RSSWorld’s Toughest Map
Mar 04
I came across this photo today. It’s from backstage at a recent Fashion Week show. Easily the toughest map to follow ever.
Great Meals and Path Dependence
Feb 28
History, Random Complexity Comments
Wen and I are fortunate to have great friends. A few of them (randomly) ended up giving us gift certificates to Gramercy Tavern when we got married and we finally made it the other night. As we were basking in the glow of a ridiculously good meal, Wendy mentioned “how did we get here?” I couldn’t help but think of how, at least for me, a couple of decisions that – at the time – seemed irrelevant have massively shaped who I am today. (Note that this is not an original notion; complexity scientists call it path dependence). Here are a couple of those events:
When I was in high school, you applied for three different university programs in descending preference. I didn’t get into my first pick – computer engineering at the University of Waterloo. Instead, I did engineering at Queen’s. If I’d gone to Waterloo I likely wouldn’t know my current set of friends and almost certainly be married to Wen. In fact, I’d argue that not getting into Waterloo is the best thing that ever happened to me (and that’s no knock to Waterloo as a school).
When I was at Queen’s every engineer did a common first year and then had to pick a discipline to specialize in over the next three years. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but knew that I liked computers and math and physics. Each discipline made a presentation and the Engineering Physics department invited a grad named Kamal Hassan to present. He talked about how he had studied Eng Phys and learned lots of interesting math/physics/engineering but didn’t want to be an engineer and therefore became a management consultant. I had no idea what a ‘management consultant’ was, but the program sounded like something interesting so I decided to do Eng Phys. The training I received there continues to help me on a daily basis. (And, in a weird twist of fate, I ended up becoming a consultant like Kamal and, freakishly, ended up at the same business school he went to)
After my 2nd year of school, I went overseas to London on a work exchange program. There was a central organization that helped you find a job. A list of positions were posted; you applied; and if you were to be interviewed, a notice was placed for you in a book (this was pre-cellphones). This book had a very odd structure. There were tabbed pages (by students’ last names), but the tabs weren’t rigid and you could open the book but it would be collapsing under its own weight if your last name started with a “w”.
One morning I went to check if I had any interviews and I had one-for a 150 quid/week job at Merrill Lynch. However, due to the collapsing book, I missed one for a 250/week at some publishing company. When I found out I missed out on a job that paid 66% more I was crushed (and I spent the summer living in pernury) – but years later I was in a job interview and saw “Merrill Lynch” circled on my CV and knew that it had been worth it (if you ever meet me, ask me about that job at Merrill).
Finally, I didn’t get into any of the American grad schools I applied to. Instead, I ended up at INSEAD. Again, I met some truly unique people who I otherwise would not know. More importantly, I got a special chance to work with a serial investor and startup in Silicon Valley. This gave me the confidence to strike out on my own after school, and while that business wasn’t a success, it directly led to me getting my current job.
All of which led to us having dinner at Gramercy Tavern. I don’t pretent that the only reason I was able to have dinner there was because of the decisions made above (after all, there are an infinite number of paths that could have led to me eating there), but at least I know which points in my life have made the biggest impact.
And as for the meal. It was delicious. The appetizer was a lamb papardelle with olives, lemon confit and swiss chard.
This was followed by venison loin and sausage in a Bourbon sauce and with a potato pancake:
We quaffed it down with probably the best bottle of wine I’ve ever have – a 2001 bottle of Oddero Barolo:
Finally, they gave us a little amuse bouche for the next morning – a piece of cocount cake with pear inside:
Can Someone Please Explain This To Me?
Jan 22
Random china, freedom, google Comments Off
I was too young to appreciate the beautifully-lucid-yet-logically-untenable propaganda dreamed up by apparatchiks in the Soviet Union, but, fortunately, China is the new Russia. Check out some quotes from the China Global Times’ response to the U.S. asking for freedom of info on the web:
The hard fact that Clinton has failed to highlight in her speech is that bulk of the information flowing from the US and other Western countries is loaded with aggressive rhetoric against those countries that do not follow their lead.
In contrast, in the global information order, countries that are disadvantaged could not produce the massive flow of information required, and could never rival the Western countries in terms of information control and dissemination.
I don’t really understand the logic in the above statement, but, hey-let’s see where this goes!
It is not because the people of China do not want free flow of information or unlimited access to Internet, as in the West. It is just because they recognize the situation that their country is forced to face.
Unlike advanced Western countries, Chinese society is still vulnerable to the effect of multifarious information flowing in, especially when it is for creating disorder.
Yikes. China can create the second biggest economy in the world, send an astronaut into space, become the manufacturer for the world but it still needs its government to protect its people from themselves? Because apparently despite all their achievements over the past few years they are incapable of determining what is ‘true’ and what is a ‘lie’? What b.s. Kudos to Google for threatening to pull out.
Today’s Moment of Inspiration
Jan 14
Random inspiration Comments Off
This quote below precisely encapsulates so much of what I am looking for in life:
When you actually see somebody doing amazing things, there’s no excuses for doing mediocre work. Seeing people who are super passionate about what they do, I think that creates a self-propelling hunger.
Gabriella Gómez-Mont in “More Intelligent Life”
Everything is Better with Lasers
Jan 13
If you ever find yourself in Cobble Hill, be sure to check out any movie playing at the Cobble Hill Theater. They have easily created the best pre-movie house ad of all time. Watch closely for the chairs with lasers (alas, the chairs don’t really have lasers) at the halfway mark:
And, yes, that really was a request for you to a) not smoke and b) turn off your pager.
Contemporary Canadian
Dec 24
Random contemporary canadian art, national gallery of canada Comments Off
I’m back home in Ottawa for Christmas and I had the chance to get to our National Gallery to check out their collect. Early Canada was a rough time for painters; outside of Cornelius Krieghoff there just wasn’t a lot of talent in the country until the Group of Seven came along. This means that when you go to the National Gallery, breeze through the first couple of rooms and wait until you get to about 1900; that’s where the fun begins. If you go, check out the following paintings to get a sense of Canada’s contribution to painting.
Note: my blog template resizes the images badly. Try opening any of the images below in a new window to get a sense of what they really look like.
CW Jefferys – Western Sunlight, Last Mountain Lake. If you stare at this painting in the gallery, you can make out the faintest shades of pink in the sky. If you’ve spent any time on the Prairies, you can relate to this.
Tom Thomson – The Pool. Anyone who has spent a fall in Ontario knows exactly where this comes from.
Tom Thomson – The Jack Pine. Possibly the most famous Canadian painting. Many a child grew up staring at this on a place mat.
Arthur Lismer – The Guide’s Home, Algonquin.
Jean Paul Riopelle – Pavane. Fast forward 30 years. Canada is a more urban (but definitely not urban) society. This is reflected in a new artistry. You can’t tell from below, but Riopelle’s canvasses are massive. The work below is roughly 10×20 feet. His brushstrokes are as much a part of the painting as the colour and the composition.
Marcel Barbeau – Nataskhouan. This is possibly my favourite piece of Canadian art. When you stand close to it, it occupies your entire field of view and the canvas begins to dance in front of your eyes.
Gershon Iskowitz – Seasons, No.1. Little globules of colour float across a massive canvas.
Claude Tousignant – Gong 88, No. 1. At first this seems like a silly visual trick: a bunch of bullseyes of different colours. However, as you stare relentlessly at the center of the painting, all colour merges into one. If you blink, the whole scene flashes before you eye and you realize that there is a picture within the picture…
Eric Cameron – Red and Yellows on Green (Type 111q, 1/2″ tape).
Just for fun, here are some shots from the building itself. The Moshe Safdie-designed Gallery is probably one of the best buildings of the 1980’s (a true rarity).
I Know I Run Fast, But…
Dec 24
I pride myself on being a quick runner, but this is ridiculous. Wen and I were using my iPhone to navigate from New York back to Ottawa, courtesy of Google maps. They were kind enough to give us a lot of options: by car, by bus or by foot. I was interested in how long it would take by foot. Turns out only five days:
That’s not too bad, right? 400 hundred miles in 5.5 days. Totally doable, right? Oh wait, that’s six miles an hour 12 hours a day. What’s interesting is that the average finish time for a man in a marathon is ~4:30 – or about 5.8 miles/hour. I guess we all just need to learn how to run faster than average marathons back to back to back to back and then we’ll have a similar fitness level to those at Google!
(Note: this is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek post. It’s awesome that you can drive around and get on the fly directions. Just might need a little bit more work on those ‘walking’ ones)
The Fall
Dec 21
Random Art, photography, richard mosse Comments Off
A few weeks back, Wen and I went to see Richard Mosse’s The Fall at the Jack Shainman gallery (more Mosse photos). Mosse is a great photographer who travels to the edges of the world to capture images of catastrophe and then prints them on a massive scale. I highly recommend reading his recent interview over at BLDGBLOG (then read the older one). This paragraph captures the spirit of his work:
So how is the catastrophe popularly represented? Through terrorism. Terrorism is a gesture of advertising; it’s a literary act, a form of representation, before all else. Its aim is not primarily to kill, but to capture the popular imagination through killing. It’s for this reason that I’m drawn to the air disaster: there is no finer, more succinct, more international, and more culturally loaded expression of the catastrophe than a plane crash. An airliner in vertical descent is a spectacle of modernity’s complete failure.
Here are some shots of his work from the exhibit; I’m aware you’re not supposed to take photos in art galleries, but his works are magnetic and I couldn’t help myself:
Message from the Future
Nov 07
Last week daylight savings time began. One of the small pleasures of the 21st century is that you never have to worry about getting up an hour too early/late on these days because you can use your cellphone as your alarm clock. Their clocks update automatically, so you’ve effectively outsourced the problem to them.
However, it’s interesting to see that their systems don’t always work. Last week I missed a call and when I checked my voicemail, the message was from the future (Just another example of AT&T’s network failing!):
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