Is there anything as annoying as someone who exhibits traits you used to have, you’ve done your best to get rid of, but still have in you? It cuts to your core. I spent a week and a half with a guy who had traits the rest of the group all had gotten over a know-it-all couldn’t help butting into conversations interrupting always had to point out what he knew[…] Keep reading →

My closing paragraphs on yesterday’s post, anticipating people’s reaction, got me thinking about Marshall Goldsmith, one of today’s top business thinkers (and a friend). I wrote the following: By now, many of you are probably thinking “we’ve solved all the problems so far, we’ll solve the ones to come” “since before Malthus scientists project doomsday and they never happen, we can ignore this” or “this won’t affect me” If so,[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written about the Do The Math blog, which looks at the numbers underlying how our economy works, particularly the energy part, which is to say, what drives it. If you think something else drives it, do the math! I think you’ll see otherwise. Incidentally, analysis like his is one of the reasons I studied physics (if you didn’t know, I got a PhD in the subject) — to understand[…] Keep reading →

Sometimes you recognize something you learned as a great life lesson. Sometimes what you thought was a great life lesson turns out not to be. How can you tell them apart? I’ve found that the more meaningful a life lesson, the more trivial it sounds when you explain it to someone else. For example, I went to North Korea and saw people living under different conditions than anyplace else, yet[…] Keep reading →

This isn’t a diet or fitness blog, but your body is a major part of you. I don’t see how you can live the life you want without achieving the body you want. Conversely, if you don’t have the body you want, I suggest you aren’t living according to your values: your body tells you what to change to create the lifestyle you want. This post is about emotions like[…] Keep reading →

I remember learning a great life lesson in managing intense emotions from a time I felt some of the deepest anxiety of my life. I also finished the project on time and on budget in the process. Two weeks from the deadline on a two-year project, I was coming to realize I didn’t see how I could complete it. People I told I could deliver had put themselves out for[…] Keep reading →

People imply by the concept “truth” something objective. They’d like it to mean they know something that could never be false, I don’t think it means what they think it does. I’ve come to believe the concept of truth describes a feeling attached to believing you know something. That is, the difference between saying “The sky is blue” and “It’s true that the sky is blue” is in your feeling,[…] Keep reading →