The fourth of July makes me ashamed. I’m ashamed of myself because I can’t seem to match the patriotism that surrounds me. In the USA, people get almost spiritual about their fireworks, hot dogs, and freedom worship. Behind all of this, for me, is a whole lot of weirdness. The…
Growing Smaller is a Worthy Goal (Part 1)
I used to own a brewery. In our rural location and with our small customer pool, we struggled to be profitable. My partners and I disagreed about how to best approach profitability. One had an MBA and swore by the neo-capitalist, Econ 101 approach to maximizing revenues. Following this popular approach,…
The Downfall of Modern Life
This episode is inspired by the idea that the USA has the world’s most expensive yet least h care. At least this has been the type of conclusion drawn from many analyses that compare things like GDP, cost of health care, and individual health. The idea is that we have…
Radical Acceptance Can Help You Progress Through Life
Knowing yourself is an important part of being a complete human. Maybe this is just my opinion based on my own values, but it seems to be a theme. Throughout history there have been thinkers proclaiming the importance of knowing oneself. To justify this conclusion we can look at the…
Degrowth vs Growth
While I don’t want to perpetuate the ‘capitalism sucks’ argument, I want to spend some time on degrowth. Pretty funny that the spell checkers keep correcting ‘degrowth’ to ‘regrowth’. See? This idea is manifested in everything. Because of capitalism, humans have become obsessed with growth. Mostly in the financial sense….
Are all Leaders Narcissists?
The words ‘leader’ and ‘narcissist’ bug me. I think these two words are overused. I also don’t think we really know what they mean anymore. Maybe we never did. Maybe the words have been usurped by the very people defined by them. Let’s start with leadership. What is this, exactly?…
Nature Knows Best
For the past twenty-some Episodes, I have been trying to figure out how to formulate my current question of interest. Generally, I am trying to make the case that Nature provides a wealth of information. Further, I am pleading with humankind to CONSULT nature when making decisions. Especially decisions that…
Systems Thinking
While this is not a definitive treatise on Systems Thinking, I wanted to talk a bit about this topic as it is relevant to many of my posts. People tell me that out-of-the-box thinking is atypical. Most people seem to think of the world in simplified, or at least minimized…
Awareness. Cultivation and Growth
I’m revisiting some of my favorite concepts in this episode. Awareness. Intent. Attention. Consciousness. Will. And how these things work together and facilitate growth. Being human. Underneath all of this, I believe that growing to be a ‘better’ human is a critical requirement of being alive. Or, if it is…
I Don’t Know
I say it all the time. The three most powerful words in the English language are, “I Don’t Know’. When I worked at a pet store, the boss publicly humiliated me for not being able to say, “I Don’t Know’. I learned quickly that it is not only ok, it…