Joshua, Author at Joshua Spodek - Page 9 of 248

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and living more sustainably in a culture that rewards polluting and depleting

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and living more sustainably in a culture that rewards polluting and depleting

I've been reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics as part of the online course at Hillsdale College. I should say rereading, since I read it in college as part of Columbia's Core Curriculum, but that was the late 1980s. As long ago as the 80s were, it was recent compared to when Aristotle wrote them. I should also say reading selections from it, not the whole book. A section on what he calls a good person versus a corrupt one resonated with how I'm choosing to live. Avoiding polluting and depleting seem beautiful to me. It takes work. It doesn't make money or honors. I do it for others, not just myself. I was pleasantly surprised at how accurately this over-two-thousand year old book resonated with the…

February 3, 2026

The redlined neighborhood I grew up in

Education / Stories / Visualization

The redlined neighborhood I grew up in

I was curious if the neighborhoods where I got mugged, beat up, and learned to be a white boy meant being targeted for violence with impunity growing up were officially redlined. I didn't know where to find maps. They could be from insurance companies, government agencies, and who knows what other sources. I finally found one, though from 1937, decades before I was born and with a world war in between. It's from an insurance company. Here's all of Philadelphia. You can tell how much was rated differently by color. I grew up in three homes in northwest Philadelphia. I'll zoom in below. Zooming in on the legend, we see red is redlined, the lowest grade. It also shows it was made for the Home…

February 2, 2026

This week’s selected media, February 1, 2026: 8 Billion Angels, Is Atheism Dead?, I Feel Love

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This week’s selected media, February 1, 2026: 8 Billion Angels, Is Atheism Dead?, I Feel Love

This week I finished: 8 Billion Angels, directed by Terry Spahr: I've become friends with Terry since first watching his documentary on overpopulation years ago. He recently released it free on YouTube. I recommend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_XZtF-I7vo Here's the movie's page: https://8billionangels.org. From Scientific American: Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement The major driver of plant and animal loss is habitat destruction caused primarily by the encroachment of a swelling human population. By Naomi Oreskes The world reached two important milestones toward the end of last year. First, the human population passed eight billion in November, a whopping increase of one billion people since 2011. Then, in December, representatives of 188 governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, promising to conserve and…

February 1, 2026

My Spodek Method commitment to make water ice from snow: A photo essay

Creativity / Hands on Practical Experience / Nature / Stories / Visualization

My Spodek Method commitment to make water ice from snow: A photo essay

First, I grew up in Philadelphia, and in Philadelphia, we have something called "water ice." It's like cheese steaks in that it's local. I didn't know it wasn't universal until I moved away. Elsewhere they call something like it Italian ice, but we don't. Here's an article on it from USA Today: What is Philly-style water ice? We explain how it's made and where to get it. On to the matter at hand. I was recently led through the Spodek Method to a commitment that involved finding some clean snow, mixing it with fruit, and making something like water ice from scratch---that is, mixing fresh fruit with snow. I did it today. Here is my journey. First, I chose the fruit based on what I…

January 31, 2026

Jobs don’t just mean working in a dominance hierarchy. They mean working for the whims of people with rank.

Affluence Without Abundance, by James Suzman

Freedom / Nature

Jobs don’t just mean working in a dominance hierarchy. They mean working for the whims of people with rank.

Before the Holocene, our immediate-return egalitarian ancestors lived in environments in which each person could access their material needs. People who were hungry could, on their own, climb a tree, dig up a root, or hunt an animal. For needs like safety from predators, they'd have to cooperate with others, but they had the freedom and responsibility to make those relationships work. By contrast, living in dominance hierarchies mean that some people control access to what others need. By definition, if you have rank, you control something others need. When we say people need jobs, we imply that if they work hard they can provide for themselves, but today, to the extent our societies are based in dominance hierarchy, that work differs from then. Then,…

January 30, 2026

Criticism of Lomborg: The Lomborg Deception and other challenges

Nature / Pollution and Depletion

Criticism of Lomborg: The Lomborg Deception and other challenges

I finished a few papers, books, and videos by Bjorn Lomborg lately, as well as books that refer to or rely on his work, like Superabundance and The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. I follow up most books and movies I finish and find meaningful by reading and watching reviews, commentaries, criticisms (positive, negative, and other), and more. My criticism of Lomborg's work stands independent of the accuracy of his claims. That is, even if everything he writes is accurate, I think it misunderstands the problem. My upcoming book presents my view. Sorry to make you wait for it (initial responses from readers are positive, but they're friends and colleagues so may be biased, though since I'm asking for what I should fix, they know…

January 29, 2026

I’m endlessly amazed at how the body acclimatizes to cold

I’m endlessly amazed at how the body acclimatizes to cold

I talk about this effect a lot in person because it keeps amazing me, not that it's particularly insightful, but I love nature and this effect is part of it. If the temperature drops below 50F (10C) in September, I shiver and can barely stand it. I have to bundle up. Then in December it drops below freezing and 50F feels warm. I'm commenting on it now because we're in a two week period where the temperature will go above freezing for a few hours. For the past week, before I go outside, when I check the temperature, it's often around 10F (-12C). Then I go out and I feel fine. I mean, the air feels bitter to my skin, but it's not that bad.…

January 28, 2026

Another time garbage nearly brought me to tears

Addiction / Doof / Habits / Pollution and Depletion / SIDCHAs

Another time garbage nearly brought me to tears

Two days ago I posted My first time since starting not finding litter in Washington Square Park, because over six inches of snow covered it. Since I committed to picking up at least three pieces per day until three days pass when I can't find three pieces to pick up, I wondered if the snow would make it possible. I also offered to take any bets that people would litter. Nearly everyone is addicted to doof. Few Americans can eat breakfast without depriving others of life, liberty, and property based on plastic, shipping, etc that pollute and deplete. Then yesterday I happened to go early in the morning. It was still snowing and I saw no litter again. Two days. Maybe I shouldn't have offered…

January 27, 2026

Meditation thoughts: What is meditation?

Awareness / Doof / Freedom / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Nonjudgment / SIDCHAs

Meditation thoughts: What is meditation?

I lead a meditation group that meets in person a couple times a month. We've found we can get a laugh if we talk in the group about talking about meditation to others who don't meditate by saying, "I can't meditate. My mind is too crazy to empty it of thoughts," or words to that effect. Why does it make us laugh? Because it's like a knee-jerk reaction that betrays a misunderstanding of meditation closer to its opposite. Everyone's mind is full of thoughts we can't help. Meditation doesn't empty your mind. Meditation can do many different things for different people, but a common goal is to find comfort with the eternal state of all human minds: scattered like yours. We know that what they…

January 26, 2026

My first time since starting not finding litter in Washington Square Park, because over six inches of snow covered it.

Addiction / Doof / Habits / Pollution and Depletion / SIDCHAs

My first time since starting not finding litter in Washington Square Park, because over six inches of snow covered it.

I've committed to picking up at least three pieces of litter from the northwest corner of Washington Square Park since it became overrun with fentanyl, meth, and all that results from it during the pandemic. I decided I'd keep up the sidcha until three days passed in which I couldn't trivially find three pieces of litter, as I wrote three years ago in On when I should stop picking up litter in Washington Square Park. I wish I could believe that outcome should be easy. No litter is necessary. Yet in about five years, I've never been unable to find three pieces trivially. We should collectively cry. Today, over six inches of snow have fallen, covering the ground and making the benches not places anyone…

January 25, 2026

This week’s selected media, January 25, 2026: In the Mood for Love, Cool It

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This week’s selected media, January 25, 2026: In the Mood for Love, Cool It

This week I finished: In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-Wai: It's hard not to first mention this movie's style in the qipaos, hair, make-up, ties, and music. Each dress and hairdo must have taken hours to get right each time, looked sewn-in. The word I keep coming back to for the style is: perfect. What a beautiful movie. But the movie covers more than style. Who hasn't had their heart broken? Who hasn't been cheated on? Who hasn't had to live with choices we couldn't take back but had to keep living with them? Despite the gravity and emotion of the characters' situation, it felt impersonal to me through most of the movie. That is, until the end, when it became universal.…

January 25, 2026

The Coldest Day of the Year

Hands on Practical Experience / Nature / Pollution and Depletion

The Coldest Day of the Year

The choice to avoid depriving others of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, even though our government is not enforcing our Constitution, means choosing to pollute and deplete less, which means being more connected to nature and its rhythms. Winter is colder and darker than the rest of the year. The earth's tilt makes it straightforward to know the darkest day of the year: the solstice, December 21. The coldest day of the year comes later. I found a couple reports that it's around now. The map on this page from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Interactive map: Coldest day of the year across the United States, shows that for Central Park, the coldest day of the year was yesterday,…

January 25, 2026

Heating the outdoors, pure deadweight loss

Pollution and Depletion

Heating the outdoors, pure deadweight loss

I learned the concept of deadweight loss in economics class in business school. From Wikipedia: In economics, deadweight loss is the loss of societal economic welfare due to production/consumption of a good at a quantity where marginal benefit (to society) does not equal marginal cost (to society). Here is a picture of the outside of a bar like probably hundreds of bars and restaurants in New York City and likely thousands across the country. Note what look like glowing red lights. They aren't lights. They're heat lamps. Now note the empty tables beneath them. These lamps are heating the outdoors where nobody is. They are simply burning fossil fuels, polluting and depleting, for no benefit to anyone. As far as I can tell, nobody seems…

January 24, 2026

Year 16, day 1: posting here daily

Creativity / Habits / SIDCHAs

Year 16, day 1: posting here daily

If you want to reach your potential simplify your life live by your values create mental freedom create more free time save money build a community of people doing similarly You can achieve all of the above more effectively with a sidcha than any other way I know. I created the sidcha concept inadvertently by creating each part, step by step. The first major step came on this day in 2011, when I started posting daily to this blog. I haven't missed a day since. The result? See the list above. Want to do it? Many of my leadership clients and students have done so. I don't think any have spent a penny developing and implementing their sidchas. You can too. Watch the video on…

January 23, 2026

The joy and satisfaction of a hand cart falling apart from so much use

The joy and satisfaction of a hand cart falling apart from so much use

In yesterday's post about volunteering in the cold, I showed a picture of something that always reminds me of the Blues Brothers movie when the Bluesmobile falls apart: They'd taken that car through a lot and it meant something to them. It's like it was telling them: I held myself together to give you all you needed. Note the wheels in the picture of my cart below. I've been using it five years or so and they're falling apart. My doormen comment on how they're falling apart. As far as I can tell the cart is disposable---that is, not made to be reparable---like nearly all consumer products these days. I didn't choose it. One of the volunteer coordinators for the Chelsea fridge lent it to…

January 22, 2026

Wow, some hard work volunteering in the cold yesterday and today.

Doof / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Volunteering

Wow, some hard work volunteering in the cold yesterday and today.

I try not to complain about heavy work, especially since the physical labor I do is trivial compared to people who work for a living and I just finished One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, though I'm talking about volunteering, not work for pay. Still, over the past few days a few things conspired to make volunteering with delivering surplus food to give away to people who can use it. A few people who volunteer are out of town It's cold! ... below 20F (-7C) One place had about 25 gallons of milk nearing their expiration date so had to be delivered this morning It also had several cases of soda. The upshot: I made three deliveries nearing my heaviest loads. Liquids are…

January 21, 2026

There will always be something just beyond our grasp we crave. Or we can learn to stop craving.

Addiction / Artificial Intelligence / Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom

There will always be something just beyond our grasp we crave. Or we can learn to stop craving.

Artificial intelligence is just the latest instance of a technology that, by polluting and depleting, deprive people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. People think of the perks it might bring them despite violating the Constitution. So they convince themselves that it will actually benefit those it hurts. They can't say exactly how, but they think if we just use more of it, it will somehow harm less than if we use less of it or not use it. I'm a fan of technology and innovation. I'm a bigger fan of liberty, freedom, equality, and democracy, which I don't see working if we don't enforce the Constitution. If we have to choose between a technology that violates the Constitution and honoring…

January 20, 2026

Where the problems with social media come from and the big result, part 1

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom

Where the problems with social media come from and the big result, part 1

I've meant to start developing a view for a while but I keep not starting because I haven't fully developed it. I'm going to bite the bullet and write a few ideas down, not yet complete and coherent. Sorry if it ends up confusing. When the internet was starting to become mainstream, say the 1990s, people looked forward to it democratizing communication compared to the press and broadcast since anyone could communicate to anyone else. Yet today social media creates many problems. Two of the top ones are (again, speaking loosely as I'm developing my thoughts) Cancel mobs Algorithms determining what messages to propagate determine culture These problems seem tyrannical. How did what seemed moving toward democracy became that way? Dominance hierarchies form when there…

January 19, 2026

This week’s selected media, January 18, 2026: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Myth America, Blow Out

Tips

This week’s selected media, January 18, 2026: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Myth America, Blow Out

This week I finished: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: I'm sure I read this book before, but long enough ago that this time was almost anew. I've been reading about liberty, freedom, equality, and democracy. I've read and written about slavery and the Holocaust. Soviet / Stalinist gulags are on par, but different, and equally important to understand what a nation, or dominance hierarchy, can devolve into. I won't try to put into words the world that Solzhenitsyn can and did. He lived it for eight years. The book conveys a dystopia human beings created for each other. It's personal and human beyond what history books convey. I'm learning more about the history too. I'm not sure if or…

January 18, 2026

Another big, passionate writing day

Creativity / Habits

Another big, passionate writing day

Last week I finished the first draft of my next book, though more accurate I finished the most challenging parts. I took a couple days off after a couple days of intense writing, then got back to work. Regarding the word "work," here, I talked to a friend who said he wouldn't want to write because of deadlines and pressure. He sounded like writing sounded like a burden or obligation. I tried to convey that when working on something meaningful, a deadline inspires. Besides, I'm not writing the book for a hobby or ritual, like meditation. I don't try to meditate on a deadline, nor do calisthenics on a deadline. I'm not writing this book for me, though I love writing it. It's not the…

January 17, 2026

I searched “comprehensive list of environmental solutions.” No wonder everyone feels hopeless and gives up.

Creativity / Hands on Practical Experience / Leadership / Nature

I searched “comprehensive list of environmental solutions.” No wonder everyone feels hopeless and gives up.

I searched "comprehensive list of environmental solutions." The results search results showed nothing meaningful or helpful. Before continuing, I should point out what prompted that search was writing my next book, which does present a solution, not only to our environmental problems, but to things that result from it, such as corruption, tyranny, racism, addiction, despair, and more. So I don't feel despair or anxiety from pointing out that not one proposed solution nor combination of them so far presented in the media solves our problems, at least that I know of, including from the search above. I think everyone can tell they don't work. Even the people proposing them know they don't work and will likely never work. That's why ardent environmentalists don't try…

January 16, 2026

My neighbors leave their windows wide open in temperatures below freezing, presumably blasting their heaters

My neighbors leave their windows wide open in temperatures below freezing, presumably blasting their heaters

Coming home this evening, I noticed a window of the apartment a few floors directly below mine was open, I estimated by 8 to 10 inches. The light was on and someone was home. The temperature outdoors was about 30 F (-1 C). I presume the person wasn't freezing, which meant they probably blasted the heat. (EDIT: I later learned from my doorman that that neighbor smokes and may have opened the window for fresh air from cigarette smoke.) Tomorrow, when it's brighter, I'll take and post pictures of how I tape my windows. All the windows in the building are double pane, but they're old and many have lost the seal around the groove where they slide, so air leaks through. Since I don't…

January 15, 2026

What I wonder when people ask how I get by

Choosing/Decision-Making / Freedom

What I wonder when people ask how I get by

People ask me all the time things like "how do you get by without flying?", "How do you get by without a contract with the power company?", and "how do you get by producing so little trash?" I know they're thinking about material things and mainstream values of acquiring more stuff even at the expense of relationships so from their perspective I'm depriving myself and sacrificing. From my perspective, I'm avoiding hurting people. I'm living by the US Constitution, which says that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law even though the US government isn't enforcing it. Pollution and depletion deprive people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. The government gains revenue and…

January 14, 2026

The Atlantic Magazine ads

I read stories on The Atlantic's website sometimes, but rarely read the physical magazine. I found a copy in my building's mailing room's recycling bin. I guess a neighbor with a subscription didn't feel like reading this month's issue. Here's the issue in particular online. The articles tended to be intellectual, left-leaning or full anti-Trump, but largely portraying either victimhood or implying solidarity with or support for the downtrodden. The back had an ad for Rolex. Inside I noticed a few ads promoting flying to self-indulgent or elite things, like programs for college-bound kids to pad their transcripts and travel agencies offering luxury vacations. Ads tell you about readers since advertisers don't want to waste their money. The magazine felt aspirational, for rich people whose…

January 13, 2026

844: Maya Lilly, part 1: Effective Storytelling and Producing The Years Project

Since I've seen Maya's work on the Years Project with people like executive producers James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, I was worried I might feel starstruck. Oh wait, she also worked with series creators Joel Bach and David Gelber (of 60 Minutes); chief science advisors podcast guest Joseph Romm and Heidi Cullen; and episode hosts including Cameron, Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Ian Somerhalder, America Ferrera, David Letterman, Gisele Bündchen, Jack Black, Matt Damon, Jessica Alba, Sigourney Weaver. Oh, and the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. She was engaging, informative, open, and fun. We laughed a bunch We talked about her passion for the art and practice of storytelling. You have to be true to the science, but you can't skimp on…

January 12, 2026

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