skater. climber. runner. dilettante.
Toronto
Joined September 2008
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- Following957
- Followers542
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Nathan Ng retweeted
Five years ago, as a computer science student at Waterloo, I was told the only way to build world-class products was to move to the US.
I ended up co-founding Float here in Toronto instead, and today we're growing our engineering team by more than 25% to rebuild Canada's financial infrastructure for Canadian businesses.
If you're an engineer who wants to build world-class products on home soil, I'd love to meet you. Our open roles are in the comments.
Nathan Ng retweeted
A guy named Trent Brown built four working AI tools by voice alone, because an injury took away his ability to read a screen. He's about to lose his housing. More people need to know what he made.
Nathan Ng retweeted
Why is it called "Castle Frank"?
How did melting glaciers carve out the entire city of Toronto?
And how did we manage to turn a old abandoned brick quarry into a majestic green space?
All of this and more in The City Beneath Toronto, a walking tour spent entirely in our city's most scenic ravine loop.
The ravines are hidden underworld, an oasis below the city.
Come walk this loop with me for the final time this summer on Saturday, July 25th at 10am.
Lotta people watching the game on a sweltering night. #Toronto #worldcup #Nathanphillipssquare – at Toronto, Ontario
@311Toronto hi! These missing paver stones, depending on the lighting conditions and the time of day, are easily missed and a tripping hazard. South East corner of Bay and Gerrard
Hi @311toronto could you please give this issue report a slight nudge, it still has not been addressed. (Even if it's just a cone or something). South East corner of Bay and Gerrard – at Toronto, Ontario
Nathan Ng retweeted
Digging into #Toronto's design and architecture history, I found a hero we don't talk enough.
Tony Coombes. Australian. Came to Toronto at 31 as Chief Planner. Changed everything.
- 1970s: halted the demolition wave gutting the Annex, Cabbagetown, Seaton Village, saved the low-rise neighbourhoods we love today
- 1976: wrote the Central Area Plan, why downtown didn't hollow out like Detroit or Cleveland
- 1980s: managed Canary Wharf in London ($9.2B) and the World Financial Center in NYC
- 2000: created the agency that became Waterfront Toronto, Sugar Beach, Corktown Common, the entire lakefront traces back to him
- 1999–2013: founded the @NeptisRegions Foundation, whose research shaped Ontario's Greenbelt
He was, by any measure, one of the 2-3 most consequential planners in Toronto's 20th century.
Thank you Tony
theglobeandmail.com/news/arc…
Died 2013. His daughter @ZoeCoombes carries the work forward today through Impossible Toronto. The books is just is a beauty.
Neptis Foundation memorial neptis.org/tony-coombes
Impossible Toronto (Zoë's work)
impossibletoronto.ca
Nathan Ng retweeted
Our museum recently received the slide collection of Member #3, the late Ron Cooper. Here are four of his shots, three showing the TTC's brand new Gloucester-built subway cars before they began service. Subways replaced the old Yonge Street streetcars on March 30th, 1954.
Nathan Ng retweeted
This essay by @paulg is nearly 20 years old, but I thought about it again after @garrytan made a decision that upset some Canadians and a conversation I had with someone from a flyover state while all those posts on linkedin kept flowing.
The Valley is special. It still has what tech founders need to increase their chances of success, and most parts of the US can't compete either.
But naturally, "make Canada great again for startups" comes up. What would it take? Do we have what it takes? Do we even know what it takes?
If this 20-year-old essay is still true, I believe Waterloo has the first part, especially today. We have rich people and nerds... and a lot of the rich people are nerds. We have universities with personality - for whatever reason, people who've spent time here as students like to stay connected after they find success.
So what's holding us back? We have too many bureaucrats and seem obsessed with buildings funded by bureaucrats in Ottawa.
When Garry makes a change on the YC website, Canadians immediately look to bureaucrats in Ottawa to fix it. That won't work. It will compound the issue.
I think this essay has the formula and Waterloo has the components. We just need to make a few adjustments.
paulgraham.com/siliconvalley…
Nathan Ng retweeted
The lifecycle of a pure math theorem:
- 1997: my PhD advisor asks me to work on one of his conjectures
- 2000: I solve the simplest case and dream of generalizing my approach
- 2003: after years of struggle, I come to the conclusion that my approach *cannot* generalize
- 2006: after reading a paper by Daan Krammer, I have a lighting bulb moment and realize that my approach works in full generality *up to equivalence of categories*... this enables me to solve my advisor's conjecture... I then use it as an ingredient in the proof of a much older and more famous conjecture (the "K(π,1) conjecture for finite complex reflection groups")
- 2007: I submit my article for publication
- 2009: referee #1 gives up
- 2010: 2 more referees have now given up, complaining that the paper is too hard to read
- 2012: referee #4 is finally able to produce a report, the revision work starts
- 2014: the paper is accepted for publication
- 2015: the paper is published
- 2007-2025: because the older conjecture overshadows the lesser known conjecture by my advisor, and because my paper is too difficult, virtually no-one asks any question about the "lighting bulb" categorical idea at the core of the proof
- Jan 22, 2026: I received an inbound email from a mathematician from another hemisphere, inquiring about the categorical aspects
- Jan 26, 2026: I have my first ever videocall discussing the specifics of this core component of my proof
Nathan Ng retweeted
When the roads are white and hard packed you really notice how some crosswalks are designed to not just flash at drivers, but also to project/illuminate a crossing path below.
Nathan Ng retweeted
Yes, the Finch LRT is too slow. I know, I rode it twice
It has to move faster. I'll bring a council item to give it signal priority, and see what else we can do.
