Finished reading: The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison continues the great Cemeteries of Amalo series. I’m impressed with how casually and simply such a rich and complex world is created in this series πŸ“š

New notebook day!

A blue pen rests on an open lined notebook placed on a marble surface.

George is recovering well from recent, minor surgery by sleeping at my feet

A golden retriever wearing a blue harness is lying on its back next to a person’s feet in sandals on a wooden floor.

πŸ”— Matt Gurney: How Hollywood screwed with our civic expectations

Why do we assume the same government that is, for instance, struggling to fill potholes in my city, or hire enough nurses in my province, or fix a federal payroll system, is going to be more competent when presented with something totally out of the blue? This flies in the face of all of our lived experiences with government. It’s a generous assumption of state capacity that is, to put it charitably, unearned.

Finished reading: Blindsight by Peter Watts is an interesting mix of sci-fi, horror, and philosophy. I enjoyed it. Vampires in space!πŸ“š

🎧 I enjoyed Season 7 of Strong Songs and am happy to be a Patreon supporter

Glad it’s Friday

A can of Lake of Bays Brewing Co. hazy pale ale is next to a glass filled with the beer on a countertop.

🎢 Some good, new albums that fit well together:

πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ Gloves Off is a thought provoking series (so far) on how Canada could respond to recent geopolitical developments

I was pleased by Glenn Jenkins' invitation to return to his Program on Investment Appraisal and Risk Analysis at Queen’s University and describe an approach to project appraisal and economic assessment. This is my third year participating and I’m consistently impressed by the quality of questions and level of engagement from the participants.

Download: transport-economics-and-appraisal.pdf

πŸ”— Optimization Culture is Making Us Fragile

For all that we know about human performance, it is still wildly mysterious. A blackbox algorithm cannot predict how you’ll perform. If you think you must have full readiness to perform at your best, then you will leave so many of your best days on the table. It is a fragility mindset that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Absolutely something to be careful about. I know I’ve sometimes been influenced by a poor readiness score and have learned to treat it as a general indicator, rather than prediction.

Finished reading: Outlive by Peter Attia is a comprehensive approach to health. Although we need to be careful about influencer nonsense when it comes to health advice, Attia’s work is carefully considered and researched. My main takeaways are the importance of strength training, monitoring my protein consumption, continuing to prioritize sleep, and carefully considering mental resiliency πŸ“š

Tall Trees Muskoka. πŸ“

Reflecting on yesterday’s stomach troubles, I have to consider the deep fried butter tart I had the night before the race. A delicious concoction of a butter tart, wrapped in a cinnamon coated churro, topped with vanilla ice cream. Not traditional triathlon nutrition, but I’ve decided it prevented anything worse from happening, rather than contributing to the trouble.

Me sitting at a table, smiling, and holding a spoon near a dessert topped with ice cream.

πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈπŸš΄πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ I do these things because they’re hard. This was was the hardest yet: ridiculous humidity and some bad nausea on the bike made this one a struggle. 45 minutes slower than my last two attempts and every minute was earned. But, this is likely the one I’ll remember most.

A person wearing a red shirt and white cap is holding up an Ironman Muskoka Canada medal.

Finished reading: Livesuit is a fun short story in the Captive’s War series by James S. A. Corey. Based on this and the first book in the series, a promising start πŸ“š

Prioritizing rest and recovery this week has certainly helped my readiness to train. Great to be back in the green

A fitness app dashboard displays statistics for readiness to train. Shows a steady increase over the week to be in green.

Family Place Restaurant. πŸ“

Race fuel

A hearty breakfast platter featuring pancakes topped with bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, and an orange slice.

πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈπŸš΄πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ I’m always worried that I’m forgetting something. Pictures like these help, plus a packing list in Apple Notes

A table displays various athletic gear including cycling shoes, a helmet, a jersey, a cap, sports bottles, and nutrition supplements.

George let’s me know when I’ve spent enough time with my phone. Leans right up against me and is not shy about using his paw to push the phone away.

A close-up of a golden retriever’s face showcasing its eye and nose.

Lawful Access on Steroids: Why Bill C-2’s Big Brother Tactics Combine Expansive Warrantless Disclosure with Unprecedented Secrecy - Michael Geist

But beyond the stunning breadth of the information demand power, there should be serious concern with how the government has crafted a system that is unprecedented in its secrecy and lack of transparency. Simply put, there will be millions of information disclosures every year and Canadians will be kept in the dark on both an individual basis and in terms of the overall scope of warrantless demands.

There’s a lot going wrong in this bill and it absolutely warrants some serious revisions. I find the provisions that prevent firms from communicating with customers about security vulnerabilities particularly troublesome.

Geist’s Law Bytes podcast has a good summary episode on this bill too.