Jeremy Ryan Slate

When was the last time you went without a cell phone for more than a few hours? Jeremy went longer than he expected, but as chance favors the prepared mind, he was ready to take advantage of an opportunity. It sounds to me like he enjoyed using less power, however modest the reduction, he did it and discovered fun and improved relationships. Once we created machines to save labor. Now I see we create machines to create craving, which makes us miserable. Or at least the absence seems to enrich our lives. I'm thinking about taking more digital vacations. Everyone says they're hard but rewarding---like Jeremy or Vincent Stanley, Director at Patagonia, in an earlier episode---a pattern I find signals experiments I like. His experience leads me to wonder what lower limit I could get to in using my cell phone. The big picture is that I hear little things lead to big, important things. What can you start with?

This episode is about doing what others don't, but want to. We recorded it nearly 2 years ago when I was still getting into my groove.  We start talking what sounds like about oranges but we're talking about leadership -- doing what others want to but don't. It may sound weird at first, but turning one healthy food into two unhealthy foods looks pretty weird to me. Everyone I know says "You shouldn't care so much what other people think," usually in a condescending voice, but they succumb to social pressure too to keep doing what everyone else does. Leaders find ways to do what they value. Jeremy shares his journey of addressing what others think and learning to manage it. Look at the guests on his podcast as a measure of his leadership skills. We also laugh a bunch. It was a fun conversation. We talk about sales, athletics, podcasts, and more. Acting on your environmental values feels weird at first, sometimes, but we have to change our behavior if we expect to avert the greatest disasters that could happen. If you value clean air, land, and water, you'll have to lead others. Jeremy put his money where his mouth was for the challenge. For whatever reason, he had low awareness of environmental anything, so taking on a challenge, no matter the scale, seems like a big deal no matter the scale from others' perspective. Lower cell phone usage doesn't reduce power use that much but does something. Regarding this conversation, it puts him up for judgment. Since I know what happened in his challenge, I know that it led to more change and discovery than he expected. Actually, I learned that while a cell phone may not use much power, using it causes a lot of power use on remote servers. The cell phone's battery isn't as important as their power demands on the internet's infrastructure.