Hi friends,

The first full week of October has been active and enjoyable. I gave my first in-person presentation since before the pandemic, and it went well! Virtual living meant I was able to deliver my presentations with basically my script in front of me — I just had to practice delivering it; however, in-person presentations mean no more scripts. I'm determined to improve my public speaking skills – especially improvising off the cuff. I find it incredibly challenging not to go off scripts I've written. In fact, the TEDx talk I gave was just a memorized script! I'll be taking a public speaking course next quarter, but for now, my approach has been to limit the script writing to bullet points. Let me know if you have any tips for improving!

Book Talk📚

I finished Palaces for the People this week, and I'm on to reading Educated by Tara Westover and Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows! Here is my Palaces for the People review from Goodreads:

An excellent book showing the power infrastructure has on people's lives -- specifically social infrastructure. This book touches on everything from the sociology side to consequences in times of disaster -- which we'll only have more of as climate change persists. My favorite aspect of the book was getting to look at these intersections of human, natural, and built systems.

• From Educated, I'm getting strong Where the Crawdad Sings, and Glass Castle vibes.
• Thinking in Systems is really cool so far! It's assigned reading for my Urban Systems Engineering Class, but there's nothing wrong with liking assigned reading! It's dope to think about problems at this level!

Intentional Content Consumption📰

Also, in my Urban Systems Engineering Class, we have daily talks called Lightning Talks, where we share an article about urban problems and talk about it. I gave mine this week (in addition to my class presentation) about the following article about Adding Up Ride-Hailing's Hidden Environmental Costs:

• When we quantify the external costs (local air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and deaths) that come with using a ride-hailing service instead of a personal vehicle, we find that even in the most optimistic scenario (a fully electrified fleet), external costs increase.
• This is due to a practice known as deadheading — the in-between time trips where drivers wait for their next passenger. This actually increased greenhouse gas emissions and congestion!
• Despite all this, the article does not discuss all the costs of owning your car — both for yourself and the environment. All this is to say that the best way to minimize climate impacts from mobility is probably to develop to reduce driving and encourage transit!
• As someone prolonging buying a car for as long as possible, it's good to know that I am justified by my decisions!

What are your thoughts on this?

This Week's Video 📹

I am still finding the best way to manage my time, so the Wildfire video is not ready yet — however, I kept the ball moving by recording a day-in-the-life video this week! I can't wait to pull it all together!

Sometimes when I think about my future, I feel overwhelmed with everything I think I have to do but I remember one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite authors (Fredrik Backman, Anxious People):

How does a person eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

From reading about social infrastructure and thinking about systems to practicing my public speaking, I am slowly but surely building my urban systems toolbox in preparation for my career – one bite at a time.

Thanks for reading and reflecting this week! If you aren't subscribed to get this in your inbox weekly, you can here!

Best,
Awoe ✌🏾