of three, that’s part two!).

  • Reflections on Tracy Kidder by Jessamyn West, who had a unique vantage point into Kidder through her father, Tom West, subject of Soul of a New Machine.

  • Delightful account of Brad Frost’s visit to his daughter Ella’s coding club.

I don’t know about you, but it’s finally feeling like spring (despite the snow still on the ground). LET’S GOOOOOOO!

All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas