On Public Transportation
A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.
It is a place where you may run into Michael Bloomberg or Paul McCartney on the metro or train.
I write this from Lisbon, surrounded many thousands of youngsters attending World Youth Days (WYD. The logistics of this event must have been immense. Where do these hundreds of thousands of kids sleep? How does one feed that many youngsters? How do you set up port-a-potties for the 1.5 million people who attended the closing Mass with the Pope?
One thing was for sure. It was easy to get around town. Because Lisbon, like many European cities, has a great public transportation system, they had the infrastructure to support an event like this. A bus ride is 2 Euros. A 40 minutes train ride is 3 Euros, and trains run every 20-30 minutes. Out daughter, attending WYD, got a full pass to all public transportation systems. For the entire week, she could hop on any bus, tram, train, or metro system for free. What a wonderful thing! And what a way to absorb the influx of people into the city.
Imagine how this would work out it in the US. It would be a hotchpotch of temporary private bus and shuttle systems. When the event is over, we would be back to an inferior transportation system. Hello Los Angeles or the Bay Area!
Many years ago, I used to take bus 66 or the Mountain View VTA light rail to work. It was very slow, expensive, and perilous. VTA is in no way prepared to handle hundreds of thousands of people. Sadly, the Bay Area transportation system targets only few, often those of the lower social strata.
I hope that the youngsters from all over the world attending World Youth Days, or Jornada Mundial da Jugentude as it is called in Portugues, remember one more thing, in addition to the many life lessons they picked up from this experience. And that is the luxury and importance of advocating for a great public transportation system.
August 7, 2023
Cav, From Cycling Rodeo Cowboy to the Best Sprinter of the Tour De France
Mark Cavendish is the most successful sprinter in Tour de France history. With 34 stage wins to his name, he equals the record of the goat, Eddy Merckx.
Sprinters are a rare breed. All day, over 200km, they ride in the peloton, with the single hope to unleash their power in the last 350 meters of a race. They are the rodeo cowboys of cycling. Eight seconds is often all it takes. A great lead out train is a must. These are three or four team mates who single file guide the sprinter at an ever increasing speed to the finish line. There is some pushing and shoulder leaning to keep the sprinter in position. The sprinters hang on in the slip stream until the very last moment. Bam! That’s when they go. Mark Cavendish is the best of them over the past two decades.
It has taken me many years to warm up to Cav. He was rarely graceful in his victories. He was always on edge. Tantrum boy. He fought with anyone who asked a pointed question. His sprints weren’t as clean as he wanted you to belief.
My view on Cav changed when two years ago, the godfather of the peloton, Patrick Lefevre, added him back to his squad, in extremis. Cavendish’s career was all but over, He was physically not in form either. And yet, Patrick picked him up, on a gut feeling he says. No big contract. Heck, no real salary to speak of. It was a way to retire in style.
The luck of the draw came when anothe sprinter, Sam Bennet, threw a fit. Officially he suffered from knee pain. Unofficially, he wanted to join a different team. This created a vacancy on the Quickstep tour selection and Mark Cavendish was all too happy to take it. One more time sprinting for glory (and bonuses).
After years in a downward spiral, the tour of 2021 changed it all when he sprinted for the win: tour stage win number 30. He would add three more and in the green jersey he equalized the record of Eddy Merckx. It was one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history. Mark was grateful and showed a lot of grace. Finally.
Netflix’s Cavendish brings us the other side of the comeback, with the dark days, the family troubles, the mental and physical struggles. Hats off to a great warrior on two wheels.
What was next for Cavendish? He could have retired gloriously on the Champs Elysees. But that’s not the Mark Cavendish we got to know in the Netflix show. He continued on with the Astana team. He won another stage win in the Giro d’Italia and was ready for a final Tour de France, in search for that record breaking stage win. Except his retirement was cut short by a crash in the 2023 Tour de France. Cavendish fractured his collarbone in the crash and was forced to abandon the race.
I bet we will see him back, one more time.
August 6, 2023
Using iA Presenter for Impromptu Presentations and Keeping Notes in One Place
Last October, I explored new presentation tools. I was intrigued by the presentation as code idea, where you craft your presentation in text form, and the actual slides are generated for you. I started experimenting with Obsidian’s advanced slides plugin and with iA Presenter, a brand new tool from Information Architects..
This was all before the advent of generative artificial intelligence, changing many productivity and business tools.
Here’s a quick update on my experiment with iA Presenter.
After several iterations, the tool was officially released in 2023. I ended up buying a license to it, as it had served me well. I am able to create and evolve a good looking presentation in no time from a markdown text file. Being able to add a background image per slide was a great improvement.
Overall, you need to be willing to let iA Presenter do the layout. You give up control for a different and faster creation process. You can not add text, images or diagrams as you want. I ended up creating diagrams outside of the tool using a variety of tools. (There are even tools that create flowcharts from text file if you want to be extreme in your use of Markdown.)
Initially I linked to images by URL. Yet, I found that I had more options when I added the images to the tool. This increases the presentation directory size. When generating images using artificial intelligence with Dall-E, downloading and importing is the only way. I wish there was the ability to specify a common image directory, in addition to having it local to each presentation.
As my teammates do not have the tool, I have not been succesful with a collaborative creation process. I had shared the Markdown file in git in the hopes folks would edit the presentation in the source text format. That has not worked out. It requires a change of religion for many. I also share a draft presentation in PDF format for feedback. However, that’s been cumbersome for my colleagues.
Although iA added Export to PowerPoint, I haven’t used it. I imagine this will become more useful when folks will want to “borrow” slides to embed in their own presentations.
Because everything is a text file, I started using the tool truly as a notes+presentation combo. I write my narrative or idea out and intersperse the slides for when I need to present them. My text file therefore becomes quite long as it includes the full essay or proposal. The benefit however is that it all in one place. I don’t need to update both a Google Doc and set of slides.
There are a few features I hope can be added over time. First of all the ability to fold the Markdown so you can have a clear overview and outline of the presentation. Secondly, export select pages to PDF. (There is an easy workaround to this by duplicating the presentation and deleting the slides you don’t want). Thirdly, to support my notes+presentation combo use case, it would be create to be able to export only the non-slide content (my narrative).
I use the tool daily and foresee I will continue to use it in the notes+presentation mode. Yet, I do plan to experiment also with a few AI-powered presentation tools, such as the new Canva and Prezi, as well as Slidebean and coPilot for PowerPoint. I am however not a fan of the $10/month subscription model to try and use the AI tools.
Lastly, it is important to note that the support from Information Architects has been great. Even though they are a small team, I get great and direct answers to my questions.
August 4, 2023
Strava, Meet Facebook Groups and Facebook Messenger
Strava is the place for athletes and weekend warriors to track their runs, bicycle rides, or swims. It is where your team mates will laud your successes and support you through your failures. I’ve been using Strava Pro for many years now.
However, Strava lacks an important feature: the ability to organize, discuss, coordinate, and schedule your team events. Strava Clubs allow you to be part of a group. Yet, that’s about it. There is no option to create an event (publicly or privately). It lacks also the social community aspect, where you can discuss gear discounts, plan team outfits, or share advise on how to repair your bicycle.
In the teams I am part of, the organizers went to Meetup or Facebook Groups and Messenger to do that. To be honest, I am not a big fan of having to go to Facebook Groups for this. You quickly get sucked in to doomscrolling.
Facebook may be the watercooler for many, Strava can become the locker room for all active folks.
July 31, 2023
Trigger Your Mind’s Coprocessor Through Mundane Tasks
Have you ever noticed that your best ideas come when you’re not actively trying to think about them? Maybe you’re taking a shower, or going for a walk, or doing some other mundane task. And suddenly, you have a brilliant insight into a problem you’ve been struggling with.
Remember Tim Urban’s procrastination monkey? It needs to be kept busy on stupid things, so that the real brains can focus.
After a run, swim or bicycle ride, I have a long list of items I came up with. You may find me with my bicycle stopped at a traffic light speaking a reminder or note into my Apple Watch. I wish I could easily tag time stamps in a podcast for later.
Doing mundane tasks can be so helpful for creativity and problem-solving. When you’re running, swimming, or doing the dishes, your brain is free to wander and come up with new ideas. So next time you’re stuck on a problem, try taking a break from thinking about it and do something mindless instead. You might just be surprised at what you come up with.
July 31, 2023
Ed Catmull and Pete Docter, in Conversation With Adam Grant
One of my favorite books about working as a team and building a culture of experimentation and creativity is Creativity Inc by Pixar’s Ed Catmull.
Ed Catmull was recently interviewed, together with Pete Docter, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer and Academy Award winning director and screenwriter, by Adam Grant. (transcript)
A few takeaways from the interview:
- Creativity is a process, not a destination. It takes time, effort, and collaboration to create something truly great. Take one step at a time, one problem at a time.
- Feedback is essential for growth. It’s important to be open to feedback, even if it’s critical. Steve Jobs used the phrase Strong opinions, loosely held often. You should be able to manage two seemingly conflicting points of view at once: Hold onto something tight, and you should be able to let it go at the same time. Just because you express your opinion strongly doesn’t mean you can’t also be holding it weakly.
- Getting feedback is a lot more about diagnosing a problem, rather than taking in the proposed solutions. Sometimes people think you are dismissing their feedback. Instead you may be solving the newly unearthed problem in a different way. Yet you are incorporating the feedback differently.
- Have a challenge network: your braintrust who brings you the critical feedback. (There is a lot in the Creativity Inc book about the Pixar braintrust.)
- A culture of trust and respect is essential for creativity to flourish. People need to feel safe to share their ideas, even if they’re not fully formed.
- Leadership is about creating an environment where people can do their best work. It’s not about micromanaging or dictating from the top down.
- Peer pirates - let department representatives argue the case among themselves, rather than the department heads to avoid changing the dynamics of the room.
- The importance of how a team is run over the team composition. And the role of storytelling to build the culture. Storytelling of successes, failures, and principles.
July 26, 2023
The Winner of the Tour De France 2023 Is Netflix
Every night for the past 3 weeks I watch Belgian TV’s Vive le Velo. I either listen to it on my commute home or watch it at home before going to bed. Vive le Velo provides a summary and analysis of the day’s Tour de France stage, interspersed with behind the tour mini documentaries and touristic escapades. The latter makes it an attractive balanced show and much different from a typical post-race ESPN analysis. It wides the audience beyond the die hard cycling enthusiast. I suspect it is the highest rated television show in Flanders at the moment (unless there is some reality soap on another channel I am not aware of. Ex-on-the-beach?).
The fact that a cycling show scores in cycling-crazy Belgium is no surprise. Yet also internationally, cycling is gaining in popularity. Lance Armstrong’s The Move and Geraint Thomas’ Watts Occuring are both highly popular podcasts. And more importantly, like a sprinter in the wheel of their lead out, Netflix and the Tour de France: Unchained timed it perfectly.
The Tour is sex and rock ’n roll - no more drugs. Full gas from day one and every day. Woef’ing a la Victor or Wout. Attacking like Tadej. Time trailing like Jonas. Sprinting like Jasper. Young guns are putting it all on the line. What a sea of difference from the Indurain or the Sky-Froome years!
Netflix has a front seat to it all. We got a first taste in June of what happens inside the team busses. Even for a fanatic like myself, this was new and interesting to watch. I can not wait until June next year when Unchained season 2 comes out.
Next stops: Glasgow (world championships) and the Vuelta a Espana. The Vuelta may give us a preview of what to expect in the Tour next year. This will be more than a battle between two. Geraint, Jonas, Primoz, Remco, Juan, and Enric are all heading to Barcelona.
July 22, 2023
New Product Management Acronyms
In the continuing series of new or sometimes lazy lingo, I learned about these product management related acronyms.
- WTP - Willingness to Pay: the maximum price a customer is willing to pay for a product or service.
- JTBD - Job to be Done: shorthand for what an individual really seeks to accomplish with your product.
- DOR - Definition of Ready
- MVE - Minimum Viable Experiment (sometimes Minimum Viable Experience): an experiment to test the central premise of your business idea. It is a much better term than Minimum Viable Product (MVP), as an MVP is clearly a misnomer: it is neither product, nor viable. MVE captures the true sentiment better.
- LSD - Lean Software Development: ok, I just like to listen to the Grateful Dead at work from time to time.
July 17, 2023
2023 Tour De France - Part 2
Ten seconds, that’s the difference between the number one and two in the overall standings, Jonas Vinegaard and Tadej Pogacar. Although Tadej and the UAE team tried on several climbs this week, Jonas turned out to be a tough cookie. He held on and fought back. He has surprised me. I also expected a bit more from Pogacar.
There was that blocking incident with the motorcycle from the French television, which could have given Tadej more seconds on bonification. Let’s hope this incident will not decide the tour of 2023.
The exciting fight continues on Tuesday with a time trial and two more mountainous stages in the final week. I anticipate some gutsy riding from Pogacar. We may even see Jonas on the attack too to break the Slovene mentally.
July 16, 2023
2023 Tour De France - Part 1
Last year, after some amazing riding by Wout Van Aert and a great battle for the yellow jersey between Jonas and Tadej, I wrote
“This has been the best Tour de France in years!”
“Hold my Ketone”, says the Tour de France 2023.
With a little help from the parcours builder, this year Tour de France is not for the weak. There is no first week dilly dallying by the GC contenders. Gone is the crazy cobble stone stage, which only causes spectacular, yet unfortunate, crashes. Week one hasn’t been merely an appetizer, soup, and some sprinter amuse bouche. Week one has been one raw piece of El Capricho from the area of San Sebastián. The Yates brothers, Jonas Vingegaard, and Tadej Pogacar, were the first to sit down at the table. “Let’s eat!”, they all shouted in unison.
We’ve seen some gutsy riding. Jonas Vingegaard skyrocketed on the Marie Blanque pushing Tadej against the ropes early, dropping him one minute. We all let go a big sigh of relief when we saw the counter attack from Tadej the next day. This is far from over. The battle just got started.
Then there is the fight for the polka dot jersey, the green jersey, and the stage wins. Every day, it has been a spectacle. Wout has been unfortunate and yet oh so close. The Vlam van Ham, Jasper Philipsen, with the help from Mathieu van der Poet, picked up a lot of green jersey points, when the grabbed three sprint stages. The polka dot jersey is a battle between Powless and Gall.
There has also been some drama with the crash and subsequent departures of Mark Cavendish, Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Luis León Sánchez, US champion Quinn Simmons or Belgian’s Steff Cras.
If all this were a summary of the entire Tour de France, we would be happy. This is only a quick summary of the first week of racing.
There is plenty of raw meat to be served in the coming days. Some will argue the long mountain stages favor Jonas. Still, I am rooting for Tadej, and Wout.
July 9, 2023