The holiday note I got from one of my seminar attendees, Doug McCullough, described his trips skiing, camping, kayaking, canoeing, driving his high-end convertible, and other outdoor activities. There was a picture of him swimming with dolphins. He also linked to a TEDx talk he gave, which reminded me about one of my major inspirations, Mark Zupan, star of the Oscar-nominated Murderball and author of the book Gimp, and whom I[…] Keep reading →

I recently wrote how I finished recording the audio for the online leadership course I’m creating. I also posted about the leadership course I start teaching at NYU in a couple weeks. Both courses put into practice material that I’ve compiled for years, maybe a decade or so. This week I’ll start posting the interview I did with Chris, the other guy in the recording for the online course. I[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicist, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is a take on today’s post, “D-List Doppelgänger.” I share a highly uncommon name with a very minor celebrity who hasn’t worked much in decades. A fan, mistaking me for the celebrity, sent me a note offering praise for his fine work[…] Keep reading →

I love learning about nature! I looked up about what happens to the mass you lose when you lose weight. A paper last month in the peer-reviewed BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), “When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?” confirmed what I had read casually: you exhale it, or rather you exhale 84% of it. The rest is water, which we excrete “in the urine, faeces, sweat, breath,[…] Keep reading →

I believe that whatever someone does, ultimately I am responsible for my emotions. Someone can try to make me feel unhappy, but they can’t unless I let them. I didn’t always feel that way. I used to blame others for how I felt. Maybe someone more skilled at making me feel bad could outdo my skills at resilience, but it hasn’t happened yet, at least not since I started developing[…] Keep reading →

It’s the new year. Many of us partied last night. A few nights ago I came back from a friend’s place. A few longtime friends got together to visit. The me of years ago would have found the event boring since we mostly just talked, ate, and drank wine. But, like most of the people in my life, everybody cared about their project, hobbies, etc and we talked about what[…] Keep reading →