This week in charts
The growth in Canadian rentals
Differing inflation across eurozone countries makes monetary policy challenging for the ECB
Long-term CEO incentives (Twitter thread)
Waste Connections Inc. (TSX: WCN)
Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX: ATD)
This week’s fun finds
Inside out
The Inside members of the Relationship Management team were able to find time between calls to get in some team building on the Toronto Islands.
The End of Manual Transmission
When it comes time to replace my current car, I probably won’t be able to get another like it. In 2000, more than 15 percent of new and used cars sold by the auto retailer CarMax came with stick shifts; by 2020, that figure had dropped to 2.4 percent. Among the hundreds of new car models for sale in the United States this year, only about 30 can be purchased with a manual transmission. Electric cars, which now account for more than 5 percent of car sales, don’t even have gearboxes. There are rumors that Mercedes-Benz plans to retire manuals entirely by the end of next year, all around the world, in a decision driven partly by electrification; Volkswagen is said to be dropping its own by 2030, and other brands are sure to follow. Stick shifts have long been a niche market in the U.S. Soon they’ll be extinct.
But the manual transmission’s chief appeal derives from the feeling it imparts to the driver: a sense, whether real or imagined, that he or she is in control. According to the business consultant turned motorcycle repairman turned best-selling author Matthew Crawford, attending to that sense is not just an affectation. Humans develop tools that assist in locomotion, such as domesticated horses and carriages and bicycles and cars—and then extend their awareness to those tools. The driver “becomes one” with the machine, as we say. In his 2020 book, Why We Drive, Crawford argues that a device becomes a prosthetic. The rider fuses with the horse. To move the tool is to move the self.
The decoupling of humans from their driving machines will accelerate in years to come. If the automatic transmission made the stick shift a monument to lost control, the autonomous (self-driving) vehicle aims to do the same for steering wheels. At that point, the loss will be so complete that it may not feel so alienating. Any pretense that the automobile is a prosthetic will be eliminated, so car passengers can move on to other things. Like people on a train, they might settle into a book or take a nap or open up an Excel spreadsheet.
The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
I’m happy to finally share a thesis I’ve been chewing on for a little while. I call it The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class, which states: The higher you ascend the ladder of the Educated Gentry class, the more you become Michael Scott.
(Spoiler warning)
Before You Fly The Nest: Advice for kids heading to college
- Explore, get outside your comfort zone, and experiment
- Seek balance
- Choose good friends
- Adopt good habits
- Avoid irreversible / catastrophic outcomes
- Don’t worry if it’s hard, especially at first
Hey, I know that guy: AI shows what the average Toronto man looks like
Someone very familiar with artificial intelligence asked a bot to show them what the average Torontonian looks like and then shared the results on Reddit.
According to AI, this is what an average dude in the city looks like:
