Can cities be affordable?


If you read articles like this, Why Homes in Major U.S. Cities Are Nearly Impossible To Afford – Curbed, it can be hard to believe than any city not on the decline can be affordable. But there are exceptions, and it is good to know about them and why they are. One such city is Vienna, and this piece has a good explanation on why it is.

If you are concerned about cities being affordable, I recommend the piece on Vienna. Affordable cities is going to be one of the big challenges of the 21st century. We need good ideas to deal with this.

(Image via pexels.com)

The $999 monitor stand, or how Apple takes its eye off the ball sometimes

Reading this piece about how  a $999 monitor stand is everything wrong with Apple today, and while my judgement isn’t that harsh, I agree that Apple has missed a step with such a stand. There is a premium that Apple can and does command for its products, but when they are so far outside the range of the market, they start looking ridiculous.

Is this iMac great? No doubt. Is the stand price ridiculous? Also no doubt. Do better, Apple.

Why Play a Music CD? Lots of reasons….


I really liked a recent article about Ben Sisario, the New York Times reporter who covers the music industry. He is talking about what he uses to listen to music, and this quote jumped out at me, especially the part I put in bold.

(I) try to keep an eye on all the major platforms out there, which means regularly poking around on about a dozen apps. My go-to sources are Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp and Mixcloud, which has excellent D.J.-style mixes and to me feels more human than most.

At home I have a Sonos Play:5 speaker, which plays streaming music and podcasts, and is a piece of cake to use. I also have Google Chromecast Audio, a little plug-in device (now discontinued) that allows me to send high-fidelity streams to my stereo. It sounds better that way, but it’s not nearly as easy to use as the Sonos.

To be honest, my preferred way to listen to music is on CD, as unfashionable as that might be. You push a button, the music plays, and then it’s over — no ads, no privacy terrors, no algorithms!

Like Ben, I started to listen to music on CDs again too. For a number of reasons:

    1. I have some great old CDs from labels like Deutsche Grammphon that I am never going to download again and which I don’t even want to listen to on Spotify.
    2. I find it satisfying to put on a CD, listen to it, and then it be over. I don’t want to listen to an infinite playlist all the time.
    3. I always worry that some day services like Spotify will simply trim their catalog and I will never be able to listen to that music easily again. For music I love, I want to own it outright.
    4. I worry about how what I listen to on Spotify is constantly fed into their analytic software – what people like to call their algorithm – to determine what I want to listen to. Some times I just want to listen to music in a different direction. I don’t want Spotify to start suggesting new music based on a whim.
    5. I don’t want Spotify or others to know everything about my listening choices. I think we all need a stealth mode for any services we use online.

I still love Spotify, but I don’t want to depend on Spotify to enjoy music.

That’s my two cents. For more on Ben, see: Why Play a Music CD? ‘No Ads, No Privacy Terrors, No Algorithms’ – The New York Times

Climate change: the bigger picture, from Bill Gates


If you want to understand the challenge of dealing with climate change, then read this: Climate change and the 75% problem | Bill Gates.

There are things you can do in your own day to day to reduce your contribution to climate change. But in the bigger picture, much larger changes have to happen. And soon. You can contribute there too, by supporting politicians and companies and other organizations that are working to make big positive changes.

You can’t do it alone, but every thing you do move us in the right direction. We are cutting out coal. We are getting energy efficient. We are eating more of the right things. Many many things are being done that help, and much more can be done to improve things. Keep up the good work, and work hard to avoid complacency and despair.

Chinese millennials are just like young people everywhere (surprise!)


I love this piece: Chinese millennials are rejecting dull factory jobs — and transforming the economy – Los Angeles Times.

Why? Because it affirms my view that people are largely the same when it comes to certain demographics.

I say “largely” because there are differences. Chinese millennials will still have differences with millennials in Serbia or Canada or Kenya or Peru due to culture and geography. But there are many similarities. Going through that piece in the LA Times, I kept reading the quotes and thinking: that’s true for young people here too!

People ignore age demographics all the time, as if young people — not to mention older people — have different interests and drives in different eras and in different regions. Don’t be one of those people. 🙂

The post-presidential life of Mikhail Gorbachev

If you have forgotten about Mikhail Gorbachev and wondered what he is up to, you can find a rich source of information here:  ‘Crucify me right here’ The post-presidential life of Mikhail Gorbachev — Meduza.

At 88 he is still alive and active. He’s outlived Reagan and Bush Sr and many other leaders of the era when the Soviet Union was collapsing. He’s led a remarkable life, one worth reading about.

(Photo: Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images; linked to at the site)

4 + 1 Rules for dealing with adversity

If you are struggling with adversity, then read this: Read This If You’re Going Through Adversity – Darius Foroux.

There are four rules in it:

    1. Do something good. By this, do something that makes you say, “I love life”.
    2. Ask for help. You know you need help when you are getting to the stage it all becomes “too much”.
    3. Write down your biggest fear. Get it out of your head and on paper. Write about it. You will be surprised how it shrinks on paper.
    4. Create a plan. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can be: I will do A and then based on that I will do either B or C. There! You have a plan to deal with things.
    5. Shorten the timelines. This is one I am adding. Often when we think of adversity we imagine it never ending. But it will. Don’t believe me? Go over past adversity. Even long running adversity. It always ends. It ends sooner than we think. This doesn’t mean you should passively wait it out. Write down how long you think this adversity will end, then make a plan, ask for help, tackle your fears and do something good.

Good luck. Need more help? Read the article linked above. And congrats. You were likely facing adversity when you searched out and read this, and you decided you needed to get help. You’re already on your way to doing something about it. Well done!

Ten good wellness links


Because we all could use some good advice as to how to be healthier and happier:

  1. The Health Benefits Of Mindfulness Meditation: The Science Behind The Practice | SELF
  2. The Little Handbook for Getting Stuff Done : zen habits
  3. Give Up Comfort : zen habits
  4. When Negative Thoughts Keep You Down: How to Break the Addiction
  5. In a Hurry? Try Express Weight Training – The New York Times
  6. Two psychologists have a surprising theory on how to get motivated — Quartz at Work
  7. How to Cope with a Toxic and Estranged Family Relationship
  8. If You’re Too Busy For These 5 Things: Your Life Is More Off-Course Than You Think
  9. What I Learned Doing Push-Ups Every Day for a Month
  10. Surprisingly simple tips from 20 experts about how to lose weight and keep it off – Vox

Do you need 10,000 steps per day to be healthy?

According to this, no. What do you need? Like somewhere in the range of 4000-7500. Key quot:

… women who took 4,400 steps per day, on average, were about 40 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period of about four years compared with women who took 2,700 steps. The findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Another surprise: The benefits of walking maxed out at about 7,500 steps. In other words, women who walked more than 7,500 steps per day saw no additional boost in longevity.

Walking is great exercise. But if you are unable to get in your 10,000 steps one day, don’t fret.

One quick thought on the new Mac Pro

One thing that struck me about the new Mac Pro is that Apple has finally gotten to do design again for a hardware. Most of their products these days are as minimal as can be when it comes to design. With the Mac Pro, at least, they can apply new design ideas to their product. I like it, even if it is compared to a cheese grater. But I liked the previous model, even though it was compared to a garbage can.

For more on the device, see:  Apple announces all-new redesigned Mac Pro, starting at $5,999 – The Verge

Seven good links for old people

For those of us who are feeling old, or simply are old.

      1. A Checklist Before Dying – The Billfold – a good checklist to review, sooner than later
      2. An Ode to Being Old – Outside – Pocket – on the virtues of being old
      3. This 65-Year-Old Dentist Left It All Behind to Work the Line at America’s Best New Restaurant | Bon Appétit – this story made me feel good about getting old. Maybe you will too after you read it.
      4. The Future of Aging Just Might Be in Margaritaville – The New York Times – who knows?
      5. Neuroscience Shows That 50-Year-Olds Can Have the Brains of 25-Year-Olds If They Do This | Inc.com – not just for 50 year olds.
      6. Ctrl-Alt-Delete: The Planned Obsolescence of Old Coders – it’s true. But you can fight it.
      7. Am I ‘Old’? – The New York Times – Old is a state of mind to some degree. But at some point, no matter how good you feel, you are old.

     

The brilliant pothole mosaics from Jim Bachor’s

Your city should be so lucky as to have Jim Bachor filling your potholes with amazing mosaics such as this:

For more on it, see: Mosaic Vermin Invade New York City as Part of Jim Bachor’s Latest Pothole Interventions at Colossal. Also, search from him on Instagram: he posts regularly and he does a wide range of mosaics. And he travels, so maybe your city is next.

If you are thinking of using chatbots in your work, read this


Chatbots are relatively straightforward to deploy these days. AI providers like IBM and others provide all the technology you need. But do you really need them? And if you already have a bunch of them deployed, are you doing it right? If these questions have you wondering, I recommend you read this: Does Your Company Really Need a Chatbot?

You still may want to proceed with chatbots: they make a lot of business sense for certain types of work. But you will have a better idea when not to use them, too.

The idea of North American and 11 nations…


…Is a good one, I think. I found after I read this book, American Nations, I had a much better appreciation for decision made by people from different regions of the United States, once I had a better understanding of the culture and background of each “nation” and how that affects their thinking.

If you are curious, this is a good article that summarizes the ideas in the book:Which of the 11 American nations do you live in? – The Washington Post

The book is good, though. Worth a read.

The Twenty Minute Rule you need to manage your time

 


A smart approach to managing your time is allocating no more than 20 minutes to any task you need to do.  So says this: Everything should take 20 minutes | The Outline. 

The reasoning in a nutshell:

Think about a task you wish to or must complete, and imagine how long it should take you. If you are a right-thinking person like myself, the answer is “20 minutes.” A 10-minute task is hardly a task at all, more of a minor interruption, and anything that takes 30 minutes invites the thought that you could have watched a half-hour episode of television instead. Twenty minutes is, objectively, the ideal amount of time — the Goldilocks number when it comes to doing things.

Now you can quibble about it, but it’s a smart rule. If you are still unsure, read the piece.

A smart poster that knows the weather (and a great alternative display)

Is this:

It uses smart ink, so it’s low power. But it changes throughout the day, based on the information it gets from the Internet. It looks great, and it’s around $134, which is not bad.

I’d like to see more tech do this. A fine marriage of high tech and aesthetics.

For more information, see A smart poster that knows the weather | Yanko Design

If you need to toughen up mentally

Toughness is good and bad. When it is prioritized over other qualities, it is bad. When it seen as a reservoir to get through tough times, it is good. Regardless of your situation, if you want to improve your mental toughness, here are some books you might want to consider: The 5 Best Books for Increasing Your Mental Toughness | Inc.com

Be as tough as you need to be, not just tough for toughness sake.

Two thoughts on Jamie Oliver’s U.K. Restaurants Declare Bankruptcy

One, It’s always terrible when this type of thing happens: Jamie Oliver’s U.K. Restaurants Declare Bankruptcy – The New York Times.  

But two, I am curious about what has been happening with his businesses based on this:

… his British restaurants ran into financial trouble in 2016 and got into such dire straits that Mr. Oliver had to inject millions from his own savings to salvage the business. Even then, he had to close about 20 restaurants and pizzerias in the months that followed.

What has been happening in the past three years? I remember reading that at the time and it seemed like they had turned the corner at were going to be ok. They turned a corner but they were the opposite of ok.

I’d really like an in depth article of what happened.

A dozen good pieces on Kubernetes


Here’s twelve articles on Kubernetes, from introductory to advanced.

Some introductory pieces on getting started with Kubernetes:

  1. Getting Started with Kubernetes: Deploy a Docker Container with Kubernetes in 5 minutes
  2. Deploy a Python Flask application in Kubernetes – IBM Developer
  3. Play with Kubernetes Classroom
  4. Three quick ways to start with Kubernetes – Katsuhi
  5. How to deploy a NodeJS app to Kubernetes | Sean McGary
  6. A Kubernetes quick start for people who know just enough about Docker to get by

Some good tutorials from IBM:

  1. Kubernetes Tutorials: 5 Ways to Get You Building Fast | IBM
  2. Learning Path: Kubernetes – IBM Developer

Some harder pieces for if you are already well versed with Kubernetes:

  1. Kubernetes 202 — Making It Fully Operational – uptime 99 – Medium
  2. Kubernetes NodePort vs LoadBalancer vs Ingress? When should I use what?
  3. Kubernetes On Bare Metal

(Image from pexels.com)

The diversity of I.M. Pei, shown in six buildings

Like many, I am well aware of Pei’s work at the Louvre. I was not aware he designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. I liked this piece,  Six of I.M. Pei’s Most Important Buildings – The New York Times, because it showed the diversity of Pei’s work and touched a little on how he approached new projects.

A good way to remember a great architect.

How I came up with the web page: All the books I have read since 2017 (somewhat technical. Involves python, S3 buckets)

 


I used to be a haphazard reader and my reading had slacked off. In 2017 I decided to have a goal of reading more and recording the books I had read. For the record, I had a simple Excel spreadsheet. This was good, but not easy to share.

 

To build this page, All the books I have read since 2017 | Smart People I Know, I wrote a Python program to convert the Excel spreadsheet to HTML. After that, it make it look modestly better, I stole some ideas from here. I was going to put the HTML directly into WordPress, but there were formatting issues. I instead put the page in an S3 bucket at AWS. And voila! Done!

 

A fascinating study of worker engagement worldwide

The big takeaway from this fascinating article, Engagement Around the World, Charted, is that people who work on teams are significantly more engaged than people who are not.

But note the diagram above: working from home also makes people more engaged.

All managers and HR groups should take a look at this and proceed accordingly if they want higher employee engagement.

How machine learning (ML) is different from artificial intelligence (AI)

I am glad to see more articles highlighting the difference between ML and AI. For example, this one: How machine learning is different from artificial intelligence – IBM Developer.

There is still lots to be done in the field of machine learning, but I think technologists and scientists need to break out of that tight circle and explore AI in general.

(Image: from the article)

Where to See Basquiat Around the World

A good item to add to your bucket list, if you are a fan of Basquiat: travel the world and see all the places where his works are displayed. To do that, you will need this list: Where to See Basquiat Around the World – Barron’s. And money. And time.

After you do that, you can go see all the Vermeers in the world!

(Image: Wikiart.org)

Five links to help you with intermittent fasting

It’s not for everyone, and you can make a case that it is not a good way to be healthy or lose weight. But if you are interested in knowing more about it, here’s some good links I’ve found on this form of fasting.

  1. Intermittent Fasting for Beginners – The Complete Guide – Diet Doctor
  2. The Easier Way to Do Intermittent Fasting – Elemental
  3. Fast Diet facts and science – Business Insider
  4. Intermittent Fasting: What Is It, and Should I Try It? – GQ
  5. Intermittent Fasting: The Definitive Guide – The Mission – Medium

Bonus link, here