Can you make nominations for Governor General of Canada? I nominate Jonathan Torrens. He taught me in the 90s on Street Cents that combination-shampoo-and-conditioner does neither well (I use it anyhow). Also, he’s buddies with the old drummer from Our Lady Peace. These seem like qualifications a’plenty.

Reading about the extreme conditions recorded at Mount Washington in New Hampshire today (wind-chill of -77 Celsius) reminded me of my experience with Mount Washington.

I was on a hiking trip with a youth-group. We hiked to the summit, which felt pretty impressive until we saw that there were people who had driven their cars up the other side.

In the observatory at the peak, they played this great video of an outdoor breakfast on Mount Washington that I still remember almost 30 years later.

While it wasn’t -77, we did hit an extraordinary low of a -43 wind chill in Charlottetown last night. We were safe and warm in our home, but the weather felt dangerous in a way that reminded me of Hurricane Fiona.

Kottke.org shared an interesting numeral system: Cistercian numerals. It only takes a minute to understand how it works in a way where you could decode any numeral. I wonder how long it would take to internalize the system, see a shape, and just know it’s 1979.

Saturday Night Live has a good skit about how to talk to kids. I’ve got my own tip for talking to kids.

Take whatever the kid has written in their shirt and read it to them on the form of a question. Here are some helpful examples:

Kid: [has a shirt with a surfer that reads, “Surf’s Up!”]
You: “Surf’s up, eh?”
Kid: […] “Huh?”

Kid: [has a Batman shirt on]
You: “You like Batman?”
Kid: [doesn’t recall which shirt they’re wearing]

The attribute I value most in those in a position of leadership is the ability to bring calm to a difficult situation, rather than ramp up the tension.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t react at all, or pretend a disaster is just fine. It means you don’t make it worse, and you do what you can to help.

Last year I was dealing with a bit of a catastrophe at work. No one was going to get hurt, but clients were affected and urgency was high. A colleague who was better able to address the situation arrived on the scene. When he showed up, there was no panic. Instead, there was a calm assessment of the situation, and then a methodical approach to diagnosing and fixing the issue.

The level of calm this person brought to the situation made us all work more effectively to get things fixed. It was clear that they understood the severity of the situation and of the urgency to get things fixed — they didn’t need to dwell on it.

When you arrive on the scene of a metaphorical fire, some of us ramp up the urgency, and start yelling “FIRE! Somebody do something!”. It doesn’t help anyone. Then there are those who arrive on the scene, take a moment to figure out what matters most, and use this context to guide their actions.

Is there anyone in the burning building? If not, you probably shouldn’t run in to it (I’m not sure you should ever run into a burning building — don’t take your firefighting advice from me). If the building is lost, don’t waste your energy throwing handfuls of water on an inferno. Get to safety. Get others to safety. Maybe there are other structures nearby that can be saved.

Next time you find yourself in a difficult situation, take a moment to consider if you are making it better.

A good rule of thumb: The less time you spend on a Photoshop joke, the better.

I’m still working on a law that governs how to name laws after oneself, but I don’t have a good name for it yet.

I’m only just starting to catch on to what is an obvious pattern: if a person’s thing is being a jerk, they are a jerk.

When someone’s public persona is primarily defined by being the one who will ‘say what no one else will say’, or ‘isn’t afraid to step on toes’, they’re probably just a jerk.

Jerks can get a lot done quickly. They don’t have to consider others, or explore other perspectives, or learn and grow from their own mistakes.

I’m not passively-aggressively writing about a particular person. I’m fortunate to not cross paths with many jerks in my life.

This is my extension to Maya Angelou’s “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” My humble addition is that when people pretend to be something all the time – they may well be what they pretend.

If we someday find out that Larry David was an awful person (I don’t actually know), then my theory will be validated. Hopefully I’m wrong.