Continuing yesterday’s post on why we body-slam kids in school, I wanted to reiterate the role of the United States’ overall culture—you and I included—in creating school environments where cops body-slamming kids is inevitable. Three movies illustrate our culture’s views on violence and kids. American Sniper First, watch the closing scenes of American Sniper, which show real-life footage of the main character’s funeral. You don’t need to have seen the[…] Keep reading →

You saw the video of the cop slamming the student in a grade-school classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C39aib3nkvM Everybody is quick to talk about race and belligerent cops. What everyone is missing We’re so accustomed to regimented schools, we miss what an anti-educational environment we’ve made our schools into. Notice that during this violent interaction, none of the other students or the teacher acts with shock, to defend her, or to do anything[…] Keep reading →

Do you like business success? Then read “Going the Distance,” in Columbia Business School’s alumni magazine, on how sports contribute to business success in an interview of me. Here is part of the interview, to whet your appetite: Skills mastered through endurance sports fuel success in business, says marathoner and serial entrepreneur Joshua Spodek ’06. […] First things first: why run?  One of the attractions of running is that there’s[…] Keep reading →

“Nice guys finish last.” Alone, this thought has probably condemned many men and women to abandon being nice. Accurate or not, combined with another belief, that the alternative to being nice is to be a jerk, further condemns people to being jerks. Jerks—people with one type of poor relationship skills—even when materially successful, seem likely to face emptiness in intimacy, what many consider the most important parts of their lives.[…] Keep reading →

I hope long time readers are asking, “What?!” Five years ago, in my fifth post on this blog, I wrote “Less, please,” which founded one of my most fundamental practices, one I recommend to everyone. That post described reducing my wall of books to about ten, learning about my values and discovering freedom where I used to feel weighed down. I’ve since gotten rid of more books and more other[…] Keep reading →

I think everyone I know knows this, but trying to keep yourself healthy by disinfecting everything you touch, thinking all bacteria and other life weakens your immune system and makes you less healthy. People misunderstand bacteria and other life. They aren’t exclusively unhealthy, though some are, and don’t only exist in a few places. Most of them are symbiotic and are everywhere all the time, including in us, even ones[…] Keep reading →

After writing about bad boys, success, and discipline yesterday, you might ask, “What about Tiger Woods? Why was he pilloried? He is full of discipline. Why didn’t society accept of him something many successful athletes do?” I’m no expert on public relations, but I see two main issues. First, the lesser issue. He doesn’t have a bad boy reputation. His is clean cut and respectful, or looks that way to[…] Keep reading →

America loves and hates bad boys. The media vilify and attack small transgressions. Take Howard Dean. He wasn’t even a bad boy and the media destroyed him after he expressed too much joy and he went from first place to no chance. Yet others who break more stringent rules become icons—in fact, some of our most highly regarded and lauded. Why the difference? Why did Howard Dean go down while[…] Keep reading →

Academia has some serious problems. I give a lot of talks to graduate students on what they can do after graduate school, though the following applies to undergraduates too. Many of them are worried about finding jobs. I grab their attention every time with this question: When I was getting my PhD in physics, I thought the only fields I could go into were academia to become a professor, industry[…] Keep reading →