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,[…] Keep reading →

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[…] Keep reading →

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. The sketch I[…] Keep reading →

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[…] Keep reading →

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,[…] Keep reading →

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[…] Keep reading →