Nature

Wasting less, could still waste yet less
Awareness / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / Nature

Wasting less, could still waste yet less

On January 27th I made a video about starting a new trash bag for my waste. I predicted I would take six months to fill it. With a guest staying over, we ended up filling it in just over four person-months. I think I can produce less waste, but I'm pleased with how I did so far. In no way did I feel constrained. On the contrary, I felt less confined by stuff and certainly less dirty, having less garbage around. Here's a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MYxs6wAdUk Efficiency and Responsibility Why do I post about garbage? Who cares about it? Your waste affects everyone. Within your teams, you create less garbage, literally and figuratively, when you run more lean. Beyond your teams, your garbage is…

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April 30, 2016
Fitness / Models / Nature / Perception

“Eating healthy is expensive and takes too much time” is wrong

I just read yet another post of someone saying eating healthy takes more time and money. I can't believe how wrong that view is, at least by my experience. Living in New York City means I have access to some of the best restaurants in the world. I can afford to eat at them. Yet my past year's cooking has disillusioned me in them. I find them disappointing. Their food still tastes that same. They're just as convenient. Their food just doesn't taste as good as what I can make at home and cooking, eating, and cleaning at home takes less time than eating out our having it delivered. I like cooking at home first and foremost because it tastes better. Next because it takes…

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April 13, 2016
Cabbage
Awareness / Fitness / Nature / Perception

Cabbage

If this doesn't sound like leadership and the rest of what I usually write about, it is. It's about awareness, perception, discovery, and living your life. Increasingly I see food and how you eat as fundamental to leading yourself. Cabbage is delicious! I grew up thinking it was supposed to taste bad. I thought maybe when I grew up I would "acquire the taste for it." I never bought cabbage before last year. Since joining the farm share, where I get vegetables from a nearby farm every week, I've been eating a lot more vegetables. Even when I got it last year as part of the shipment, I would steam it and make something like sauerkraut with it. I didn't know anything else to do…

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April 11, 2016
Everybody cares about the environment until they want to fly somewhere
Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / My Favorite Posts / Nature / Perception

Everybody cares about the environment until they want to fly somewhere

Everyone says they care about the environment. Talk is cheap. How they behave tells you what they care about. If they choose themselves over something they say they care about, that tells you their priority. I talk a lot about how I try to avoid flying because the pollution it causes hurts people. When people talk about how much more first-worlders pollute more than others, flying contributes a lot. But talk to someone about taking fewer flights and you will get the most self-serving, fatuous reasons why pollution is not an issue for flying. Whatever it takes to deny to themselves how when people talk about how humans are destroying the environment for future generations, and now current generations, they themselves---likely you yourself, since most…

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March 31, 2016
Awareness / Freedom / Models / Nature / Perception

How to use space travel to make mangoes taste better

This passage interviewing a guy who walked in space, plus some context, can help you enjoy life more, even---especially---if you can't get to space but expect you'd love the experience. From the article: In the 1960s, he says, "astronauts were celebrities. They were invited on JFK's boat. If you wanted to go to space, you had to become Neil Armstrong." Today, however, space-travel companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are creating new opportunities for engineers. I imagine most people would find the Earth from space one of the most beautiful sights imaginable. Many would love being celebrities who get to hang out with Presidents. Astronauts lost their 60s status long ago. Charles Lindberg was once famous for crossing the Atlantic. So was Christopher Columbus. Thousands…

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March 26, 2016
Want to run leaner? Waste less. Literally: produce less waste.
Awareness / Freedom / Habits / Leadership / Nature

Want to run leaner? Waste less. Literally: produce less waste.

The videos below aren't glamorous. They're about trash---regular household trash. Our world is swimming in garbage. The business world is obsessed with reducing waste and improving efficiency, but only for what it accounts for, which rarely includes actual physical waste, which taxpayers pay for carting away to landfills, where it slowly seeps out to the ecosphere. Most of us wish businesses were held accountable for other forms of waste, like pollution. How about you and your personal waste? Do you hold yourself accountable for your waste? Most people, when asked to account for their waste---how much they pollute---point out how others pollute more or something to deflect exposing how much they pollute. People also confuse caring about pollution with caring about trees or abstract ideals.…

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March 17, 2016
Video: Integrity means considering the results of your actions on other people
Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Leadership / Nature

Video: Integrity means considering the results of your actions on other people

The forecast for the day after tomorrow in New York City, for mid-February, is 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.5 C)---beyond unseasonably warm, especially after a 72 degree Christmas Eve (!!), followed by the hottest month for the planet recorded relative to normal. You know the signs we're beyond the possibility of climate change. We're in it. My version of leadership means taking responsibility for your actions and their effects on others---all the effects, not just the ones you want. However much you think pollutions happens mostly from others, not you, you contribute to it. Which means you can change your behavior to reduce how much you pollute. Even if you think you're only contributing one part in seven billion, you're responsible for one hundred percent that…

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February 18, 2016
Awareness / Fitness / Freedom / Habits / Nature

The obesity gut-punch

Gallup reported yesterday "U.S. Obesity Rate Climbs to Record High in 2015." You can read the report for yourself, but adult obesity rose from 25.5% in 2008 to 28% last year, over six million adults. That's self-reported, which means the rate is higher. 11.5% have diabetes. As much as we've grown accustomed to these perennial increases, last year's increase felt like a bigger gut-punch to me. My 2015 food results: Better taste, lower cost, feeling more full, easier preparation, healthier Anyone who talked to me in the past six months knows 2015 was probably my best year regarding food. I couldn't stop talking about the combination of Eating more delicious food Spending less money on food Eating more healthily Feeling more full Polluting less from…

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February 13, 2016
Video: Do what others fear, easy version
Fitness / Nature / Nonjudgment / Tips

Video: Do what others fear, easy version

I've posted how unhealthy fruit juice is, how beverage corporations (Coke and Pepsi, mainly) turn even so-called "100% juice" orange juice into chemical concoctions (which led to a beverage industry PR person contacting me to try to change my story), and how healthy orange peels are. They're full of fiber, vitamin C, and flavor and texture that contrast and complement the juice inside. Since most people think of citrus fruit peels as not something you eat, except when covered in sugar, I think most people would consider eating them weird. That's their business. I thought that way too long. If I swam across the Hudson River, I can experiment with some fruit peel I learned is healthy and that people eat anyway. I just won't…

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February 8, 2016
Fitness / Nature / Tips

Pressure cookers rock!

I posted this elsewhere and couldn't help reposting here, risking repeating from earlier posts: Bought an electric pressure cooker a few months ago (Cuisinart CPC-600, $50 pre-owned but unused from Craig's List). One of the best purchases of my life, especially combined with my farm share, which brings me fresh seasonal vegetables. Also avoiding food packaging, which nearly eliminated food from boxes, bags, or other packages. I tell myself I'll follow a recipe at some point, but so far I haven't needed one. All I do is wash vegetables, chop them, and put them in with beans or lentils, olive oil, garlic, onions, and whatever spices I feel like (usually just cayenne pepper). Then I add salt when I eat it. The flavors are deep,…

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February 1, 2016
Plastic grass for kids? What are we doing?
Nature

Plastic grass for kids? What are we doing?

Doesn't this playground I saw the other day look lovely? Can you see that soft, rich, green lawn? Doesn't it look like a perfect place for children to play? I lush lawns like this more and more. How do they get it so green in late January? It isn't grass. It's plastic. It looks more like grass than any Astroturf so far. Why do we use it? Because it's cheaper and more durable than grass. This is what we've come to. We give kids the illusion of grass lawns with the reality of petroleum by-product because we've taken away the space per child to sustain living plants and aren't willing to devote resources to maintain them, Somehow no one seems to complain, I guess because…

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January 26, 2016
Nature

What everyone misses when looking at “the science behind science-related movies”

I watched The Martian and liked it. "How accurate is the science?" the media always asks, which then looks at the physical interactions and chemical reactions of the science and engineering in the movie. They always miss what I've come to conclude is the most important part of the science---the trial and error. A movie shows a chemist mixing sugar and liquid oxygen, saying the mix is more powerful than dynamite, and shows its explosion accelerate the space craft as desired. Or it shows a character mix potatoes, Martian dirt, human feces, and water to make an indoor potato farm. Always, the character describes how it works in theory. Media reviewers only consider if it works in theory. If they think it can, they imagine…

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January 12, 2016
Awareness / Nature

I know what the carrying capacity of the Earth is, and you don’t want to know it

What's the carrying capacity of the Earth? You started thinking of a number, right? Most people start thinking of some number around ten billion, within a factor of two or so. I meant, what does the concept mean. Most people don't think of what it means. I didn't until recently, and realizing what it means changes how I think about it a lot more than I expected. Wikipedia says The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water, and other necessities available in the environment. If you think the carrying capacity is how many people the Earth could sustain living like you do, you're not…

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January 5, 2016
Stop before you ruin it: Math that improves your life
Awareness / Fitness / Models / Nature / Visualization

Stop before you ruin it: Math that improves your life

Do you hate doing things that take effort and get you no results? You're probably doing it a lot without realizing it, especially if you don't understand this simple concept I'll illustrate below. If you'd like to stop wasting your time, energy, and other resources on things that don't help your life, read on. Some things work like this: If the temperature goes up in Fahrenheit, it also goes up in Celsius. If you work more hours and you get paid by the hour, you'll get paid more. It illustrates cases where what you put in, you get out. We call it "linear" because it looks like a line. Not everything works this way. If you don't get enough vitamin C, your health improves when…

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January 1, 2016
Awareness / Education / Nature

The value of science education

With New York City hitting 72 degrees Fahrenheit in late December, part of one of the most extreme month-long temperature deviations ever recorded, people seem to be starting to understand that the climate getting hotter can affect them in their lifetimes. It won't affect them as much as the temperature hitting thirty degrees too hot in August, though I'd expect people would just turn their air conditioners on higher and not go outside if the temperature hit 110 or 120. India faces those temperatures and people have learned to handle it for tens of thousands of years without air conditioning. I still often find people don't understand that their behavior affects the climate. Grown adults I know with college educations from prestigious schools ask me,…

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December 27, 2015
How orange peels free you from shame and ignorance
Fitness / Habits / Nature / Nonjudgment / Tips

How orange peels free you from shame and ignorance

Would you feel weird to eat the peel of an orange? I don't know about you, but I would have thought people would consider me weird to peel an orange and then eat any of the peel. It turns out the peel has most of the fruit's vitamin C, nearly all of its fiber, a decent amount of calcium, and almost no calories. It's healthy and comes free with the orange. Look at the numbers: If you think it's crazy to eat orange peels, consider these gourmet candied orange peels. Don't they look delicious? And how about these candied lemon peels? Don't they look delicious too? They look delicious, only they're covered in sugar. What this post is about If you're like I was, you…

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December 14, 2015
Awareness / Fitness / Nature

Restaurants keep disappointing more the healthier I eat

Sorry if I'm straying too far from leadership, meaning, value, importance, and purpose, but I find food, eating, and physical fitness an increasingly important part of personal leadership the closer my diet consists of fresh fruit, vegetables, and legumes. Today someone took me to lunch at a nice natural foods restaurant in Soho, Manhattan. His company was paying for it so I didn't have to think about price. I ordered what looked like a healthy, nutritious dish. As always: Tons of rice (I ordered it with less rice and more vegetables) Overly sweet sauce Few vegetables Sure, sweet tastes pleasurable, but it deprives the dish of complexity. It's just sweet. It makes you want to put more in your mouth, but at the cost of…

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December 11, 2015
Taking responsibility for my airplane flight’s pollution
Entrepreneurship / Models / Nature

Taking responsibility for my airplane flight’s pollution

I have my first flight coming up since my experiment with not buying food that requires throwing packaging away, as told in Avoiding food packaging Buying no food with packaging, eighteen days and counting Bought first food with packaging after 2.5 weeks Restaurants make "entertainment for your mouth," designed for profit, not health. Same with packaged food. Eating at restaurants seems weirder the more healthily I eat. Same with pre-prepared food. Justified! Research confirms that restaurants aren't that healthy. Anyone who spends time with me knows I've avoided polluting more than most for decades. Still, that experiment amplified the trend. (I should also mention that the experiment also led to discoveries about food that led to my most delicious, healthy, convenient, enjoyable, etc diet change…

2 Comments
December 2, 2015
Does this bottle disgust you?
Awareness / Nature / Visualization

Does this bottle disgust you?

I saw this bottle at an event. I've seen ones like it before, but this time I couldn't help feeling disgust. Why disgust? Because there is no need to package that amount of water for whatever people are using it for. It won't quench the thirst of anyone thirsty to the point of it affecting their health. For everyone else, it's just a superficial holdover for a few minutes. No one receiving this bottle needs the water in it. Anyone who thinks they do can stand to learn some self-discipline or to recognize that people actually suffer from lack of access to water and this bottle is contributing to people losing access to clean water. This is another perspective on this bottle. Anyone who thinks…

2 Comments
November 12, 2015
Fitness / Habits / Nature / Tips

Advice to a young man on food

I think you'll like what I wrote about food to someone who wrote: I've been looking for something like this [to learn to cook, in balance with my work] in my life, but what's a good place to start learning how to cook? I'm a young single dude in his 20s, and the most I can do is boil some pasta. I work from home so time is not really a huge issue, I just don't know where to start. Any tips? I responded: Something that worked for me: This year I bought into a Community Supported Agriculture deal, where every Tuesday I pick up a load of vegetables and fruit from a farm, usually picked a day before. I made a rule for myself…

2 Comments
November 11, 2015
Fitness / Models / Nature / Perception

Restaurants make “entertainment for your mouth,” designed for profit, not health. Same with packaged food.

The more I cook from whole vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and so on, the more skeptically I look at companies that prepare food. Restaurants and packaged foods are designed to entertain your mouth, not to sustain you. If the people behind them have to sacrifice your health for their profit, they'll do it. Increasingly I see them as seeking profit at the expense of my health, since what makes the most profit from them is rarely the healthiest food. Whole foods retaining all their fiber spoil fast, probably because they are healthy for other forms of life besides us, like bacteria that break them down, and fiber-removed foods are less healthy for all forms of life. My mental models about restaurants and sellers of packaged…

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October 17, 2015
Fitness / Habits / Nature

A reader’s question on food, eating, and exercise

A reader asked the following: Regarding exercise, I have been able to start with my running and I still have some questions around managing what i eat when.. evening times seem a kind of "let it all go" time.. any suggestions you have towards that would be great. She suggested adding that she's "of Asian origin." I'll share what worked for me. Since there are a million books on diet and exercise, I'm not sure what I share will be new, but I can say it worked for me, and I think what works is more valuable than novelty. First, I'll note I used to let things go when I was home alone. I remember in graduate school I would always have ice cream in…

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October 16, 2015
Awareness / Models / Nature

Technical solutions rarely solve social problems

"If we can put a man on the moon, we should be able to solve homelessness." "New York City has sparkling glass-and-steel skyscrapers with multi-million-dollar luxury condos, yet ten yards from their entrances are homeless people who go to sleep hungry." These observations are almost cliché. You could say them about any city or country. They show deep misunderstandings about the problems they describe, which keep us from solving them. The ability to feed the hungry, clothe the unclothed, shelter the homeless, and so on have never been the problem. We have the food, building materials, and so on. The issue has never been if we can build enough buildings to house people. We can. Same with food. So far, the world has always had…

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October 13, 2015

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