I compiled feedback from students in the entrepreneurship class I taught at NYU last semester. Though the students were undergraduates, I taught basically the same exercises as I do with executives and seasoned executives, who get similar results. As much as my vanity would like to take credit for some of these reviews, more credit goes to the style of teaching I use—inquiry-driven project-based learning—and the people who developed it[…] Keep reading →

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicists, looking at the consequences of one’s actions instead of imposing values on others, here is my take on today’s post, “Do We Have to Send Our Kid to a Bad Public School?” My wife and I are an interracial couple living in Oakland, Calif. We are both first-generation college graduates for whom solid public-school educations made[…] Keep reading →

With New York City hitting 72 degrees Fahrenheit in late December, part of one of the most extreme month-long temperature deviations ever recorded, people seem to be starting to understand that the climate getting hotter can affect them in their lifetimes. It won’t affect them as much as the temperature hitting thirty degrees too hot in August, though I’d expect people would just turn their air conditioners on higher and[…] Keep reading →

The Media Center is “a new kind of collaborative workspace dedicated to supporting and connecting the next generation of media and tech entrepreneurs, innovators and artists by providing industry resources, events, mentorship and educational opportunities,” created by the City of New York’s Made In NY program and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP). It’s a vibrant space with an active community in an exciting area of Brooklyn. On January 26th I’ll[…] Keep reading →

If you want to learn, find an experience to teach you and make it happen, not just the answers written out. Let the experience create the answer for you. When I wanted to learn something, I used to get a book and read about it. We learn more through experience. I teach that way. I also realize I’ve adopted the habit of trying to do things to learn. If I[…] Keep reading →

Effective learning doesn’t come from telling you the answers. It comes giving experiences that lead you to find out the answer for yourself. That’s why we value experience and not just someone who can repeat what others told them. You don’t hire someone because they can tell you what they read or heard. You hire them for what they’ve done. That’s why I create my courses as I do. Traditional[…] Keep reading →

In college and graduate school I held academia in high regard, mainly because I valued education and learning. Spending time outside academia showed me how much education and learning happens outside academia. Returning to academia showed me that people in it don’t all keep learning that much. And what schools teach isn’t always that useful. Since I played sports all through college and graduate school, I also conflated academics and[…] Keep reading →