Spring came late this year to New York City. Two days ago the weather was beautiful enough I had go running. I ran down to the Hudson and turned north, usually about a five-mile run when I turn around at 45th Street. The weather was so beautiful I kept going. Figuring out how much farther makes you balance enjoying the outdoors, risking being too tired to get back too far[…] Keep reading →

Two-and-a-half weeks ago I decided to avoid buying any food with packaging for a week. I’m on eighteen days and counting. I didn’t try to come up with a perfect rule because trying for perfection kept making me delay trying. I settled on the rule that I wouldn’t buy food that had any packaging or get food at a restaurant. I’d figure out on the fly what to do in[…] Keep reading →

This morning I read New York magazine’s weekly listing of bars and restaurants, describing fun places in the city to go to. They have a section listing some activities called “The Cut,” which I think means these are the activities that “make the cut” of their curating. I used to read the listings to find things to do. The section is for that, and I presume many people use it[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s post, “The basics: more simple and valuable than you think” about how the masters tend to focus on basics, I found a series of videos made by a great basketball player, Michael Jordan. He’s made few instructional videos. He could do things no one else could and made them look easy. He can teach anything he wants. So what does he teach? Simple basics. Things like getting[…] Keep reading →

I wrote before about the two meanings of competition. I’ve also noticed two distinct feelings of exhaustion. I think most people think of the exhaustion as something they don’t like, like at the end of a long day of work they didn’t want to do or didn’t enjoy. Another is similar, but I think distinct because we like the feeling so much. The second exhaustion comes from doing something we[…] Keep reading →

In April I spoke by invitation at NYU-Stern, MIT, Columbia Business School, and Princeton, I’m proud to say. As best I can remember it was my first time visiting MIT, though I may have visited my senior year in college. I remember competing against their ultimate team in college as well as competing with some of their players, including at Mardi Gras one year. In MIT fashion, the board behind[…] Keep reading →

Following up on “Passions, you create,” which I recommend rereading, where I wrote about passion not being something you happen to find, like if you just turned over enough rocks you’d find it… Everyone has the same potential to develop passions, as far as I can tell. If all you do is turn over rocks but never dig in—that is, look at what others do and think about those things[…] Keep reading →

Something I’ve meant to do as I cut out more prepared foods is to go for a while without buying any food with any packaging. I think it would make an interesting experiment and I’m learning a lot experientially. I’ve been thinking about how to do it effectively—most consistently, or most something or other. Tonight I bought some fruits and vegetables at the produce stand down the block, telling the[…] Keep reading →

People talk down about processed food. I think it’s important to clarify what “processed” means. Does peeling a banana qualify as processing it? Does frying something count? How is a Twinkie different than something you prepare yourself? For some reason, people like to argue with people about what they eat. I wish I could say I don’t understand why but I used to too. Anyway, I found a definition that[…] Keep reading →