Finally, more great perspective on the economy, environment, and ecology

I've written before on the poor dialog I've seen on the environment, ecology, and economy. Almost everyone seems to promote an agenda or not know what they're talking about. Today I found a blog called Do the Math that compares with the book Limits to Growth in treating those topics thoroughly and intelligently. It covers the issues as I would, but in much more depth than I could, clearly explaining its points and assumptions. Instead of hand-waving, acting on hopes or assumptions, or promoting an agenda, it creates plausible models, varies its inputs, and examines the results. Very refreshing. A physics professor at UC San Diego who got his PhD at Caltech writes it. He calls it Do the Math because he quantifies and calculates…

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The slides from my North Korea talk at Columbia Business School

Saturday's talk on North Korea at Columbia Business School went great -- a full room, an attentive audience, and great questions at the end. I didn't leave as much time for questions as I wish I had, but the organizer told me people told her they liked the talk a lot. Several people asked for copies of the slides so I'm posting them here instead of sending multiple emails.

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A question on my North Korea talk at Columbia

A Columbia student responded to the announcement of my talk: I would be interested in why a human rights club is putting on what appears to be a sympathetic presentation on one of the world's most notorious human rights abusers. Shouldn't you be focusing on the plight of north Koreans rather than the "misunderstood" nature of an autocratic regime? Questions like his come up a lot. North Korea is an evocative subject for many and people approach it from different perspectives. I believe a few clarifications will help. First, I think the shortened title might imply a slightly different meaning than I intended when I suggested "North Korea: How Business Strategy Demystifies the World's Most Misunderstood Country". I'm not looking at anyone's strategy in the…

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See Joshua Spodek on understanding North Korea from a business strategy perspective at Columbia Business School

Columbia Global Initiative for Human Rights Proudly Presents North Korea: Demystifying the Business Strategy of the World's Most Misunderstood Country * * * * * Lecture Description: Kim Jong Il's death this December has reignited popular intrigue about North Korea and justifiably so. Few understand this isolated and authoritarian country despite its paramount global importance. How can we understand this mysterious country, its leaders and its economy? Professors Bruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn's book, "Competition Demystified", provides a framework for understanding the strategic situation in North Korea. Despite the sensationalism, mystery, and widespread confusion in the media and popular perception, North Korea is simple to understand at the strategic level. Its simplicity makes it an excellent case study in understanding business strategy. Speaker: Joshua Spodek…

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A solution to all ethics problems

During orientation I learned one of business school's most valuable lessons. I learned the first step in resolving all ethics problems. Orientation included a case study on ethics. The case involved a guy who witnessed someone else breaking a rule at a company. If he told on the employee he would escalate the problem, possibly identifying himself as not a team player, no matter how justified his actions. Remaining silent would make him complicit, and who knew how many other rules the person he observed might be breaking? The details were relevant to the case, but keeping things at a high level reveals what I call the classic ethics problem: The Classic Ethics Problem: You have to choose between something you agree with that will hurt…

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How not to fail

Today I'll cover one of my most liberating allegories. I don't remember where I heard it. Some karate students asked their teacher how he always kept his balance no matter what happened. He said, "On the contrary, I'm always losing my balance. But I'm always regaining it too." Since I learned that lesson, I stopped trying to avoid making mistakes. I say and do what I feel is right or best. If it turns out I messed up, I recover. The result is greater freedom. People see me not falling, so they think I never lost my balance and I don't correct them.

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What I learned from football ads

I like watching football. I think it shows people pushing the limits of what people can do, full of drama and excitement. People keep respond with surprise when I tell them. Frankly, it never occurred to me that anyone didn't enjoy watching football. At least among guys. I was curious. Do I fit into the type who watches football? So how do you find out who watches a show? You look at the ads. I noticed this year during the playoffs that few ads advertised anything I bought. In a typical game I'd see about a hundred ads and maybe two would connect with me -- my cell phone provider and my credit card. So I bet my friend during the Superbowl who would have…

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Amazing representation of the size the universe and everything in it

I love this representation of the size of things in the universe so much I have to link to it, even though I prefer to post things that I created more of. Please check it out and play with it. (EDIT: alternative link) It's an updated, interactive, unnarrated version of the great educational 1968 short film, the Powers of Ten. I think the movie and interactive representation show some of the greatest parts of the beauty we can find of nature. We can find that beauty everywhere we look. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0[/youtube] Here is a simpler version of the representation of distance scales. EDIT: Another representation

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More labels not helping: a man’s autism vanishes

If you look for problems you'll find them. And you'll fill your life with problems. But if you look for solutions you'll find them too, and you'll fill your life with solutions. You'll find your problems go away or don't show up at all. A day after posting on labels not helping with introversion and extraversion came this op-ed piece on a guy whom doctors diagnosed with autism, supposedly “a continuous and lifelong disorder,” but his symptoms vanished. I exhibited a “qualified impairment in social interaction,” specifically “failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level” (I had few friends) and a “lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people” (I spent a lot of time by myself in my…

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“Introverted” / “Extroverted”: labels hold you back from improving your life

On a discussion online about introversion and extraversion, I responded to someone pointing out that the labels of introversion and extraversion hurt more than they helped. Labels add no value and hold people back from improving their lives. Dealing with groups requires one set of skills. Dealing with solitude requires another (with much overlap). If you don't have skills for one situation you will avoid it. Once you acquire the skills to handle it, you'll be able to handle either. If you can only handle one now that doesn't mean you can't handle the other, it just means you haven't yet. When you have the skills and experience to handle one situation you will enjoy it and look forward to it, either one. When you…

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The best book for understanding North Korea
The best book to understand North Korea

The best book for understanding North Korea

North Korea fascinates us. Its leaders, their posturing and militarism, their economics, and more all fascinate us. Their belligerence puts them in the news often. Yet we know little about them. More than fascinating, they are globally important. They are a nuclear power with the world's fourth largest military and most militarized border. Yet the media, mainstream and otherwise, mystifies them more. No one explains how or why anyone could act like its leaders and population do. Until now. I wrote Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World's Most Misunderstood Country to explain the situation there. Many books and articles cover border skirmishes, human interest stories, the apparent oddness of their leaders, breaking news, and the like. None before gave the big picture. Understanding North Korea…

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Understanding Kim Jong Il from a systems perspective, and what to do now

Reading the spate of articles on Kim Jong Il and North Korea, I've seen what look from my perspective misinterpretations. Reporters repeatedly succumb to ascribing to the leader what I consider properties of the system. I think they adopt a great-man model that says if something is working, someone must be making it happen. With only Kim Jong Il or Kim Il Sung around, it must be them. Misallocating causes to events leads to ineffective or counterproductive strategies to act on them. I'll illustrate with two New Yorker articles, not because they misallocate most, but because they do least. In an otherwise excellent article, Evan Osnos wrote, commenting on Vaclav Havel's observation that totalitarian lies must be universal, Nobody has engineered the apparatus of universal…

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Communications skills exercises, part IX: statements instead of questions

[This post is part of a series on Communication Skills Exercises for Business and Life. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] The principles People like people who improve their lives and make conversations interesting. When you first meet someone you tell each other about yourselves in how and about what you talk. Sometimes when you take an interest in someone's life or activities, you improve their lives. If people compliment you on your conversation skills, you probably do improve their lives by asking questions. Or if they are prompting you to ask questions, like talking about their kids or some other passion. In my…

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See Professor Srikumar Rao at the New School December 13, 6:30pm

Anybody who knows my material knows the debt I own Srikumar Rao for how much of it derives from his work, his class Creativity and Personal Mastery, and his books Are You Ready To Succeed? and Happiness At Work. I can't recommend his material enough. Here is your chance to see him in person. I am privileged to help organize his next talk with the Columbia Business School Alumni Club (all are welcome), which will be at the New School's Kellen Auditorium, December 13 at 6:30pm. Click here to register and for more information. From the alumni club web page: Srikumar Rao: Achieve a quantum improvement in managerial and leadership ability Dr. Rao became famous for his ground breaking course in personal transformation - Creativity…

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Union Square in Motion on NY1

Usually I keep the stories about art on the art page, but a two-minute news story on NY1 on Union Square in Motion gets special mention. The reporters did their research and spent time understanding the piece. Plus with the designers Coco && Breezy passing by and being interviewed, the exchange was amazing. Below is the news story and here is the link to the NY1 story online. The video features artists Jeanne Kelly and Josefina Santos, designers Coco && Breezy, and yours truly. Tina Redwine did the story for NY1. https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/NY1_USiM.mp4 New Yorkers walking through the Union Square subway station can see a temporary art exhibit that moves as the viewer moves. NY1's Transit reporter Tina Redwine filed the following report. Curiosity is the…

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Audio interview: sales lessons from a great failure

Spectacular failures teach us our most valuable lessons. In this interview, I talk about my first, and most painful, sales failure growth experience. I wanted to crawl under a rock and die, but the meeting crept on. Afterward I didn't want to continue in business, let alone do any sales. The word I was looking for at 2:38 was condescension, by the way. My business partner's perspective -- that you win some and you lose some; we didn't win this one but the next would be better -- changed my life for the better as one of the major steps forward into business and entrepreneurship for me. So this anecdote marked the beginning of something very rewarding in my life. Since that meeting, especially with…

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Audio interview: life lessons from academia: business school

If you've thought about business school or noticed unexpected changes in people you know who went there, this interview may interest you. I cover how I found and learned in business school different subjects than I expected -- like leadership, general management, negotiation, and so-called "soft skills." They began a process of increasing emotional awareness, self-awareness, and focus on emotions, motivations, and relationships. The result has been more reward overall, particularly in relationships. Before business school I focused more on facts and knowledge. Small interface: [audio:https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/life_lessons_business_school.mp3] Big interface: [videofile]https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/life_lessons_business_school.mp3[/videofile]

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Union Square in Motion summary

Click here for all my posts on Union Square in Motion. A summary of my Union Square in Motion posts: Opening event pictures Fantastic behind-the-scenes making-of video Press and media about it Video of child viewing it Invitation to opening and map More videos Video of installation Map to find it Announcement of initial installation, pre-fine-tuning, with making-of images

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Union Square in Motion: opening event pictures

Pictures from the September 26, 2011 opening of Union Square in Motion, presented by MTA Arts for Transit, Parsons the New School for Design, and us, the producers and artists. My friend with the camera left when the crowd was still building and before the reception at Parsons. I'll try to find more pictures of the festivities. EDIT: found a couple pictures of the signs posted at Parsons where they hosted the reception, but not during the reception.   In the meantime, click here for all my posts on Union Square in Motion.

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Communication skills exercises, part VIII: breaking the ice

[This post is part of a series on Communication Skills Exercises for Business and Life. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] For many people, meeting someone at all is a major challenge. Today's exercise gives you an all-purpose introduction you can use in all circumstances. It's simple, requires no preparation, won't come off like a line, and starts conversations. I'm not saying it solves everything. You still have to keep the conversation going, which the previous exercises are for. But, assuming you're reasonably well-groomed and your body language doesn't shock people, no one will think ill of you for introducing yourself this way. The…

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Press and reviews of Union Square in Motion

Monday's opening saw some press for Union Square in Motion. Here are some links, starting with those who visited the installation or contacted us directly NY1 did a two-minute story on it, "New Artwork Best Seen In Transit Through Union Square Station" Arts for Transit's Director, Sandra Bloodworth, mentioned Union Square in Motion in an in-depth interview in Urban Omnibus, "Arts for Transit: A Conversation with Sandra Bloodworth" The Village Voice announced it ahead of time, "Union Square Subway Station Now Boasts the World's Largest Linear Digital Zoetrope" WNYC covered it, "Look | MTA Installs New Digital Underground Art Project at Union Square", including a slide show DNAinfo.com, "Students Unveil Digital Art Project in Union Square Subway Station" The New York Observer, "Union Square Subway…

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Union Square in Motion public art opening today

Writing on my North Korea trip has been waiting while I finished my series on my Model. Now it will have to wait a few days more. Today's opening of Union Square in Motion got big, particularly after the MTA's press release and Parsons the New School for Design's post. Here is an initial video of a few children and parents seeing the display during installation. You have to come to Union Square to see what intrigued and fascinated them so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jxbwP6MV2I For more background, please see my art section and the sites of the other creators of the installation: Jeanne Kelly Hilal Koyuncu Rose Maison Umut Ozover Josefina Santos Anezka Sebek Jaqi Vigil As well as the MTA Arts for Transit main page…

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Business school’s first major lesson: how to resolve ethical dilemmas

One of my most important lessons from business school came before the first class began. It's been useful for me since. Columbia emphasizes ethics. Orientation included a class on ethics. The case was an employee who witnesses someone breaking a rule. Reporting it would potentially harm him and certainly someone else for something that may have been minor. Not reporting it would benefit himself, but at the cost of becoming complicit. The first thing I learned in this case (not the main lesson) was to understand the case as an instance of a general class of ethical dilemmas where a protagonist has two choices To act according to his or her values but lose materially To violate his or her values and gain materially Other…

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