Sixth Day Six | 9.24.2022
Sixth Day Six | 9.24.2022
Should you wear cargo pants while recreating Ferris Bueller's day in Chicago?
This week’s roundup goes a bit all over the place. The first piece may be one of the most impactful things I’ve read as a dad - maybe ever. We also dive into apprenticeships, Instacart trying to bring people back into grocery stores, the merits of bring cargo pants back in style and whether or not it’s possible to do all the things Ferris Bueller did in a single day (it is).
Also, there is a really good idea about how to expand rail in Atlanta. It’s awesome. Like potentially game-changing in the way the Beltline once was.
New here? Here’s what the Sixth Day Six is all about.
Does My Son Know You? | The Ringer
The author of this post, Jonathan Tjarks, recently passed away from the cancer he describes having in this article. What he writes here is one of the more powerful, perspective-changing pieces I’ve read in a long time.
One thing I have learned from this experience is that you can’t worry about things that you can’t control. I can’t control what will happen to me. I don’t know how long I will be there for my son. All I can do is make the most of the time that I have left. That means investing in other people so they can be there for him.
Click here to read the full article.
Why Don’t Americans Get Apprenticeships? | The Prof G Show
College tuition is skyrocketing. Why aren’t apprenticeships a more viable option for most? They should be - and that’s the argument Scott Galloway makes. College doesn’t have to be the default path for everyone and I think that should be said more often.
Click here to see the video on YouTube.
Instacart’s grocery ‘smart cart’ shows how it’s about more than just deliveries | The Verge
Why would a delivery service invest in technology to make going to the store easier for people? I think this is a savvy move by Instacart. While the Amazon Go grocery stores are really cool, this is a lower barrier to entry (read: less creepy) than the Amazon for most people and likely way easier to adopt. I also love that they’re building a platform for others to use and not trying to own the entire experience start to finish.
But people like their ability to make lists, go to the store, and have stuff ready and waiting for them while also having the flexibility to call an audible and grab a few extra, unplanned items. Large grocery store chains are spending the money needed to add connected shopping and self-checkout via app, while Amazon’s cashier-less tech is becoming more available — all of which is something smaller grocers don’t have the resources to match.
That’s what Instacart has been working on: building a white label smart shopping ecosystem that it claims can give any store a digital storefront or affix an existing one to work with the Instacart app.
Click here to read the full article.
Could ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ really be done? We found out. | The Washington Post
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is my favorite movie of all time. Just trying this move out should be on my bucket list. The crazy thing is that they actually pulled it off.
In the end, I’m not quite sure how we pulled it off. Did everything go our way because of good luck? Or did we channel Ferris’s buoyant optimism? I’d like to believe part of the magic came from impersonating Hughes’s hero. Chicagoans and visitors instantly recognized us and wanted to help us create the perfect day off. It might sound ridiculous, but “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” stirs both nostalgia and a certain civic pride for Chicagoans. After all, the film was Hughes’s love letter to the city.
Click here to read the full article.
Introducing 'ATL Trains': A revolutionary approach to Atlanta transit? | Urbanize Atlanta
The Atlanta Beltline was created by a single guy with a vision of a practical way to add a lot of value to the city. One of the things I miss the most about Chicago is the access to transit. Yes, we have MARTA but your options of getting around are much more limited than the CTA. This article breaks down an idea one person has to also repurpose rail lines for the greater good. The caveat? Getting it done while the city still has access to infrastructure bill funds. I’m a huge fan of this idea.
Fleshing those corridors out into ATL Trains would call for an 11-line system spanning 300 miles, with 88 stations dotted along routes that would octopus out in almost all directions. (For context, that’s about six times the size of MARTA’s current heavy rail system, with more than twice the number of stops.) The system would be so comprehensive, according to Stubbs’ research, 83 percent of the region’s 6.1 million people would live within five miles of it. And more than half of the metro’s jobs would be within a mile of commuter train access.
Click here to read the full article.
It's Time to Bring Back Cargo Pants | Wired
Not exactly what I expected to see in Wired but it makes sense. We all have these massive devices and no great way to store them. Could cargo pants bring us the ultimate combination of function and fashion? Some people are saying yes.
Everyone is walking around with a giant phone and nowhere to put it. The technology exists to solve this problem. We just need to embrace it.
Click here to read the full article.
What book am I reading?
No Point B by Caleb Gardner. Caleb has quite the resume but it’s easier (and admittedly more simplistic) to describe him as “the guy who ran Obama’s Twitter account while he was in office.” He does a great job laying out the reality of change in the world today but with optimism on how we can make it all work for us.
As always, if you are reading something interesting, feel free to share it! You can reach out by responding to this email or clicking here. Would love to hear from you!