Finished the first draft of my next book

The title slightly overstates my accomplishment, since several sections remain unfinished, but I finished the very hard parts. The remaining parts need writing, but not figuring out composition and how they work. I finished enough to send what I finished to an editor at a publisher. I don't remember when I started writing it, rather I didn't start on a particular day, but I think I started getting more serious about a year ago. It started because I kept sharing a similar thought in conversation with several people and they responded positively. Since I said something similar so many times, I thought writing would be simple compared to past books. Instead, it became an intense journey. I'm pleasantly surprised at how much it prompted me…

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Can you help me understand how liberals and progressives view leadership?

I grew up in liberal, progressive households and I don't remember everything of how I viewed leadership, but I'm pretty sure I viewed it skeptically. Well, when Martin Luther King or Gandhi did it, it seemed inspirational, but when I considered doing it, I shied away. I'm trying to remember how I viewed it because I work with a lot of people who are liberal and progressive and they shy away from leading people. More than shy away, they seem to sabotage themselves from improving at it. They seem to shun it as something unseemly. I think they view it as coercive, like "If I do something that leads someone to do something they wouldn't have otherwise, I must be coercing them without their consent."…

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Some of the most thrilling words I’ve read in literature

The library near me displays books, changing them every day or week or so. Today they had Roots by Alex Haley. I read the book in college, I think in my first year, which would mean 1988-89. It wasn't for class and it's a long book so I don't know how I found time for it. I don't remember much of it, but there are a few words in it that nearly brought me to tears. I'm pretty sure I found the book compelling. I don't have to tell you what it's about, but I remember a pattern of telling about a person's life and times, starting with Kunta Kinte, then shifting to a descendant, telling that one's life and times, and so on. I…

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Limited government advocates and big government intrusion. What am I missing?

I don't write much about the type of politics covered in daily newspapers, but I can't help commenting on a pattern these days I haven't seen anyone comment on. Regular readers know I'm interacting more with institutions that promote limited government, such as the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, and Hillsdale College. Since I grew up in liberal, progressive households and school systems, but don't fly, I consider it like exploring different cultures. Anyway, these institutions like the Trump administration, which I struggle to see as limited government. It's not limited in its market interference, in its reach into citizens' private lives, in interactions with states, or even limiting the federal government with its DOGE intents to limit the federal government. I see talk…

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843: Judith Enck, part 2: The Problem with Plastic (the Book)

Judith just published The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late. I've read a lot about plastic and hosted many authors. I won't lie. Before starting the book, I thought I should read it because I knew her, but didn't expect much. Instead, I learned a lot new. I found it engaging and compelling. I recommend it. Yes, you'll learn things that are sobering, but you'd rather know than not know, especially things that affect your health and safety and your family's. It also guides you to how to respond, personally, socially, and politically. Judith cares and has experience. Start by listening to our conversation. Then read the book. The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves…

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What Makes Things Meaningful in Life

Do you like for experiences in life to have meaning? What makes an event or experience meaningful? It's tempting to say it's difficult to define. The dictionary defines meaningful as "Having meaning, function, or purpose" and meaning as "significant quality, especially: implication of a hidden or special significance." Those definitions seem vague to me. They just substitute the word quality for meaning. They don't suggest how to make something more meaningful. I've been using a definition that works for me since I wrote Leadership Step by Step based on the model of emotions in it. The model says that emotions have qualities like intensity and pleasure. If I haven't seen a girlfriend in months, the emotion of missing her may be intense. If I haven't…

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This week’s selected media, January 4, 2026: False Alarm, Eve’s Bayou, This America

This week I finished: This America: The Case for the Nation, by Jill Lepore: I've seen Jill Lepore's books at the top of bestseller lists and read pieces she's written in the New Yorker and probably other places. Her work seems to overlap with authors I've found valuable: Akhil Reed Amar and Gordon Wood. Her two big books These Truths and We the People are huge and daunting, though reviews say they're wonderful to read. This book is shorter, so more accessible. It describes the difference between patriotism, which describes liking your country or people, and nationalism, which implies putting down others. I read her as motivated by seeing Trump and other populists gaining support, put off by liberals who fear patriotism, especially after World…

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My favorite books and movies of 2025

Each Sunday I post selected books, movies, courses, and other media I finished that week. Today, I'll see if I can pick the ones I liked the most. I'll write the categories first, then fill them in after searching this year's posts. I'm not sure which I'll remember or forget. I don't think I read many fiction books. I don't usually note podcasts or short videos, but I listen to and watch a lot of them. For example, after finishing each work, I usually watch, listen to, or read five or ten reviews or commentaries if I liked it. For works I love, I might go through far more. After Mulholland Drive, for example, I found tons of sites and videos piecing it together, interpreting…

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A sidcha and self-awareness update

Doing things consistently and daily for a long time enables you to notice nuances, which increases self-awareness. Since I have a six-day exercise cycle that I begin on the first of each month, in months with 31 days, I like to vary what I do with the extra day. In December I did two things. Sorry for the long post, but what I describe below felt like a meaningful experience of aging, contemplation, risk, and humility. Longer meditation Some background on one: I've meditated daily for about five years and counting. Normally I set my timer for 31 minutes and sit for that long. Why 31 and not a rounder number? No special reason. I worked up from shorter times and ended up there. A…

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If you want to travel, the opposite of what you should do is to fly

The more I see flying from the outside, the more I see it as the opposite of travel, or of achieving what people want in travel. First, if you walk somewhere, or bike or even ride a horse or sail a boat, you are traveling. That is, you are actively causing yourself to move from one place to another. When you get in a vehicle like a plane, train, or car, you aren't really doing anything. People talk about the magic of getting into a plane and then you appear on the other side of the world. Then you aren't doing anything. You're passively being transported. Second, it may have once been the case that the remote place you visited differed culturally from where you…

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My holiday tree this year

I've been posting my usual posts on Christmas Pagan trees. Here's a picture of my alternative and the story behind it. In conversation with alumni from my workshops (which I recommend you take), one mentioned all you need to do to grow garlic is stick a clove in the dirt and water it. Could it be that easy? It wasn't hard to try. I did it the other day and already it's growing. I'm not sure how I'll use it, but growing new plants beats chopping down trees in my opinion, even if I end up eating this one. How will it taste? As I've learned: Home-grown tastes better, even when it tastes worse. Home-cooked tastes better, even when it tastes worse. Anyway, all I…

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Allowing pollution and depletion stifles innovation and creativity

Another cloudy day means I have to post fast. My main battery remains empty. My backup battery is running out. The forecast was for the clouds to break before the sun set, but they didn't. I'm posting about innovation and creativity because I've found several places selling or developing human-powered generators. To cook, heat an apartment, operate an elevator, or other operations that require more power than humans can output for long, they don't work, but to power a phone or laptop, a generator attached to a stationary bike or rowing machine would do fine for converting sugar and fat in fruit and vegetables to battery energy. Alas, the demand for energy is met through sources that violate the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence,…

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This week’s selected media, December 28, 2025: On Tyranny, White House Effect, Two Lomborg articles

This week I finished: As of today, Sunday, my usual day to post on what I finished this week, my solar battery is very low (as I posted yesterday: And just like that, I’m almost out of power for a couple days. Batteries have a lot of problems), so I'm limiting my time using the computer. For now, I'll just post the works. When there's more sun, I'll write more. As of Sunday evening, that time looks like Tuesday at the earliest. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder: . . . . . . . The White House Effect, directed by Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen: . . . . . A Vindication of Bjorn Lomborg, by Marian Tupy inQuillette and Climate Change Might…

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And just like that, I’m almost out of power for a couple days. Batteries have a lot of problems.

How many people who promote solar and wind as "clean," "green," and "renewable" have extensive experience with them? They have a lot going for them, but have a lot of problems. I'm in my fifth year relying only on solar for my electrical power at home. I haven't plugged an appliance to an outlet in that time, though I did charge my computer and phone from outlets at NYU for the first year or so, since at the start I didn't expect to go this long so I didn't plan ahead. Anyway, batteries have some problems. I just got hit with one. You might know from your phone or computer that the calibration gets off. Have you learned that to calibrate the battery, you have…

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842: Silvia Bellezza, part 1.5 and 2: When at first you don’t succeed

Since Silvia teaches as a business school, I'll address a leadership aspect of our interaction. I skimped on a leadership step, so we did an episode 1.5, which is my lingo for redoing episode 1 when the person wasn't able to fulfill his or her commitment. That's my responsibility as leader of the interaction. Silvia and I had a wonderful first conversation that led to a commitment that sounded like she'd enjoy it and doable, but in the end wasn't quite. Even if a quick hike north of the city would be enjoyable, catching a Metro-North train from Columbia University isn't that convenient and her schedule may not have bee as flexible as she suspected in our first conversation. For those listening to these conversations…

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Help restore my shaken confidence in people from Christmas Eve day

Regular readers know I volunteer once or twice a week to deliver food from stores that were going to throw it away to community fridges, shelters, and other places for people to get it for free. I wasn't scheduled to volunteer yesterday (Christmas Eve day), but the person who was reported so much overstock that we needed three people to clear it all. Not many other volunteers were around so I was one of them. Here's the load I picked up: So far so good. For better or worse, the usual place I deliver to had this sign on its door: Darn! Now I had to find a place to donate around 3pm on Christmas Eve day, pulling a big load of food. You can't…

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Do people who fear learning to lead think it means imposing hierarchy?

A friend calls leadership "the l-word." I used to think of leadership as not something anyone could learn. I thought you either had it or you didn't. I also associated it with control. Today I associate it with help, support, empathy, compassion, listening, awareness, and social and emotional skills like them. It's been so long since I associated it with control, I have to work to reconnect with that feeling so it takes work for me to empathize with someone who describes it as "the l-word." I mean, when I was little we used "the f-word" to describe the worst curse word, which rhymes with duck. Today, "the n-word" seems the most taboo word to say or write, at least for people who aren't African-American.…

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Family, flying, and Facebook-like visits

People are talking about flying to visit family these days. There's a running joke about the weird uncle or someone who is hard to get along with. I hope you're having a better time with family than the people I hear about, and they're not the people I work with who are living more sustainably. I'm talking about mainstream people talking about their usual holiday plans. Before flying, we used to spend time with family. Now our visits are more like Facebook interactions. We have come to see family members as problems. We only see them a few hours a year. We used to solve problems together. Now we cover up differences, biding time until we part and don't have to deal with them. We've…

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Four more trashed Christmas Pagan Trees, two days before Christmas.

Folks, I'm not looking for them. People are throwing so many trees before Christmas, what am I supposed to do, act like they aren't there? Am I supposed to accept that we chop down trees just to put them in our homes for a few days, not even connected to the holiday they aren't connected to? Doesn't this one look beautiful, wrapped in disgusting plastic? What a way to honor your lord and savior for bringing peace to the world. Are these three any less disgusting? There was one more, but taking pictures at night in the cold, the picture didn't come out and I didn't realize until I got home.

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Four more trashed Christmas Pagan Trees, five days before Christmas. I’m not looking for them. Why not at least keep them until Christmas?

I guess people think we have too many trees, or maybe they have too much money. I'm not looking for trees people throw away before Christmas, but I can't miss them. I figure they're like roaches: if you see one, there are probably ten others you don't see. I saw these four last night: Sorry for the blur in the second one below. It was dark and cold.

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Year 15, day 1 of my burpee sidcha

I was 40 years old when I did my first burpee in 2011. Today I'm 54 and haven't missed a day. Now I do more than burpees in what I call "my twice daily burpee-based calisthenics." Daily burpees helped me develop the sidcha concept, which I consider one of the most important developments of my life. I've come to see sidchas as the most effective way to reach one's potential. My recent resting heart rate of 38 beats per minute is evidence of not missing a day. It's hard to fake. I wonder when I'll decrease my daily number of burpees or other parts of my calisthenics sidcha. The most annoying part There is one very annoying side effect of sidchas: the near-universal reaction to…

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This week’s selected media, December 21, 2025: I Am Not Your Negro, Mulholland Drive, Wisdom Takes Work

This week I finished: I Am Not Your Negro: directed by Raoul Peck, based on James Baldwin's manuscript Remember This House: You can probably tell that Baldwin's views resonate with me. How he describes the perspective from the bottom of a dominance hierarchy. He attributes it to color, which I see as a proxy for access to a resource with no alternative, but the view is the same. Partly it speaks to my time growing up as a minority in school and my neighborhood. He also survived a lot. This movie, and I suppose his manuscript on which it is based, deals with the assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. It also features Bobby Kennedy, whom Baldwin also knew,…

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Another winter solstice successfully handled. Tomorrow will have more sun.

Today is the shortest day of the year, with the sun at its lowest angle at noon. Using only photovoltaic solar power, today I get the least potential for energy. It's less cloudy than usual, so I'll get some power, but a tall building a block south of mine blocks the sun for most of the morning. Actually, low buildings do too. Here's a schematic illustration: Here's a more detailed drawing. I looked up the peak angle for New York City on the winter solstice: just under 26 degrees. I didn't realize it was that small a number. I was surprised to find that on the summer solstice, the sun only peaks at just below 73 degrees. I thought it was closer to overhead. To…

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The second trashed Christmas Pagan Tree of the season, six days before Christmas

I can't believe how little value people place on trees. Each year I ask myself if I want to bother taking all those pictures of trees people throw away. Am I going to change culture this way? I doubt it. Then again, I'm not hurting anyone and I'm going to post daily anyway. Then I see another Christmas Pagan tree being thrown out well before Christmas. This one appears denuded. I guess someone wanted pine branches and didn't mind cutting down a tree for them, or paying someone else to do it. Will I do a series of pictures again this season? I'm not sure. I guess I'll at least take pictures of the trees I see before Christmas. They're the most brazen and craven.…

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Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and my friend who met Albert Einstein in person

I wrote a few months ago about my physics professor who met Albert Einstein. He also plays piano, at least once even at Carnegie Hall, though a private event hosted by Steinway not for an audience. You might notice a resemblance to Einstein: He played at a private recital this week. I don't attend enough in-person music performances, all the more for living in New York City. He played last after about ten other performers, all students of a teacher. I often enjoy the contemplative state that live classical music puts me into. This time I loved it. Life has been so hectic. I had to rush to make the recital in time. Then the music made the moment timeless. The rest of the world…

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