2023-05-01

The Toronto Star reported last week that 40 percent of municipal voters prefer the now-former mayor in the now-forthcoming byelection to replace him on 26 June.

Lest that sound significant, note that said former mayor is not a candidate and that voter turnout in the last election was 29 percent. Living here is pleasant, provided you’re willing to endure vague layers of abstraction that no one wants to talk about.

The most remarkable thing I read all week was Katy Balls’s Spectator feature about the quiet but comprehensive reorganization of the UK Labour Party (“The Starmtroopers: how Labour’s centrists took back control”)—not least of which because it feels outright impossible, for all the entrenchment, in any other context.

Richard Russo’s exceptional novel, Straight Man (1997), is a gentle sendup of academia through “the lens” (to pile on) of a bitterly divided English Literature department (that’s redundant—to pile on, again). It’s also the source material for the new AMC+ television series, Lucky Hank. I re-read the book last week ahead of diving into the series, which concludes this week.

I am generally agnostic about adaptations. First, they are as likely to disappoint as they are to further appreciation of the source material. Second, they cannot, despite what nostalgic literalists will tell you, actually threaten the source material. With any luck, interest in one raises interest in another.

Straight Man is not a polemic, the following is a throwaway observation, but I thought, since it’s aged extremely well, it offers an ideal “I’ll just leave this here” opportunity (and to also pile one last time):

Students…have learned from their professors that persuasion—reasoned argument—no longer holds a favored position in university life. If their professors—feminists, Marxists, historicists, other assorted theorists—belong to suspicious, gated intellectual communities that are less interested in talking to each other than staking out territory and furthering agendas, then why learn to debate? Despite having endured endless faculty meetings, I can’t remember the last time anyone changed his (or her!) mind as a result of reasoned discourse. Anyone who observed us would conclude the purpose of all academic discussion was to provide grounds for becoming further entrenched in our original positions.

2023-04-24

Rumour has it that President Biden will announce his intention to seek a second term this week. Before the media inaugurate an exhausting 18 months of Groundhog Day, beginning no doubt with a punditry pageant about his age, keep two things in mind: the right candidate is the one who can win (this is true of all elections) and, even if he does win, he needn’t serve more than a minute of that second term to have still won.

Last week offers three exceptional quotes to share. The first is from Adam Gopnik’s review of Jonathan Healey’s The Blazing World (2023), a history of the English Revolution, in the New Yorker (“What Happens When You Kill Your King”):

History is written by the victors, we’re told. In truth, history is written by the romantics, as stories are won by storytellers. Anyone who can spin lore and chivalry, higher calling and mystic purpose, from the ugliness of warfare can claim the tale, even in defeat.

The second comes from Jaron Lanier’s point of order about artificial intelligence from the online edition of the New Yorker (“There Is No A.I.”):

The most pragmatic position is to think of A.I. as a tool, not a creature. My attitude doesn’t eliminate the possibility of peril: however we think about it, we can still design and operate our new tech badly, in ways that can hurt us or even lead to our extinction. Mythologizing the technology only makes it more likely that we’ll fail to operate it well—and this kind of thinking limits our imaginations, tying them to yesterday’s dreams. We can work better under the assumption that there is no such thing as A.I. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we’ll start managing our new technology intelligently.

The third is a bad data blooper observed by the Economist’s Bagehot columnist in celebration of St. George’s Day (“If English nationalism is on the rise, no one has told the English”):

Chroniclers of English nationalism leapt on the 2011 census, which showed that a whopping 58% of residents in England identified as English only. Skip forward a decade and this number plunged to 15%. What caused this shift? A botched survey. In 2011 “English” was the first option and “British” was the fifth; in 2021 “Britain” came top of the list. If the patriotism of Englishmen does not extend to the lower box of a census form, it may not run deep.

Finally, a podcast recommendation: Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Wiser Than Me improves on the now well-established form. I am not a member of the intended demographic but here’s to learning beyond the safe confines of that which is produced exclusively for your own personal context and comfort.

2023-04-17

Here’s a post-pandemic milestone that seems to have flown under the radar: have you noticed the confluence of high-profile television currently airing? At least for a few weeks, like a rare alignment of the planets, we have: Mandalorian, Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, Picard, Succession, and Ted Lasso—and those are just the ones that I’m following.

Kevin Systrom’s news app Artifact can’t make up for the dubious demise of Google Reader (what could?) but it’s elegant and has potential. I’ve been using it for about a month and have noticed my reading habits are entirely different from similar apps.

Specifically, I’m seeing a lot more science content—which would be great but for the fact that it has fallen victim to the same catastrophizing trend as every other section of the not-quite newspaper. Every new discovery is a threat to current assumptions, theories, or models. When did science become as insecure as religion? Remember when being wrong was just another set of data and an opportunity to try a different variable? Anyway, a new app is nice but it can’t fix the underlying rot.

While we’re on the subject of catastrophizing, the Economist had a great feature last week underscoring the inherent strength of the US economy (“America’s economic outperformance is a marvel to behold”). That’s good news for everyone—well, unless you and your chatbot are trying to make compelling clickbait.

Have you ever discovered a chat between two people you wouldn’t immediately associate but, on further reflection, concede was inevitable and exactly the sort of thing you wanted but didn’t know you could have? May I submit the latest example: Lex Fridman’s recent chat with Simone Giertz.

2023-04-10

Amazon announced last week that it will be closing its UK-based subsidiary Book Depository at the end of the month. The online book retailer launched in 2004 and was acquired by the ravenous “everything store” in 2011. I am not certain where I first heard about them but I am certain that I have sourced a third of my library from their exceptional inventory over the majority of their 19 years in business.

Their absence will be a loss to readers everywhere. I’d like to express my gratitude to their entire team for countless happy returns from the mailbox. When a recent order arrived soaked, for example, they not only replaced it but sent me a signed copy.

Let’s all take heart from the fact that scattering is the inevitable universal consequence of all forms of aggregation.

We would have a much healthier relationship with art if all critics were as thoughtful as Jerry Saltz. I just finished his book, How to Be an Artist (2020), and it’s precisely the sort of thing that one hopes guidance councillors keep handy for curious students who wander into their offices looking for something deeper than STEM courses—or just something to nudge that creative spark or make them feel less alone in the universe.

Saltz reminds us that paying deference to pretension is not a price of admission to make art or even just enjoy it. You’re free to start anytime and you can always try again, learn more, look at something differently.

My favourite rule is 24: There Are No Wasted Days—“Your artist’s mind is always working, even when you think it’s idling.” Indeed, it is. I practice something in the spirit of this that I call “everything is research”—where even objectively bad art, or things that are not my preference, or that fail to entertain me, have something to offer.

That is, you can learn something from everything—even things you don’t like or find comfortable. We seem to have lost this plot in our quest to transform the entire culture into a faithful recreation of our childhoods.

2023-04-03

A Manhattan grand jury made history last week by indicting a former president. That’s never happened before. While we’re handing out indictments, I’d like to charge the progressive group, who used the news as an opportunity to register their disappointment, with being out of touch.

This president, they argue, should be made to answer for far more serious offences. Take what you can get—and then keep at it. That used to be the soul of progressive politics. Why does it feel like the goal today isn’t so much one foot in front of the other toward a righteous cause as perfection immediately rendered?

Lizzie Gottlieb’s documentary, Turn Every Page (2022), which chronicles the extraordinary half-century publishing relationship between her father, editor Robert Gottlieb and writer Robert Caro, made its streaming (retail) debut last week. You can turn every one of their pages together and still miss the full significance of their achievement in the way the documentary joyfully conveys. Father and daughter each offer an ending—no spoiler, but hers is better.

Government House Leader Mark Holland (MP for Ajax, Ontario) was a recent guest of the Paul Wells Show podcast. Their remarkably candid conversation is unlike anything I can recall. In fact, I would be curious to hear what Americans think of it—it’s just about the furthest thing from their own political tone. More of this, please.

I am not sure who the joke is on in the latest episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart, which breaks format with a field trip to the respective UN and EU headquarters, but I was surprised to learn that Europe have significantly understated their potential for clarity on important matters. This is a good thing.

2023-03-27

I am fairly certain that I once heard Cory Doctorow remark that it’s the act of reading a book that makes it real. He’s right, of course—though, there is a magic moment before a book gets to readers, where the author has a chance to hold their own work for the first time.

An unexpected knock on my door early last week put the latest edition of our civics textbook, Canadian Political Structure and Public Administration, in my very own hands. The review of the final draft before they send it to the printer punctuates the completion of the journey but it’s just not real until you can hold it for yourself.

In this (sixth) edition, we took great care to anchor core concepts and themes in practical engagement. After all, how do we expect to produce more engaged citizens if their earliest contact with our political institutions is influenced by our cynical discourse? We’re really proud of this one. Endless gratitude to everyone at Emond for their hard work and support.

I read in the Economist last week that Australia is to hold a “national referendum about recognizing Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution” which brought two things to mind. First, I do not believe the spirit of gift-giving applies to one’s constitutional fabric: it’s not the thought that counts.

Second, did we learn nothing about referenda from Brexit? Don’t take vague existential questions to the people. If you absolutely must appeal directly to the people, keep it limited to issues like how you should invest a surprise windfall from your sovereign wealth fund. There are some things beyond the wisdom of the crowd.

Despite the embarrassing glut of expensive and entertaining television airing currently, I made time for Casimir Nozkowski’s charming movie, The Outside Story (2020). A man locks himself out of his house and life ensues. The tone is elegant and the cast are each exceptional. More of this, please.

2023-03-20

Sometimes the space between tragedy and its inevitable descent into farce comes to be occupied by a well-timed history book. I bought a copy of This Time is Different (2009), Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff’s history of financial crises, when it was released, as something of a consolation price for having lived through the latest crisis, but have not had the heart to read it even all these years later. I wonder if this experience is common to other readers, where intention parks itself at acquisition.

This time is different—though, somehow the same. It was heartening to hear Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway call out those yelling bank run in a crowded news cycle on the latest episode of their Pivot podcast. Galloway has since published an edition of his newsletter specifically condemning “venture catastrophists” for stoking panic last week. Here’s the line I admired most: “It’s no surprise a community of increasingly atomized individuals chose survivalism over citizenship.”

I very much enjoyed Hua Hsu’s recent review of conversation-themed books in the New Yorker but it left me wondering whether the influx of such books is a sign of hope or speaks to a passive publishing trend playing purely at cultural anthropology. Self-awareness is critical but nothing without action, after all.

The diagnosis is clear: we’re not just talking passed each other but preaching to the converted. As Hsu observes, “In the age of sophisticated psychographic profiling, strategists think that it’s rational for warring sides in a campaign to ‘write off’ those who are unlikely to join their cause and instead focus on mobilizing their base.”

Mel Brooks’s History of the World: Part II (the recent television sequel to the 1981 movie) proves that it is never too late to follow up, especially on a joke. Larry Willmore’s podcast interview with Ike Barinholtz was a great way to punctuate completing the brilliant series.

2023-03-13

I think the title of John Dickerson’s magnificent book, The Hardest Job in the World (2020), which I recently finished, explains why every discussion about leadership inevitably arrives at the US presidency. As he observes, there is a similarly inevitable idiosyncrasy to the office itself:

When a president has improvised in office, it has often added to the job description. New assumptions of what the job entails are conveyed, like the Oval Office furniture, to the next president. A modern president must now be able to jolt the economy like Franklin D. Roosevelt, tame Congress like Lyndon Johnson, and lift the nation like Ronald Reagan.

Other duties as assigned, meet the buck stops here. We often talk about mission creep (where a problem changes while you attempt to solve it) but we pay far less attention to the same drift as it applies to the responsibility of roles themselves. Dickerson argues that America would do well to more formally evaluate candidates for its highest office but also notes that ultimately even hiring the right person does not guarantee success, especially as “it is overburdened, misunderstood, an almost impossible job to do.”

Here’s a line from historian Andrew Roberts, in his Spectator article about the release of the so-called “Lockdown Files,” that I wish that I had for my last editorial: “Some people…seem to have emerged from the Lockdown Files with their reputations enhanced, but part of the genius of history is that it is an argument without end, where reputations rise and fall, literally forever.”

I always enjoy when a lone Canadian tries to show the rest of the country that it is far more interesting than it pretends to be. In the Globe and Mail last week, John Ralston Saul reminded us that Canada’s democratic spirit precedes the formal founding in 1867 and demonstrates a political maturity we ought to celebrate.

2023-03-06

A book can be an entire world but there’s also an entire world of books. There is absolutely no reason why the latter has to be pretentious or accessible to only a few, though it often is. Merve Emre’s latest essay in the New Yorker (“The Worlds of Italo Calvino”) bucks that trend and is the most charming thing I read last week.

I do not remember when I first discovered the Ongoing History of New Music on the radio but it was my first experience studying history of any kind. The idea that you could apply your curiosity in both general and specific ways to create context is something I still take profound joy from every day. Alan Cross posted the very first episode of the show from 30 years ago, on his podcast last week, and it was wonderful to explore the history behind the history. Thanks, Alan.

My latest column in Decorum (“There is No Right Side of History”) aims to kick an overused and unhelpful phrase when it’s down.

2023-02-27

The term big data almost always reflexively makes me think bad data. The latest edition of the Economist has a great feature about the proliferation of fraud in medical research. Among other alarming items, the piece notes that even when fraud is detected (which is rare, given that the method of discovery is almost exclusively limited to observations from diligent researchers in passing): “The goal is to decide whether a researcher should be fired, rather than a desire to protect the integrity of the scientific literature. Until an employment decision is made, the university usually stays mum.” And here you thought littering was something limited to a park picnic.

“There is no risk-free way forward,” writes Timothy Garton Ash from Ukraine, in a thoughtful reflection in the Spectator, on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

I think podcasting has elevated the long-form interview to a major media form. The two most interesting chats that stood out last week for me were between Larry Willmore and Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (on Willmore’s Black on the Air) and Ezra Klein and writer Adrian Tchaikovsky (on Klein’s eponymous New York Times show).

2023-02-20

It’s always great to see Fran Lebowitz speak anywhere. She was the guest last week on Bill Maher’s personal podcast, Club Random. We ought to keep her point, that “Russia has had the worst form of every kind of government,” in mind for long road ahead.

Speaking of both government and Maher, his latest Real Time editorial observed that “the places where fights break out [in parliament] are the countries where they aren’t sure” whether they’re a real democracy (where we use our words) or an authoritarian regime (where there is only one party line). The kind of behaviour displayed at the recent State of the Union, for example, means the US is stranded in the ambiguous middle and, he argued, headed toward the wrong end of that spectrum.

Maher went on to add that politicians do not have to like each other to get anything done—Hollywood, for example, regularly produces entire movies where the leads won’t so much as look at each other. I think that’s an important point. Politics does need not be totally agreeable to solve problems but it does need to be civil.

I learned from Paul Krugman’s chat with Ezra Klein, on the latter’s eponymous podcast, that the generally acceptable 0-2% inflation target is something of an arbitrary trend set by New Zealand (“The Inflation Story Has Changed Significantly. Paul Krugman Breaks It Down”). Thanks a lot, New Zealand.

2023-02-13

“Take Out the Trash Day” is a term popularized by an early episode of The West Wing (1999-2006) that describes the communications strategy of overwhelming the media by releasing multiple stories at once, usually late on a Friday, to split focus.

It is extremely rare, however, for a politician to take their own career out with the trash: so it was, this past Friday evening, that Toronto came to learn it would need to find a new mayor not five months after electing the current one.

Whether any relevant authority sees fit to apply charges in situations like these is always a separate matter, so we can narrow our interest to questions of succession. Toronto’s municipal succession works as follows: when the mayor’s resignation takes effect (it has yet to, at time of writing), the deputy mayor becomes acting mayor, and council calls for a byelection to occur within 60 days. The rest is up to the people—some of them, anyway: voter turnout in the last election was only 29 percent.

Do read David Remnick’s profile of Salman Rushdie in the New Yorker.

Here’s an amazing line from art critic Jerry Saltz, recent guest of the Pivot podcast: “Art is the most advanced operating system our species has ever created to explore consciousness…” (“Balloon-Gate, The AI Arms Race, and Guest Jerry Saltz,” 7 Feb.)

2023-02-06

Superhero fans may have heard the future of their favourite DC characters beyond the printed page with James Gunn’s DC Slate Announcement early last week but I heard product excellence.

The new co-CEO of DC Studios outlined a vision (continuity across platform, consistent in character talent, and a happy “elsewhere” for stories outside the main fold), a roadmap (a clear release schedule, from the first release to projects still in development), and the unifying focus to keep all of it together in order to deliver a valuable experience for fans (storytelling: “that’s all that matters to us”).

He did all that in just six minutes.

While we’re being mindful of origin stories, what we often forget is that they are usually a lot more humble than legend would have it. Here’s the concluding thought to Christopher Kelly’s review of London in the Roman World (2022) by Dominic Perring from the London Review of Books (“Someone Else’s Empire”):

Given the costs, it might be fairly reckoned that the annexation of Britain and the foundation of London was in great part an imperial vanity project. An accountant would have stopped the Roman Empire at the Channel.

2023-01-30

The Economist’s name-sake quest for concision is generally praiseworthy but sometimes it falls short, like this blooper from last week: “To the list of spectacular ruins across Egypt, you can now add its economy” (“Debt on the Nile”). A debt-to-GDP ratio of 90% is certainly not trivial but there’s something to be said for a gentle bedside manner.

I like when people change their mind and share what led them to do so. On the latest episode of his eponymous podcast, comedian Dana Gould shared that while he was not originally “engaged” by Netflix’s recent series, Wednesday (2022-), watching it later, through his family’s eyes, underscored that it’s still possible to enjoy things that are not expressly made for your own personal consumption (“Top Gun: Fester”).

I wonder whether the same problem at the heart of political polarization is also responsible for encouraging people to limit their engagement to content they find comfortable. I am not suggesting that watching television produced for young adults is the solution to what ails us—more, that the lesson here is to never pass up an opportunity to be open-minded.

My latest column in Decorum (“Too Paranoid About Android”) argues against the catastrophizing consensus about chatbots.

2023-01-23

When is the last time that a Canadian and an American had a publicly candid conversation about their respective countries together? Whomever held that record prior to last week, and I’m going to guess that it goes back at least a decade, it’s now held by comedian Marc Maron and Canadaland’s Jesse Brown (“WTF, Marc Maron is Moving to Canada?”). The two lucked in to an accidental discussion, amid joint podcast promotion, instigated by Maron’s interest in moving to Canada.

It succeed, at least for me, in underscoring the fact that, for all of our world’s longest undefended border and general neighbourliness, we really do not talk to one another. Even France and Germany make time for a regular hang. I mean, we are obviously doing something right if our relationship doesn’t require formal maintenance but coasting fuels assumptions and that could lead to a major misunderstanding, especially in a crisis.

Speaking of things that we should talk about, let’s consider Nobel laureate Maria Ressa’s book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator (2022), the closing argument in the case against present social media practice. What’s more: Facebook not only ignored Ressa’s repeated warnings about the misuse of their platform but, to my mind, they missed the opportunity to hire her to lead that charge. She understands the product, the audience, and how to achieve a balance. Effectively, they could have defended democracy while padding their own pockets.

2023-01-16

Let no one accuse the Atlantic of holiday cheer. The current edition, a double issue, published in late December, features a cover page burned away to the table of contents and “notes from the apocalypse” written in the remaining margin. Okay, then.

Do you ever wonder whether the reason that everything always seems awful is because that’s all we can talk about? Perhaps that’s what led David Brooks, in his first Atlantic piece of the year, to observe that his country’s media has a “bad-news bias” and the resulting “permanent cloud of negativity has a powerful effect on how Americans see their country” (“Despite Everything You Think You Know, America is on the Right Track”).

He makes a compelling case for looking up and not just on the bright side. Though, I have to admit that his caveat about periods of negativity being a historical feature and not a bug reminded me of a Robin Williams joke about early America: “Puritans, people so uptight the English kicked them out.” That’s the pot here, from this side of the border, knowingly calling the kettle, lest you assume judgement.

Kara Swisher’s interview with product visionary Tony Fadell on her eponymous podcast sets a high bar for the year ahead (“Peering into the Future with Tony Fadell”). Asked to speculate about Apple’s long-rumoured development of a car, Fadell suggested that if Apple were to enter the market they would be more interested in getting customers to think differently about transit rather than chasing existing expectations and trends. Can you think of a better distinction between disruption and innovation?

Speaking of product excellence, I was today years old (like the kids say) when I discovered that there is a website that will tell you whether the dog dies in a movie. I found myself asking the internet such a question while watching a recent movie set in Ireland. Suffice it to say, it’s a great film and I made it all the way to the end.

2023-01-09

My favourite business book is Rework (2010). The cofounders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, had me at hey, we value experience over theory and, actually, do we really need these tedious “traditional notions” about business to get the work done? (Spoiler: no, we do not).

The book epitomizes its own “sell your by-products” principle: its authors produced it as a result of creating a unique company culture. “When you make something, you always make something else,” and that, they observe, represents opportunity. Don’t leave money on the table—or the workshop floor, either.

The by-product of curiosity is knowledge—but also, at least in my own case, a lot of notes. I want to test an assumption here, that sharing a selection of such notes each week, from a content habit high in variety and volume, with some light commentary and context, has value.

People share a lot on social media but looking to learn there is like trying to study at a beer hall. The message gets thrown out with the medium. I hope the reconsideration of social media that began late last year leads to a more deliberate effort to elevate reflectiveness over reflexiveness. For my own part, I have always preferred seeking a voice out on its own terms than trying to pick it out of a crowd.

My experiment begins below and continues weekly. It loosely emulates the Spectator’s Notes column, which can range from a single topic to a handful of otherwise unrelated items. Ideally, sharing the fruits of my own curiosity each week provokes your own.

• • •

Say what you will about the Lincoln Project (everyone else certainly has) but their eponymous podcast may as well be a regular strategy workshop taught by the permanent and visiting faculty of the defence against the dark arts department. Last week’s episode (“January 6, 2021: Two Years Later”) included the astute observation that “extremists escalate to negotiate” from guest (and senior advisor) Trygve Olson. You should add that to your analytical vocabulary for the road ahead.

I have been reading Lydia Millet’s novels since a review led me to the curiously under-appreciated Oh Pure and Radiant Heart (2005) the year it was published. I saved the first few days of the year for her latest novel, Dinosaurs (2022), which could very well be her best. Millet describes feeling with an economy that is so efficient you forget it’s one of the most challenging things to do—both in writing and life in general.

Speaking of novels and by-products, here’s a line from Haruki Murakami’s latest book, Novelist as a Vocation (2022), that reminded me of an abyss-gazing philosopher: “What I want to say is that in a certain sense, while the novelist is creating a novel, he is simultaneously being created by the novel as well.”