Category Archives: Addiction

Abraham Lincoln never went overseas yet accomplished a fair amount. Maybe flying isn’t that necessary.

on March 29, 2025 in Addiction

People act as if flying is necessary for life. I sometimes list people who have never flown. Here’s a short list from a recent presentation I created: Maybe it’s just me, but they seem like people who accomplished meaningful things. I was curious about Lincoln: had he traveled overseas? I knew Jefferson, Franklin, and other Founding Fathers had spent time in Europe, meaning sailing across the Atlantic multiple times. I[…] Keep reading →

Sriracha sauce: yuck! Enjoying food over doof.

on March 26, 2025 in Addiction, Doof, Fitness, HandsOnPracticalExperience

It’s been almost ten years since I posted Why Sriracha Hot Sauce tastes good. In it I wrote: Progress report on enjoying food over doof I don’t think I’ve tasted it in the decade since. Then in my volunteer work salvaging food that would be thrown away, I ended up with a jar to deliver. It had been opened, so I had a chance to taste it. It’s been years[…] Keep reading →

Year 10, day 1 without hurting people and funding lobbyists by flying

on March 24, 2025 in Addiction, HandsOnPracticalExperience

On March 23, 2016 my flight arrived in JFK from Paris. Since then, I challenged myself to go a year without flying. I expected it to become the worst year of my life, or at least miserable: I could list more fears, but I can summarize that I considered flying an unalloyed good. If you feel you can’t live without flying, that your family will disown you, etc, believe it[…] Keep reading →

Social media executives don’t let their children use social media. This time it’s personal.

on March 15, 2025 in Addiction, Doof

Months ago, when I read Adam Alter’s book and hosted him on the podcast, I learned that executives of social media companies often don’t let their children use the services they work for. They know they design them to addict. I recently saw an old friend who works at Facebook. He has two kids. I asked him if he let them use Facebook. He said “no,” with a look of:[…] Keep reading →

Josh and Evelyn Go Live! … see our first live stream of a series on living joyfully sustainably

on February 28, 2025 in Addiction, Freedom, HandsOnPracticalExperience, Nature

Living more sustainably isn’t hard. Our human ancestors did it for 250,000 years. Our non-human ancestors did it for billions. Most life forms do, maybe all except we modern humans. Living more sustainably in a culture that for whatever lip service it falsely pays to sustainability rewards the opposite is hard. Then the problem is people—that is, social and emotional, not technical. After all, it costs less, requires less time,[…] Keep reading →

What do you think: will the world be more healthy, safe, and secure next year? Next decade? Next century?

on February 26, 2025 in Addiction, Nature

I’m curious if anyone wants to share their intuition, how they are living their lives, not necessarily people who research the state of the earth, but what you think for yourself and your children, if any: Do you think tomorrow—that is, the future in general—will be more or less healthy, safe, and secure than today? I haven’t researched the question, but I’d bet for all of human existence, nearly all[…] Keep reading →

Why Are So Many Young Adults Getting Cancer? Doof, not food.

on February 15, 2025 in Addiction, Doof

I knew the article would cover food and not distinguish doof from food from its title: “Why Are So Many Young Adults Getting Cancer? New Columbia research looks at ultra-processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, and other possible explanations.” Sure enough, it didn’t. Imagine people didn’t distinguish heroin from poppy, if they thought shooting heroin was like eating a poppy-seed bagel. They’d miss that heroin affects the body and behavior a lot[…] Keep reading →

The Spodek Method is like quitting smoking.

on February 5, 2025 in Addiction, Education, Nature

Some people in my workshops describe early times practicing the Spodek Method as causing them anxiety. From my experience with performance arts like acting or sports in front of a crowd or, in attraction, learning to approach women, I know performing where others can see you can cause people without experience anxiety. I also know that mastering that art can transform that anxiety into joy and glory. Everyone who became[…] Keep reading →

Plastic appears more poisonous than you think, especially to your brain. You’d rather know these findings than not.

on February 4, 2025 in Addiction, Doof, Nature

I try to avoid just quoting news. That’s for social media, which I avoid. But sometimes the news merits it. Quoting the Washington Post: Haven’t shown causation (yet) The original paper’s conclusion points out they’ve only shown correlation, not causation, though not showing it doesn’t mean it isn’t there: The present data suggest a trend of increasing MNP concentrations in the brain and liver. The majority of MNPs [microplastics and[…] Keep reading →

Sign up for my weekly newsletter

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

I post in-person events and special updates

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by Kit