The title says it all, but for clarity, I’ll generalize: if you choose to do something that requires polluting, depleting, or plundering, you don’t get to claim your life requires living unsustainably. You don’t get to then make claims on others’ resources. A life requiring hurting others is not liberty. Its’ the opposite: it’s destroying other people’s liberty. Why don’t I spend all my money and then claim you have[…] Keep reading →

Is someone criticizing Taylor Swift’s flying lately? People talk to me about it all the time. In the past few days, a few people told me she was in the news for flying a few miles on her jet. Today, I turned the corner from Sixth Avenue onto Waverly and saw the scene below. I didn’t want to include identifying pictures so didn’t take it from their front, but what[…] Keep reading →

First, let’s imagine solar, wind, hydroelectric, fission, or fusion were “clean,” “green,” or “renewable.” They aren’t, but for the sake of understanding, we’ll imagine they are, so if we transitioned to them from fossil fuels, society could live indefinitely on them. What Doesn’t Work Everyone is acting as if we can ramp up “clean,” “green,” and “renewable” energies until we don’t need fossil fuels, then we can ramp down fossil[…] Keep reading →

I used to waste three or four hours a day browsing social media sites, generally Reddit at the time, but others too, in particular after telling myself not to spend that much time on sites. I found some useful guidelines to reduce wasting time on screens. Not all time on screens is wasted, so I wanted to reduce wasted time but maintain productive time. Existing rules that have served me[…] Keep reading →

The title asks it all, but I’ll make it more poignant. Say I blow cigarette smoke in a baby’s face. Shocking, isn’t it? Horrible. Unconscionable. Probably criminal, like assault. But if I burn tons of jet fuel to visit the Amazon under the guise of ecotourism, people seem to view it as healthy. How is this difference possible? You could say because blowing smoke in someone’s face is directed. Still,[…] Keep reading →

First some context: When I challenged myself to avoid flying for a year, I expected the worst year of my life—my family disowning me, running out of money, etc. Instead, after a couple months I unexpectedly found the experience rewarding enough to go for another year. Then each year led to another. At some point I figured I’d never fly again. It’s easy enough not to get on a plane.[…] Keep reading →

We’ve had a lot of rain in New York City. My batteries are all near zero so I have to write this post quick. I gave myself a deadline to finish the first draft of my book this month, but I couldn’t charge my computer. I also went a month without my “cheat” of plugging in at NYU last month. It turns out the battery problem that led me to[…] Keep reading →

Do you believe we should remove statues of people who held slaves? I can see both sides of people taking down statues of Thomas Jefferson. He was President of the United States and helped write its founding documents. He advanced freedom. Yet he was a racist who believed men in Africa mated with orangutans (he spelled oranootan in his 1784 Notes on the State of Virginia) and owned slaves. Since[…] Keep reading →

Freedom exists in structure. It’s not chaos, randomness, or luck. When I find something works in my life, I make it automatic. For many people, diet and exercise seem horror shows, or mysteries, wondering what they should do, how often, how much, and so on. When the most important bases of my life are automatic, I don’t have to think about them. I can focus on everything else. People might[…] Keep reading →