You know you’ve wanted to see a TED talk live. Now’s your chance. Cancel your old plans for next weekend. [NOTE: I will post the video of my talk here when the organizers finish editing and post it. They estimated 6 to 12 weeks from April 6 — that is, likely late May or June.] See me and six other brilliant, engaging speakers this Saturday, April 6 at TEDxNYU—the intersection[…] Keep reading →

The winter is over and it’s time to get outdoors running. Jessica Formoso covered me plogging on WNYW Fox 5 local news last night. You can hear my experience that made plogging stick: I cleaned where I live—my home. Here’s the video, where you can see me running like an old man. Let me know if you want to join me for some plogging or if you plog on your[…] Keep reading →

I couldn’t help share Jia Jiang’s sidcha. I’ve favored fitness sidchas like my burpee-based calisthenics, a mindfulness one in cold showers, and the expressive one of writing here. I’ve also described business ones like cold-calling five of sales leads daily or writing a business idea every day. There are aesthetic ones like drawing a picture every day or dancing every day. I also describe social ones like talking to a[…] Keep reading →

“Fail early and often” “Fail forward” “Fail, fail, fail” The business world, especially around entrepreneurship, promotes failing as a way to learn. I recognize its inevitability and necessity for learning, but I suspect many people who promote it have never experienced devastating failure. I’ve failed huge in life and I wouldn’t speak about it as cavalierly as many do. I consider physical injury inevitable in fitness and learning and I[…] Keep reading →

I forgot to mention one of my most memorable experiences on my recent trip across the country: shooting guns. I’d never shot a handgun and had only shot a low-caliber rifle in North Korea. I learned a lot, as I’ll describe below. From my train arriving in Houston, I caught a bus to an environmental research place. Before continuing with the story, I have to mention that most people I[…] Keep reading →

I’m on the train from Atlanta home to New York. I left October 29 and visited Chicago, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, and New Orleans too. The impetus came from attending the Summit in L.A. I found reasons to visit places along the way. Here are 30 highlights an lowlights from the trip. 1. I traveled intercity only by train and bus since I’m not flying. 2. At the Summit[…] Keep reading →

I hear and read the term white privilege. Plenty of people explain it. How do the following fit into the concept? For context, for about a decade of my childhood, my mom’s house, where I spent half my time, was in poor neighborhoods, especially Rockland Street in Philadelphia in the mid-70s, or bordered them where whites were minorities. For a while our house was one of three white families on[…] Keep reading →

In my ongoing efforts to be burdened with less material stuff, I’ve scanned many of my old photographs so I could get rid of the physical pictures. Now that I can see the images on my screen when I want, I’m not sure what to do with them besides sending them to a landfill, sadly, but I caused the physical waste when I paid for the pictures. I’m only moving[…] Keep reading →

On Saturday, August 9, 2008, I left my apartment first thing in the morning after watching the Olympics opening ceremony at a bar with friends the night before, walked to my friend Dave’s apartment, caught a ferry to New Jersey, and swam across the Hudson River back to Manhattan. Then we walked back shirtless and shoeless from 45th Street to Greenwich Village. You’ve seen the picture at the top of[…] Keep reading →