I'm Interested [05] - Hydroponics, Rebuilding Community, Rank Choice Voting, Colombia
When is the last time you opened up Reddit or Instagram and scrolled absent-mindedly before suddenly snapping back to reality? Everyone gets caught in the scroll trap, but if I can get you to replace 15 minutes of mindless internet browsing with some intentional content in a newsletter, I'll rest easy (good news: this issue takes less than 10 minutes to read).
If I made that happen, or I’ve written something that you have enjoyed, please take a second to pass this along to a friend. It would mean a lot to me! The last issue’s section on the mile-every-hour marathon struck a chord with a lot of folks—I fully plan to set up a way to do it together as a fundraiser soon. The more the merrier.
Alright, on to I’m Interested.
I'm interested in a lot of things. I know YOU are too. Not everyone has the energy or attention span to dig through the vast expanses of the internet and then read & prioritize what would be worth a chunk of that idle time we spend on our phone.
I'll be that someone.
Hydroponics, Baby!
Rise Gardens in a home environment1
What if you could have an herb/vegetable garden in the comfort of your home? What if it had a grow light on a timer and you only needed to add plant food & water when it told you to? What if you could go 2-3 weeks at a time without putting any effort into keeping your garden alive and well, while harvesting whenever you need it?
Fresh mint in your mojitos. Genovese basil for homemade pesto. Dill for your homemade fridge pickles (shameless plug). Hot peppers for taco night. Thai basil for garnishing that rainy day pho.
All that for just 3 easy payments of $19.99. Call now for this faaantastic offer!
Ok, enough of the product pitch (until I start making commission).
I had to show some love for hydroponics and my Aerogarden this week, but the market for home hydroponic systems is vast and growing quickly. Check some of the product options out there and get your green thumb going:
Rebuilding Community
Continuing the theme of community, let’s take a moment to discuss community building post-pandemic. A Gensler Research article really got the wheels turning by posing a question all city dwellers have in the back of their mind:
We all belong to a variety of different communities — physical and virtual — but ultimately, we eventually need to come together again in person. And when we do, we’ll want to look for what we have in common.
How do we rebuild and restore a sense of community after being physically apart?
(Editor’s sidenote: with pickup sports, obviously!!!)
This piece continued the thread of building cities at human-scale, with openness and interactivity at all hours, like a great college campus. I love the concept of creating the “front porch” at an architectural scale. Engage the ground-level ecosystem to liven up sidewalks and neighborhoods. With the widespread adoption of hybrid-remote office arrangements, reduced commuter traffic, and more flexible schedules, we need to reimagine the ground plane of our office buildings and transform building-fronts into multi-use destinations that do not live and die by the 9-to-5 office worker and their lunch break.
We can design open, accessible spaces and programs that bring people and local organizations into the building, or conversely, extend company culture from the workplace to the street — creating valuable workplace amenities at the edge to be enjoyed by everyone — not just the daytime workforce.
Can We Rank Choice Vote Already?
Amira Valliani decided to write a small essay about ways to build a better government every day for 30 days. A lot of them are great ideas, but ranked-choice vote (RCV) is definitely up there in terms of importance. Jungle Primaries sound like a great idea as well, if you want to read more. Here’s what she had to say:
If more candidates are viable AND people don’t fear completely wasting their vote on someone who doesn’t have the full backing of the party — better ideas and agendas will come to the table with a chance. It would be possible for alternatives to party-aligned, political lifers to rise and build support with real votes. Voters will use RCV to show that they are dissatisfied with the way our polarized, partisan officials serve their constituents, otherwise, the votes keep flowing in for one side or the other and there is really isn’t a free-market competition.
The state of Maine and some other municipalities use rank choice voting already. With citizens feeling more disconnected from the agendas of their representatives than ever, it’s time we institute this system nationwide—or at least start the conversation.
Educational Alternatives
On Deck Fellowship just closed a $20M funding round to support their vision to re-imagine the next 100 yrs of education (and beyond). In an entirely online platform, open to people at any stage of their career, they hit on the following three outcomes of traditional universities:
Exploration
Skill & expertise development
Meaningful personal relationships
Fellows achieve those three primary outcomes at a cost of ~$2500 instead of something like $160k (for a grad degree).
I think we’re still waiting to see the full effects of the pandemic on higher education enrollment and enthusiasm (read: pay your $60k a year, but don’t you dare leave your dorm room, Jacob!) There are other paths for high school graduates (like Praxis, for example) and a rapidly expanding universe of bootcamps, alt-MBAs, accelerators, schools with ISAs (I’ll tackle that in the next issue), and fellowships where post-grads can acquire skills, build important connections, and make career leaps.
On Deck has fellowships focused on podcasting, design, no-code development, fintech, climate tech, VC, writing, entrepreneurship—the list goes on. Don’t be surprised if you see more and more people taking other routes and sharing their results publicly—as if they are trying to save others from crippling debt.
2021 Virtual World Tour: Colombia
Kylie and I are ‘touring’ a different country every month in 2021 via YouTube videos, podcasts, movies, articles, Parts Unknown episodes, food, and drinks. This month was Colombia—for a specific reason.
We chose Colombia because I also happen to be working on a pro-bono software modernization project with a team at work for an organization called Fundación La Juanfe. La Juanfe does incredibly impactful social transformation work. In their words:
We put a stop to the intergenerational transmission of poverty by addressing the problem of adolescent pregnancy in marginalized communities, defending the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable populations – especially boys, girls and women, and claiming the place and role of women in all areas of society.
In Colombia, one in five mothers is a teenager, as stated in the National Survey on Demography and Health (ENDS 2015) of the Ministry of Health and Profamilia. These pregnancies are linked to lower educational and socioeconomic levels.
With the specific purpose of breaking the poverty cycles of teenage mothers, we have designed and implement the 360 Degrees Model, which lasts approximately two years and consists of the comprehensive provision of health services (mental, emotional, and physical), quality education (school, technical, and complementary) and integration into the formal labor market. In this way, we contribute to the well-being of the young women, their families and their communities.
Our team consists of Colombian ex-pats, Spanish translators (major-key), software product design and development experts, and technologists from partner firms in Latin America. Every conversation and document is in Spanish. I know absolutely zero Spanish. It’s been interesting.
All that said, if you feel compelled by their mission and want to make an impact on the women in their 360 Degree Model program, you can make a donation. I love how their slider allows you to understand the magnitude of your impact. For example, just $12 USD will guarantee the feeding of 120 babies at their childcare center.
Interesting Facts
I didn’t want to leave you without some interesting Colombia facts!
Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, after only Brazil, which is 10 times its size.
It has the highest amount of species by area in the world and more species of bird than all of Europe and North America combined.
Every day at 6 AM and 6 PM the radio and public television play the national anthem - they are required to by law.
It’s home to the world’s tallest palm trees (see image above).
Closing with the Vibes
I know we’re fresh off those absolute bangers I shared on St. Patrick’s Day — but back to our regularly scheduled programming. Good vibes.
This issue’s song was submitted by a subscriber. That’s right folks (folks!), send me your song recommendations.
Thanks for reading and thank you for your support. Enjoy the rest of your week and stay curious!
If you’re not feeling it, please reply or reach out and provide some feedback. I don’t know what I’m doing and I can only improve through iteration — stick with me.
https://thespoon.tech/amazons-alexa-fund-invests-in-at-home-vertical-farming-company-rise-gardens/