Notes for February 17th 2023
- Renewables accounted for almost 13% of global electricity production in 2021. And it's growing rapidly. Thankfully, the cost of producing, fitting and maintaining solar PV has plummeted over recent years.
- Australia had 10 days of 100% renewable production recently. - The issue isn't production anymore, it's storage. Batteries are critical infrastructure if we're to shift significant power generation to renewable, so you capture the energy while it's abundant, and have access to the stored energy when it's less abundant (at night, for example).
- In personal news, we hosted a "naming ceremony" for our kids (2.5 and 1 year old). It's like a baptism but without any religious stuff. We had a wonderful celebrant run the ceremony, and had great contributions from the "guideparents" and grandparents.
- The point was to mark a moment in time for the kids, since we couldn't when the pandemic was in full-flow. But also to have a nice family/friends event after so much nonsense with the pandemic and the recent passing of my wife's grandfather.
- This is a weird update to note, but I bought a LARQ water bottle. It self-cleans under two guises. First is "normal" water, so almost like a quick spritz to remove any bad germs. But then it can also clean proper grime from river water, etc.
- I have a grand plan to do more camping. My wife & I are going to a music festival in summer so need to buy a new tent. I plan to splash out, and then go on mild camping trips with my eldest kid (who'll be 3 in summer). Having the ability to clean river water will be great. Especially since I already have a camping-ready espresso pump thing.
- I also want to get a tent that can attach to the back of my Model Y, which would be a brilliant host for a double bed for us!
- I've been coaching some folks from $old_job and two of them have been promoted to director roles. I'm incredibly proud of that, because after my departure, my old manager (who partially inspired me to take the leap elsewhere) spent lots of calories hiring new blood in. Ignoring my recommendation. 18 months later, they're at square 1. Where they should be.
- In the same thread, some folks need to be reset in that business. There was some expectation thanks to tenure, that they would be looked after. When it wouldn't have been the right call. I'm currently coaching folks on my team now, who are incredible, talented and supremely experienced. 2023 is the year that they're at base camp in a growing business. Reset your clock, get into some new gear and let's get climbing again.
- A wild week this week in work. I think a lot of things are coalescing into a good place, forcing myself and my crew to be insanely busy. This includes huge earth-shattering deals with customers and partners, new GTM motions with other vendors and partners, spinning up a new team and a huge new project to ship for the year.
- As a result, my bandwidth is limited emotionally. So having a naming ceremony for the kids, general life and non-profit volunteer time has absolutely shattered me.
- Separate point but related to the above point, I've had a tough week with sleep. I am a very, very slight sleeper as it is. But this has been a tough one. It doesn't help a few injuries have flared up. And my small cycling incident a few weeks ago has left me with a bizarre pain in my knee based on whatever weird way the skin healed.
