Improvement

We often think once the project is done all we do is to either add features or maintain it, but is it? I am fortunate enough to live in and travel to different countries allows me to compare cities, why one city is “better” than the other? Why do people believe Tokyo is more “futuristic” or modern than North American cities? Constant improvement is the key.

Recently I have travelled to Toronto and I have noticed some neighborhoods like Cabbagetown, Dupont, or Danforth are close to the downtown while the infrastructures such as buildings and electricity grid still stuck in the past. While the population has been booming in Canada especially Toronto for the past decades, the city does not seem to take action to think about how the city should evolve to meet the need, which I believe eventually leads to a housing crisis here in Canada.

Strategy changes to meet demand.

Although these large houses look nice and cozy for a single family the reality is they usually turned into sharehouses or Airbnbs. I argue instead of keeping single-family houses in the region close to the downtown, they should be torn down and replaced by 5-6 floors apartments with 12-18 smaller individual units, with 2 large single-family houses of land, there could be 12 to 18 family units, and with public transportation, there is no need for owning a car when living in the city.

Let’s face it with a lower birthrate families are usually small, and large houses in the middle of the city don’t make sense, For young individuals or couples without children smaller units work well until they decide it is time to have children maybe it is the right time to move to suburb for larger space and touch grass.

Refactoring and Improvement

When I look at the power supply in Canada with lots of wire hanging outdoor it makes me question “Why not have them underground?”. Of course, I am not a civil engineer there might be reasons behind it but I don’t see these wires in the newer neighbourhoods, is it because “if it is not broken why fix it” mentality? Should we wait until it is broken to change it?

Toyota has a famous term when it comes to manufacturing, Kaizen. Kaizen is the word that means improvement both in Japanese and Chinese, the constant state of questioning how to improve the process and product is the reason Toyota is constantly winning, if you travel to Japan you will find roads and utilities are well maintained and constantly improving, although they serve the same purpose since day one as time change better technology helps to improve the older system to meet the demand. Not only in public utilities, but you can also see the constant improvement in public transportation, food and beverage chains in Asia are all improving and competing constantly, and seems like North America has forgotten the importance of competition and improvement over time.

I believe living in the downtown area is about convenience and opportunities, refactoring the housing grid in the city means more people can live and work in the city which creates more opportunities, creativities, and diversity. Instead of just suburbs and business parks and single-family homes, young people in their 20s and 30s need to have a unit to be stable and grow, when the government pushes to rebuild the city with newer, denser buildings this could help to drive down rental prices and housing prices if the government willing to put in the effort.

Reminder to myself

Looking at the status of Toronto is a great reminder to myself that if I find a project it is worthwhile to work on, the prototype is only the beginning the constant investment in improvement is needed. My battle with shiny object syndrome is about not building new shiny things but keeping working on the same project, using the same stack and making it better over time.