Matt’s bleeding heart-friend and others like her are some of the biggest internal threats to the proper functioning of this Country. Her reasoning is catastrophic for two reasons. First, it necessarily leads to bad outcomes because there is no reason to ever have any confidence in her diagnosis of any problem. The subway story is emblematic. The guy ranting on the subway IS the problem. Full stop. And this is true no matter the demographic characteristics of him or the other passengers. This is simply NOT a debatable point. And the minute you lose sight of (or worse, simply deny) that indisputable and fundamental point, your ability to correctly identify a solution to the problem is fatally compromised.
Failing to properly diagnose an actual problem is bad enough. It is compounded when it becomes obvious for all to see that the reason for the mis-diagnosis is the application of a double-standard driven by demographic considerations. The corrosive effect of the oppression Olympics on society as a whole cannot be over-stated: people who are paying attention can see what is happening. And it gets worse when someone points out to the bleeding heart that no, actually, the ranting dude is the problem - and the bleeding heart responds by accusing the person making this self-evident observation of being a [fill-in-the-blank] ist of some sort. Condescending/insulting people are annoying enough when they are right. They are downright infuriating when they are wrong.
Anyhow, this is exactly how you wind up with drug addicts masturbating in front of kids. We would rightly imprison any straight, cis, white, mentally-healthy man who did this (well, this is Canada, maybe we wouldn’t – but we should, so play along). We should do the same to any gay, trans, black, mentally-healthy woman who did this. And we should mandate medical treatment for any mentally ill/addicted person who did this.
And let me endorse Jen’s aside – men should never compete against women in sports unless and until we as a society decide to abolish separate competitions for the two sexes.
Matt: The feeling that historians have when warnings of possible futures are ignored and/or actively insulted was addressed well by Sophocles long ago.
Teiresias: Alas, how terrible is wisdom
when it brings no profit to the man that's wise!
This I knew well, but had forgotten it,
else I would not have come here.
- Oedipus the King 316-9
Spoiler alert: It doesn't end well for Oedipus, although to be fair it works out basically ok for Teiresias.
P.S. - Is it really a spoiler if the play is 2500 years old?
Japan is the counterpoint to the "military name" discussion: they don't have a "military" either but a "self-defence force" instead; however, said "non-military" has one of the biggest armed maritime fleets in the world with "helicopter carriers" capable of landing and launching F-35 fighter jets.
The term Jen is looking for is "technical debt". This is when a suboptimal technical decision is made for short term benefit, usually to save time or money, but will have to be paid back and then some at some point in the future. Accumulating technical debt is typical IT practice as optimizing the entire stack with every change is not feasible. Successful IT organizations carefully track tech debt and plan to resolve it before it becomes overwhelming. Perhaps the Government of Canada manages tech debt the same way it does fiscal debt.
The Economist article was only online for a short period of time, so it must have contained inaccuracies.
Kanananaskis Country encompasses 4,000 sq km of provincial parks and protected areas between Calgary and Banff with multiple access points. Kanananaskis surrounds Canmore on three sides, with Banff forming the western boundary. Kanananaskis consists of several valleys (Elbow, Sheep, Highwood, Kanananaskis, Spray and part the Bow). The G7 is being held at Kanananaskis Village, which is in the actual Kanananaskis River valley. It contains a through road, highway 40, that branches off the TCH and loops around to Longview south of Calgary. Kanananaskis Village consists of a hotel, Nordic Spa, a large and very elaborate campground, 36 hole golf course, a hostel and the Nakiska ski resort. As highway 40 is the only way in or out of Kanananaskis Village, it is easy to secure.
Perhaps Jen could have created an animated GIF that cycles through the pages of her various arcticles.
Hey. Jen has recently switched to a headset. There appears to be a significant volume discrepancy between her and Matt. In order to hear her I have to crank the volume - but then Matt is screaming at me. :) Would love it if Jen went back to the system she used a month ago.
Fascinating podcast - there is a lot to ponder. Words are powerful and perhaps the word 'harm' is so infused in our communication style that it can and must be everything out there can cause harm. A lot of organizations do outcome measurement but what is an outcome compared to a specific data-based question? When we say 'harm' what are we talking about specifically?
I have a friend who in the late 2010s took a sabbatical from Shopify to work at Canadian Digital Services to see if he could help the organization fix some of the issues you complained about at the beginning of the episode. After 3 months it became clear to him that there were so many organizational problems that it would be impossible to have any impact so he went back to Shopify.
The thing to understand is that Canada do things badly is not always about a lack of investment. It is that we have organizations structured in a way that they can’t succeed. But because they are a part of government they can never fail enough to be dissolved.
If you’re interested in interviewing this friend, please let me know. I’ve not talked to him in several years but I can ask him.
Probably two levels down on some Government of Canada website they are still referring to citizens being able to request more detail about "The Information Superhighway" by sending an electronic mail message to cangov@aol.com
The history cycle thing might be the Strauss–Howe generational theory: per Wikipedia, "The Strauss–Howe generational theory, devised by William Strauss and Neil Howe, is a psychohistorical theory which describes a theorized recurring generation cycle in American and Western history. According to the theory, historical events are associated with recurring generational personas (archetypes). Each generational persona unleashes a new era (called a turning) lasting around 21 years, in which a new social, political, and economic climate (mood) exists. They are part of a larger cyclical 'saeculum' (a long human life, which usually spans around 85 years, although some saecula have lasted longer). The theory states that a crisis recurs in American history after every saeculum, which is followed by a recovery (high). During this recovery, institutions and communitarian values are strong. Ultimately, succeeding generational archetypes attack and weaken institutions in the name of autonomy and individualism, which eventually creates a tumultuous political environment that ripens conditions for another crisis." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory
Matt’s bleeding heart-friend and others like her are some of the biggest internal threats to the proper functioning of this Country. Her reasoning is catastrophic for two reasons. First, it necessarily leads to bad outcomes because there is no reason to ever have any confidence in her diagnosis of any problem. The subway story is emblematic. The guy ranting on the subway IS the problem. Full stop. And this is true no matter the demographic characteristics of him or the other passengers. This is simply NOT a debatable point. And the minute you lose sight of (or worse, simply deny) that indisputable and fundamental point, your ability to correctly identify a solution to the problem is fatally compromised.
Failing to properly diagnose an actual problem is bad enough. It is compounded when it becomes obvious for all to see that the reason for the mis-diagnosis is the application of a double-standard driven by demographic considerations. The corrosive effect of the oppression Olympics on society as a whole cannot be over-stated: people who are paying attention can see what is happening. And it gets worse when someone points out to the bleeding heart that no, actually, the ranting dude is the problem - and the bleeding heart responds by accusing the person making this self-evident observation of being a [fill-in-the-blank] ist of some sort. Condescending/insulting people are annoying enough when they are right. They are downright infuriating when they are wrong.
Anyhow, this is exactly how you wind up with drug addicts masturbating in front of kids. We would rightly imprison any straight, cis, white, mentally-healthy man who did this (well, this is Canada, maybe we wouldn’t – but we should, so play along). We should do the same to any gay, trans, black, mentally-healthy woman who did this. And we should mandate medical treatment for any mentally ill/addicted person who did this.
And let me endorse Jen’s aside – men should never compete against women in sports unless and until we as a society decide to abolish separate competitions for the two sexes.
Matt: The feeling that historians have when warnings of possible futures are ignored and/or actively insulted was addressed well by Sophocles long ago.
Teiresias: Alas, how terrible is wisdom
when it brings no profit to the man that's wise!
This I knew well, but had forgotten it,
else I would not have come here.
- Oedipus the King 316-9
Spoiler alert: It doesn't end well for Oedipus, although to be fair it works out basically ok for Teiresias.
P.S. - Is it really a spoiler if the play is 2500 years old?
Japan is the counterpoint to the "military name" discussion: they don't have a "military" either but a "self-defence force" instead; however, said "non-military" has one of the biggest armed maritime fleets in the world with "helicopter carriers" capable of landing and launching F-35 fighter jets.
The term Jen is looking for is "technical debt". This is when a suboptimal technical decision is made for short term benefit, usually to save time or money, but will have to be paid back and then some at some point in the future. Accumulating technical debt is typical IT practice as optimizing the entire stack with every change is not feasible. Successful IT organizations carefully track tech debt and plan to resolve it before it becomes overwhelming. Perhaps the Government of Canada manages tech debt the same way it does fiscal debt.
The Economist article was only online for a short period of time, so it must have contained inaccuracies.
Kanananaskis Country encompasses 4,000 sq km of provincial parks and protected areas between Calgary and Banff with multiple access points. Kanananaskis surrounds Canmore on three sides, with Banff forming the western boundary. Kanananaskis consists of several valleys (Elbow, Sheep, Highwood, Kanananaskis, Spray and part the Bow). The G7 is being held at Kanananaskis Village, which is in the actual Kanananaskis River valley. It contains a through road, highway 40, that branches off the TCH and loops around to Longview south of Calgary. Kanananaskis Village consists of a hotel, Nordic Spa, a large and very elaborate campground, 36 hole golf course, a hostel and the Nakiska ski resort. As highway 40 is the only way in or out of Kanananaskis Village, it is easy to secure.
Perhaps Jen could have created an animated GIF that cycles through the pages of her various arcticles.
Hey. Jen has recently switched to a headset. There appears to be a significant volume discrepancy between her and Matt. In order to hear her I have to crank the volume - but then Matt is screaming at me. :) Would love it if Jen went back to the system she used a month ago.
Fascinating podcast - there is a lot to ponder. Words are powerful and perhaps the word 'harm' is so infused in our communication style that it can and must be everything out there can cause harm. A lot of organizations do outcome measurement but what is an outcome compared to a specific data-based question? When we say 'harm' what are we talking about specifically?
I have a friend who in the late 2010s took a sabbatical from Shopify to work at Canadian Digital Services to see if he could help the organization fix some of the issues you complained about at the beginning of the episode. After 3 months it became clear to him that there were so many organizational problems that it would be impossible to have any impact so he went back to Shopify.
The thing to understand is that Canada do things badly is not always about a lack of investment. It is that we have organizations structured in a way that they can’t succeed. But because they are a part of government they can never fail enough to be dissolved.
If you’re interested in interviewing this friend, please let me know. I’ve not talked to him in several years but I can ask him.
Probably two levels down on some Government of Canada website they are still referring to citizens being able to request more detail about "The Information Superhighway" by sending an electronic mail message to cangov@aol.com
The history cycle thing might be the Strauss–Howe generational theory: per Wikipedia, "The Strauss–Howe generational theory, devised by William Strauss and Neil Howe, is a psychohistorical theory which describes a theorized recurring generation cycle in American and Western history. According to the theory, historical events are associated with recurring generational personas (archetypes). Each generational persona unleashes a new era (called a turning) lasting around 21 years, in which a new social, political, and economic climate (mood) exists. They are part of a larger cyclical 'saeculum' (a long human life, which usually spans around 85 years, although some saecula have lasted longer). The theory states that a crisis recurs in American history after every saeculum, which is followed by a recovery (high). During this recovery, institutions and communitarian values are strong. Ultimately, succeeding generational archetypes attack and weaken institutions in the name of autonomy and individualism, which eventually creates a tumultuous political environment that ripens conditions for another crisis." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory
Seriously, 20 min start with personal journalist anecdotes and content planning…. Maybe do that before you start.
I appreciate the information you collect as journalists and your commentary on that topical info.
Disagree, this is part if them using the entirety of the content cow to serve us up.