Best and Brightest … Genius — Esquire

A once-in-a-lifetime game-changing advance
in our field everyone else will follow
— Marshall Goldsmith

Astrophysicist turned new media whiz — NBC

Passionate … confident … — Forbes

You don't just learn theory from
him, you improve your life.
— Inc.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard University, Standford University, Princeton University, MTV, IBM, US Army

My Mission

My mission is to help change American (and global) culture on sustainability and stewardship from expecting deprivation, sacrifice, burden, and chore to expecting rewarding emotions and lifestyles, as I see happen with everyone I lead to act for their intrinsic motivations.

In my case the emotions have been joy, fun, freedom, connection, meaning, and purpose.



Systemic change begins with personal change.

Some of my values. What are yours?
Months living off the grid in Manhattan: 34 (and counting)
Loads of garbage I filled in 2025 so far: 0
Loads filled in 2024: 0
Loads filled in 2023: 0
Loads filled in 2022: 0
Loads filled in 2021: 0
Loads filled in 2020: 0
Loads filled in 2019: 1
Loads filled in 2018: 1
Loads filled in 2017: 1
Days picking up litter: 2,898 and counting
Years not flying: 9 (108 months) and counting
2024-25 grid electric grid use at home: 0 kilowatt-hours
Annual carbon emissions: about 1 ton
Daily burpees: 246,405 and counting
Resting pulse: 46 bpm

LATEST BLOG POSTS

810: Giora Netzer, part 2: Leadership coaching leads to far more than “just” the C-Suite

on March 30, 2025 in Podcast

In our second conversation, Giora reveals more about his developing as a leader. If you listen for it, you can hear the vision he had for himself and his profession, but also the development he needed to realize it. This podcast is about sustainability leadership. You probably envision a sustainable world, or at least trying with everything you can to help achieve it. Maybe you’ve adopted my vision and mission.[…] Keep reading →

Abraham Lincoln never went overseas yet accomplished a fair amount. Maybe flying isn’t that necessary.

on March 29, 2025 in Addiction

People act as if flying is necessary for life. I sometimes list people who have never flown. Here’s a short list from a recent presentation I created: Maybe it’s just me, but they seem like people who accomplished meaningful things. I was curious about Lincoln: had he traveled overseas? I knew Jefferson, Franklin, and other Founding Fathers had spent time in Europe, meaning sailing across the Atlantic multiple times. I[…] Keep reading →

809: Alexander Clapp: Waste Wars, how we profit off polluting the world claiming to help them

on March 28, 2025 in Podcast

I found Alex when listeners sent me an opinion piece in the New York Times he wrote, The Story You’ve Been Told About Recycling Is a Lie. Getting to where I take years to fill a load of trash means I’ve researched waste a lot, so based on the headline, I thought, “yeah, I’ve read this story before. I’ll skim it so I can say I read it and then[…] Keep reading →

People thinking sustainability is easier if single are insensitive, lacking empathy and compassion

on March 27, 2025 in HandsOnPracticalExperience, Relationships

I’ve been holding back on posting this post’s idea for months, maybe years. It’s a simple concept, though bold. More importantly, some may find it offensive, but, if so, no more offensive than people are with me. Over and over people tell me it’s easier to practice sustainability for someone who is single. They suggest I can decide things unilaterally. Lacking hands-on practical experience, they think the hard part of[…] Keep reading →

Sriracha sauce: yuck! Enjoying food over doof.

on March 26, 2025 in Addiction, Doof, Fitness, HandsOnPracticalExperience

It’s been almost ten years since I posted Why Sriracha Hot Sauce tastes good. In it I wrote: Progress report on enjoying food over doof I don’t think I’ve tasted it in the decade since. Then in my volunteer work salvaging food that would be thrown away, I ended up with a jar to deliver. It had been opened, so I had a chance to taste it. It’s been years[…] Keep reading →

Their conflict is with Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and the Founding Fathers, not with me

on March 25, 2025 in Freedom

People complain if we don’t use energy sources like fossil fuels we’ll collapse or return to the Stone Age. That’s a failure of their imaginations, but more. Do we need to grow? Milton Friedman hardly promoted regulating markets. He said: “We have no desperate need to grow. We have a desperate desire to grow, and those are quite different. I believe that the level of growth in this country ought[…] Keep reading →

Year 10, day 1 without hurting people and funding lobbyists by flying

on March 24, 2025 in Addiction, HandsOnPracticalExperience

On March 23, 2016 my flight arrived in JFK from Paris. Since then, I challenged myself to go a year without flying. I expected it to become the worst year of my life, or at least miserable: I could list more fears, but I can summarize that I considered flying an unalloyed good. If you feel you can’t live without flying, that your family will disown you, etc, believe it[…] Keep reading →

Hear me on the 12 Minute Conversations podcast with Engel Jones

on March 24, 2025 in Audio

Engel hosted me before and invited me back to catch up. Twelve minutes makes for a quick conversation and still meaningful depth. Here’s the new episode (3410). (Here are my previous episode 2708 (2020) and previous episode 1128 (2017)). Usually I embed the podcast player, but I can’t see how to embed his, so you have to go to his site to hear it. I think you’ll enjoy the conversation,[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, March 23, 2025: Courage Is Calling, Robert Clary’s Holocaust remembrances

on March 23, 2025 in Tips

This week I finished: Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave (The Stoic Virtues Series), by Ryan Holiday: This book spoke to me about what I’m doing with living by a different culture than nearly everyone around me. I hadn’t considered myself courageous. I’m just living by my values. For that matter, I’m living by the values everyone who values I also hadn’t considered those compromising on those values to[…] Keep reading →

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