Reviews
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2019: A Review
Big changes this year! After eight years in San Francisco we moved back to Melbourne in March. This was always the lo...
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2019 Reading List
I read forty books this year, fewer than normal. Not sure why, I still read every day. Usually I have a new specialis...
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2018: A Review
This year was a bit different. I left Square in February after seven years,without much of a plan for what came next....
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Why Honor Matters: A Review
Why Honor Matters by Tammler Sommers was the most fascinating book I readthis year. Literally thought provoking. It c...
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Janesville: A Review
Janesville was proudly the site of GM’s oldest car factory, until it shut downin 2008. Janesville: An American Story ...
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2018 Reading List
I read fifty-five books this year. I’m suprised at how high that number is,since qualitatively this year was the leas...
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Reinventing Organizations: A Review
Reinventing Organizations is a survey of self-managing organizations that you should probably read.
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2017 Reading List
I read forty-seven books this year, far fewer than normal but skewed by a much higher average length driven primarily...
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2016 Reading List
I read fifty-seven books this year, the least of the last five years. I did watch more films and series though, as we...
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2015 Reading List
I read seventy-eight books this year, seventeen more than last. That’s somewhat misleading, as I did more easy readin...
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2014 Reading List
I read sixty-one books this year, five fewer than last. You can find the full list over at Good Reads. Here are my to...
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Capital In The Twenty-First Century: A Review
Piketty has done his research. His 685-page book Capital In The Twenty-First Century collates substantial income and ...
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If A Tree Falls: A Review
If A Tree Falls is a documentary on the origin, expansion, and collapse of an Earth Liberation Front (ELF) cell in Po...
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The Glass Cage: A Review
What if the cost of machines that think is people who don’t?The Glass Cage is an important counterpoint to the domi...
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2013 Reading List
I read sixty-six books this year, one more than last. You can find the full list over at Good Reads. Here are my top ...
Politics
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San Francisco Proposition Voting Guide 2015
It’s ballot time again! I’ve lived in San Francisco for four years, though as a non-permanent resident I can’t vote. ...
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New powers for ASIO
Australian Parliament recently passed the National Security LegislationAmendment Bill, and it the last couple of days...
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Victorian State Election 2014
The Victorian State Election is just six weeks away. In my electorate of Melbourne, four candidates are running repre...
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San Francisco Proposition Voting Guide 2014
As a non-permanent resident I can’t vote in San Francisco. I have lived here for three years though so have some opin...
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San Francisco Soda Tax
This November San Fracisco residents will vote on Proposition E, a measure that would impose a 24¢ tax on cans of Cok...
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California Proposition Voting Guide 2014
I can’t even vote here, but this is where I live so I have opinions. I’m no expert on any of these issues, so am open...
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Melbourne's East West Link
Tonight I’m reading about East West Link and Melbourne Rail. This was triggered by news that Napthine signed a secret...
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Deaths at Morwell
Local residents of Morwell were concerned about pollution deaths caused by fire at Hazelwood coal mine. They worked w...
Law
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The US Judiciary: From Weak to Strong
This essay was written as part of an online course on the US Constitution, in response to questions about the formati...
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Lessons From Lavabit
Late last year, Lavabit’s owner Ladar Levison was held in civil contempt forfailing to cooperate with FBI investigati...
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Golf In The Supreme Court
Not sure how I stumbled across this, but yesterday I read a 2001 Supreme Court case involving the Americans with Disa...
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Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Ruling
Today I read through the controversial and rather lengthy US Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. Reading it is like w...
Other
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A System for Email
For many years at Square, then later at Bradfield CS, I ran a class for newhires and managers about managing email. ...
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Short Mantras to Interrupt Imposter Syndrome
One pernicious effect of imposter syndrome is a negative mental loop – your brain becomes attached to a particular ju...
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Trip Report: Hetch Hetchy to Tilden Lake
I wanted to see where our water comes from. This season I fit in a cheeky hikebetween a bachelor party and the subseq...
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Race Report: Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon
It's been over two years since I trained for a road race. Between various injuries and a trail diversion, I haven't r...
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Trip Report: Kings Canyon
Having visited Yosemite a number of times, this season I decided to head south and check out Kings Canyon National Pa...
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Running Long in San Francisco
You’ve just moved to the city, deep into marathon training. Time for the weekend long run, you lace up your shoes, st...
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Introduction to Cubing
In 1974 Ernő Rubik accidentally invented a puzzle he couldn’t solve. It took him a month of tinkering to unscramble t...
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Race Report: North Face 50mi
“We should run the 50K in December?”“Yeah! Doesn’t feel that scary though?”“50 mile then?”“Deal.”And so it was, back ...
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Trip Report: Yosemite Wilderness
Over the Independence Day weekend and into the following week, I went on a solo backcountry trip through the Yosemite...
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Race Report: Walnut Creek Half Marathon
I first tried to run a sub-90 minute half marathon six(!) years ago, off three days a week training and two weeks of ...
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Race Report: Bend Half Marathon
I’m three beers in so now seems as good a time as any to write up a race report.Let me start with this: Bend is fucki...
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Activism and the Melbourne Cup
On Facebook Drew asks, in relation to yesterday’s Melbourne Cup: Given that the average Australian pays to eat dozen...
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The Moral Hazard of Dominated Contracts
Martin recently refered me to a fascinating article and study, Self-Control at Work.Over 13 months, pay-by-the-field ...
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Fracking
This weekend I spent many hours learning about hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking”. I watched Gasland,...