Having it all

There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.

(Or, so I’m telling myself as I try out my new Femonomics vocabulary to grapple with living in a city with 6+ months of winter.)

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I talk about place. A lot.

Where we live and how we live has a huge impact on our lives. From our commutes, to our hours of daylight, oppressing grey, bitter cold, access to nature and more. Our natural environment influences just about everything.

As I was cargo e-biking myself and my kiddo to work in -14 degrees on slushy icy snow… I thought, “mon pays, c’est l’hiver” AND… “this is better than the alternative” (sitting in my car for 2km to pay for parking to get to where I was going… only slower). And, “ wow I love my new googles. And mitts. And studded tires.”

And, “you know what, as that old adage goes, maybe there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.”

I just finished reading Corinne Low’s book, “Having it All” and I love having her new-to-me economic language in my lexicon. So, bear with me while I attempt to use some of it here: utility function, local maximization and global maximization. (Her glossary is in the comments).

In this context, a “global maximization” move would be something like throwing in the towel on winter entirely and starting a sheep farm on a Gulf Island. But since I’m not doing that (yet), I’ve found ways to locally maximize my winter-city reality: living close to work and childcare, biking instead of driving, choosing gear that actually keeps us safe and warm. Biking brings me joy and clarity. It keeps me out of my car. Biking to work maximizes my utility function.

What problem are you grappling with right now that you could locally maximize?

What system might you globally maximize someday?

And how might those shifts, whether as simple as goggles that fit over your glasses or as sweeping as sheep-farm pivot, help you maximize your utility function?