Category Archives: Tips

This week’s selected media: April 7, 2024: Irresistible and The Story of More

on April 7, 2024 in Tips

This week I finished: Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, by Adam Alter: Another fascinating, intriguing book on how much we are creating a culture of addiction and isolation, and tolerating it. Alter discusses chemical addiction, but focuses on behavioral addiction, which he clarifies is not like addiction. Behavioral addiction is addiction. Industry is learning ever more effective ways to manipulate our motivational[…] Keep reading →

A billion-dollar idea: Moonshot solar: modest solar for a larger market

on April 2, 2024 in Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Nature, Tips

A lot of solar companies are competing for the home solar market. I once read an estimate of fifty million homes for $30,000 per home on average, meaning a $1.5 trillion market. Since most people can’t spare $30,000 for an investment that could take decades to pay itself back, if ever, these companies are marketing higher end homeowners. They are positioning themselves like BMW or Lexus. My only source of[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media: March 31, 2024: Repo Man, Learning to Love Midlife

on March 31, 2024 in Tips

This week I finished: Repo Man: I remember watching this movie in the 1980s, loving it, and feeling like it was an underground movie. I rewatched it again for the first time in decades and enjoyed it as much as ever. It was different than most movies. It took chances. It has many quotable lines. The life of a repo man is always intense. I don’t remember why I chose[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media: March 24, 2024: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Elliot

on March 24, 2024 in Tips

This week I finished: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Elliot, by Russel Kirk: I learned of this book from the Conservatism 101 course I wrote about in last week’s selective media post. I read the book partly to learn, partly to see what of conservative values, history, and philosophy might resonate with sustainability. It turns out plenty. I read some online but mostly listened to twenty hours of its[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media: March 17, 2024: You Are a Badass; Into a Strange Land: Women Captives among the Indians; Conservatism 101

on March 17, 2024 in Tips

This week I finished: You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, by Jen Sincero: You’ll hear in an upcoming podcast conversation with a Nobel Peace Prize holder, Erika Frank, that she and I riffed on our complementary ways of living more joyfully sustainable. I commented that she reminded me of a book I see in bookstores a lot but haven’t read,[…] Keep reading →

Why sell vegetables when you can sell vegetables in plastic?

on March 15, 2024 in Doof, Nature, Tips

Quadrillions of pieces of plastic apparently aren’t enough. We keep making more. I’ve written about how every single item in every cart I saw in a trip to a supermarket was packaged, mostly in plastic. I wrote: For an informal survey, I went to a supermarket to observe the items in at least 100 shoppers’ carts. I didn’t make it all in one trip and lost count, but have passed[…] Keep reading →

Research that avocado seeds are healthy

on March 12, 2024 in Fitness, Habits, Nature, Tips

Americans waste about 40 percent of our food. I’ve written how I eat healthy parts of plants like citrus peels, mango peel, and banana peel. When I tell people I do, the same people who decry food waste ask why I eat them. They’re healthy food! The challenge is to combine them to taste good, or to acquire the taste. I recommend eating all the edible, healthy parts of a[…] Keep reading →

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