I live on the fifth floor and come and go from home several times a day. If I take the elevator, I have to make extra time to exercise for the time I’m standing in the elevator depriving myself of getting my heart pumping. It’s faster and more convenient to take the stairs and not spend the same time making myself more lazy.

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicists, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is my take on today’s post,  “Should I Help a Classmate Who Sexually Harassed My Friend Get a Job?” At work, we fill a lot of vacant positions through word of mouth. I recently posted a job on my college’s career network[…] Keep reading →

“If lean startup methodology doesn’t work for you, then maybe you’re a candidate for the alternative method of company creation espoused by Joshua Spodek, entrepreneur, professor and coach at Columbia and NYU. Spodek explained his process to an enthusiastic and receptive audience at the Princeton Tech Meetup at the Princeton Public Library on July 16, in a talk titled “8 Steps from No Idea to Funding.”” So begins an article,[…] Keep reading →

Articles like “Can cities kick ads? Inside the global movement to ban urban billboards” remind me of North Korea, where I saw pictures of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il in most rooms of every building I entered. I wondered, “how does it affect someone’s life to see those pictures every day, everywhere?” Then I realized people there weren’t comparing their environments to ones they didn’t know about. The images probably[…] Keep reading →

A friend wanted to develop expertise in a field by getting more degrees in school. As I wrote in “Programmers work with computers and leaders work with people,” people with functional skills can solve problems in that functional area: carpenters can solve problems with wood, plumbers can solve problems with pipes, and so on. Leaders can solve problems with people. Expertise is nice, but if you have leadership skills, you[…] Keep reading →

Want to learn and practice one of the most effective leadership techniques? Then join me for a workshop, Wednesday, September 30th at 6:30pm in midtown, and get a copy of the #1 bestselling leadership book included! From the announcement from the Columbia Business School Alumni Club (everyone is welcome): The Workshop Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club invites you to a workshop on Marshall Goldsmith’s FEEDFORWARD hosted by[…] Keep reading →

“Nice throw!” I was throwing a frisbee with a teammate this summer. We were warming up on a big grassy field some Monday or Wednesday evening this summer before our summer league game. If you don’t know the sport of ultimate frisbee and you think of frisbees as something you casually throw at the beach or to a trained dog, then we have a misunderstanding. Ultimate is challenging and intense,[…] Keep reading →

Almost anyone who talked to me over the summer heard about how much I love the vegetables I’ve been getting through what they call Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a farm at the beginning of the season, then when the plants start growing, each week they deliver what’s ready that week. I go to a drop-off location a few blocks from my home and pick up my share. Once a[…] Keep reading →

The poppy plant grew forever. People consumed it for a long time and it was no problem. As a raw plant it caused no serious health problems. Eventually someone figured out how to refine part of it and found that refined part brought them pleasure. Then people refined it more. To their credit, they found helpful uses for it, but then others realized they could make a lot of money[…] Keep reading →