I’ve written about the value of sharing your passions. When you do, people who share them too will find you and enrich your world. A reader wrote me about burpees and we got into a rewarding conversation. I’ll share the start of it, mainly hoping to extend the community and motivate others. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but it enriches ones life to find people to share passions with. It’s encouraging, rewarding,[…] Keep reading →

We all have Habits we don’t like that we want to break Habits we think we’ll like that we want to start Foods we want to avoid Foods we want to eat more of Skills we want to learn All sorts of things we want to change about our lives… BUT WE DON’T CHOOSE THEM. The classic case is the chocolate cake in front of us that, when it wasn’t[…] Keep reading →

Someone asked on a forum for men over 30 when they started noticing physical declines. I thought I’d share what I wrote there here: My body overall peaked in my early 30s but the decline is a lot slower than I expected. My sports performance dropped off heavily. I played nationals-level ultimate frisbee then. Now I’m a bit player in summer league. A couple years, maybe age 32 to 35,[…] Keep reading →

In “Creating life … my first tomato!” I wrote about my first gardening experiments and how proud I was of my first tomato growing. That’s nothing compared to people who seriously garden, but I have low standards the first time and this is a first time. It turns out it’s a cherry tomato. Also, I learned that tomato plants usually need insects to pollinate the flowers and cause them to[…] Keep reading →

Do you think Michelangelo looked at his statue of David while he sculpted it? I read that Da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa for more than ten years. Do you think he looked at it in that time—to appreciate his work to date, to guide his upcoming work, and so on? I have a playful little rule for myself that I’m not allowed to look in the mirror before[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. 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.] Today roughly marks my hitting my 80,000th burpee since starting the sidcha in December 2011. After the first month, I wrote “How to begin a workout[…] Keep reading →

The words of A Nation At Risk, a U.S. education policy document from 1983 have stuck with me through the years: we find that for too many people education means doing the minimum work necessary for the moment, then coasting through life on what may have been learned in its first quarter. But this should not surprise us because we tend to express our educational standards and expectations largely in[…] Keep reading →

I had a fantastic conversation with Jim Harshaw for his podcast, Wrestling With Success. I am honored and humbled that he invited me into the ranks of his guests. I recommend listening to many other episodes besides mine, including his early ones where you get to learn about him. Among other guests, he’s had people in space. I’ve only helped build satellites. Jim is a Division 1 champion wrestler and[…] Keep reading →

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. A few comments You’ll notice I comment on[…] Keep reading →