Nature

Buying no food with packaging, eighteen days and counting

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Nature / Visualization

Buying no food with packaging, eighteen days and counting

Two-and-a-half weeks ago I decided to avoid buying any food with packaging for a week. I'm on eighteen days and counting. I didn't try to come up with a perfect rule because trying for perfection kept making me delay trying. I settled on the rule that I wouldn't buy food that had any packaging or get food at a restaurant. I'd figure out on the fly what to do in border cases. I allowed myself to use food I already had. Discoveries It hasn't been as hard as I thought. I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than usual. I'm also cooking a lot more beans and peas from dry. Instead of buying a lot of produce at once, I'm buying enough for a…

May 7, 2015

Why avoid polluting when air conditioning is more comfortable?

Say you walk and take the subway even when taxis might be faster or more comfortable. You rarely use the air conditioner in the summer and keep the thermostat low in the winter. You carry my compost a few blocks to drop it off. Why do all that when it takes extra time, energy, and resources? Air conditioning is more comfortable. As far as I can tell, most people I see---a small fraction of the world---follow something like "If it feels good and I can afford it, I'll do it." Paris is nice, so why not fly there if I can afford the ticket? I'm baffled by how many plastic bottles people throw away when water comes out of the faucet for free and people…

April 30, 2015

Avoiding food packaging

Starbucks garbage: it's what they make

Fitness / Nature

Avoiding food packaging

Something I've meant to do as I cut out more prepared foods is to go for a while without buying any food with any packaging. I think it would make an interesting experiment and I'm learning a lot experientially. I've been thinking about how to do it effectively---most consistently, or most something or other. Tonight I bought some fruits and vegetables at the produce stand down the block, telling the guy three or four times I didn't need a bag as he kept trying to give me one, I remembered my principle that "I have low standards the first time." I'd rather try it imperfectly than never get around to something I plan forever. So I'll give a shot at buying no food for a…

April 20, 2015

Fitness / Nature

What “processed” means in processed food

People talk down about processed food. I think it's important to clarify what "processed" means. Does peeling a banana qualify as processing it? Does frying something count? How is a Twinkie different than something you prepare yourself? For some reason, people like to argue with people about what they eat. I wish I could say I don't understand why but I used to too. Anyway, I found a definition that works for me. Or rather I found a division between what I avoid and what I eat that I think captures what people mean when they say they avoid processed foods. I avoid foods where someone removed the fiber. That knocks out corn syrup, white bread, fruit juice, refined sugar, most junk food, and the…

April 17, 2015

Fitness / Nature / Perception

How my indulgences have become more indulgent

I gave a talk yesterday I'd prepared months for. I think it went well. I'll hear from the organizers soon and get their impressions. On my way home I felt like I wanted to indulge in something to reward the effort in preparation. Years ago indulging meant ice cream, pretzels, chips, beer, wine, or something like that. Over the years, I've come to see those foods as less rewarding. They create pleasurable sensations but I don't find mere pleasure as rewarding as I used Instead I sliced an apple and ate it with peanut butter. Simple and unsweetened as it is, I enjoyed it more than I would have enjoyed any of the old indulgences. I've come to see chips, pretzels, and foods with fiber…

April 16, 2015

Awareness / Nature / Perception

What is fundamental?

What can you not define in terms of other things? I can define most things in terms of more fundamental things. Music is a bunch of sounds. Trees are kinds of plants. Books are assemblies of paper with writing on them. Some things feel harder to define in terms of more fundamental things. How do you define the color blue in terms of something more fundamental? You can describe photons and wavelengths, but I don't think they capture the sensory perception. Same with sour, hot, or other perceptions. What about emotions? How can you define happiness? Maybe the issue is that some things are non-verbal concepts, implying they aren't more fundamental, just that we can't describe them. Colors and feelings seem to happen in another…

April 7, 2015

Winter vegetables

I'm looking forward to spring fruit as much as anyone. I can't wait for strawberries. I bought some last week, but they weren't ready. I don't think they were early for this season but shipped in from somewhere else. They didn't taste like strawberries. I still remember the first strawberry I tasted in Paris the first Spring I was there. Best strawberry I've tasted, probably bred for flavor instead of size and color. And forget about when cherries come in season. I'm liable to eat them until I feel sick, smiling the whole time. I've been getting local vegetables through my community supported agriculture shipments. Winter shipments mean a lot of potatoes, carrots, radishes, parsnips, rutabagas, and other winter vegetables. They don't sound that mouth-watering,…

April 6, 2015

Awareness / Evolutionary Psychology / Nature / Nonjudgment / Perception

Calling emotions negative is like calling fire or pain negative

People describe anger, depression, and many other emotions as negative or bad, as if they don't want them in their lives. They're useful! They motivate you to change what causes them, generally things in your environments and beliefs. What causes them is conflict between yourself and others, internal conflict, and wanting the world to change, mainly. As long as conflict exists, which is forever since no one shares your interests exactly, you're going to feel those emotions. If you think of them as negative or bad, you're making an inevitable part of life worse for yourself. It's like you're kicking yourself when you're down. People seem to get that pain, although they don't enjoy feeling it, helps their lives. They find the source of the…

March 19, 2015

Models / Nature / Perception

People don’t behave consistently with the world, your version of it, or what they say about it

People don't always behave consistently with the world. Why not? Because they don't see the world perfectly, they see it filtered through their beliefs and the limitations of their perception. They certainly don't always behave consistently with your perception of the world. Why not? Because their beliefs and yours differ. They don't even behave consistently with what they say their beliefs are. Why not? Because when people communicate, they mix their beliefs with how they want to influence you. They do, however, always behave consistently with their belief. If you want to know the difference between your beliefs and someone else's compare your behaviors. I guess you have to take into account your different abilities, but even that gets filtered through beliefs. If you want…

March 18, 2015

Evolutionary Psychology / Models / Nature / Perception

Insightful BBC video on mental models, beliefs, and how your mind perceives

If you like my perspective on being human and our place in the world, I recommend watching the videos of James Burke from BBC. They're mostly available on YouTube. I first saw his series Connections and The Day The Universe Changed in the 80s on PBS. I watch them again periodically. His work is some of the few I find I like watching repeats as much as the original. I just found his show from 1980, The Real Thing, which I'd never heard of before. I loved it. It gave an entertaining, scientific, illustrative background to my Model. The video quality is terrible, which I view as a testament to the quality of his work since you still get the full meaning. It's six half-hour…

March 14, 2015

Models / Nature / Perception

Instead of “How does winter affect your mood,” how about “How do you create the emotion you want?”

It's snowing heavily and people are complaining the winter has been long. It's as if people know the saying Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. and then forget it when things they can't change happen. What's the point of knowing the words of phrases but not learning how to do them? The point of reading Man's Search For Meaning or other stories of people overcoming tremendous obstacles is not to keep feeling horrible when things don't go my way. The point is to know that when the outside world doesn't go my way, I know that since other people overcame greater challenges, I can too!…

March 5, 2015

Models / Nature

Star Trek blunders

Star Trek is fiction, but since Leonard Nimoy died yesterday, I can't help commenting on two big mistakes in the show---its racism and misunderstanding of emotion. It seems like one of the main themes of the show is supposed to be that humans have learned to live together harmoniously, overcoming racial, nationalistic, class, and other differences. Wikipedia says the show had one of the first multi-racial casts. Sounds nice, and they treated humans that way, but non-humans with speaking roles were basically human in everything but some superficial make-up. Outside the show's reality---that is, in our reality, watching the show from a cultural perspective---we can look at the message of the show's creators. The characters all behaved according to their race! Vulcans acted by logic,…

February 28, 2015

Fitness / Nature

Want the latest news on food? I don’t.

Food is like religion for many. I don't mean they worship it. I mean they believe things about it with no evidence and debate endlessly, claiming truth about unsubstantiated claims that they believe substantiated. In principle you can measure and experiment with it, but the number of variables is so great that experiments alter and reverse conclusions soon after. Someone told me something compelling on the issue. He said decades ago he heard a new claim about food. It was surprising, so he decided to wait for further confirmation. In particular, he said he would only act on new claims about food, no matter how scientific their basis seemed, if they endured at least five years. He has seen no claim stand five years without…

February 27, 2015

Evolutionary Psychology / Models / Nature / Perception

How different beliefs lead people with identical motivational systems to behave differently

We all have similar emotional systems, so why do we behave so differently? I illustrated below how people who have identical drives and emotional systems with only different beliefs can end up behaving differently yet feeling internally the same. I plan to represent it more graphically and pretty, but this is where I am so far. It shows that internally, we all think and react similarly. Only a slight difference in beliefs can lead to, say fighting in the case of patriotism, even though internally, people feel the same and are following the same emotional system. If you have questions or comments about the table, please let me know. They will help me improve the model, which is only half-baked now. Â Example (internal) Same/different…

February 26, 2015

Awareness / Habits / Models / Nature

The death spiral of thinking you understand someone when you don’t

We've all been on both sides of the pattern below, usually with someone we like. Neither side likes it. Usually, neither side knows how to get out of it. From your perspective: You think you understand them when you don't You do what you think they would like, thinking you'll help them They don't show appreciation You feel like they don't appreciate you You consider them ungrateful and think they don't deserve your attention You stop doing what you thought they wanted You resent them From their perspective They see you do things that don't help them They don't value what you're doing because it doesn't help them They don't know how to react---thanking you risks motivating you to keep doing what they don't want.…

February 23, 2015

Some science on where fat goes when you lose it

Exercises / Fitness / Models / Nature

Some science on where fat goes when you lose it

I love learning about nature! I looked up about what happens to the mass you lose when you lose weight. A paper last month in the peer-reviewed BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), "When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go?" confirmed what I had read casually: you exhale it, or rather you exhale 84% of it. The rest is water, which we excrete "in the urine, faeces, sweat, breath, tears, or other bodily fluids." The paper's lead author, a physicist, also wrote simplified versions of the chemical reactions. The paper is mostly readable to a lay person, such as me, and is short so I recommend reviewing it. It also begins with a graph showing that nearly no one the authors asked knew the…

January 3, 2015

Exercises / Fitness / Models / Nature

How you lose weight

Have you ever wondered about when you lose weight what happens to the mass you lose? I didn't think of it either. My first thought was that you excrete it. You lose some water and salt to sweating, but I figured that got replaced so didn't figure into long-term weight loss. I didn't wonder how the mass you lose would get to your kidneys or bowels. I read recently that it doesn't. I read that the mass you lose when you burn fat exists your body in your exhalation. I confess I haven't looked it up for a second opinion, but it made sense from a few perspectives. We replace some oxygen in the air with inhale with carbon dioxide in the air we exhale,…

December 27, 2014

Models / Nature

Protecting the environment improves your life

The dominant mainstream mental model I see about protecting the environment associates it with deprivation. I think most people associate helping the environment with driving cars with poor acceleration, eating food they don't like, and wearing clothes made of hemp. I find this message counterproductive and inconsistent with what works. It's counterproductive because it repels most people. I find it inconsistent because to me the basic elements of protecting the environment are thinking and caring about other people---that is, compassion and empathy. I'm a businessman, entrepreneur, and teacher. Compassion and empathy help me do my job. I find living consistently with my environment consistent with productive business practices. I just don't see living in ways that don't hurt the environment as deprivation. I find they…

December 25, 2014

Education / Nature

Particle Fever

Do you miss an activity you used to feel passionate about, used to work hard on, but don't do anymore? When you feel inspired, you work hard, sometimes very hard, often long hours, often sacrificing other things you would otherwise enjoy. Then when you look back you miss how inspired you felt. You'd rather feel that way and sacrifice again than to have free time or enjoy mild pleasure. You might not feel like you want to go through the process of making it happen, but you know that feeling and you love it. The other day I watched a documentary, Particle Fever, about the high energy particle accelerator in Geneva called the Large Hadronic Collider, some people who helped build it and interpret its…

December 20, 2014

A corporate perspective on global warming and pollution

I hear people consistently say that if the climate warms the market will correct it. I think they mean that they expect new technologies will help solve the problem and that market forces will lead costs of pollution to drop and so sustainable energy sources will become more affordable. In a corporate context, "correction" almost always means that some companies or divisions will lose many and some may go bankrupt, but the lean will survive. I hope the rest doesn't sound too down. I'm just following a concept I hear a lot. I don't think people understand what they're saying when they say it. I don't know if people realize that when you talk about the population, the equivalent of a correction would be a…

December 16, 2014

Awareness / Evolutionary Psychology / Nature / Nonjudgment

I like judging people

I write a lot about judgment and non-judgmental behavior. I won't lie. I like to judge people. I decide whom I consider valuable or not, whom I think looks good or not, or has taste or social skills and so on. People seem mortified after doing the exercise in "The most effective self-awareness exercise I know of." Seeing their thoughts written out on paper and realize how much they judge themselves and other people fills them with shame, dread, embarrassment, and other feelings they don't like. Telling them that every person who does the exercise finds out the same thing about themselves helps relieve those feelings. Seeing everyone, without fail, find the same result has completely relieved me of those feelings I don't like. It's…

December 12, 2014

Fitness / Nature / Tips

I don’t know what to call it but I can’t call it food

EDIT: since writing this post I came up with the term doof, which I describe in this podcast episode: I recommend never calling doof food or food doof. Here's the original post: Did you know antifreeze tastes sweet? It will also kill you if you drink it. Laws require putting something in it to taste bitter because its sweetness leads kids, dogs, cats, and other pets to drink it. Like all poisons, the dosage determines its effects. According to Wikipedia, "The dose makes the poison" is common adage first expressed by Paracelsus intended to indicate a basic principle of toxicology. It means that a substance can produce the harmful effect associated with its toxic properties only if it reaches a susceptible biological system within the…

December 11, 2014

My scientific and engineering view of coaching and teaching leadership

Entrepreneurship / Leadership / Models / Nature / Visualization

My scientific and engineering view of coaching and teaching leadership

Science is the study of nature, looking for patterns, to predict results. For the moment I'm not approaching leadership with the institutional view of science with researchers applying for grants from the National Science Foundation to do double-blind controlled experiments for peer-reviewed publication, though I've had a few graduate students approach me to do research like that. Here's a simpler view: science turns observations about nature into models and predictions about the future. It's simplified, but I think captures an important part of science. Thousands of years ago people noticed that what went up came back down. That's an observation about nature that worked for most purposes. Science turned that observation into Newton's laws of gravity, which was a specific model of nature. The process…

December 1, 2014

Exercises / Nature / Tips

Exercise in minimizing

Since my posts, "The smallest effective difference" and "Minimum effective behavior," I've meant to write an exercise in using less. The day after Thanksgiving,when people tend to consume more than they want, seems timely. As usual, the point of an exercise is partly for the immediate outcome, but mainly to develop new skills. New skills change your behavior and beliefs in the long term. So while the exercise may seem minor, its long-term effects on how you behave and interact with your world can be much greater. If it seems minor, you might as well experiment with it anyway since what's the big deal? Actually, I'm moving in this direction with my coaching and teaching, and appreciating it when teachers and coaches do it with…

November 28, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Playing with nieces, a nephew, a toboggan, and two dogs in the snow. Hope you're enjoying your holiday as much.

November 27, 2014

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