For years I carried around a fear that I would “spend too much money” on video games and as such I would him-haw around for months before buying a game that I wanted. This is probably related to the long-since-overcome fear of buying the highest quality paper towels. However, a few years into my Nintendo Switch ownership (circa ’21 or ’22), I came to an important realization: I needed to stop agonizing over the number and cost of games I wanted to buy and instead let myself buy whatever caught my interest.
Continue reading “Switch It Up: Want a Game, Buy a Game”Category: Main
On the Grid We Depend: From Sparks to Substance
Right after Thanksgiving, I published a super fun electric-utility themed version of a classic 19th century holiday poem. Creating it was so energizing! Pun intended. I’m no poet, so you may be wondering how I brought it to life – so here’s the backstory:
It all started in November, sometime before Thanksgiving. My wife came home from work with news that she and her colleagues needed to record a holiday message for their entire business unit—which just so happens to be my entire business unit as well. Naturally, I encouraged her to “have fun with it!” But as I encouraged her, I couldn’t shake the feeling of missing out. Why should she have all the fun? I, too, wanted to create a holiday message to my team and to “have fun with it”!
Continue reading “On the Grid We Depend: From Sparks to Substance”On the Grid We Depend
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the grid,
Not a relay was tripping, not even a bit.
The transformers hummed in steady refrain,
In hopes that no storm would disrupt the domain.
The linemen were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of conductors danced in their heads.
And dispatch at their consoles, and I at my screen,
Kept watch on the system — steadfast and keen.
Beyond the White Box: AI for GI
Recently, I found myself in a position where I had to present an intelligent perspective on “using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the (generation) interconnection (GI) queue” from the vantage point of an electric transmission utility. Admittedly, this topic initially gave me pause; it just seemed like another instance of hype-fueled innovation theater that distracts us from addressing the real, underlying problems. However, as with any assignment, I approached it with the professional diligence I would apply to any request from a respected superior or customer. Ultimately, my investigation led me to identify four areas of impact of AI for GI. I’ll begin with some necessary cultural and philosophical framing and finish with a description of each of these four areas of impact. Skip ahead to the impact analysis if that’s your style.
Continue reading “Beyond the White Box: AI for GI”Can Vigilance for Jevon’s Paradox Become a Competitive Advantage?
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?”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”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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