On ‘the science of building cities’
“In general, the urban community has become lost in strategic planning, masterplanning, zoning and landscaping… Read more…
‘ENOUGH’- The importance of limit-setting for writing
“(…) limit-setting means learning to . . .
1. Start writing before you may feel you’re ready.
2. Finish writing before you may feel you’re ready.
3. Know when you’ve done enough with your writing project.
Knowing when you’ve done enough or that you can begin without over-preparation is a critical skill in writing efficiently and painlessly. Without this kind of knowing, writing problems loom at the ready. Without limit-setting, professors expose themselves to an especially insidious kind of stress–of never being able to leave campus feeling they’ve done enough.”
On the importance of local values
As we have Chuck Wolfe with us at JCU leading the Urban Thinkers Campus this and next weeks, this week’s quote comes from his Urbanism Without Effort book… Read more…
Book recommendation: Finding Time for your Scholarly Writing: A Short Guide, by Jo VanEvery
Finding Time for your Scholarly Writing: A Short Guide by Jo VanEvery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“[Day] is my research day. I will address your email during normal working hours on [next working day]. Thank you for your patience.” (Kindle Locations 247-248) Read more…
Writing as a tool for thinking
Don’t allow your gremlins to tell you that you should be able to do this [writing] in your head and only commit your ideas to paper when they are clear. Use writing to think.
Book recommendation: The Scholarly Writing Process: A Short Guide, by Jo VanEvery
The Scholarly Writing Process: A Short Guide by Jo VanEvery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Writing is a process through which you create knowledge. AND Writing is a product that communicates knowledge.” (Kindle Locations 39-42) Read more…
For the protection of closed doors and against open plan academic offices
The main thing that all writers need, Stephen King says in On Writing, is “a door that you are willing to shut.” The door (if we use it) protects us from interruptions. A space where we are protected from interruption is crucial for any writing project.
On PhD outcomes
But if I had to name the very best outcome of the PhD (besides being greeted with ‘Welcome back, Dr Mewburn’ while boarding aeroplanes) is that I am not afraid to appear stupid. When I discover my ignorance, I know how to fix it. I’ll just research the shit out of it. People should fear my mad skills of research.
Job vs Career
‘A job is what you do for other people. A career is who you are’, Mark said. He told me that a career mission is driven by a desire to solve a particular set of problems. Your job is just whoever happens to be paying for you to do your mission at any one time. A career potentially spans many of these mission oriented jobs.
Inger Mewburn (The Thesis Whisperer), in How to be an Academic
Darkest Hour
Watched Darkest Hour last weekend. 5-star movie in my opinion, with a great quote to finish it up: Read more…
Climate in the city
Facebook has reminded me today that four years ago I updated my ‘research page’* on this website, where I wrote about the seed for my PhD thesis. That seed was my wanderings through different climate zones and my fascination about the ways climate shapes people’s lives, although most of the time people don’t think about it. Read more…
City design, and the need for flexibility
The problem with the history of city design is that it is all about master planning, ignoring resilience theory, with the underlying unspoken intention of creating the ideal city that never needs to be changed
Soft city of illusion
In Seeing the Better City by Charles R. Wolfe (2016)
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the second great misunderstanding that lies at the root of most urban degradation today: widening a city’s streets in the name of safety is like distributing handguns to deter crime.
Speck, Jeff (2012) Read more…
