July 2012 - Joshua Spodek

Blog / Creativity / Entrepreneurship

Another genius business idea: real-life fairy tales

Today's post in the series of genius business ideas may not be a sustainable business model, but it covers a product I think today's children would benefit from as adults. Market demand Parents want the best for their kids. They don't want them needlessly hurt, especially by going down paths they know will create unnecessary pain and hardship. A friend suggested to me that many people have problems in relationships because of overly rosy expectations. They envision that calling each other boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife, will lead to them living happily ever after or riding off into the sunset. You can say people know life isn't that simple, but everyone I've talked to about it believes it to some degree despite themselves. Or at…

July 31, 2012

Art / Blog / Creativity

Great Bruce Springsteen article in this week’s New Yorker

I just finished reading and enjoying an article on Bruce Springsteen in this week's New Yorker. I recommend it, especially if you like the long New Yorker articles. This one is over 15,000 words. I've mentioned Bruce before. Growing up in the 70s and 80s in Philadelphia you couldn't miss him. I remember a radio promotion on one of the stations I listened to quoting a fan yelling, I guess outside a Springsteen concert "He's the best. He's Bruce. He's the Boss!" Greetings from Asbury Park was one of the first cds I bought when the medium came out. And the older brother of the first love of my life -- my high school girlfriend -- was a huge fan, with cases of concert bootleg…

July 30, 2012

Blog / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

What works in X web page mind map

Following up a comment on my post on the What Works in X web page genius idea, I created a mind map as a rough outline for the site to illustrate it better. It's only a rough outline, but I think a good start. Copying from my response to the reader's comment I envision people at What Works in X sharing anecdotes of things theyâ€™ve done at a higher level, like how they got hired by doing something different or got into North Korea or things like that... available in any area. Of course, I put the idea up for others to do with it what they want. Iâ€™m as happy to inspire someone elseâ€™s slightly different vision as for them to implement mine. Also,…

July 29, 2012

Art / Blog / Creativity / Tips

Do you overvalue originality at the expense of getting the job done?

Society values originality and creativity in problem solving instead of getting the job done. I'll illustrate how. Imagine you have a problem you need solved. For concreteness let's say you need plumbing work done in your house, but it could apply to any problem, personal, professional, or otherwise. Say you ask two plumbers how they would fix the problem to decide whom to hire. The first plumber says "I have the most creative idea for how to solve your problem. No one has ever seen a solution like this one. I will get your plumbing to do things no plumbing has done before. You will marvel at the originality and creativity in your plumbing." The second plumber says "Oh, I've solved problems exactly like this…

July 28, 2012

Blog / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Another genius business idea: the “What Works in X” web page

Following up on yesterdays' genius business idea for a book series of successful solved problems in many fields, today let's look at a web page doing something similar. Instead of making it just like a book, let's take advantage of the web's interactivity and let users create content. It's based on the principles of the Art of What Works (the book I mentioned the other day) The product A web site of user-written anecdotes of successful things they did, categorized by field -- eventually, the global repository of solved problems in every field, free for anyone to access or contribute to. Once populated with content, the main use of the site would be for anyone with a problem to solve. They would log in, search…

July 27, 2012

How I could be wrong about North Korea’s stability

My book on North Korean strategy concludes that North Korea's government is stable because everyone who could influence it is motivated to maintain its stability and that those who would benefit from changing it have no influence. I tried to look for holes in my theory. I thought of a few. South Korea continues to become increasingly prosperous. Combined with a more porous border, more information reaches North Korean people, undermining the party line. Cell phones allow greater communication among North Koreans, allowing some assembly. Signals from China and South Korea reach within North Korea. The internet is growing within the country from the inside. Tourism seems to be increasing, increasing communication and dependency on the outside world. I don't claim these are insightful or…

July 26, 2012

Blog / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Another genius business idea: the “What Works in X” book series

For the first genius business idea (the series I mentioned a couple days ago) I propose a book series based on the principles of the Art of What Works (the book I mentioned yesterday). The product A series of books like the "for dummies" and "for complete idiot" series, all with the same dimensions, cover design and color scheme, tone, writing style, etc called "What works inX", like "What Works in Selling Your House", "What Works in Nursing", "What Works in Teaching High School", or "What Works in Starting Your Own Restaurant." Each book contains anecdotes of people achieving success in the field that you can learn from -- a series of solved problems you can use to solve your problems. The fundamental principle is…

July 26, 2012

Bizarre tour of the metro museum

We toured a museum of the subway system there. Here are the brief notes I took: Room after room of staged photo after staged photo of Kim Il Sung smiling, giving no information on engineering or planning or contribution from anyone but him... where he sat, when he visited, but no details on what he said. Nothing about what we would call the project. That museum was just like most other ones. Just presentation about the Kims sticking their faces into otherwise serious work. I know what people outside the system think of it. It values an authoritarian leader and the system supporting him over everything else. What do people there think of it?

July 25, 2012

Blog / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

The Art of What Works

One of Columbia Business School's most popular courses in recent years has been in strategy, called Napoleon's Glance, named after a book by the instructor, Bill Duggan. Former students I've talked to rave about it. I was fortunate to do an independent study with him before his course exploded in popularity. Now it's so successful I doubt he could devote that kind of attention to a single student. Despite the course's immense popularity at one of the world's great business schools, I was more influenced by his book The Art of What Works. This excerpt from the back cover gets the gist of the book well for me, especially Jack Welch's quote: While every business situation you confront is unique, it is invariably made of…

July 25, 2012

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 2: beaches

Nature / NorthKorea

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 2: beaches

Who would expect beautiful beaches in North Korea? Visiting that far north in April, we didn't find warm sunny beaches, but the Earth is beautiful and it's hard to hide that. Some of the beachfront hotels looks nice, almost Mediterranean, from afar. Up close you saw the hotels couldn't have been seriously maintained in decades. One hotel had zero hot water. We had to heat water by dropping a heating element into a tub. Anyway, I hope the pictures convey some of the natural beauty we saw there.

July 24, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Tips

Words to help you do things daily

I think of a certain piece of advice almost daily in maintaining my daily routine. I find it invaluable. When I started this page I asked a friend with a successful blog how often he wrote -- only weekdays, daily, now and then? He said words that stuck with me well. If you skip one day you can skip two. Once you skip two days it's over. Conclusion: don't skip days. Also, don't plan to do things daily that you can't keep up. You may only reinforce a lack of value in those things -- the opposite of your goals. This advice only applies to a few things in life. You have to know your priorities, but for things that match your priorities, the advice…

July 24, 2012

Leadership / NorthKorea

What do you think of “leaders” whose people suffered

It's hard not to think little or disparagingly of "leaders" who ruled and gained position not through merit but by accident of birth or through having little confidence (I read Russia installed Kim Il Sung over others more competent). Through no malevolence, you wish they could have known or even experienced some of the suffering they contributed to, even if they didn't intentionally create it, let alone if they intentionally create it. It makes you wonder what they thought of what they did. Did they realize the effects of their actions? Did the system shield them from learning? Were they crazy? Did they like what happened? Is it possible they could have done nothing else? Could I misunderstand? These are my thoughts when I find…

July 23, 2012

Blog / Creativity / Entrepreneurship / Tips

Another genius business idea: the series

Many people who dream of starting businesses tell me their greatest obstacle is having a great idea to start with. I call this belief my number one entrepreneurship myth and wrote about it and productive beliefs that can help more than the myth. Besides the productive alternative belief that a good idea plus listening to your market succeeds more than trying to make an idea perfect, another counter to this myth is that great ideas come easily when you know how. As a business school professor at Columbia said The idea of a lifetime comes once a month. I completely agree. What makes an idea "an idea of a lifetime" isn't its profitability or popularity but how much of your time you devote to it.…

July 23, 2012

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 1: mountains

Nature / NorthKorea

Natural beauty in North Korea, part 1: mountains

I doubt many people would expect to see much natural beauty in North Korea. I was surprised to see a lot once we got out of Pyongyang. You could only call most of the land stark. Little of it was arable. I don't claim to be an experienced photographer -- see Joseph's blog for that quality of picture -- but I saw some great stuff. My pictures don't do the land justice. The lag in my camera combined with always being in the bus meant I consistently took pictures of something a second away from something beautiful. Anyway, click on the images for larger versions and contact me for higher resolutions. …

July 22, 2012

Blog / Leadership

Leadership, personal development, choosing to care, and emotional pain

Devoting yourself to something means emotions can get attached. This happens as much in professional leadership as in personal lives. In professional environments you can choose to care deeply about your work or not. Entrepreneurs can devote themselves so much as to lose everything in a project. Athletes and teams that come in second often seem more crushed, despite being the second best in the world, than those who merely qualified to compete and finished far behind. And who among us doesn't know the pain of a relationship ending? Success means you will fail along the way. Nobody wins every game they play. No relationship lasts forever (this isn't news to you, but at the very least one of you will die first). All companies…

July 22, 2012

Random observations of Pyongyang and North Korea

Pyongyang could become beautiful I think when the city opens up it has the potential to become very beautiful. So much of it is held back from lack of maintenance. But it also has grand open spaces. If advertisers and developers don't get to it first, they could be made beautiful and accessible to the public. Department store oddness Our tour took us to a department store, or at least something that looked vaguely like one if you didn't look too hard. I couldn't tell who managed it or how, but they didn't get it right. The stocked the shelves with products, but nobody working there did what people in stores are supposed to do, as far as I could tell. Many employees just walked…

July 21, 2012

Having acceptance, tolerance, and hope show gaping holes in your life

Acceptance, tolerance, and hope -- among the top virtues can you have, right? I disagree. Disagreeing with what the mainstream considers virtues may sound bizarre, but I'll show you their shortcomings and how you can do better. While I prefer them to nonstop rejection, intolerance, and hopelessness, and agree they help society remain civil, these practices show gaping holes in your life if you hold them as high ideals. Each suffers from the same complacent shortcoming -- suggesting you stay satisfied with less than you could. What do acceptance, tolerance, and hope mean? A couple examples illustrate the terms' shortcomings. To accept something means you don't like it. If you found a winning lottery ticket worth hundreds of millions of dollars, would you accept it?…

July 21, 2012

My first tilt-shift: North Korea

Art / NorthKorea

My first tilt-shift: North Korea

Okay, this post has almost nothing to do with North Korea, but I learned how to do the trick to make images look like miniatures, called tilt-shifting or miniature faking. I did it with an image of Pyongyang from the Juche Tower. The top, though low resolution, shows the original. The bottom shows the retouched version. Click for larger versions. Anyway, it's just for fun and practice. I think the trick has been played out on the web, but I wanted to try. You can see more of Pyongyang too -- unoccupied and unmaintained buildings, Soviet style, public spaces that could be beautiful. Many buildings had pastel colors that reminded me of Miami Beach, but I don't think so many had such pretty colors in…

July 20, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness habits, part 4: Nothing special about what I did

Since so many people don't like their physical condition, don't find reward or joy in exercising, and regard these aspects of their life as punishments, I imagine many of them want to change their beliefs and behaviors, perhaps using my example as inspiration. Many people may not care too, I guess. I've written a lot on the topics -- enough that it might seem overwhelming. Can anyone do what I do? I didn't do anything anyone else couldn't. Maybe they don't want to or haven't figured out how to, but they could. I don't read many diet or exercise books, but I have a feeling they don't make a point of focusing on your emotions, which I consider the foundation for successful change. I focus…

July 20, 2012

Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness habits, part 3: Exercise

As I've written before, exercise for me is about the emotions it creates. I start exercises for joy, fun, friendship, etc. For many people exercise seems punishing. If I didn't realize I, like anyone, could make exercise create whatever emotions I wanted and I felt stuck with punishment, I wouldn't do it. Luckily I learned to find the joy, fun, etc in exercise -- as anyone can -- and built from there. History I've exercised consistently since I started running cross country in high school in the 80s. I was chubby as a kid -- at least I remember my older step-brother teasing me about being chubby before I started sports. Although they signed me up for little league baseball and soccer, I don't remember…

July 19, 2012

Pyongyang city planning

Pyongyang city planning

Before visiting Pyongyang, you might expect a dismal, dreary place. Below I'll show some views that met my expectations (click for bigger views, email if you want higher resolution) The city also has many monuments and sites -- monuments, stadiums, statues, victory arches, grand libraries, grand boulevards, etc. I'm not sure, but I suspect whoever is leading the planners envisioned creating a Paris of the East. They had a lot of money during the cold war, much more than South Korea at the time. Combined with a powerful central authority, they could do a lot. Today everything comes out different than they must have planned. You can't go anywhere on your own so you lose sense of place. The grandness of the boulevards highlights the…

July 19, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness beliefs and habits, part 2: Food and Eating

What I eat I don't feel like I pay attention to what I eat that much, although I've habitualized a lot so I probably eat healthily without thinking about it. I don't pay attention to proteins versus carbohydrates. I definitely don't count calories. I think paying attention to those things means you're eating the wrong things. I mean, I'm kind of aware of those things, but the more I eat fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, the less I pay attention to proteins, carbohydrates, and calories and the better my body seems. How can you eat too much spinach, mangoes, or oats? Can you? I mean, your body will stop you before you can. With sugary beverages, I've noticed your tongue always sends signals…

July 18, 2012

North Korea and deteriorated infrastructure

Pyongyang has a huge, remarkable ten-lane highway. I forget its name, but it's called something like the Children's Highway. I never asked, but I think they said children helped build the road, a claim of dubious value, if I remembered it right. When I get out from China's bizarre firewall I'll post video of the road, but you've never seen anything like it. It deteriorated nearly to where you can't call it a road. You can't drive it at over a few miles per hour in some spots that have become pure pothole across all ten lanes. It's like driving on the moon. As best I can tell they laid a surface layer of road over bare ground with no foundation that a few summers'…

July 18, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness beliefs and habits, part 1: Principles

A reader asked I like what you said about the body being a reflection of how we live our life. I also agree about the genetics; its too much of a cop out to say that you canâ€™t help being obese. I do have a question though. Your photos show that you are in shape but you have previously posted that your workout regimen consists of only a minute of burpees twice a day. As someone who works out an hour a day to stay in shape this blows my mind. Are you rationing calories as well or just watching what you eat? Do you have any before/after photos showing the progress made after 6 months on this program? Context The short response to that…

July 17, 2012

North Korea and industry

North Korea's propaganda focuses a lot on industry -- from the posters of mining, energy, factories, etc to what they show off to tourists. They showed us giant factories, barrages (I had to look it up too), train and subway museums, and stuff like that. The U.S. hides industry. What do we stick in your face? What can you not miss in America? Ads. Stores. We motivate personal consumption. And for all their posters of the Kims we stick ads in your face a lot more than they do. The U.S. would never show off a factory, to the extent we still have them. That makes sense in many ways. Factories don't benefit people. The stuff they make does. I think the government there shows…

July 17, 2012

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