The one-on-one interactions between regular players I described yesterday not representing their countries led to a series of ping pong players from each nation touring the others’. With the Vietnam War raging, the press around the world covered the interactions. According to Smithsonian Magazine Soon after the U.S. team’s trip, Nixon, not wanting to lose momentum, secretly sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Peking to arrange a Presidential visit[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I suggested Nixon couldn’t have opened China since ping pong opened it a year before. If you’re like me, you’ve never heard of “ping pong diplomacy.” Or maybe you’ve heard the words together, but don’t know what they mean. I understand people who were adults at the time will all know the phrase, if perhaps from hazy memories. From Wikipedia’s page on ping pong diplomacy: Ping pong diplomacy refers[…] Keep reading →

I left off yesterday’s introduction to Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea, which recounted China’s change from a failing planned economy to an increasingly market-based economy, with the question “Did Nixon open China?”. It looks that way. Yesterday’s post described the huge changes to China’s government and economy occurring immediately after his visit. Searching “Nixon opened China” gets you innumerable hits on the internet. According to the Wikipedia page on Nixon’s[…] Keep reading →

My first interview yesterday on playing Ultimate Frisbee in Pyongyang reveals how dramatically and positively the experience affected me. As much as it inspired and influenced me as an individual, I have come to see the event in a larger context. This series of posts covers Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea. Ultimate in most places might purely be about sport. North Korea is not a usual place, so it’s about[…] Keep reading →

On Sunday, September 4, 2011, I played in the first ever ultimate Frisbee games and tournament in North Korea in Pyongyang. North Korea is as much a frontier to Americans as any place on Earth today. I believe like ping-pong diplomacy opened China before Nixon did, so will ultimate play a greater role in normalizing relations with North Korea than any traditional diplomacy. This interview talks about the emotions involved[…] Keep reading →

If you’re reading my blog you may be considering getting a coach, maybe even considering me. I’ve observed that the people who perform best at things tend to have coaches whereas the people who don’t do so well remark that they don’t need coaching or bristle at the prospect of getting help. Derek Jeter has multiple coaches. Forty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have personal coaches. This week’s New Yorker[…] Keep reading →

Do you want eating well and exercising to be easy, fun, and rewarding? In this interview, I talk about how I do it. Briefly, I associate things I want more of in life with happy, fun, or rewarding emotions and things I want less of with painful or unrewarding emotions. The result is I never do anything I don’t want to, I always do what I want to, and I[…] Keep reading →

It’s great to improve your life. It’s that much better to get others to improve it for you. How do you do it? Here’s one way. Share things you love. It’s enough to tell people about those things. Here’s an example. At my mom’s house over the weekend, I asked my mom about the Vitamixer she has. She bought this super-powered blender from a late-night infomercial maybe twenty years ago.[…] Keep reading →

Today is another pause in my series on exercises on communications skills, based on some posts I read on orange juice and how agribusiness processes it. Do you love orange juice? How could it not be just squeezed fruit juice? I love fresh squeezed juice. Fresh squeezed orange juice is one of my favorite things on earth. Growing up we got it from concentrate, I guess because we couldn’t afford[…] Keep reading →