Walking across the Manhattan Bridge, I saw a lot of graffiti. It looked to me like it was painted by boys or young men, likely making a statement vaguely like lashing out. I’m not sure, but it didn’t look like it was designed to make the place feel safer or more secure. I thought about how many boys and young men feel motivated to show their independence and probably have[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before that if you do something that kills people and you don’t want to kill people, you have to stop doing that thing, even if you like it. That sentence seems about as matter of fact as you can get. It’s not designed to make anyone feel guilty. That polluting and depleting kill people isn’t an open question. We all pollute and deplete. Come to think of it,[…] Keep reading →

The other day someone pushed back, as usual, about flying. For most people who fly, flying hurts people more than anything else they do through polluting, depleting, funding lobbyists, funding advertising, displacing people from their homes, etc. He started responding by saying, “The problem is that everyone has to see family …” After he finished his whole answer, I pointed out not “everyone” flies to see family. Most Americans live[…] Keep reading →

I wrote this letter to the editor of the New Yorker. It’s been long enough that I doubt they’ll print it, but I wanted to share my thoughts. Everyone knows our culture misunderstands women. I think men could use more compassion and that doing so won’t hurt any other group. To the editor, Andrew Marantz’s article The Battle for the Bros perpetuates a subtle but common double standard: when society[…] Keep reading →

I hear consistently from parents, “Since you aren’t a parent you can’t understand the challenges of raising a child and how it makes doing what you do about sustainability impossible,” or words to that effect. They often imply or even imply, though not as bluntly: “You haven’t held a newborn you created and have to care for for its survival. You haven’t felt that love. You haven’t experienced as much[…] Keep reading →

I understand that liberals/progressives support DEI programs and that conservatives attack them, but I haven’t followed this culture war that closely. I think the battle affected the presidential election. I hope I don’t make myself look too ignorant about an important issue, but it seems that there is a distinction between what is being attacked and what conservatives actually object to. I wonder if conservatives value practicing these things, though[…] Keep reading →

I don’t know your views on guns, but I value both exploring different cultures and not polluting, which destroys life, liberty, and property. When my friend invites me to go to target practice at his shooting range outside the city, I’m happy to explore a culture as different from Greenwich Village, NYU, and Columbia as most places on earth. Unlike nearly anyone I know, I find cultures as diverse as[…] Keep reading →

We’ve all read stories about how algorithms, polarized media, and so on are leading to situations where people with different political views learn such different information about the world we might as well be living in different worlds. If one person watches only liberal media and another only watches conservative media, they view events through different lenses. One may view the environment as an issue about protecting wildlife while the[…] Keep reading →

People like hearing me share my vulnerabilities. I’m not special. People like hearing anyone share their vulnerabilities too, but I noticed it this week about myself. At the beginning of this week, I thought about blind spots. We all have things we do or don’t do, or know or don’t know, and we aren’t aware of the consequences differing from what we expect. Learning about them can help us improve[…] Keep reading →