Ali Williams

I run far for fun, drink lots of coffee, am happiest outdoors and want to pet your dog.

[EcoGothsOnly @Over9000Jon]

@JamieGutfreund traffic not realizing its traffic complaining about traffic instead of just walking like a normal person, blames city. never change.

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

The Don, DVP and Bayview have become one.

[How-Sen @HowSenChong]

Toronto sits downhill from a LOT of impermeable pavement.

With nowhere else to go, rain falling on parking lots across Toronto and the 905 flow downhill south, flooding the transit stations, basements, and streets across the City.

We need to reduce paved surfaces.

#onstorm

[Anthony Farnell @AnthonyFarnell]

These cars will now be forced to reverse backwards up the DVP. Dangerous situation unfolding. Why is the highway still open?

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

@TTChelps can you explain why a bus that is re routing won’t let anyone off until it is back on route. I have now gone way out of the way and wasted 30+ minutes

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

Another day, another experience of @TTChelps taking my money to get me no where

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

Decided not to study much for an exam, or skip out on practice before a big game?

Under preparation is a coping strategy for stress. It allows you to protect your ego because you didn't 'try.'

Actually putting forth effort, requires being okay confronting your limits.

[Laura Wendel @Lauramaywendel]

A lot of very smart people work in strange ways / with a lot of quirks (e.g. contemplating for hours and appearing to do nothing, while then suddenly having 100x output burst).

This usually makes them not a great fit for traditional corporate world, where you often have to fake being busy & work around fixed structures.

The great thing about small teams working in a flexible structure with high autonomy is that you get to witness these quirks manifest into greatness, time and time again.

Many genuinely productive people are misunderstood because their perceived methods many not ‘look’ like hard work from the outside.

Organizations that are able to attract these people at scale & are able to create a culture in which they can flourish, have immense potential for innovation / technological breakthroughs (think OpenAI, SpaceX, ...)

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

On Tuesday I saw someone driving ON THE MGT along lakeshore by exhibition to pass all of the traffic!!

[Chris Kemp (cbkemp.bsky.social) @mindoverdata]

Another example I saw last night of the "social contract" breaking down: Driving an SUV in the bike lane.
So many drivers doing whatever they want, with very little repercussion. #BikeTO #TOpoli

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

@oliviachow this is what I experience every time I try to take a streetcar home from work at university station to leslieville. @TTCNewsroom can’t even move people a few kms across the busiest part of the core. It’s faster for me to walk the 4km. Every. Time.

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

The only thing better than training is that feeling you get after you've trained, but you only get that after you've trained feeling after you’ve trained.

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

MOTIVATION comes and goes. Embrace it when it's there.

SELF-DISCIPLINE allows you to show up and do the hard thing even when you aren't feeling motivated.

SELF-COMPASSION makes it sustainable—because life is hard and the least you can do is be kind to yourself.

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

A new meta-analysis on the impact of goal setting on performance found:

1. Process goals had a large effect on performance
2. Performance goals had a moderate effect
3. Outcome goals had a negligible effect

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

Stop comparing yourself to other peoples’ perfect plans and perfect pictures and perfect workouts. Ninety-nine percent of that stuff is performative and fake.

The road to genuine excellence and well-being is windy and messy and often boring. This is just how it goes. Embrace it.

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

Tell me how in a city this size it’s faster to walk 5km than take transit? And forget about cycling because motorists don’t care about you. What if someone has mobility issues?

[Ali Williams @SquashingMiles]

Hey @TTChelps just wondering if you will refund me for the 3.30 I paid to take three different methods of transit to go 1km, to only get off and walk the remaining way.

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

The key to a strong identity is to diversify your sense of self.

Called "self-complexity," it makes you less scared to fail and more enduring, robust, and resilient to change.

Here's why and how to develop it:

[Alan Couzens @Alan_Couzens]

Unpopular opinion o' the day:

You should train for your retirement. 👴🧓

You don't want to be working 12-hour days through your 50's and arrive at 65 with the money but not the physical fitness to explore and make the most of your later years.

Plan something big for your 60's and spend your 40's and 50's with that goal in mind, progressively freeing up space to train more and more for it.

The more time you spend within a particular career, the more freedom you should acquire. Exercise that freedom.

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

Behavioral activation—science speak for getting started even if you don't feel like it—is one of the best ways to work through apathy and low energy.

There is a strong inertia to thinking and feeling. Actions help to break it, so long as they are skillful.