Study
This is where I write, about my reading and more, where I cultivate ideas. Rather than a neat list of articles, think of this as a scattered collection of notes. This is public thinking via the best medium: writing.
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Digital government and civic tech
Hit and Miss #97
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Opera
Hit and Miss #96
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Let’s take a walk
Hit and Miss #95
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Words and links
Hit and Miss #94
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Accessible public spaces
Hit and Miss #93
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A working carrying capacity
Hit and Miss #92
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Doors Open
Hit and Miss #91
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Walking toward a social summer
Hit and Miss #90
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Three blobs of words
Hit and Miss #89
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Grounding history
Hit and Miss #88
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A day off
Hit and Miss #87
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Look up
Hit and Miss #86
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Valuing openness
Hit and Miss #85
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Thinking frames
Hit and Miss #84
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Boomer empowerment
Hit and Miss #83
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Framing conversation
Distinguishing “praising/blaming” from “looking/puzzling”
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Ursula Franklin on inclusion
Growing ourselves by recognizing the other in us
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Making time for music, for silence
Hit and Miss #82
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A family day
Hit and Miss #81
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Communicating depth
Hit and Miss #80
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The signs
Hit and Miss #79
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I, you, we (maybe?)
Hit and Miss #78
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Words I avoid
Hit and Miss #77
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The 80s and links
Hit and Miss #76
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Standing in place
Hit and Miss #75
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Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Interviewing myself about a good movie
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When you want to get out and read
Hit and Miss #74
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The wholesome social network
Hit and Miss #73
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Libraries, physical and digital, visible and invisible
Hit and Miss #72
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Rockeuses, and leaders as facilitators
Hit and Miss #71
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Pacifist principles
Ursula M. Franklin defines key terms
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What we remember, and why
Hit and Miss #70
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Springsteen on Broadway
The Boss, on the importance of stories
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Returning home and time’s triptych
Hit and Miss #69
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Solitude
Michael Harris on facing our own thoughts, alone
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Solitude connections
For personal reference, reactions to Harris’s book
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Spotify wishlist
Two musical concepts absent from Spotify’s features
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Reading (and writing) heals
Hit and Miss #68
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What my library’s for
A communications tool, with two audiences
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Speeches from the throne, thinking tools
Hit and Miss #67
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Meanwhile the world goes on
When nature and a poem strike you
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The certainty of the present moment, the certainty of change
Why I appreciate Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels
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Scattered
Hit and Miss #66
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When to stop writing
Hemingway advises
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Working and rest
Hit and Miss #65
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No choice
Hit and Miss #64
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Competing priorities at Laurel Creek Conservation Area
Hit and Miss #63
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Blogroll
Hit and Miss #62
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Justifying the status quo
If its context changes, a decision is no longer valid
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Misquoting Virgil
Why context matters
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Thinky thinky
Hit and Miss #61
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Thinking geographically
Hit and Miss #60
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Three pairs of links
Hit and Miss #59
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Digital history and digital humanities
Hit and Miss #58
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Thanksgiving break
Hit and Miss #57
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Dropping in
Hit and Miss #56
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Communities of care
Hit and Miss #55
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Growing up
What learning looks like
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Repeated experiences
Hit and Miss #54
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Writing in books, a personal history
Hit and Miss #53
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A year in (review)
Hit and Miss #52
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Learning and escaping through simulation
Hit and Miss #51
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We shape the land
Hit and Miss #50
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Learning languages, loving words
Hit and Miss #49
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Cool recipes for a hot day
Hit and Miss #48
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Turn to the local
Hit and Miss #47
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“He was how old??”
Analysing historical data about Members of Parliament
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Heat
Hit and Miss #46
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How we work
A manifesto for a good organization
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Humbly human
Hit and Miss #45
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Working (remotely)
Hit and Miss #44
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Centennial
Hit and Miss #43
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Creative constraints
Hit and Miss #42
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Historically minded
Hit and Miss #41
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A quantified, incentivized life
Hit and Miss #40
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Here I go again!
Hit and Miss #39
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Pacifism
Hit and Miss #38
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Working (together)
Hit and Miss #37
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Science fair!!
Hit and Miss #36
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Working
Hit and Miss #35
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Portable pasta party kit
Hit and Miss #34
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Keep going
Hit and Miss #33
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Season 2, episode 22
Hit and Miss #32
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Regularly local
Hit and Miss #31
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M*A*S*H
Hit and Miss #30
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On the environment
Hit and Miss #29
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Robots!
Hit and Miss #28
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Editing
Hit and Miss #27
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Presenting work
Hit and Miss #26
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The importance of internet access
Hit and Miss #25
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Ode to the road
Hit and Miss #24
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Some links
Hit and Miss #23
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Life is long
Hit and Miss #22
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Complex, connected problems
Hit and Miss #21
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Profiles and interviews
Hit and Miss #20
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Thinking about time
Hit and Miss #19
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Digesting ideas
Some things you don’t understand from the get-go
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“Feed”
Hit and Miss #18
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On Mark Zuckerberg’s “personal challenge”
Some things you can’t, and shouldn’t, solve alone
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Constant questions
Hit and Miss #17
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Three welcome books
Hit and Miss #16
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Small victories
Hit and Miss #15
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Notes on The Prince
Some Machiavellian lessons on life
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The Canadian Digital Service’s first show and tell
A summary and some recommendations
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Our faves are problematic
Hit and Miss #14
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The Seven Year Itch
Hit and Miss #13
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The mind as a muscle
Exercising it hurts just as much
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Readability troubles on Canada.ca
Two small ideas for improvement
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Bye Bye Birdie
Hit and Miss #12
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Walking routes
A list of (roughly described) routes that I enjoy
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Therapeutic things
Reminders of what I find relaxing
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No more (accidental) noise
Taking a social media break
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What’s a personal bio good for?
Hit and Miss #11
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Research reading
Hit and Miss #10
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Earthworming
Ursula M. Franklin’s advice for social change
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Modern monopolies
Hit and Miss #9
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Civic tech
Hit and Miss #8
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A revealing week
Hit and Miss #7
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Veritable listening
Hit and Miss #6
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Nature’s musical tastes
Wendell Berry observes nature’s “patient ear”
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Newsletter recommendations
Hit and Miss #5
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Loving libraries
Hit and Miss #4
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Ursula M. Franklin suggests some readings
Selections from The Real World of Technology’s bibliography
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Work isn’t the whole thing
Two notes from Frank Chimero on keeping life in perspective
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Manguel’s tribute to dissatisfaction
Putting into words the role of an essay
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Conversational contributions
Hit and Miss #3
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Documenting drafts: Hit and Miss #2
A peek behind the scenes of my editing process
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Questioning labels
Hit and Miss #2
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Earthworming
Hit and Miss #1
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Sunday mornings
Establishing rituals
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Reading with a pen
Observations from years of writing in my books
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Learning to code by failing safely
Thoughts on my talk at WordCamp Ottawa 2017
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Transparency theatre
Saying the thing is not doing the thing
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“I wouldn’t” by John Vance Cheney
A perfect summertime poem
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Quantifying reading
What Goodreads can teach us about databases and shared understanding
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On things left unfinished
Manguel reminds us that a book is never truly read
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Tracey Lauriault on data at Ottawa Civic Tech
Living in an age of data, we must critique the technology spread throughout our lives
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Paying for news
Dave Winer offers an interesting proposal to pay for news from multiple outlets
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Stop reading, start writing
Bayard pushes us to understand ourselves by seeing reading as the impetus for writing
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Zinsser’s thesis
Saying a true thing again and again
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Wafting Westminster
Frustration with the House reform process
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Why not design school
Michael Bierut answers the question I receive most often
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Named colours
The folly of subjective references
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Doing the real work
The illusion of work, versus the act itself
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Stop hiding links
We should celebrate the fundamental building block of the web
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Designated typist
Anne Lamott on letting your subject talk
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The Cherkewski View
A personal website manifesto