Friday, March 31, 2023

Friday Links 23-11

Almond trees blooming

Some nice urbanisation going on in Barcelona. 

I also enjoyed the podcast about scams and trust.

Leadership

The MarsBased Handbook - I love this kind of open handbook. It is silly that everybody has to invent them from scratch.

Engineering

How LinkedIn automates cherry-picking commits to improve developer productivity - "While most repositories (e.g., web services) practice continuous delivery solely from trunk (or main branch), those (e.g., core libraries) that need to stabilize their release or release on a fixed schedule use release branches."

We need better support for SSH host certificates - "Github accidentally committed their SSH RSA private key to a repository" ... that happens 

Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder who predicted rise of the PC, dies at 94

Urbanism

The 15-Minute Cities Conspiracy (with Adam Something) [Podcast] - The Not Just Bikes guy has a podcast now!

Els camins escolars redueixen un 40% el nombre de vianants infants i adolescents atropellats a Barcelona [Catalan] - "School paths reduce by 40% the number of child and adolescent pedestrians hit in Barcelona"

How Paris Kicked Out the Cars - some cars 

Barcelona green space plan could improve health of 30,000, study finds - nice

Barcelona plans new green boulevard on Gran Via above Glòries tunnel - also nice

This Tiny Island has Insane Traffic  [YouTube] - an island that could be completely car free 

This Ponzi Scheme Might END Suburban Prosperity [YouTube] - I am uncertain if any of this applies to Europe

Random Blooms

A striking visualisation of #climatechange: the date of Kyoto cherry blossoms' reaching full bloom, plotted over the past 1000 years.  [Mastodon]

Sideways - Please I beg you. [Podcast] - about scams and trust. I default to trust, but not for emails. 

float.exposed - play with representations of float numbers 

Wavtool - AI-accelerated music production. - we are on the AI train

How to Decide Whether You Should Upgrade A Device — Basic Instructions [Comic] - I was about to buy a new mobile ... I wait a bit longer

Early wildfire in Spain’s Valencia region forces 1,500 villagers to evacuate - and so it begins again

Friday Links Disclaimer
Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kind of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time you might notice common themes, though.
More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Friday Links 23-10

Dog sunbathing outside a kitchen window

Lots of urbanism links, but apart from that, I can recommend the "The Pillars of Integrity" podcast episode and the (German) story about a dog "Bambam".

Leadership

#161 Jim Dethmer: The Pillars of Integrity [Podcast] - this was a great episode, not only about the pillars, but the rest of the chat too

Net Promoter Score – Helpful or Harmful? (part 1)  - critical view of NPS

Using cultural survey data.  - I love data from Lattice or OfficeVibe. Making it useful is a lot of work.

Work

The dawn of the four-day week [Podcast] - I wonder if this is one of the things that will go onto the back burner until the financial climate recovers

Urbanism

This Town Did The Impossible [YouTube] - as much as I hate fake old buildings, this looks quite nice

We are living in a golden age of electric cargo bikes - mostly for cities 

The risks of half-hearted bike lanes (in New York City) [YouTube] - most cities are a disconnected mess of half arsed cycle lanes 

The Return of Cargobikes to the Streets of Paris [YouTube] - nice

Design & Aesthetics in the City of Paris [YouTube] - Mikael is doing a series about Paris

These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us [YouTube] - it's not quite as bad in Europe, but it is getting worse 

Why Nancy Is Scrapping Its Magically Bonkers Monorail-Bus-Trams [YouTube] - this would be good if they would replace them with trams 

The end of daylight saving time means an uptick in vehicles crashing into deer  - don't drive if you love Bambi

Random Dogs

Bambam [German] - a story about a dog. I can relate so much to this.

535. Why Is Flying Safer Than Driving? [Podcast] - because you don't let just everybody fly? Less traffic too.

German government in crisis over EU ban on car combustion engines - I really hope that the relevant politicians will have to answer for this ... though probably not.

The era of impossible subscription cancellations is nearing an end - at least in the US

Lance Reddick, star of The Wire and John Wick, dies aged 60 - I might have had a bit of a man crush

Friday Links Disclaimer
Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kind of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time you might notice common themes, though.
More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday, March 10, 2023

Friday Links 23-09

Graffiti in an old arched tunnel
Short one today! 

I enjoyed the conversation about "Brains, hormones, and time" with Dunbar

If you haven't subscribed to "The War on Cars" yet, this 100th episode might be a good start.

Leadership

The Backbone of a Successful Team: 1:1s, Skip Levels, and the Delegation Framework (with Spencer Norman, VP of Engineering at Privy) [Podcast] - there is a lot in this. I don't agree with all of it.

Brains, hormones and time - the invisible causes of better workplace culture [Podcast] - Mr. Dunbar talking about his number in a business context. 

Being Right Doesn’t Matter - you have to bring people to your side too. 

How to start a movement / love is the message - Alex about how to maybe start a movement. 

Running your engineering onboarding program. - I agree that a good on-boarding is super important for any company.

Urbanism

15-minute cities: mundane planning concept or global conspiracy? [Podcast] - this is probably the funniest conspiracy theory lately. 

The War on Cars Turns 100 [Podcast] - most likely the most fun urbanisation podcast out there.

Opinion To revitalize downtowns, cities need to stop making this big mistake - converting offices to flats

A (very) Short History of French Politicians & Urbanism in Paris - A Coolville Experience [YouTube] - it always looks like change is very recent, but it is really along processs

Why Bad Street Design is Both Costly and Deadly [YouTube] - very US focus, but it still applies everywhere

Friday Links Disclaimer
Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kind of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time you might notice common themes, though.
More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.

Friday, March 03, 2023

Friday Links 23-08

Wolf face

I enjoyed the podcast about Rawls' Theory of justice and the article about "BAU work", which is really about much more.

Leadership

Go Beyond Fixing It: How the VP of Engineering at Box Approaches High-Stake Change (with Tamar Bercovici, VP of Engineering at Box) [Podcast] - different levels of leadership and focusing on goals

What it takes to scale engineering [Podcast] - interesting insights in GitHub's scaling 

How to tackle friction between product and engineering in scale-ups [Podcast] - I liked the articles, this is good too.

But what about the BAU work? - make work visible, especially hidden work, focus on values, structure teams along values 

Alignment > Autonomy - autonomy alone is not enough

Work

Fixing work's people problem(s) [Podcast]

World’s biggest four-day working week trial ends in success - BBC News  [Podcast] - I might want this more as an employee than an employer

Urbanism

Bicycles become most popular mode of transport on City of London roads - build it and they will come  

UK town “blames” rail freight for congestion - no comment

Random Wolf

Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth? - turns out, we made that up

Rawls' Theory of Justice [Podcast] - "Rawls’ radical idea was that those inequalities must be to the greatest advantage not to the richest but to the worst off."

250 km2 area off Costa Brava coast designated eligible for wind farms - I am expecting some more protests

Dumb Password Rules - good bookmark to keep for future discussions

Why We Rave - I miss raves :-( 

The Dream of the Nineties is Still Alive - "Historical Characters"

Understanding Firearm Deaths by State—and How to Reduce Them - never going to happen

Friday Links Disclaimer
Inclusion of links does not imply that I agree with the content of linked articles or podcasts. I am just interested in all kind of perspectives. If you follow the link posts over time you might notice common themes, though.
More about the links in a separate post: About Friday Links.