Life is short, so remember to be super serious, take everything personally and be outraged on a daily basis. /s
Building Change
It definitely seems that when change is more threatening than promising, everyone collectively hits the brakes. I’m not sure if that’s a lack of imagination, or perhaps even a correct risk-adjusted calculation. People just have less faith in the promise of change.
Every step of the way, to everyone around us, we should be asking the question, what are you building? What are you building directly, or helping other people to build, or teaching other people to build, or taking care of people who are building? If the work you’re doing isn’t either leading to something being built or taking care of people directly, we’ve failed you, and we need to get you into a position, an occupation, a career where you can contribute to building. There are always outstanding people in even the most broken systems — we need to get all the talent we can on the biggest problems we have, and on building the answers to those problems.
– Marc Andreessen in his essay, Time to Build
Larger Than Life
Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. At the bottom, mountains, like all wildernesses, challenge our complacent conviction – so easy to lapse into – that the world has been made for humans by humans.
Most of us exist for most of the time in worlds which are humanly arranged, themed and controlled. One forgets that there are environments which do not respond to the flick of a switch or the twist of a dial, and which have their own rhythms and orders of existence. Mountains correct this amnesia.
By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage, mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made. They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes. They induce, I suppose, a modesty in us.
– Robert MacFarlane
Community Power
There’s much to think about for the future. When I think about energy production, I see it as community-based. Imagine households taking a weekly walk to drop off food waste.
In an anaerobic digester, bacteria breaks down the food waste and releases methane as a byproduct. The methane is then captured and used as a renewable source of energy. After the digestion process, the leftover material can be composted and used as a natural fertiliser.
Benefits
- Locally-created energy equals less transmission loss, since it’s not travelling far
- Energy can be sold back to the grid, allowing communities to generate funding beyond the council tax and central government funding
- Social cohesion as there’s a common goal, where interests and incentives are aligned
- A job creator, attracting new talent and up-skilling local talent
Things to think about
- Initial investment
- It still generates Co2 and N2o and methane as an output
- How much power could a square mile of waste generate?
Misbehaving
We experience life in terms of changes, we feel diminishing sensitivity to both gains and losses, but losses sting more than equivalently sized gains feel good.
Key Traits
My key traits according to a tool on myworldofwork.co.uk
Investigative
You’re curious and good at asking the right questions. You like to observe, explore ideas and solve problems. Work which involves thinking, research or facts and figures may suit you.
Practical
You’re good at fixing, making and building things. You like working with your hands. Working with tools, machinery, animals or plants might suit you. You’re rational, independent and ambitious.
Organiser
You always make sure things are accurate down to the smallest detail. You’re great at organising tasks and following instructions. You might enjoy working with data, planning or record keeping.
Machines Like Me
This particular sentence in the book struck me. It says,
We talked about luck, the hold it had over a child’s life – what he is born into, whether he is loved, and how intelligently. After a pause Miranda said “and when it’s all against him, whether someone can rescue him”.
Misinformation
We often blame technology for human nature. It’s fashionable now to blame social media for spreading propaganda, but people spread propaganda long before social media ever existed. Humans didn’t need Twitter and Facebook to spread lies and genocidal hatred before World War II.
Opportunity Cost
“How much could I lose?” is not merely a financial question. If I make this choice:
– How much time could I lose?
– How much sanity could I lose?
– How much reputation could I lose?
– How much happiness could I lose?
Opportunity cost is about a lot more than money.
Long Lost Quote
Some years ago, my eyes locked onto a bus stop advertisement. It was a clear inoffensive statement.
As someone who forgets their own birthday, there was no chance I’d remember the ad for later. I ended up spending ages googling what I thought I read, without much luck.
Years later, I stumbled across it again 🙂
In a society that profits from your self doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.
Caroline Caldwell