Carbon markets and carbon accounting is an interesting sector. Yes, quantifying emissions is critically important to making better decisions, but how can we take it a step further than throwing money at the problem? How can we avoid making offsets the poster child of "business as usual"?

Despite all the warnings, despite the science, despite the realities we face every day, we continue to go about everyday life as the trajectory of our society continues to drive us towards more consumption in the name of progress and wealth. Even if we somehow managed to bring a population consensus to mobilize in the name of climate action, we're only one nation on a globe with misaligned goals.

There is no such thing as an overnight success or a self-made entrepreneur. We all take aid and assistance in every stage and step of our development. It’s important to acknowledge the people that helped us along the way to our successes because people make progress, not the businesses they work for.

Gore, Gates, Thunberg, McKibben.

They all approach climate action in different ways, but they share one element — optimism. Their optimism is rooted in knowing what’s at stake and what we can do to prevent catastrophe.

It may not be the time to take our foot off the gas, but sometimes it's important to let someone take the wheel for a bit. Tackling climate change alone is not just exhausting, it's also arguably futile.

Earlier this year, I had the fortune of meeting the UVP lead at Space10 over Google Meet. We discussed the status of the project, potential timelines, and shifts in goals, guideposts, and realities. As with most projects in 2020, conceptual or not, the Covid-19 pandemic put a damper on productivity and feasibility, drawing many projects to a halt. Although I cannot speak for the Space10 or EFFEKT regarding the future of the project, it's something I continue to root for to see in our future.

Restructuring cities to function as a tech product would help to realign the goals of the cities to match the users ("the citizens") with the features ("policies") that represent the population rather than the other way around.

In my opinion, the future of cities needs product managers. The goal of these public officials would be to understand the needs of the people and to define the goals and OKRs of their population — selecting programs and initiatives like features that accomplish those goals. In one sample case, the OKRs would optimize for several key values — improving equitability, improving access to resources, improving investment in innovation.

Whether you've calculated your carbon footprint or joined the Climate Reality Project leadership, your action is making an indelible mark on the progress of this global movement to eliminate carbon emissions and become a more sustainable planet.

Despite growing pushback against carbon footprint calculators, I believe that the data behind our individual impact on the planet is valuable. Our personal emissions data does not absolve corporations from polluting but instead drives home a valuable message about the trifecta of reducing the cost of lifestyles, holding corporations accountable, and encouraging investment into environmentally friendly products.

Cities are never finished. Like good tech products, they require regular maintenance, periodic refactoring, and new features to meet the needs of a growing population.

Anthropology and social science uncover the questions that we need to answer with technology. Technology enhances our understanding of human behaviors through quantifiable data. Data improves our ability to communicate effectively through words, laws, and policy. Policy and planning enhance the lives of people in our cities.

I want to be a better writer. I started a new habit on January 3 — write in public every day. The experimental habit started off well, with content on topics that I was truly interested in. But after only 2 weeks, I fell off the train, reducing my efforts to 3, then 2, and now only 1 time a week.

The thing is, although I'm drawn to the title of the book, I'm more interested in the contents within. I'm not interested in judging the book by its cover, I'm interested in the experiments that were conducted and what, if any, conclusions were drawn. Can I learn from them? Can they teach me? Can I share them easily with others?

So each chapter in my book would start with a hypothesis and each would learn from the last, resulting in more sophisticated hypotheses that learn from work, collective understanding, and our rapidly changing environments.

Reinvention is simply the product of learning and growth. The trickier, less common part of reinvention is applying it not only to our personal lives, but our work

I’m bullish on multi-generational housing as the catalyst to counteract the growing homelessness in America’s urban centers. By creating a housing solution that promotes multi-generational living and cohabitation, we stand to assist families with short-term financial troubles by bringing parents and children home, while also providing the roadmap for a long-term increase in housing stock. An increased supply of housing such as attached and detached additions, will bring the cost of rentals down and opens opportunities for workers in critical, low-paying jobs such as education, healthcare, and trades, to live closer to the places they work.