”I know it can sound flippant, but they really embody this notion that every billionaire is a policy failure". This was from a piece about Yvon Chouinard and his family, who just placed Patagonia into a special trust, so that it cannot be turned into a publicly traded company. The…
I was studying this sales letter that is said to be one of the greatest of all time. (You can see the text here if you don’t mind seeing all the promo around it.) It really is brilliant, and it is not always clear exactly why. One thing I…
We were talking with my nephew yesterday. He is 17, I am 56, and my mom is 83. I was just reading from a beautiful book, Ecological Design, by Sim van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan. Waste could be the fuel for another process. We could use bioremediation. Isn’t…
As the crises become increasingly salient (note the recent floods in Pakistan, or a few weeks ago in Kentucky), we’ll keep reaching salience points where the the present immediacy to individuals begins to create collective stories about what is going on which cannot be avoided. Hundreds of children among…
As an avid student of the subject of "productivity" or "time management", I am aware that currently in the zeitgeist, we are moving into a time of resistance to the very idea. Oliver Burkeman's 4,000 Weeks struck a very strong chord with the world a year ago (including with…
I have felt for a long time a real desire to get my ideas out in some sort of "published" state. I don't know why my particular neurodiversity needs and wants this so much. But I think it's important. (Thanks to Ahmad Ajami for explaining how to create a second…
As I begin to write, there is the ever-present monitor, that says: Should I wait, and craft this into something really wonderful? Or should I just spew out whatever is on my mind, with a minimum of care and thoughtfulness? Where is the balance between those? When will this matter…