Best and Brightest … Genius — Esquire

A once-in-a-lifetime game-changing advance
in our field everyone else will follow
— Marshall Goldsmith

Astrophysicist turned new media whiz — NBC

Passionate … confident … — Forbes

You don't just learn theory from
him, you improve your life.
— Inc.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard University, Standford University, Princeton University, MTV, IBM, US Army

My Mission

My mission is to help change American (and global) culture on sustainability and stewardship from expecting deprivation, sacrifice, burden, and chore to expecting rewarding emotions and lifestyles, as I see happen with everyone I lead to act for their intrinsic motivations.

In my case the emotions have been joy, fun, freedom, connection, meaning, and purpose.



Systemic change begins with personal change.

Some of my values. What are yours?
Months living off the grid in Manhattan: 30 (and counting)
Loads of garbage I filled in 2024 so far: 0
Loads of garbage I filled in 2023 so far: 0
Loads of garbage I filled in 2022: 0
Loads filled in 2021: 0
Loads filled in 2020: 0
Loads filled in 2019: 1
Loads filled in 2018: 1
Loads filled in 2017: 1
Days picking up litter: 2,772 and counting
Years not flying: 8 (104 months) and counting
2024 grid electric grid use at home: 0 kilowatt-hours
Annual carbon emissions: about 1 ton
Daily burpees: 239,685 and counting
Resting pulse: 46 bpm

LATEST BLOG POSTS

Year 15, day 1, posting daily to this blog, my first sidcha (what led me to the concept)

on January 23, 2025 in Blog, Habits, SIDCHAs

On this day in 2011, I wrote the first post of a streak that continues to today of posting to this blog daily. I didn’t know that it would lead to discovering the freedom and calm of discovering deep values and living by them daily. Discovering the sidcha concept helped bring about self-awareness, health, stewardship, self-expression, patience, humility, independence, and more. Now I have several sidchas and standard operating procedures.[…] Keep reading →

On the Jasper Blueprint podcast: “The Spodek Method: How Radical Personal Change Can Change the World”

on January 22, 2025 in Audio

Author and coach Bessi Graham hosted me on her podcast: “The Spodek Method: How Radical Personal Change Can Change the World.” Bessi in her words on her page: Show notes:

We all descend from indigenous people and we’ve all been assimilated

on January 21, 2025 in Evolutionary Psychology, Relationships

In Sustainability Simplified, I clarify that a culture being indigenous doesn’t mean it’s sustainable. An indigenous Indian group that puts up a casino is pushing addiction. An African politician who finds oil and gets cozy with the global oil industry is too. Any culture that doesn’t live sustainably will find itself running out of something, leading it to conflict with others or collapse. But indigenous cultures that endure tend to[…] Keep reading →

Is space travel possible for Abrahamic religions?

on January 20, 2025 in Nature

I was thinking about how some religions suggest people to pray facing east, Jerusalem, or Mecca. Quoting Wikipedia, “Prayer in a certain direction is characteristic of many world religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá’í Faith.” I couldn’t help pursue the question. What happens if you’re on Mars? How would you figure out the direction to one of these places from Mars? What if we achieved interstellar travel?[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, January 19, 2025: Transformer: Transitioning as a World-Record Powerlifter and The Heat Will Kill You First

on January 19, 2025 in Tips

This week I finished: Transformer: Transitioning as a World-Record Powerlifter, directed by Michael Del Monte, starring Janae Marie Kroczaleski: Wow! A fascinating and illuminating documentary in two ways. First, it showed the struggle of someone with two competing inner drives. One is to develop huge muscles and compete in bodybuilding. The other is to be a woman, though born a man. This movie revealed the struggles of navigating society and[…] Keep reading →

Do you turn on the light when you wake up at night to go to the bathroom? Why it matters.

on January 18, 2025 in Art, Habits, Leadership, Nature

One of the more common line of questions people ask me when they learn I disconnected my apartment from the electric grid is what I do for light. Before I share what I share with them, if you’re curious, you can find out easily: don’t turn your lights on this evening. If you do the simple task of not dying, you’ll find an answer. I’m no do-it-yourselfer. If you just[…] Keep reading →

Darn: My building’s 5-month project denying roof access has extended to 13 months.

on January 17, 2025 in Blog

My building’s routine maintenance project that began keeping residents from roof access last March is now extended to this March, as my building manager informed residents earlier this month. The delays mean I have to keep walking ten or fifteen minutes each way to Washington Square Park to charge. Argh. The building manager wrote me in early December, “The plan is for the work to be completed in December.” So[…] Keep reading →

Asymptotically approaching a finite number isn’t approaching zero, so we can increase efficiency forever and still increase pollution forever too.

on January 16, 2025 in Nature

Increasing efficiency forever can’t reach zero waste for many physical processes, but I think people feel otherwise. Or fantasize. When you hear about airplanes being made more efficient, or electric vehicles, computers, or whatever, do you think that if we keep making them more efficient, they’ll eventually not pollute? In the graph below, where the green curve approaches the horizontal line, it will lower forever but never drop below a[…] Keep reading →

Hear me on the Power Hour from the Heritage Foundation

on January 15, 2025 in Audio, Freedom, Leadership, Nature

Jack Spencer has been a guest on my podcast three times. Now I’ve been on his, and I think you’ll agree it was a fun, engaging conversation. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from him. For one thing, when I started doing the Spodek Method with him on my podcast, I enjoyed his sharing about nature so much, I didn’t get past the first couple steps. I had[…] Keep reading →

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