Jevon’s Paradox encapsulates the counterintuitive phenomenon where improvements in efficiency or conservation of a resource paradoxically lead to an increase in its consumption or other (perhaps downstream) unintended consequences. This concept challenges simplistic assumptions about cost-reduction efforts, highlighting the complex interplay between technology, human behavior, and resource utilization. We typically aren’t vigilant for the effects of these dynamics as we advocate for and create new technologies. Perhaps there is an incentive to start.
Continue reading “Can Vigilance for Jevon’s Paradox Become a Competitive Advantage?”Author: Kevin
This is a test
The Electric Cathedral
I continue to find myself deeply frustrated with the portrayal of the electric utility as a central villain of society, or at the very least, the adversary of the everyman. Obvious biases aside, my intuition tells me that this is a counterproductive casting of the antagonist role. Does it truly serve societal interest to operate inside such a narrative?
Let me be clear: I’m not at all suggesting that utilities, or any corporation for that matter, are beyond scrutiny or shouldn’t be held to the highest standards. However, I am proposing that fostering a culture where something fundamental to every aspect of modern society becomes derided and ridiculed does not benefit us in the broadest context. Where might such an unfortunate collective attitude take us?
Delving into the deepest trenches of that topic exceeds the scope of a single blog post and, frankly, that of a single book. I am opening this post with it because it leads to an interesting question. For a significant portion of the population to arrive at this conclusion, there must be some underlying factors at play – something more nuanced an insightful than simply blaming the media. What could these factors be? And how might we remedy them?
Continue reading “The Electric Cathedral”Codec Debug Session 2: Tell Us What You Really Mean
The appetizingly audible cracking open of the aluminum can was followed by a satiating, ice cold, citrus-y burst of carbonation as Carl sipped on his “something fizzy”. Something about carbonated water satisfies thirst in a different way than still water does. He referenced the list of topics that he had initially identified for remediating the decompression bug in the Techno-Wisdom Codec. He marked through the first two topics he had previously addressed leaving two more vying for his attention.
Continue reading “Codec Debug Session 2: Tell Us What You Really Mean”Codec Debug Session 1: All Your Database Are Belong To Us
Carl had been employed as a quality assurance developer at Codecs-R-Us for the last several years. Leaving his previous job was a decision that he hadn’t take lightly as it had required a pay-cut and a relocation. However, joining Codecs was his way of reorienting a skillset that would have otherwise been squandered programming the benign business logic of some insignificant ad widget or progressively optimizing the performance of some destructively addictive social media app.
Continue reading “Codec Debug Session 1: All Your Database Are Belong To Us”The Techno-Wisdom Codec Has a Bug In It
It was the psychiatrist, Carl Jung, that cautioned us all about the perils of embracing “unearned wisdom”. Put simply, acting on wisdom obtained without supporting knowledge or experience can lead us down a path entirely inconsistent with the genuine intentions encapsulated by the original wisdom. The reason for this is interesting and merits closer examination.
Wisdom is a distillation of human experience – a compression if you will. The trouble with compression is that it tends to be (I might even suggest that it needs to be) lossy. Frequently packaged as sound bites or concise narratives, wisdom’s brevity renders it portable, persist-able, and repeatable. In this form, it can move easily through time and space and serve as a useful tool for those that are able to absorb and implement it. However, because this short-form representation is not a perfect replica of the original wisdom, of the original human experience, its use leaves ample room for misinterpretation and potential exploitation.
Continue reading “The Techno-Wisdom Codec Has a Bug In It”My Latest Trip to the Mushroom Kingdom
My first few trips to the Mushroom Kingdom happened early in life on the Super Nintendo but the real anchor of my Mario nostalgia came in 1996 with the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64. Later in adulthood, I’d been unsuccessfully searching for a suitable nostalgia supplement until the Nintendo Switch and Super Mario Odyssey arrived in 2017. SMO and several other Switch titles, like the short but fun Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, have really captured the essence of my original Mario experiences. In short, my visits to the Mushroom Kingdom are a personal tradition that stimulate a highly reliable nostalgia and happiness circuit in my brain and I’m always itching for a fix.
Continue reading “My Latest Trip to the Mushroom Kingdom”The Minimum Daily Routine and Standard Weekly Epoch
For years now, I’ve obsessed over the idea of a perfect, daily routine. I was driven by the assumption that if I could only develop and execute such a routine then I would finally gain mastery over my productivity. I fantasized I would be able to work towards all of my goals at maximum pace. And I thought conquering the world comes down to simply committing to certain activities at certain times of the day and maintaining the discipline required to do so perpetually.
Sounds a bit brainwash-y, doesn’t it?
Continue reading “The Minimum Daily Routine and Standard Weekly Epoch”What Day is it Again? Losing Time to the Turbulent Flow State
Over the past year or so I’ve found myself frequently lamenting to others that “I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by!” For me, this is different than saying “Oh, the weather sure has been nice this week!” Or “Did you see the big sports ball game last night?” It’s more than casual small talk. And it’s more than just a simple truism handed down from past generations. I’ve even been pairing it with the disclaimer of “I know it makes me sound like an old man” precisely because I want to acknowledge there’s actually more to it. By saying it, I’m raising a concern – somewhat in frustration, somewhat in fear – that something isn’t right.
Continue reading “What Day is it Again? Losing Time to the Turbulent Flow State”Humility is All You Need
Last week, I spoke at the NASPI (North American Synchrophasor Initiative) Fall Working Group Meeting in Charlotte in order to share my perspectives on a recent multi-party collaboration in which my team and I played a central role. The collaboration was an exercise to create a data product but more fundamentally was an attempt to answer the question of “how can the [electric utility] industry make better use of its data?”.
A simple, cursory “update” didn’t seem worthy of the community, nor did it feel in line with my preferred style of presentation. So, to prepare my message for the conference, I looked for something deeper and more controversial thought provoking. And as desired, my comments, while calibrated, were very candid. I considered posting the speech verbatim (e.g. laziness). But after some consideration, I felt the message was more durable when distilled to something more general purpose.
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