I walked past this fire truck the other day. It was bright daylight, not nighttime, like when I took this picture. I saw a guy standing about where the “18” is on the truck’s bumper, facing toward the truck, doing something with some stuff on the bumper, keeping it hidden, looking at himself in the reflection on the chrome on the grill. He was focused on what he was doing[…] Keep reading →

The title says it all. Anyone who spends more than an hour a day on Instagram or Facebook is lying to themselves and others if they claim they don’t have time to cook. It’s the addiction speaking. Claims you’re spending time with family are lies too. I’ll be happy if you correct me if I’m wrong, but history, anthropology, and personal experience tell me that f your children are older[…] Keep reading →

Why are some people homeless? Why does the problem persist throughout time and across cultures? Learning about dominance hierarchies as systems helps see patterns beyond just what the eye sees. Take, for example, the observation that some cities in the US have greater homeless populations than others. People are quick to assign causality to correlation. To understand helplessness and homelessness, it helps to understand freedom. If freedom is ability to[…] Keep reading →

Two people are walking down the street. There’s litter on the ground. One picks up some of the litter. The other doesn’t. Which person has more love in their life?

The paragraph and three questions below appeared in a recent post about learning from people whose ideas and views I don’t know enough to agree or disagree with. After writing them, I thought they deserved their own post. Part of why I’m posting and practicing these things is how clear disagreements become when one seeks to understand everyone independently of taking a side. Have you heard of the trend to[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written many times about Thomas Jefferson embodying American culture today. He said all the right things about freedom and liberty. He considered slavery wrong. He still practiced it. His rationalizations and justifications are ours. I link to a bunch of those posts at the bottom of this post. I recommend them. If you want to understand how you sound to someone who lives by values you likely say you[…] 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 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 →

A brief political history of sustainability [If you’ve watched my Short Course on Sustainability Leadership, you’ll recognize the following from my session on the political opportunities. I’m putting only the main points here. I’ll develop it more in a future post. I wanted to start writing. If you haven’t watched the course, I think you’ll find it one of the most important resources on our culture, the environment, sustainability, and[…] Keep reading →