Doof

Doof / Education / Leadership / Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion

NYU’s president breaks NYU’s rules, to pollute and deplete of course

I wrote in 2023 about NYU consistently violating its own rules in NYU in 2019: We will stop buying bottled water. NYU in 2023: Here’s some bottled water from us. It's tempting to read something I'm not writing. I'm talking about leadership, which requires credibility and integrity, which require hands-on practical experience, not mere talk. I'm not writing in judgment. During a bus boycott, Martin Luther King would undermine everything if he occasionally took the bus, or even once, even if it took him places faster than any other way and he could do more with that extra time than anyone else. I attended a wonderful event hosted by NYU this week. The prominent author Walter Isaacson spoke about his book on the Declaration of Independence…

June 6, 2026

Artificial Intelligence and atrophy of mental ability like intelligence, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and expression

Addiction / Creativity / Doof / Fitness / Nature / Relationships

Artificial Intelligence and atrophy of mental ability like intelligence, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and expression

I see more and more ads for artificial intelligence. This evening on the subway one ad promoted how AI could turn the workplace task of creating a slide deck from two weeks of many sub-tasks like compiling data and designing slides into one prompt followed by a complete slide deck. The task would take minutes now. I've heard a lot of uses for artificial intelligence. I haven't heard of one that improves people's lives. I'm sure they exist, but I haven't seen them. Most are like the one above. It's tempting to point out that it saves time and likely improves the quality of output, that it enables the person to focus on what they want to, not low-level mundane work like making sure the…

May 1, 2026

Clarifying what people get when they pollute and deplete less

A6FY1C Brent Delta North Sea

Addiction / Awareness / Doof / Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion

Clarifying what people get when they pollute and deplete less

What people get from polluting and depleting less: I used to tell people that they'd save money and time because they will. Nobody believes me. Nobody. They see buying coffee at Starbucks to go and ordering takeout as saving time, missing that those who do those things have the least time. Knowing your values so you can prioritize them and dismiss less valuable things (like takeout coffee and takeout) restores time and money. I first thought stopping things that cause pollution and depletion---particularly those that fund extraction of fossil fuels, uranium, and other nonrenewable resources---would bring deprivation and sacrifice. Now I see that many things I once thought necessary or unavoidable are unnecessary. In time and with hands-on practical experience they become repugnant and disgusting,…

April 27, 2026

Environmentalists rarely try to solve the problem

Addiction / Doof / Leadership / Nature / Pollution and Depletion

Environmentalists rarely try to solve the problem

Fixing the results of a problem is not the same as stopping it from recurring and you rarely can undo all the problems, especially if you do it persistently. For example, exercising doesn't make up for an addiction to doof. Even if you burn off the calories, it doesn't fix the health problems or make back the wasted money. More importantly, since you keep consuming doof, you'll likely miss exercising sometimes. Relevant to polluting and depleting: plant all the trees you want. If our culture values affordable houses and food, when they want to chop your trees back down, they'll find a way to. I distinguish mopping up the mess from not causing it because I'm getting flooded with requests for people promoting stuff for…

April 21, 2026

First plogging and barefoot run of 2026

First plogging and barefoot run of 2026

Longtime readers know I switched from running to plogging, which led to a bunch of media doing stories on me. I can't help sharing the stories. The earliest I found was 2018: “17 Creative Weekend Routines For a Happier, More Successful Week,” including plogging about a story on me in Thrive Global in 2018 120: Rules for plogging in New York City a podcast episode I did in 2019 I’m famous for plogging! See me pick up litter while I run on local news. Fox did a story on my in January 2019 I plogged on TV with the Doctor and the Diva A talk show recorded me plogging and invited me in to talk about it in September 2019 Inspired to my first run…

April 11, 2026

See me in the Washington Post’s Climate Coach again

Doof

See me in the Washington Post’s Climate Coach again

The Washington Post‘s Climate Coach column by Michael Coren quoted me today. Scroll down in the image or pdf below and you'll see my comments on an app designed for packaged food and doof. They had to edit for space (asking permission, of course). Here's the full text I wrote: Hi, I recommend a solution I prefer to Yuka, which doesn't work for me since I don't buy packaged food. Fresh produce has no label to scan. Fresh, local, in-season produce and nuts, grains, and other things from bulk have the added benefits of costing less, being healthier, funding local farmers over remote industrial conglomerates, and tasting better. Avoiding packaged food is the main reason I haven't filled on load of garbage at home since…

March 24, 2026

The first warm day of the year means overflowing doof garbage, of course

Doof / Fitness / Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

The first warm day of the year means overflowing doof garbage, of course

Sunday was the first warm day of the year. It was shorts weather. Do we celebrate the abundance of nature? No, that's not today's American values. What are today's American values? You can tell by our behavior. We buy doof, not food. We don't prepare it. We buy it pre-prepared, which means overloaded with salt, sugar, and fat, then packaged. We don't even eat fresh fruit on its own. We eat non-fresh fruit pre-chopped and assembled into plastic containers. Want proof? When I went to Washington Square Park for my sidcha to pick up at least three pieces of litter from the northwest corner, every trash can was beyond full. People weren't satisfied to fill the cans. They dumped doof packaging trash all around the…

March 10, 2026

More heartbreaking garbage

Addiction / Doof / Habits / Nature / Pollution and Depletion / SIDCHAs

More heartbreaking garbage

In Monday's post, Today's blizzard, February 2026, I wrote how the blizzard led to another day when I could find no litter in Washington Square Park. As usual, even with over a foot of snow, I found plenty of litter and garbage elsewhere, but at least not in the park, which is like my back yard. That post shows several beautiful pictures of my neighborhood covered in virginal snow. In that post, I also wrote something that breaks my heart that a lifetime of experience prompts me to express, and with confidence: I didn't see any litter in the park this morning so I'm one day into a potential release, but tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and Tuesday is forecast to be warm, so…

February 25, 2026

How cute and adorable the garbage from doof dealers

Addiction / Doof

How cute and adorable the garbage from doof dealers

I used to be unable to resist craving for sweets and savory treats. Now I'm free from the doof industry's deliberate strategy to addict people, or at least mostly so. Walking along Seventh Avenue, I saw this revolting sight: a trash can overflowing with pink boxes designed to look adorable and appealing. They say the name of the store creating this garbage: "Crumbl". I see the store around. They make doof: sweet, sugary doof. To clarify, I don't look for this revolting stuff. It's everywhere. I just can't help taking pictures when I feel vomit forming, to show how twisted we've made our world. As much as I couldn't resist such products before, today, I would pick apples over any sweet doof. They grow locally…

February 20, 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

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

Doof / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience

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

New resting pulse: 38 bpm

Doof / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

New resting pulse: 38 bpm

I got my annual checkup yesterday. They took my vital statistics. Reading 1: the blood pressure machine As usual, my resting heart rate was lower than they're used to. The nurse taking my blood pressure saw my pulse was showing 42 bpm while the blood pressure machine was doing its pressure cycle. I was looking forward to taking a picture of that rate, when she started asking me questions, the ones they always do: if I run marathons, bike, or swim. When I answered, the rate increased to 45, I think from my talking. That number stayed on the screen after finishing the blood pressure cycle. I guess because I said I don't run, bike, or swim, and that even rowing I only do once…

December 13, 2025

One of the most important statements of environmentalism: giving up on changing culture (and what to do instead)

Doof / Freedom / Leadership

One of the most important statements of environmentalism: giving up on changing culture (and what to do instead)

I enjoyed reading Bill McKibben's latest book Here Comes the Sun. I found much of it well researched. Still, I don't think it made clear what I consider its starting point. Before you read the critical stuff I start with about the book, I end on a high note. I've written many times how tools like technology, market incentives, and legislation aren't good or bad. They implement and augment the values of the people and culture wielding them. As long as our culture rewards behaviors that pollute and deplete, it will bend the use of any tool to accelerate itself. Whatever your intent with, say, solar panels, if you don't change culture, however much solar panels decrease emissions in one area, overall, they will enable…

December 4, 2025

Garbage people throw in my building’s garden every day

Doof / Freedom / Visualization

Garbage people throw in my building’s garden every day

My building has a little garden in front with a low wall people can sit on. Isn't it nice to provide space for people to take a load off? I'm sure most of them don't, but plenty leave their garbage in our little garden. Here are some pictures from a typical morning. The "Rite-a-way" box is rat poison I don't like that the superintendent puts there, but with all the garbage people put there, rats arrive. The plants on this side of the garden are all dead. They were verdant and abundant at first. The most common garbage types are Beer cans Soda cans Water bottles Coffee cups and lids Napkins Bags Lottery tickets, usually ripped up Doof wrappers: chips, candy bars, etc Little alcohol…

November 8, 2025

More drugs: a woman pooping in the park in broad daylight and more junkies shooting up in my neighborhood

Addiction / Doof / Nonjudgment

More drugs: a woman pooping in the park in broad daylight and more junkies shooting up in my neighborhood

As always: I post about junkies not to criticize or condemn them as individuals, though I consider adults responsible for their actions. I post about them to illustrate our culture. Their addiction and its harms to others and communities is more acute than most of ours, but it is generally more benign than people with dependencies on flying, driving, doof, takeout, screens, and other things nearly everyone does that hurt innocent people, violate the consent of the governed, and deprive people of life, liberty, and property. I post these images for us to see ourselves. Flying wrecks nature and tears families apart. Not flying connects us. If you chose to live flying-distance from family, you chose to hurt people. You can stop. Yes, withdrawal is…

October 30, 2025

My fifth annual cooking workshop at Drew Gardens: pictures and video

Doof / Education / Nature

My fifth annual cooking workshop at Drew Gardens: pictures and video

I love Drew Gardens' space and community. Every year I lead a workshop on cooking, though less now about low-cost, low-waste cooking. Now I focus on helping them create a food coop there. The city has some programs I consider "push," where they try to supply fresh, local produce to the community. Having grown up with parents who, because they struggled to make ends meet, started a family food buying club to save time and money while increasing quality, which folded into a coop, which helped even more, I see the potential for a "pull" effort. Starting a coop Starting a coop takes work, but it's a labor of love, and the Drew Gardens crew loves the work they do. Check out my other post…

October 27, 2025

I missed a sidcha yesterday: picking up litter in Washington Square Park

Addiction / Doof / Habits / SIDCHAs

I missed a sidcha yesterday: picking up litter in Washington Square Park

Regular readers know my sidcha to pick up at least three pieces of litter from the northwest corner of Washington Square Park. While most of my sidchas I haven't missed, that one I've missed, maybe one or two times per year. The park could use more people picking up litter. No, the point of picking up litter isn't just the temporary removal of litter. Picking up litter makes not buying packaged food and doof easy. People act like avoiding packaged food and doof is hard. Partly they're addicted. Even if not, they still like that stuff and their jolt of a reward. Picking up litter daily leads you to feel repugnance and disgust toward those things. It's not hard to avoid things I find repugnant…

October 16, 2025

Artificial Intelligence pollutes and depletes. Using it won’t help sustainability.

Addiction / Doof / Nature

Artificial Intelligence pollutes and depletes. Using it won’t help sustainability.

I read an article, The Costs of the Cloud, by Ashley Dawson in the New York Review of Books and wanted to note for future reference how much artificial intelligence pollutes and depletes. When asked how they think AI will affect the environment, most people seem to respond to a different question: "Can you think of ways AI can help with the environment?" They're doing what I wrote about in my post Nearly everyone misses the danger of artificial intelligence we’re sleepwalking into. They don't ask if people extracting fossil fuels are using AI to further their goals, or their advertisers, lobbyists, scientists, engineers, and politicians. Or people who sell things that lead to more pollution and depletion, like fast fashion, travel, doof, and online…

October 9, 2025

Their motivation to make doof: to drive your emotional system to buy more

Addiction / Choosing/Decision-Making / Doof / Fitness / Freedom

Their motivation to make doof: to drive your emotional system to buy more

I was thinking about the people who manufacture addictive things like doof. If you believe that someone choosing to buy something means they valued what they bought more than what they paid for it, then you think that the more they buy, the more they've improved their lives. Then the more addictive you make the product, the more you sell. You can tell yourself that your profit means their life improvement. The way it looks to me is that science has figured out how to control the human emotional system more effectively than the person with that system, at least in some cases. They've learned to use short-term motivation to override long-term reward and ability to regulate oneself. Then it's a stretch to say that…

October 8, 2025

Year five, day 2 no refrigerator. Did you know power companies promoted them to use more energy (not for health, safety, or flavor)?

Doof / Fitness / Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Nature

Year five, day 2 no refrigerator. Did you know power companies promoted them to use more energy (not for health, safety, or flavor)?

The first time I unplugged my fridge was December 2019. A few months later Covid hit and I lived outside the city a couple months. My fridge remained unplugged, but I don't count that time since I wasn't home. The next time I unplugged earlier in the year: November 2020, and made it six months or so before spring warm weather made keeping things fresh harder. The next year I started yet earlier: September 30, 2021. My goal was to make May, I think, but that May I unplugged the whole apartment so made it a year with the fridge unplugged and didn't see a reason to plug back in. Along the way, I learned from the book The Grid that fridges became widespread not…

October 2, 2025

How much pet food comes from factory farms that brutalize animals?

Doof

How much pet food comes from factory farms that brutalize animals?

I'd been thinking about pets. When most people lived on farms or hunted, they played a functional role, at least I think. Today, they're more of a self-indulgence. Yes, we love them. We don't know if they have consciousness or can love, but we believe they love us back. They seem to enjoy life, which is an end to itself, even if they don't serve any function for us. Still, I think most people have pets to feel good themselves. Do they have costs beyond the cash we spend on them? I've written before about the countless (probably billions annually) of plastic bags people collect dog poop in. What about their food? Whether vegetarian or not, most people I've talked to about it find factory…

August 26, 2025

Do you think BP tricked us? Here’s a way to respond.

Doof / Hands on Practical Experience / Models

Do you think BP tricked us? Here’s a way to respond.

Environmentalists constantly point out BP promoting personal carbon footprints and bizarrely use it as an excuse not to act. It would seem counterproductive except when you remember that people are less rational than rationalizing. Whatever their words, if they pollute and deplete without meaningful attempt to change, their deeds oppose their words. Environmentalists rarely have hands-on practical experience trying to live sustainably. Do you know any who are trying to live sustainably beyond a few little changes? Since they haven't experienced that living more sustainably improves their lives, they generally still think it makes their lives and cultures worse. Ignorant and sad, but how things are. They prattle on about people "in communities" who can't afford to buy expensive things, not realizing actually acting as…

August 5, 2025

I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 3b: More drugs

Addiction / Doof / Nonjudgment

I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 3b: More drugs

My posts about addiction aren't about the addicts in the pictures or videos. They're about our culture. I see the person in the video below as the inevitable outcome of our culture. He is a more extreme example in one direction, but only a few steps ahead of many users of McDonald's, Instagram, Delta Airlines, and Netflix. Context: I was walking home, saw this guy, and decided to get my phone out and record. Did I worry about making his identity public? Yes, but his face isn't visible and he's already in public. I didn't look for the guy. I didn't suggest he do anything. He was there. I may not have even broken stride. I'd been looking up the fentanyl fold and nodding out.…

August 1, 2025

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