Following up my posts Mementos of my high school girlfriend and The Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did, I finally read the letters and cards from her to me and from me to her. We wrote them from around the summer of 1988, after graduating high school, to about a year later, the summer after our first years in college. She went to school outside Boston. I went to school[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written on the difference in sensation between something tasting good versus making you feel like you want more of it (see “Want to eat more” and “tastes good” aren’t the same feeling). I also spoke about them as a podcast guest in Tastes Good versus Want More, explored in depth. The difference, briefly: when you bite into a fruit you love, say an apple, it tastes good and you[…] Keep reading →

Part 1: College personalities not so unique In college, I remember meeting many classmates who seemed unique. I couldn’t imagine anyone else like them. Thirty years later, I’ve seen people like each. Over and over as college classes turn over every four years. I’ve also seen them grow up to become like everyone else. There’s some variation, of course, but the differences aren’t that great. Part 2: My high school[…] Keep reading →

In an online thread with people insisting that they have no choice but to fly for family and work reasons, I wrote the following, which I’m sure some will disagree with. I’m learning too, though I hope to help people looking to find joy in polluting less. One flight will brings people closer. Flying in general led them to move far apart so they felt they needed to fly to[…] Keep reading →

Following up my first post on this topic and my last one, and while the options below don’t have to be exclusive, people usually choose as if they are. Do you prefer . . . To burn tons of fossil fuel to see the Amazon Or grow a plant at home? To see a pristine paradise and tell everyone about it Or to let it be? Coffee in a disposable[…] Keep reading →

Remember this scene of Cypher’s selling out his crew for his personal pleasure in The Matrix? My letter to an 80-year-old, prompted by an article on the environment 80-year-olds and 20-year-olds will view the environment differently. 80-year-olds might consider global warming, plastic pollution, extinctions, and so on abstractly. If environmental disaster will hit around 2050, that’s someone else’s problem. To 20-year-olds, 2050 is the prime of their lives. They have[…] Keep reading →

How’s this for simple and effective: Require all single-use items to carry a message that they pollute. I’m not sure the best wording, but something like: Short version: This object pollutes and is unnecessary. Please reuse durable alternatives. Long version: This object pollutes and is unnecessary. Making it created greenhouse gases and depletes resources. Disposing of it poisons our food supply. It may take centuries to break down. Using it[…] Keep reading →