June 2012 - Page 2 of 2 - Joshua Spodek

A Korean-American friend’s article about visiting North Korea

A friend who contacted me about my visiting North Korea wrote an article about visiting North Korea. He traveled extensively, spoke Korean, and ate meat, so he had a chance to experience something different and communicate more. It's hard for me not to notice how experiencing North Korea differed from his expectations, which led him to understand more about his culture -- mainly the press (perhaps the government). Also that the North Korean people made the difference. Besides his article, the comments showed what I would call short-sightedness and ignorance in people's knee-jerk responses. They criticized his visiting without considering the pros and cons of people visiting. I've written on the ethics of visiting North Korea so you can find out I find value in…

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June 7, 2012

Art / Blog

Seeing movies in theaters reminds my why I don’t like watching movies in theaters

Since I remembered liking the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid and like Johnny Knoxville, when I got free tickets to see the movie Dukes of Hazzard New York City premiere, I was excited to see a movie I had a reasonable chance of enjoying. It ended up being the first movie that, at zero cost, I paid too much to see. I decided to avoid watching movies in theaters. I don't oppose theaters, but three things -- conscious decisions by the theaters they could change -- ruin theater-going for me. The sound is too loud -- wearing ear plugs makes the sound level about right for me. Otherwise they're painfully loud. Theaters are too cold -- I have to bring a coat to see…

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June 7, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Nature

How you see the world when you see it from space

I came across some quotes from astronauts who had seen the Earth from space that increased my sense of the beauty and fragility of life here -- as far as we know, the only life at all. The quotes surprised me partly because I think of astronauts as cowboy- and engineer-types. That surprise strengthened the feeling of the quotes, because you don't expect cowboy engineers to promote protecting the environment, look for the beauty of nature, or talk about peace on earth among different cultures. Or at least I didn't. Everybody knows "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," "The eagle has landed," and "Houston, we have a problem." I think you'll enjoy these, especially if you haven't heard them before.…

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June 6, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Tips

Every word you say counts

A couple clients recently thanked me for some advice I had given outside our main conversation, almost as asides, but that worked. Every word counts I told them that every word you say contributes to your identity, even if only to yourself. And that every word influences how everyone, including yourself, perceives you. Context They were talking about some problems they were working through. They said things like "I have anxiety in social situations" "I don't know how to talk to people I don't know." "Changing yourself is hard and takes time." I suggested changing statements like those to "I used to have anxiety in social situations" "I'm getting over anxiety from social situations" "I get less anxiety from social situations than I used to"…

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June 5, 2012

Art / Blog / Creativity / Education / Humor

My comedy sketch script

I've meant to post this script for a long time. In business school I wrote a script that ended up in Follies, Columbia Business School's student-run sketch comedy and musical production at the end of each semester. In my time there, Follies produced some of the best sketch comedy and musicals, including Every Breath Bernanke Takes, which got us press and a letter from the White House. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipJTqCbETog[/youtube] The sketch I wrote ended up a very funny piece. Getting to be on stage for a piece I wrote, including a line or two that got the 500 people in the audience to laugh on cue, with the type of laugh -- I don't know of anything that made me feel better than those moments and…

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June 4, 2012

Awareness / Blog / Leadership / Nature

Great videos on understanding the economy, environment, and energy

If we could use leadership in any place most, I can think of few places more important than in understanding what is happening with our environment, energy, and how it will affect us, meaning the economy. Some conclude that since before Revelations through Malthus and beyond people have been predicting the end of the world, yet the world hasn't ended, we have solved all problems before and we'll solve whatever problems come. For many reasons I disagree. I'd go into my main reasons, and in a future post I may, but Limits to Growth explains the reasons better than I could. I just finished watching a series of videos by another guy with a science PhD and MBA, Chris Martenson, on the subject of what…

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June 3, 2012

Blog / Freedom / Leadership / Nature

Facebook versus Walden

Walden is one of the great American books on nature and American society. Friends and longtime readers know I like it and much of its message. It criticizes the pick-a-little-talk-a-little-cheep-cheep-cheep-talk-a-lot-pick-a-little-more gossip-about-your-neighbor culture in favor of simplicity and appreciating nature. Facebook is in the news a lot. The opening sentences to Walden made me think about Facebook and the values spending time on it promotes. When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present…

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June 2, 2012

Blog / Entrepreneurship / Nature

Entrepreneurs saving heating costs and polluting less

After my recent posts on the environment, the Do The Math blog, and the Sustainable Energy book I liked, a friend and Columbia engineer, Marshall Cox, is succeeding in a business plan competition to help reduce waste with a company called Radiator Labs. They have a simple idea that could cheaply reduce a lot of waste and make people's buildings more comfortable. A why-didn't-someone-think-of-that-a-long-time-ago idea you can't imagine someone not implementing. Here's the video. If you think it would help, click to the Energy.gov site and click "like" (not a creepy Facebook like) to help them in the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njApaHK2FA4[/youtube] Or maybe you could think of and implement an idea to help reduce waste and pollution too. Marshall and I…

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June 1, 2012