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Still in love
My high school---Central High School
Favorites / Relationships / Stories

Still in love

I first fell in love in high school, 1987 or 1988---more than two-thirds of my life ago. It was on my mind a couple weeks ago, after I attended a panel discussion my friend invited me to. It turned out that I happened to know all the panelists, though not the host. Since I arrived late and sat in the back of the room, they didn't know I was there, but my book came up. When it did, I stood up and mentioned I was there. The host invited me to the front, asked me to share about the book and how I happened to be there, and invited me to speak at a future event. I felt great to know my book was getting…

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October 28, 2017
How I Learned To Start Every Day With Purpose
How I Learned To Start Every Day With Purpose
Awareness / Favorites / Habits / SIDCHAs

How I Learned To Start Every Day With Purpose

My LinkedIn post today, "How I Learned To Start Every Day With Purpose," begins How I Learned To Start Every Day With Purpose It's Monday morning and I'm writing this post because I'm full of enthusiasm and invigorated. Why? Not because I'm a morning person. Not because I like waking up on Mondays. I have a full work day ahead of me, but I'm taking time to share how effective this one part of my morning routine is. I have to preface this practice with a couple points. First, I'm in month 11 of doing it and I only found the joy in it around month 6. Before then wasn't bad, but it took experience to kick in. Experience is the only way we change…

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October 9, 2017
Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999
Submedia's logo
Entrepreneurship / Favorites / Leadership / Stories

Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999

Ten or fifteen years ago most people knew me through Submedia, the company I co-founded to market I technology I conceived of in 1996. My invention The technology was a display we'd install on subway tunnel walls that looked to riders between stations like a movie screen outside the subway car windows. From a business perspective, we were a billboard company: we installed the displays at our cost, sold media to advertisers who wanted large audiences, and shared revenue with our landlords---transit agencies. From a technological perspective we created a new medium that reached people where no one had before, in places with a lot of people. I wrote the patent and we filed it in 1998. The company I co-founded We got our first…

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October 3, 2017
Reviews of my famous no-packaging no-recipe vegan stews
Art / Creativity / Favorites / Fitness / Nature

Reviews of my famous no-packaging no-recipe vegan stews

Taste is a matter of taste, so you may not enjoy my food as much as I do, but I've grown confident enough in it to invite people more, including for business meetings and podcasts, including a Nobel laureate, titans of industry, and more. Some probably have walk-in closets bigger than my apartment. I've asked people to write reviews so you know what to expect. (EDIT: Here are pictures from a corporate event with Faherty clothes, where I spoke on sustainability and personal responsibility and cooked for over 50 people, producing no trash (the organizers brought bread and butter and got alcohol sponsorship independent of my stews). EDIT 2: Here are pictures of me speaking on sustainability and cooking my stew at Lululemon's flagship 5th…

6 Comments
August 5, 2017
Nelson Mandela on sidchas
Nelson Mandela Boxing
Exercises / Favorites / Fitness / Freedom / Leadership / SIDCHAs

Nelson Mandela on sidchas

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth. I've waited to share something I discovered reading his autobiography a few months ago. First some context. It's the day of your release. You're a revolutionary, fighting Apartheid, imprisoned for 27 years, much of it in an 8 foot by 7 foot cell or, if outside, breaking rocks. Meanwhile, you've become a global celebrity. Over 200 million people watched your London birthday event in absentia. Meanwhile, you're a 72-year-old man, recently recovering from tuberculosis and have barely seen your family for decades. On the day of your release, what do you do? Quoting Nelson Mandela's autobiography: I awoke on the day of my release after only a few hours' sleep at 4:30am. February 11 was a…

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July 19, 2017
Education / Entrepreneurship / Favorites / Leadership

NYU Students Speak About Joshua Spodek’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership Courses

I recently met with two groups of students who took my leadership and entrepreneurship courses at NYU, Charlie Rose-style. I believe the 9 students represent the experiences of the majority of students who took my courses and did the exercises conscientiously. They included undergraduates who took my courses as freshmen and adult professionals founding or running successful businesses they founded and ran for decades. These videos are the first of more to come from these conversations. Two are mostly edited. The third is still in progress. I think they speak for themselves so here they are: Six entrepreneurship students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLsrEwaJ94g Focus on one entrepreneurship student: RJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0QUJBcEG2A Three leadership students (editing in progress) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpOl6aGholM

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July 15, 2017
My new graphic slogans
Favorites / Visualization

My new graphic slogans

Some people have told me I make some memorable short statements, which I find flattering. I've also thought about using picture-based social media sites, so I made some simple graphics of some of the statements I like. I don't know much design, so I welcome suggestions to improve. Otherwise, enjoy, and share them if you like them.

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May 6, 2017
999,316 meters!
999,316 meters!
Favorites / Fitness / Habits

999,316 meters!

Yesterday's rowing session on the rowing machine took me to 999,316 meters. My next rowing session will be my next cold shower day, May 4, unless it's as beautiful a day as today and I feel like running outdoors, and I'll hit 1,000,000 meters. One million meters is a nice milestone. It's small compared to a competitive rower, but that's the point. I'm not a serious rower. I'm 45. I write, coach, and teach, and I live a regular life. The emotional reward of crossing 1,000,000 meters, however fleeting the rowing session, means more and endures longer than anything I'd get from watching Game of Thrones or eating ice cream and cookies. Rowing takes away excuses. I can row 20 minutes and burn over 300…

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April 29, 2017
365 days without flying
Favorites / Inc.com / Leadership / Nature

365 days without flying

My Inc. article yesterday "365 days without flying," began 365 Days Without Flying Leadership means taking responsibility for my actions and empathy for those affected It's so easy to think greenhouse gases come from "other people," but when I learned that a flight across the country polluted roughly one year of driving, I could no longer tell myself flying wasn't that big a deal. So I told myself I would not fly for one year. I returned from my last trip March 23, 2016, so today marks day 365. Everyone loves travel, so I probably lost most readers who don't want to sacrifice seeing the Great Barrier Reef before it dies, or acknowledge what's killing it. But this article isn't about deprivation or sacrifice. The…

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March 23, 2017
The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning
Art / Awareness / Favorites / Stories

The bigger your achievement, the more it’s a beginning

Back when I made my art, I would sometimes find a new venue or commission that would give me the chance to work bigger than before. I'd sign a new gallery, meaning more pieces, or a museum. Or a venue with a budget would commission me. My art was technical, with laser cut steel, 8 foot photographic quality images, power cables, and so on. I could only scale up when I had a budget and a space big enough to mount the displays and for people to step far enough away to view it. How did I decide how big to make a new display? From my experience building subway advertising displays a quarter-mile long, meeting safety and fire codes for ten years in brutal…

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February 25, 2017
To avoid “processed” or “refined” foods, avoid food with fiber removed
Doof / Favorites / Fitness / Habits / Nature

To avoid “processed” or “refined” foods, avoid food with fiber removed

In response to someone posting how he avoided sugar, I shared my practice, which I find simpler, less artificial, and closer to the original plants and fungi, which is to avoid foods whose fiber has been removed. (EDIT: see an image of the results at the bottom of the page) Here are a few posts I wrote, first my original response, then my responses to responses. I worked at finding a simple policy for myself and settled on: I avoid food where fiber has been removed. That cuts out sugar, white flour, corn syrup, oils, and basically all junk, forcing me to eat tons of vegetables, fruit, legumes, and nuts. I already didn't eat animal products. I haven't cut them to zero, but fiber-removed foods…

8 Comments
February 3, 2017
Reviews of Leadership Step by Step: the Course
Awareness / Education / Exercises / Favorites / Leadership

Reviews of Leadership Step by Step: the Course

Leadership Step by Step Below are anonymous reviews by people who did the book's exercises. They range from first year undergraduates to graduate students to adult learners to clients in their 60s who have sold businesses. (Not all are native English speakers.) "This course really changed by definition of "Leadership." Joshua is an amazing professor. He taught this class in a way that we learned about ourselves and then to understand others. He taught us how to find the real emotions and beliefs behind someone's behavior and use that emotion to lead them and make them feel understood." -- "I truly hope other NYU students have the privilege of taking this course. It is the exact material that students of my generation need in order…

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January 26, 2017
Blurbs and Endorsements for Leadership Step by Step
Creativity / Education / Exercises / Favorites / Leadership / Models

Blurbs and Endorsements for Leadership Step by Step

Reviews of Leadership Step by Step By Joshua Spodek Buy Leadership Step by Step on Amazon! https://youtu.be/3n2gecJha6o Great leaders aren’t born with a ‘leadership gene’; great leaders develop the necessary skills and gain confidence through practice and hard work. In Leadership Step by Step Joshua Spodek presents a thoughtful approach to becoming a highly effective leader that emphasizes the importance of experiential learning. It will serve as a valuable resource for leaders at all levels in any profession. Indeed, Joshua’s practical exercises will help prospective, as well as experienced leaders, to master their craft and ultimately to succeed in leading and inspiring others in their various pursuits. General Lloyd J. Austin III, United States Secretary of Defense Joshua is changing the game for leadership development…

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January 24, 2017
Awareness / Favorites / Stories

The five times I got mugged growing up

Not sure how interesting this post will be to others since it's not about helping or insight. Just reflecting on my childhood. On the other hand, I suspect people have a morbid fascination about reading about crime and personal stories. Talking to my sister recently about her comparing this generation growing up and our growing up, she commented on how our childhoods seemed normal to us but that they weren't by the standards of most people she knew. I hadn't thought about it, but agreed with her. I just took for granted that most people got mugged a few times as kids. Growing up in Philadelphia meant an urban environment. My family's neighborhoods were residential, but within the city, and bordered some poor and dangerous…

4 Comments
October 7, 2016
20-minute vegetable stew
Favorites / Fitness / Nature / Visualization

20-minute vegetable stew

I've written about fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes, and how delicious, nutritious, convenient, and cheap they are. I decided to record myself making stew from scratch. I only wish I could write how delicious and nutritious it is. It tastes like it stewed all day. Yesterday and the day before you saw the contents of my fridge. Here's what I do with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Ss9fXtSAc A few comments You'll notice I comment on the bag, rubber bands, and water. I try to minimize waste. The main waste for this was the packaging for the salt and curry powder, which I would average over hundreds of meals. Everything else I reused without getting new. The choice of vegetables is seasonal by what I pick up from my CSA…

8 Comments
July 22, 2016
Personal rowing record: 5,016 meters in 20 minutes
Favorites / Fitness

Personal rowing record: 5,016 meters in 20 minutes

Three weeks ago I rowed 4,994 meters in 20 minutes, a speed that felt surprising to keep up the whole time. I've been approaching 5,000 meters in 20 minutes for a while. Today I rowed 20 minutes 5,016 meters 334 calories or 1,003 calories / hour 1:59.6 min / 500m split I can't tell you how good the accomplishment feels. I didn't plan on doing it today. I started rowing faster and harder than usual, felt good, and kept the pace. Not long ago, I struggled to keep up 900 calories per hour for a few minutes at the end. Now I maintained over 1,000 calories per hour for twenty minutes. My body and mind kept telling me to stop. I felt nauseated for part…

2 Comments
June 18, 2016
Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Favorites / Nature / Perception

Everybody cares about the environment until they want to fly somewhere

Everyone says they care about the environment. Talk is cheap. How they behave tells you what they care about. If they choose themselves over something they say they care about, that tells you their priority. I talk a lot about how I try to avoid flying because the pollution it causes hurts people. When people talk about how much more first-worlders pollute more than others, flying contributes a lot. But talk to someone about taking fewer flights and you will get the most self-serving, fatuous reasons why pollution is not an issue for flying. Whatever it takes to deny to themselves how when people talk about how humans are destroying the environment for future generations, and now current generations, they themselves---likely you yourself, since most…

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March 31, 2016
“One of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun.”
Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Favorites / Leadership

“One of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun.”

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 over the past century or so. I'm using what works. As you can tell, though the course was nominally about entrepreneurship, this active, experiential style also made it about responsibility, initiative, hustle, empathy, and other deeper and broader areas than just academic or abstract information. Also, of course, most of the credit goes to the…

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January 13, 2016
Awareness / Favorites / Stories

When I was mugged at knifepoint in Amsterdam

I talked my way out of a guy threatening me with a knife. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe the girl earlier in the night, maybe the physics, but something gave me the courage. As we both walked away I kept looking back, worried he might come after me, but he never did, and I went to my friend's place to sleep. The year must have been 1998 or 1999 because I was close to finishing the lab research part of my thesis. The x-ray observational satellite I was helping build and calibrate was sponsored by the European Space Agency---ESA, Europe's counterpart to NASA---and I had presented my results in Utrecht. The results came from years of research and lab work culminating in a few…

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September 11, 2014
Awareness / Favorites / Freedom / Nature

Ten days with no internet, phone, reading, writing, or talking

If you didn't know, I spent my past ten days at my second ten-day mediation retreat. Here are old posts on it for your background: Vipassana Meditation Goenka and 10-day meditation retreats These retreats have no internet, phone, reading, writing, or talking. You sit still for about ten to twelve hours a day. Because writing here is one of my SIDCHAs and I don't want to deprive readers of my material (and I had a backlog of post ideas I'd meant to catch up on for a long time) I wrote the past ten days' posts before leaving and scheduled them to come up on time. I wanted to speculate on what I might get out of the retreat before going on it to compare…

3 Comments
May 11, 2014
Master introversion AND extroversion
Awareness / Favorites / Freedom / Leadership / Models / Nature / Visualization

Master introversion AND extroversion

Yesterday I wrote about freeing yourself from constraining beliefs. Today I'll expand on creating new beliefs to free yourself from such constraints. I wanted to illustrate at least one alternative to the standard one-dimensional model of introversion and extroversion that I find impedes self-awareness, understanding, and personal growth and development. Many people continue to believe it because they have no alternative that helps their life more. Others rigidly hold on to their old belief because they can't distinguish between the belief and the object of their belief -- for example, telling people who disagree with their view that they don't understand the definition of introvert or extrovert, not recognizing a definition describes a model not people. If you reject the model, those definitions don't matter.…

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January 12, 2014
Burpees: unbeatable for fitness and my favorite sidcha: the series
Favorites / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Tips

Burpees: unbeatable for fitness and my favorite sidcha: the series

I've done burpees daily since December 22, 2011, at 40 years of age, starting with 10 a day, building to over 50 per day. I haven't missed a day or burpee. [EDIT January 2025: In the nearly ten thousand sets I've done, I've recorded maybe one or two. I recently recorded a morning set. Read this post for some notes about it, then watch this video. I probably should have recorded more when I was younger than 53, but this video is what I have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eze7TNdyqas&t=8s ] I started them with a friend and they became one of my top sidchas---the first I simply started from scratch and never stopped. Why burpees? Top burpee values: They put me in the best shape of my life…

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November 26, 2013
Communication skills exercises for business and life
Education / Exercises / Favorites / Leadership / Tips

Communication skills exercises for business and life

Without effective communication skills and comfort practicing them, whatever awesomeness you have inside you is invisible to the world. You might as well not have it. Other people will nearly always be attracted to people with better social skills. With effective communication skills and comfort practicing them, you can showcase your inner awesomeness to your heart's content. You can attract other people, whether for business, personal, or whatever reason you want. People want to do business with you and invite you to join them because they want people around who communicate well. Anybody can improve their communication skills, including you People today sometimes think I was naturally born socially adept. I'm flattered, but I remember years of sitting in the library on Friday nights, not…

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November 10, 2013
Blog / Favorites / Leadership

People join good projects and leave bad management

Today's post is about one of the most concise yet most meaningful sayings about the workplace I've heard: People join good projects and leave bad management. Besides the poignant humor nearly everyone feels when, on first hearing the phrase, they remember projects they enthusiastically joined only to find their optimism ruined by an intolerable relationship with a manager, it has meaning on many other levels. My goal in this post, as in this blog, is to help raise awareness about a problem and describe solutions. In this case also to publicize the phrase, which I consider useful and funny and not nearly well-known enough for how useful and funny it is. Searching on the phrase links to my first post on this phrase. More importantly,…

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October 9, 2013
Exercises / Favorites / Fitness / Habits / Models / SIDCHAs / Tips

A model for consistency: If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two it’s over.

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Do you have trouble keeping a habit going? Today's model is my model for maintaining my daily habits. A model for consistency: If you miss one day you can miss two. If you miss two it's over. My friend who set this blog up for me told me this belief when I asked him how often he posted -- a few days a week, every weekday, or what. He said he posted every day and that if you miss one day,…

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May 12, 2013

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