Awareness

Double standards

Awareness / Nonjudgment

Double standards

When more men are in congress, STEM fields, and corporate board rooms, it's "Women can do what men can. Something must be holding them back." When more men commit crimes, it's "Men are more violent, they're just that way." When more men occupy leadership roles in acting on the environment, it's "The environmental movement has a problem recruiting women." When more men are in jail, it's "There are still too many women in jail." When more men are entrepreneurs, it's "We need to create programs to give women skills and opportunities." When it's about taking risks being vulnerable initiating relationships, it's "Men are hunters. You [women] shouldn't take that away from from. Let them initiate." When it's about abortion, it's "Can you name a law…

February 9, 2019

Avoid that addictive tug

Awareness / Perception

Avoid that addictive tug

That addictive tug showed itself to me clearly for the first time the last time I ate ice cream. It was Thanksgiving, two or three Novembers ago. I rarely eat dairy and for years have avoided fiber-removed foods so I don't remember why I tried a taste then. Everyone was eating pie and ice cream, passing them around the table. I was probably sipping scotch for dessert, or maybe eating fruit. In any case, I tried a spoon of ice cream for my first time in years, probably Ben and Jerry's, maybe Haagen Dazs. Whatever brand or flavor it was, however it tasted, I immediately felt like I wanted more, like I could keep eating more. Not having eaten sweetened foods for a while, I…

January 15, 2019

International Men’s Day

International Men’s Day

Two weeks ago was International Men's Day, November 19. Here's an infographic from Cassie Jaye the director of The Red Pill documentary, and her team. I profiled her in Inc, I think it speaks for itself.

December 6, 2018

Seth Godin caught my scarcity mindset

Awareness / Habits

Seth Godin caught my scarcity mindset

Chatting with Seth Godin before recording the last week's podcast episode, I shared with him how I keep secret the incredible ingredient I love cooking with---peanut flour. It's nearly the last packaged food I still buy, though I've found a mill that I think I can crank it out with my hands from peanuts. I haven't shared why I like it so much, but I make some of the most delicious, nutritious food with it. Anyway, when I joked with Seth that I kept it secret because it was so delicious, he asked, automatically, "Why would you keep it secret?" Though I said it as a joke, the innocence he asked with belay my hoarding tendency, based on a scarcity mindset. Caught. I felt momentarily…

November 19, 2018

Drugs are everywhere. Everywhere.

Drug molecules

Drugs are everywhere. Everywhere.

Maybe from reading Michael Pollan's recent book, How to Change Your Mind, or the nationwide spread of repealing the prohibition on cannabis, or the increasing research finding therapeutic effects of illegal drugs claimed to have no value, or people talking about doing illegal drugs on in the media with no consequence, or overhearing middle-aged women talk about enjoying Percocet left over after the pain it was prescribed for passed, or seeing the similarities in business models of sellers of illegal drugs and many legal drugs, or for any number of reasons, I've started noticing the prevalence of drugs, illegal and legal. I'm not even counting ones with modest effects, like aspirin or cough syrup. Until recently, I thought of drugs as existing on the fringes…

October 4, 2018

Men aren’t as confused as the media say

Awareness / Perception

Men aren’t as confused as the media say

My response to a popular social media post is below. I don't pretend it's the final word, but it expresses something missing. The post I responded to Guys ask why women are so pissed off. Even guys with wives and daughters. Jackson Katz, a prominent social researcher, illustrates why. He's done it with hundreds of audiences: "I draw a line down the middle of a chalkboard, sketching a male symbol on one side and a female symbol on the other. Then I ask just the men: What steps do you guys take, on a daily basis, to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? At first there is a kind of awkward silence as the men try to figure out if they've been asked a trick…

October 1, 2018

Do you fly to experience the beauty of nature and untouched places and cultures?

Awareness / Nature

Do you fly to experience the beauty of nature and untouched places and cultures?

Do you consider it a moral or ethical issue that water flows downhill? Probably not. Do I sound like I'm trying to make you feel guilty if I say that it rains sometimes? Again, probably not. In the same spirit of speaking non-morally and non-ethically, but simply stating the obvious, when you fly to experience nature, solitude, or remote, untouched cultures what you see, you're helping destroy. I'm not saying anything about good, bad, right, or wrong, nor guilt or blame. I'm saying nothing more controversial or disputable than water goes downhill. You may not like how much flying pollutes or that your choice to fly is voluntary, but just as gravity and rain exist even if you'd prefer to fly or enjoy more sun,…

September 20, 2018

Three simple proposals to reduce pollution

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Nature / Visualization

Three simple proposals to reduce pollution

I understand that many people reduce their pollution just from knowing how much they pollute. Planes How about having every airplane ticket show how much pollution and greenhouse gas emissions each flight causes---designed, prominent, and easy to read, like an Energy Star label or cigarette warning? I'd add a relevant comparison number, like IPCC recommendations. Like this, from MyClimate.org, Cars How about gas pumps show that information as you fill up your car. Now the pump shows volume of gas and price. To add pounds of CO2 shouldn't be hard. Credit Cards How about showing that information on your credit card bill too?

September 18, 2018

Privilege?

Awareness / Stories

Privilege?

I hear and read the term white privilege. Plenty of people explain it. How do the following fit into the concept? For context, for about a decade of my childhood, my mom's house, where I spent half my time, was in poor neighborhoods, especially Rockland Street in Philadelphia in the mid-70s, or bordered them where whites were minorities. For a while our house was one of three white families on a block with maybe fifty houses. Other kids (non-white, if it matters) called me "honkey"---kids I didn't know. That is, kids would shout it at me across the street. Once, waiting for a bus home from high school with friends amid a lot of other people, a band of maybe half a dozen other kids…

September 13, 2018

Handling Trigger Warnings, Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and Other Outrages

Awareness / Education / Freedom / Inc.com / Leadership / Nonjudgment

Handling Trigger Warnings, Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and Other Outrages

Handling Trigger Warnings, Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and Other Outrages Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff's new book, The Coddling of the American Mind, takes on offense and outrage with calm resolve and effective insight Jonathan Haidt's latest book, released today, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, coauthored by Greg Lukianoff, takes on one of the issues of our time—public discourse, especially in higher education—expanding on their widely discussed Atlantic article of the same name. Whether leading a small team, a company, a nation, a family, or oneself, research shows that input from diverse views improves decisions and outcomes—if you have the skills to solicit and use it. On a personal level, Haidt's advice…

September 5, 2018

The privilege of scientific ignorance

Awareness / Education / Nature / Nonjudgment

The privilege of scientific ignorance

NYU, where I teach, is a stronghold of social justice activity, as is Columbia, where I went to school. Since before college I've worked on causes to promote equality along genders, skin colors, geography, sexual preferences, and more. I protested Apartheid, my government's actions in Central America, and more. I work on the environment. The list goes on. The term privilege gets thrown around. Being white, male, and fit, the function I see the term used most is to silence people with these properties. Whether someone is privileged or not, calling someone privileged seems to imply that the person leveling the charge and people who agree with that person believe that the charged person's viewpoint is so unconsidered as to be worthless. Since not all…

August 11, 2018

LeBron, Michael, and meditation

Awareness / Fitness

LeBron, Michael, and meditation

I did a three-day meditation retreat last month, meaning nearly no talking, reading, writing, internet, phone, etc for three days. The basic unit of meditation there is one hour sitting still, which we do 6 or 7 times a day while there. Barely moving for one hour, focusing my mind is hard, though I'm more skilled at it than ever, which is why I go to the retreat sometimes. It's quiet. Others are doing it too. Sometimes the hour is frustrating---it hurts, your mind wanders constantly, and you can't stop wondering when it will end. Sometimes you progress---your mind stays sharply focused, you learn something new and valuable, you don't feel pain and don't have to adjust your body all the time. Sometimes you work…

July 28, 2018

Why you should meditate

Awareness / Freedom / Nonjudgment

Why you should meditate

Of the many reasons to meditate, here is what I consider the most valuable. Say you're a runner. Imagine if every time you ran, at random times, without your awareness, your feet just started running in a different direction than you wanted. And on top of that, your feet started kicking each other equally spontaneously, randomly, and unintentionally. Your mind does just that---no matter how much you want to focus on anything, at random times, spontaneously, and unintentionally, it will wander off in directions you can't predict or stop. Don't believe me? Try to focus on one topic for five minutes. Most people can't even sit still for a minute, let alone five, let alone focus for that long. As for the kicking, your mind…

July 26, 2018

Fitness is about the mind, intelligence is about the body

An intelligent person doing fit things. Or a fit person doing intelligent things.

Awareness / Fitness

Fitness is about the mind, intelligence is about the body

Fitness is about the mind After all these years, it finally dawned on me that physical fitness trains the mind more than the body. The body shows the results. I bet few fit people haven't developed mental discipline. You might start working on the body, but you won't get far without working on the mind. The physical work opens the door. I doubt many people who think fitness is just physical and don't recognize the mental part are fit or ever have been. Intelligence is about the body Likewise, it finally dawned on me that intelligence is about behavior. A person who solves abstract problems and gets high scores on bubble form test but doesn't behave in ways that bring joy, happiness, satisfaction, emotional reward,…

July 24, 2018

9 ways I’m un-American

Awareness / Nonjudgment

9 ways I’m un-American

I love living in the United States, New York City, and Greenwich Village. I love our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. I love that our culture produced people like Henry David Thoreau, Michael Jordan, Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Muhammad Ali, and Richard Feynman, and attracted others, like Albert Einstein. Our country has evolved since its entrepreneurial, revolutionary, freedom-minded, can-do origins. We pollute the air, land, water, and our bodies more than nearly any place and time, nearly 80% overweight and obese, which describes our environment as well as our bodies. Our public discourse as well, insulting people we disagree with more than engaging and learning from. In that spirit of self-awareness and in honor or Independence Day in two days, here are 9 ways I…

July 2, 2018

How not to be hungry

Awareness / Fitness / Freedom

How not to be hungry

I like food. I don't like skipping meals. Sometimes I can't avoid missing them. Obligations arise and I have to do something for a few hours nonstop. Sometimes I know the only options are so disappointing, unfulfilling, or involve so much plastic, oil, or other things that will lead me to regret that I'd rather eat a big next meal than what's available. Most of my life skipping a meal meant feeling hungry. My 3-day fast a couple weeks ago decreased my feeling of hunger more than I expected. While hunger has a physical component, I now know that a few hours without food is almost negligible compared to three days. The mental component seems more important. While I still feel some hunger, it's more…

June 23, 2018

Life lessons from 1883 Montana

Frontier House

Awareness / Fitness / Visualization

Life lessons from 1883 Montana

People keep acting like I have some special discipline that most people don't. They think the burpees, cold showers, avoiding packaged food, and so on take effort. They don't. Creating a lifestyle where they are normal and easy took effort---a once-in-a-lifetime effort---followed by their being the default for the rest of my life. Almost no willpower or discipline needed. People don't believe me. I think they find it easier to say someone else is different or special than to dig out from themselves what they haven't used most of their lives, even though they know that bringing it out will improve their lives. Anyone can. I'm not special. The 2002 PBS reality TV show, Frontier House, showed three families living in Montana for three months…

June 20, 2018

I Haven’t Eaten for 3 Days and It’s Amazing

I Haven't Eaten for 3 Days and It's Amazing, Joshua Spodek in Inc.

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / Inc.com

I Haven’t Eaten for 3 Days and It’s Amazing

I Haven't Eaten for 3 Days and It's Amazing It's Sunday and the last food I ate was lunch Thursday. I've ingested only water for 72 hours and the experience is life-changing. I love food, but I have eaten nothing and drank only water for the past 72 hours. Why? Partly because I kept hearing from friends and the media that they enjoyed fasting. Since swimming across the Hudson River, I've shifted my life from analyzing and planning--what decades of school taught me to do--to experimenting. I've found experimenting improved my life more so I keep practicing. My motivation The 4 main appeals to me of a 3-day fast were New experiences: A friend told me day 3 of his 3-day fasts made him feel…

May 28, 2018

The difference between delicious and yummy

Yummy food

Awareness / Fitness / Nature / Perception

The difference between delicious and yummy

Here's what I mean by yummy: Here's what I mean by delicious (a delivery from my CSA): What's the difference? "Yummy" food tends to have qualities such as: Little fiber Fried Sugar, fat, and salt provide the dominant flavors and textures Little raw ingredients Mostly yellow, orange, or brown Other colors often come from food coloring and don't represent the raw foods Sauces Packaged Corporate processing Many ingredients "Delicious" food tends to have Many colors Fiber Complex flavors and textures Mostly resembling the plants it's made of Few ingredients Nuance Delicious to me means that the food exhibits combinations of flavors and textures that complement each other to make me feel like saying, "that tastes good." I like nuance, subtlety, and complexity, all the more…

May 9, 2018

Do American Restaurants Only Serve Comfort Food?

Do American Restaurants Only Serve Comfort Food?

Awareness / Fitness / Perception

Do American Restaurants Only Serve Comfort Food?

Do American Restaurants Only Serve Comfort Food? Can you eat delicious and healthy away from home? You probably want to eat healthy. It's hard in American restaurants and markets, which may devote over 90% of theirÂ spaceÂ to packagedÂ andÂ fiberless industrial food products. Maybe youÂ put the effort inÂ toÂ avoidÂ industrial food products in favor ofÂ fresh, whole vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds. If you're like me, you learned to love the subtle, complex, nuanced flavors that come with fresh. Maybe you even learned to dislike that restaurants coverÂ fresh ingredientsÂ with sauces or coverings that are sweet, rich, salty, or all of the above. They hide the vegetablesÂ in piles of rice, bread, pasta, and other filler. I call sweet, rich, gooey, cheesy, twice-fried, and suchÂ "yummy" (after this nsfwÂ "yummy phase" comedian's explanation). Most…

May 4, 2018

Philadelphia and Starbucks: How blind are we to sexism hurting men?

Awareness / Perception

Philadelphia and Starbucks: How blind are we to sexism hurting men?

The past few days have seen many articles on the Philadelphia police arresting two black men in Starbucks. Let's look at the New York Times article, Starbucks Arrests, Outrageous to Some, Are Everyday Life for Others, for example. It begins PHILADELPHIAâ€Š—â€ŠThe video of the police arresting two black men in a Starbucks, viewed more than 10 million times online, quickly prompted a full-blown crisis: accusations of racism, protests both in and around the cafe, and a corporate apology on "Good Morning America." In the context of cops arresting people, I certainly understand focusing in the words "black men" on "black." According to Wikipedia's article Incarceration in the United States, According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2013 black males accounted for 37%…

April 23, 2018

My salt experiment

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / Nature / Perception

My salt experiment

When I was a kid, my mom and stepfather switched from salted butter to unsalted. I remember the unsalted tasted bland, like nothing. I couldn't stand it. Some time later---maybe weeks or months, I don't remember---I tasted salted butter again for the first time. It tasted terrible! It was way too salty. Of course, the amount of salt in the butter didn't change. I did. My taste buds had adjusted to the overly salted butter and stayed that way until I stopped overly salting them. When I stopped amping up the salt, they returned to normal and found the overly salted butter overly salted. I also remember that after tasting both, I preferred the unsalted. The salted butter only tasted like salt. The unsalted had…

April 21, 2018

Would you rather eat ice cream or exercise, part 3

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making

Would you rather eat ice cream or exercise, part 3

Following up my first and second posts on this topic, and while the options below don't have to be exclusive, people usually choose as if they are. Do you prefer to . . . Eat ice cream or exercise? Be a slave owner Or a slave? Eat comfort food Or healthy food? Go to the beach Or help clean litter from your neighborhood? Buy a work of art or craft someone else made Or practice an art or craft that takes years to perfect? Participate knowing you'll receive a participation trophy Or compete knowing you'll lose sometimes? Assume others will clean the waste from your activities Or take responsibility for how your behavior affects others? Do what everyone else does (even when it conflicts with…

April 12, 2018

Does knowing history undoom us from repeating it?

George Santayana, who said the history quote

Does knowing history undoom us from repeating it?

I keep hearing people say that in all their lives they've never seen things as bad as they are---usually about politics, but sometimes on the environment, some aspect of culture or society, and so on. People have been saying that as long as I can remember. It makes me think of the phrase that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. I'm starting to conclude that whether we know the past or not, we'll repeat it anyway.

April 11, 2018

Love, Cholera, Bitter Almonds, Unrequited Love, and You

The cover of Love in the Time of Cholera I read

Art / Audio / Awareness / Perception / Podcast

Love, Cholera, Bitter Almonds, Unrequited Love, and You

"It was inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded Dr. Juvenal Urbino of the fate of unrequited love." Have you paid attention to the opening lines of Love in the Time of Cholera, the novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez? I hadn't for decades and missed richness, complexity, and depth, paralleling a richness, complexity, and depth I missed in nature, my relationships with others, and my relationship with myself. This episode unravels the lines and shares their meaning, to me at least.

April 7, 2018

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