Category Archives: Visualization

Playing on a tilted field isn’t fair. How to fix it and how not to fix it.

on February 6, 2025 in Models, Visualization

This post is about how to think about fixing historical wrongs, like reparations for past injustices. Imagine playing soccer on a tilted field. Amazingly, I found an image of it online, but it shows a field tilted sideways. I mean tilted so one team has to run uphill on offense. Almost surely one team will have an advantage, though my soccer-playing friends can’t tell which. Imagine all the players on[…] Keep reading →

A polluting cafe illustrates our how our culture values and promotes polluting and depleting

on February 3, 2025 in Doof, Visualization

The picture below shows a new cafe down the block from me that shows how polluting our culture has become. Let me count the ways. First, it has no seating. You buy your coffee and walk away. They save rent for not providing space for customers. They give you disposable everything. They save the salary of someone washing, the rent for space for a dishwasher and cups. It’s glowing red[…] Keep reading →

Fifteen minutes of a Spodek Method workshop

on January 28, 2025 in Education, Leadership, Visualization

Journalists keep asking about the workshop: what it’s like, as do people interested in taking the workshops, and a few HR people curious about offering the workshop at their firms. The author of the New York Times piece on me sat in on one session, but only the first session, when people get to know each other. In later sessions, participants can open up and privacy becomes important, so we[…] Keep reading →

An astronaut I agree with in principle, but who is hurting sustainability, I fear

on November 29, 2024 in Leadership, Nature, Perception, Visualization

A reader sent me a link to this video by an astronaut, Ron Garan. He shares how seeing the earth from space changes astronaut’s views on life and humanity’s relationship with nature. I don’t think it achieves the goal he wants. People can interpret it differently, but I conclude that he is saying seeing the earth from space offers a special and unique view of life that enables someone who[…] Keep reading →

How to pave a state

on October 19, 2024 in Nature, Visualization

I once read about two percent of the US is paved. Two percent of fifty is one, implying about one state worth of the US is paved. How do we reach the point of paving an entire state’s worth of land? It seems to me: First we tread over similar land to create dirt paths. Then we tread over them enough that rain makes them muddy enough to make them[…] Keep reading →

Serving in Uniform Podcasts and Pictures

on October 15, 2024 in Leadership, Visualization

I was at first nervous about sharing about my new major life volunteering community project, hence made the podcast announcing it, number 781, longer than most solo episodes I put the important information at the end. Still, if covers comprehensively my process in starting volunteering as an auxiliary police officer. Partly I wanted to make it hard to learn, so only genuinely interested would listen. Instead, everyone reacted positively. I’ve[…] Keep reading →

How and why to fix the standard greenhouse effect diagram

on September 24, 2024 in Models, Nature, Visualization

You know the usual schematic diagram of the greenhouse effect. Here are a couple for reference: and What’s missing? Humans creating power for ourselves creates heat. It happens if we create it through burning fossil fuels, using nuclear power, and even fusion. Using solar panels absorbs extra heat. I hope you respond that whatever heat we produce is negligible. Today it is, but since industry and our current lifestyles require[…] Keep reading →

Preview of SpodekMethod.com

on September 23, 2024 in Visualization

When my new book Sustainability Simplified: The Definitive Guide to Understanding and Solving All (Yes, All) Our Environmental Problems comes out, I’ll start a new web page for sustainability leadership: SpodekMethod.com. It will contain free downloads like the book introduction, the how-to workbook, and videos of people sharing what works. It will grow to contain courses, online community, and more. A team is developing that page. We’ll launch it soon.[…] Keep reading →

Predictions about Artificial Intelligence that everyone misses

on September 21, 2024 in Addiction, Stories, Visualization

People think about how they could use it and think optimistically, but neglect to think that the people they disagree with and oppose will too. Like fire and sharp knives, technology isn’t good or bad. Technology augments the values of the people and culture using it. Technology accelerates the system—that is, it leads to achieving similar outcomes faster. Regarding our political differences, it won’t lead one or another position to[…] Keep reading →

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