Feel like thinking big? Here are three lectures that address some extremely important questions and issues. I encourage you set aside some time to avail yourself to this learning. There is some immensely valuable perspective and insight here: Why Cities Grow, Corporations Die, and Life Gets Faster by theoretical physicist Geoffrey West.1 Civilization Far From […]

There is a river that weaves through my city. It stinks. Literally. It has become something of a disposal line, with the aroma of an oversize refuse drain. It has been forgotten about by almost everybody — save a few morning joggers, canoe club members, and a smattering of environmental activists. Most people seem to […]

While positivism expounded the need for detached observation and neutral description, Michael Polanyi argued the central role of belief and passionate engagement. He described science as something riddled with guesswork, curiosity and imagination. To prove this, Polanyi pointed out the Achilles heel of detached objectivity: discovery. A scientist is trying to find  something that nobody […]

Having a vegetable garden makes fertility goddess worship make sense. After planting, one does indeed contemplate how one might petition the gods of germination, photosynthesis and squirrel plagues to do one’s bidding. For me, the garden is just a hobby. But what if  my friends and family literally depended on this miracle? (“Miracle” here meaning that […]

We tend to think that consumerism is about doggedly clinging to our wealth, trinkets and toys. In actuality, however, the opposite is true: consumerism occurs as the result of not loving our stuff at all. We have so little attachment to our material goods that we dispose and replace them with ever increasing regularity. Consumerism, […]

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you […]

Almost two billion people on planet earth use the Internet. That includes 77.4% of the North American population and 825 million people in Asia.1 By any metric, the growth of the Internet in the past decade is astounding. But here is a bigger number: four billion. That’s roughly the number of global inhabitants who are […]

Let’s not forget what a “social network” really is… Community works like the synapses of the brain: the stronger the connections, the stronger everybody is. Existence is symbiosis. The question is not whether you will be a part of the relational ecology; the question is: will you build or weaken your partnerships therein? Social networking […]