[raybb]

I just finished Cory Doctorow's The Lost Cause and wrote a short review [1]. I'm not a huge fiction person so maybe my standards are not so high but I found it quite inspiring and relevant to my current life. Grappling with feelings about climate change and housing shortages and how to use my skills to improve the world but also setting limits and enjoying life. Well... At least those are the things I felt in the book but maybe not really the main topic.

Currently reading Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow which I like but I only started reading because I found a copy in a free pile.

I'd like to read some nonfiction next and I think it'll be A City is Not a Tree by Christopher W. Alexander. I think it was recommended on HN recently but I'm also doing and Urban Studies master program so the urban things have been on my mind lately.

[1] https://blog.rayberger.org/book-review-the-lost-cause

[cpursley]

The solution to climate change and housing affordability are one and the same: dense human scale development patterns. In NA it requires a massive mental shift and zoning changes (or the oil to run out, which would force the issue).

A book you might like: “The Geography Of Nowhere”

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/125313

[raybb]

I agree with you but the how is pretty hard to imagine. Especially with how housing speculation is so deeply tied to people's retirements and life plans.

I'll give that book a gander. Based on the reviews I think I'll like it given my context of growing in Florida and now living in Amsterdam and wondering how things can be so different.

[cpursley]

Yeah, living in the Netherlands for a few months (Haarlem) and traveling some there really shifted my perspective. The Dutch have demonstrated that you can have your cake and earth it too. They actually transformed some car first cities to human scale - forget the name.