I ask people about their passions a lot. Many tell me they have no passions, which makes me sad for them. I don’t think passions are something you find lying around but something you create and build from small interests through self-awareness, effort, and dedication. It means they haven’t created something they could have. They either never invested enough to find out what it took to create a passion or,[…] Keep reading →

I wrote the following in response to this New York Times article, “Eating for Health, Not Weight” in a discussion on Hacker News. With an Ivy League PhD in physics, I’m a big fan of science. I have not observed a scientific approach to diet effective in promoting health. In my albeit limited observation, I observe no correlation between knowing a lot about food, digestion, etc and fitness or healthiness.[…] Keep reading →

It seems grandmothers running marathons appeals to a lot of people. A fitness and fashion line called Miss Matahari has profiled my mother as one of (currently the first on the page, naturally) several inspirational women representing the fitness and fashion-inspired brand. Better branding you won’t find at any price. Their tagline is Have you ever wanted to do something others told you was impossible? I could get behind that[…] Keep reading →

I was inspired to write the past couple days of food-related posts by an article about the food store I grew up with in Philadelphia called Weaver’s Way, which my family called just “the co-op.” The store is a cooperative, meaning you have to be a co-owner to shop and you have to work a certain number of hours per year. When I was younger and lived in Philadelphia I[…] Keep reading →

I don’t know if I have to explain how shopping for, preparing, and eating food qualifies as fundamental to self-awareness and therefore leadership. A few years ago I would have considered food shopping irrelevant to self-awareness. I’ve changed. I’ll start with an aside on how big an effect just gardening can have with Victory Gardens. During the World Wars, when mainstream food production dropped, governments promoted their citizens planting so-called[…] Keep reading →

I’ll describe an effect across many spheres of human life, including, probably, yours. I’ll describe it in the realm of food, but it applies all over. Most people, when they don’t think much about it, like sweets and comfort food — not always that healthy. If you gave them, say, some broccoli rabe, even cooked to perfection — say just lightly fried in olive oil with a touch of lemon[…] Keep reading →

People seem to want to change a lot about them. I see them trying to do the opposite of what they are trying to change. Sometimes it works. More often trying to do the opposite of what they want to stop reinforces doing it more. Food For example, overweight people often think if they eat too much they should try the opposite and try to eat less. But dieting seems[…] Keep reading →

[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.] When I worry about a difficult choice I have to make I think of a parable. Some martial arts students ask their teacher how he always[…] Keep reading →

Some people choose to be overweight — Mario Batali, for example, seems to love fattening food, knows how eating it will affect him, and eats it, accepting, even celebrating, the consequences with pleasure. I take my hat off to him. This post isn’t about him. I should also point out I don’t consider being overweight bad. Regular readers know I don’t consider such things good, bad, right, or wrong. I’m[…] Keep reading →