I just got back from Barcelona.

a couple years ago this intersection was filled with cars and trucks.

now it’s filled with people, plants. and music.

here’s a before / after

BCN probably has the world’s most ambitious public space strategy right now.

let’s look at more 🧵

everyone knows the gothic quarter is for pedestrians, but historically the eixample hasn't enjoyed the same tranquility

this got talked about a lot when I worked on google maps.

I would personally love this feature, and it’s technically feasible.

here’s why I fought it loudly every time it came up

🧵

https://twitter.com/FedericoNoemie/status/1802070267906376030

google maps has over a billion users around the world.

it is truly a global product operating at a scale that’s nearly incomprehensible.

that kind of scale changes the way you have to think about product development — and specifically about nth order effects.

I’m not convinced Montessori is a good idea after 1st grade.

The value of Montessori isn’t that it’s a superior mode of knowledge acquisition (it’s not), it’s that it fortifies curiosity and instills independence.

Combined, those create a confidence that “I can figure it out.” The problem is that by 1st or 2nd grade, efficient knowledge acquisition becomes important.

Undirected learning (like Montessori) creates a huge meta-cognitive load when you’re entirely new to a domain.

From 2006 to 2022, Twitter wasn’t a social network app. It was the world’s best note-taking app.

It was the only note-taking app that afforded the expansion of a nascent idea by riffing on it with a particular niche of thoughtful, intelligent people—a “tuning fork” for notes There’s still glimmers of this old note taking app here, but by leaning hard into algorithmic content, the Musk takeover has turned it into something that looks far more like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc—another Content Feeding Tube™️

Spent the long weekend losing my mind over Montreal’s urban design.

It’s the best in North America by a wide margin.

Want to see some fantastic public spaces?

🧵📸 1/ Pedestrian streets are all over the city. Some grand, others cozy. All gentle and lively.

had to check something 😐

https://twitter.com/eigenrobot/status/1631903972725334016

Wow, the inverse correlation holds for the ~1930s drop in crime too.

My views on incarceration just got more complicated…

https://twitter.com/scientific_bird/status/1580292079116165120

An underappreciated dimension of innovation at the edge of emerging technology is the role of *language*

In order to build a new technology, you must first build a new language.

thread/ 1/ You are entering a new territory in which you must to communicate about very specific concepts that don't yet have associated names.

Harder still, this communication must be legible across a diverse set of collaborators who each have their own languages and mental models.

Everyone talks about "burnout" as something that happens when you work too much.

I see it far more in people who work a normal amount on things they know don't matter. Organizations prefer and propagate the former frame because accepting the latter would spin them into existential crisis.

This is the village in Germany where my parents met in the 1980's.

It is called Imsbach, population: 971

The longest walk you can take while staying in the village is 15 minutes.

a thread about villages/ 1/ I grew up visiting Imsbach. Except for the wind turbines that went up (and created some new jobs), it never really changed.

As a new car owner I'm honestly disturbed by how cheap gas is. We're burning a finite resource that destroys the planet, but I can drive from NYC to LA and back for under $500, no problem.

Raise the gas tax. This is a valid concern! Here's why raising the gas tax is still a very good idea.

thread/

https://twitter.com/darsh5000/status/1361011226684309504?s=20