Would you drive a car that sent its exhaust into where you sit? Would you fly in a plane that sent its exhaust into the cabin? Would you dispose of all your garbage by digging a hole in your yard and keeping it there forever? If you send the exhaust and garbage into the rest of the world, it doesn’t go away. You’ve made your problem your neighbors’ problem. If[…] Keep reading →

I recently hit on the following observations. I shared them with a few people with experience in the overlap of experience in leading, science, and living more sustainably. They understood the concepts after some explanation, but suggested they wouldn’t be accessible to many people outside that zone. I’m not sure how many people they’ll make sense to, but I consider them big discoveries. Some day I’ll write essays on each.[…] Keep reading →

Few things have made me so grateful to live in a time when the phrase “not even wrong” exists. I’ve read parts of White Fragility and skimmed more. I didn’t realize how impactful she had become. I’m commenting today on this video of her I just watched: “One plus one equals three” is, in mathematics, wrong. It might be nice in poetry and you can find ways to make it[…] Keep reading →

It’s natural to think of our environmental problems as issues of science, technology, or markets. We learned of them from scientists. Technologists and business people said they could solve them, but they’re social. The environment isn’t changing on its own. We’re changing it. Pollution destroys life, liberty, and property, mentioned throughout the US Constitution. We feel anxiety not from an effectively abstract “climate,” but because people can unilaterally destroy our[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been reading podcast guest Manisha Sinha’s book The Counterrevolution of Slavery, which recounts how slaveholders spoke and acted to justify and advance their institution of slavery. I know to expect it from having seen it before in podcast guest James Oakes’s The Ruling Race and Jenkins’ Proslavery Thought in the Old South, but I’m still shocked at how relevant their thinking is today. They treat a different institution, but[…] Keep reading →

A vignette from Michael Lombardi, podcast guest and football great General Manager about his mentor Bill Walsh, appears in his book Gridiron Genius, sticks with me. In particular, the part at the end of this passage about the picture frame. To me, one way mastery differs from just doing enough is that when we master an art or craft, we love the details. Before mastery, they may seem drudge work.[…] Keep reading →

Strategies and tactics based in convincing, cajoling, coercing, and seeking compliance that may sound nice, but step on the gas, thinking it’s the brake, wanting congratulations. That is, they exacerbate the problem. Compare this list with tomorrow’s list of emotions that emerge from the Spodek Method about nature that, when acted on, lead to people doing more than they said they would, expressing gratitude, and being happy to share. I[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers know I pick up litter every day. The other day I found this garbage wedged in the scaffolding of a building under construction. (Come to think of it, a topic I should write more about is this bizarre practice of litter being wedged and stuffed into places and why people do it. I’m not sure, but I have some ideas. In any case, all this littering is socializing[…] Keep reading →

I wrote last year about how We can’t turn off our emotional systems and we all share the same emotions, regarding NYU’s likely well-intentioned but misguided posters decrying saying “hate has no place at NYU.” I wrote then: To say “Hate has no place at NYU” seems like saying “Thumbs have no place at NYU” or “Spleens have no place at NYU.” We all have the wiring to hate. To[…] Keep reading →