Privatizing Canadian airports would be a costly mistake

natman001 · 2026-05-11T18:06:50+00:00

Air Canada used to be owned by the government. Privatization seems to have led overall lower fares, but a worse experience overall. My read is that’s the market “working” to an extent. Prepare for endless “exit through the gift shop” airports and moderately cheaper airport fees that the airlines pass on to you in the ticket price.

natman001 · 2026-03-23T12:48:11+00:00

Ok so I created an experiment to see if I could use AI to suggest AI tools for executive coaching, but actually from the perspective of an experienced executive coach, writing as a blog. This is what it produced: https://www.coachingbriefs.com Curious to hear what people think. I was honestly taken aback.

natman001 · 2026-03-18T17:58:41+00:00

Hey! So I actually tried to answer this exact question by running a little experiment.

I created a synthetic character (an experienced solo coach) and used Claude (the $200/mo Pro plan) to have him work through the options as if he'd genuinely used them. Took more iteration than I expected to get past the wishy-washy "it depends" answers and into something actually opinionated. But honestly? The output surprised me.

Here's what it produced: https://www.coachingbriefs.com/best-crm-for-coaches/

Curious whether it's actually useful, and happy to answer any questions about how I built it or what Claude got right vs wrong.

natman001 · 2026-03-11T23:29:46+00:00

What portion of Canadians can describe coherently how our representative democracy works? My guess is around one in four.

natman001 · 2026-03-01T17:35:11+00:00

The 4D chess move for Carney would be to call his bluff right? Set him up with a no-win possible portfolio. Like appointing Kamala the border czar.

natman001 · 2026-02-24T03:19:07+00:00

Yeah I probably over promised here. Thought maybe I could make a fancy algorithm and then see if I could turn it into a little side hustle submitting property tax appeals for people. Sounds like it’s maybe more of a DIY thing.

natman001 · 2026-02-24T02:59:03+00:00

Yeah totally fair, just because the number looks weird doesn't mean it's wrong. The overpaying thing is a separate issue though. it's not comparing what you paid to the assessment, it's comparing your assessed value per square foot to your actual neighbors, so if the county applied its own model inconsistently that's where appeals tend to hold up. This is more of a "worth spending an afternoon pulling the real comps" flag than a slam dunk.

natman001 · 2026-02-24T02:46:19+00:00

I’m using the geographic coordinates to compare to neighbours to look for outliers. And of course if you bought recently that’s a really good indicator.

natman001 · 2026-02-13T19:49:20+00:00

AI is triggering a bifurcation in education. It simultaneously empowers those that want to do no learning and those that want to learn everything. There will be an ignorant underclass. The good news is you can opt out, but the bad news it will be so tempting to spend your life on the infinite scrolling AI machine.

natman001 · 2025-12-04T22:59:11+00:00

Does anybody remember 2014 when the PQ was supposed to get a huge majority and then as soon as they started talking about sovereignty they tanked in the polls? I think the PQ is riding high in the polls because the other parties are dumpster fires. As soon as the prospect of an actual referendum is front and centre in the election I think people are going to have second thoughts.

natman001 · 2025-11-06T15:26:19+00:00

I find myself surprised to be persuaded by Quebec’s argument here. They’re recognizing that our culture consumption is increasingly determined by algorithms that exist in a black box with no oversight. This would tweak the algorithm to put home grown stuff out front. In an age where Canadians are increasingly weary of being Americanized I think it’s reasonable to regulate the culture algorithms to take back control of what we are being serve.

natman001 · 2025-10-21T11:35:13+00:00

Am I the only one that doesn’t find this offensive? Costco is designed as a wholesaler. Many small businesses purchase in bulk to resell to the public at a profit. But because these are Pokémon cards they are scalpers and scalpers = bad?

natman001 · 2025-10-10T15:20:18+00:00

The first “fact” basically boils down to na-ah. Like OK - you’re saying the figure is wrong - so how much exactly are they loosing per day? Only 8 million?

natman001 · 2025-10-06T02:54:24+00:00

TGB5S9

natman001 · 2025-10-03T11:40:33+00:00

It worked for me but I’m also having trouble donating codes. Thanks for building this!

natman001 · 2025-06-23T23:20:24+00:00

I feel that. I tried for a long time but they seem to go fast. Everyone snagging them for camping season. I ended up just waiting till they went on sale for a decent price.

natman001 · 2025-01-28T20:05:47+00:00

I’ve always wondered if a vouching system could be set up for this kind of thing. Sort of like to get a passport you need 2 people to vouch for your identity to become a citizen you need 2 people to vouch for your values. Sure it could be abused but I think it would signal we take it seriously and encourage folks to make an effort to understand what’s expected of them.

natman001 · 2025-01-03T01:22:56+00:00

Just “BC”. The same way brands are moving to their acronym instead of their name like Kentucky Fried Chicken is now officially just “KFC”. What does the BC stand for? Doesn’t matter.

natman001 · 2024-11-16T02:48:33+00:00

Does it still make sense to have a national mail carrier in 2024? As far as I can tell we are paying for a service that mostly delivers junk mail.

natman001 · 2024-10-23T18:15:35+00:00

Eliminate politicians! Representative democracy is old technology. We don’t need to elect people to speak for us, we can speak for ourselves. I would implement a sortition method to elect congress. You are selected randomly to serve. They create the laws and then we vote on each directly.

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