I am helping organize a talk by my former Professor and leadership guru Michael Feiner February 19, 6-8pm in Manhattan. I’m helping organize it with the Distinguished Leaders Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York (you don’t have to be a member to attend). Plans may change, but I think I’m going to introduce him. I’ll copy the announcement below (here is a link to the[…] Keep reading →

Richard Feynman, one of my heroes, Nobel prize in physics winner, and entertaining guy, had concise advice in his commencement address to Caltech relevant to yesterday’s post on not fooling yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool. Here’s the text of the full speech, which is famous in scientific circles for his concept of “cargo cult science“,[…] Keep reading →

I can’t help reposting a comment I put on another site. Readers here know that while I don’t eat meat I don’t consider avoiding it virtuous or better. I don’t consider not eating meat any more healthy, virtuous, humane, delicious, or whatever than eating meat. I don’t understand why so many people who eat meat call themselves vegetarian. What do they gain? As best I can tell they consider not[…] Keep reading →

I wrote yesterday’s post on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy after reading one of its main creators — Aaron Beck’s — brief history from the Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research, “The Past and Future of Cognitive Therapy.” The article begins with simple anecdotes observing patterns in people’s beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors that anybody could notice that led him to create what we now call Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. But when he describes[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and how I work. I consider CBT important and effective, as far as I know. I wrote about how similar the model at its foundation is to my Model. Specifically, compare this representation of the CBT model with this representation of mine Pretty similar: Situation -> thought -> feeling -> action Environment -> belief -> emotion -> behavior I’ve also written about shortcomings[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on empathy gaps. 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.] Did you know you undermine some of your best efforts to do challenging things, especially involving personal change? You do. We all do, through an effect that makes sense when you get it,[…] Keep reading →

If you know me in person you probably know I’ve lived in the same apartment for thirteen years, longer than anyone I can think of has lived in one place except my father. I haven’t moved partly because I love the West Village, partly because I couldn’t stand the process of moving. Moving disrupts your life, takes a ton of work, and fills your place with dust. Meanwhile, over the[…] Keep reading →