Jason's Notes About Stuff

There's an old business saying: "What gets measured gets done." Politicians love to talk about jobs. Even better, how they are "creating" jobs. But is "number of jobs created" really a good metric to be tracking and optimizing for? Short answer: No. Why not? Some of the most urgent problems today are: Wealth inequality Environmental pollution An aging population An increasingly unhealthy population An increasingly uneducated population Does "creating jobs" solve any of these problems? No, and in some cases, it makes them worse. We need true education , innovation , and technology to solve these complex problems, not dead-end, part-time, low-quality "jobs" that sometimes pay less than being unemployed. Let's start setting and measuring some education , health , and wealth gap goals, and see what gets done.

This is an open letter to Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. January 23rd, 2017 Dear Justin, You seem like a cool guy. We don't have a lot of time, so I'll get straight to the point. In 2015, you made a very specific promise (which is still online -- kudos for that). It reads: " We will make every vote count. We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system." Time is ticking away, and so far you haven't made very many positive steps towards moving to a PR (Proportional Representation) system that would truly satisfy this promise. Late last year, you released a survey that seemed to be designed to confuse people rather than find out what they really think. More and more, it looks like the Liberal government is preparing to renege on its promise to " make every vote count. " I assure you, this would be a huge mistake . If you decide to keep FP...

Over the years, I've picked up a few interesting expressions from places I've lived that I've incorporated into my everyday conversation :) People are often confused, so here are the explanations. Texas / Atlanta / The South "Y'all" Usage: Abbreviation of "you all" or "you guys" or "yous guys" "How are y'all doing today?" "What about the rest of y'all?" New Zealand Pronouncing many short vowel sounds as "ee". Examples: "Builder" = "Beelder" The name "Ben" = "Been" France "Comme vous voulez" (pronounced: Come voo voo-lay) Usage: When you don't really have an opinion. Literally: "As you wish." or "However you like." "What do you want for dinner tonight? -- Comme vous voulez." "Should we invite the Jones? -- Comme vous voulez." The Caribbean ...

Recently, the Canadian federal government approved a pipeline expansion project that adds a second pipeline along an existing route from Edmonton, AB to Burnaby, BC. Here's the map: The pipeline has its own marketing site, touting the benefits: Helping us "keep up with the rising global demand for oil" and "increased tax benefits for all of Canada" sounds great, right? Except that it's misleading . While technically true that demand is rising: Demand is increasing much slower than previously projected Supply is increasing as fast or faster than demand And when supply increases faster than demand, prices fall . Most projections, including this recent one from oil-price.net , predict that oil prices will stagnate or even decrease over the next few years. It's also important to note that Alberta oil sells at a significant discount to the "regular" oil price you hear quoted in the news. For instance, when WTI crude fel...

This was the first time I've ever bet real money on an election. And I won. Even I'm a bit surprised. But only a bit. In mid-October, I posted " Why Trump Could Still Win " at a time when major news outlets said that a Trump win was virtually impossible . Good ol' Michael Moore  (yeah he's still around) made a far more eloquent prediction at " 5 Reasons Why Trump Will Win ". Of course, way back in July 2015, I took note of Trump's social media campaign, and realized that this election would be won or lost on social media . This was also true for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but one major, major thing had changed: The Facebook and Twitter demographic. It used to be that these were filled to the brim with liberal college students. Now there's a much more diversified crew. The rural "red" states are much better connected, and much easier to reach. My political leanings are complicated. I don't fit nicely into either...

My original title for this post was "Why Trump Will Win." Since then, nearly every major media outlet in the world says that a Trump win is a statistical impossibility . October 17th prediction from fivethirtyeight.com We'll see. I've toned down my prediction for the moment. Keep in mind that these polls have changed drastically over time: There's still another debate, and several weeks before the actual day. As far back as July 2015, I mused on Facebook: "Wow, Trump really knows how to play the social media game. I feel like he might win based on that alone." I think it's easy for upper-middle class, college-educated folks to dismiss the idea of a Trump win, but bear in mind: Clinton is the status quo. A lot of people do not want the status quo. A lot of people are pissed off at the status quo. Nearly every recent election has been won on the promise of significant change .   For better or worse, Trump promises change ...

After my wife and I decided we would be buying a house in the Vancouver area, we dedicated a weekend to visiting open houses. The market has been very tight on the supply side for years, and just finding something in our price range was extremely difficult. The first question they asked at each open house was (as it should be), "Are you working with a realtor?" We hadn't planned to use a realtor, but decided together that to navigate the stormy waters of the GVA market, it would be helpful to have someone with some local and professional knowledge. After a fairly exhaustive search, I came across Colin Colpitts, who was in the local area. He had a nice, clean website, and had a reasonable number of positive reviews. I was initially very cautious about signing an agreement, as I had heard stories of people who were essentially "locked in" with a bad agent, but Colin quickly dispersed those fears by writing in a extra clause that made it clear that eit...