Every so often, I read something that reminds me that I can’t quite shake off my academic leanings when I write. Today I ran across just such an article in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine section. In many fewer and more evocative words, “[The Case for Working With Your Hands](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all),” by Matthew B. Crawford captures much of the concept of Being that I was painfully able to write about. Crawford turned his back on a hard-earned Ph. D. to become a motorcycle mechanic and in doing so found a deep satisfaction that was missing from his short career in the “information/knowledge”… Read More
Continue ReadingGood Bubbles
We have all learned that bubbles in the market make us feel good while they grow, but then become the cause of our economic woes. I discovered another kind of bubbles that seems to have only a positive effect–homemade ginger ale. Champagne can do the same if drunk in moderation (Champagne–the drink divine; A dollar’s worth of bubbles and a dime’s worth of wine). I suspect that ginger ale’s contribution to sustainability is vanishing small, but it sounds like a step in the right direction. The Dining and Wine feature of the New York Times reports this: > At Stand,… Read More
Continue ReadingSustainability by the Numbers
The Greener by Design conference has produced a stream of reportable articles. I plan to post my thoughts on these from time to time. Today, a presentation by Rand Waddoups, senior director of business strategy and sustainability at Wal-Mart popped up to the toop of the pile. Reported by Amie Vaccaro in a post titled, “[A Metrics Driven Approach to Sustainable Business](http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/19/a-metrics-driven-approach-sustainable-business),” Waddoups described a system Wal-Mart is using to drive their whole system toward “sustainability.” > [Waddoups] described Wal-Mart’s four part journey to sustainability, beginning with consensus building around need for sustainability, moving into an evangelist phase, and then… Read More
Continue ReadingVenti of Troubles
Starbucks is more than just another corporate headquarters to Seattle. It’s the story of hometown boys make good, even if the real genius of their explosive growth, Howard Schultz, was an import from the East. Now the storybook company is facing grande challenges to its growth and health. [The Seattle Times wonders](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jontalton/2009228571_biztaltoncol17.html) if the recession has made a permanent dent in the popularity of Starbucks. Same store sales are down, a very ominous sign in the retail trade. I am a bit surprised by this change. After all, part of the marketing genius of Schultz was to see each Starbucks… Read More
Continue ReadingEcological Intelligence (continued)
Following on the heels of the last post, I found this review of Goleman’s book on the Financial Times. Most of the review follows the line in his interview with Moyers. Sample: > Goleman argues that we can train ourselves to think differently – to develop an innate flight instinct when confronted by, for example, a shampoo that contains methylparaben, or a garden chair made from tropical wood. > > Helping the consumer along the way are new websites which drive “radical transparency”. Skin Deep, a “cosmetic safety database” evaluates the chemical content of more than 50,000 different products and… Read More
Continue ReadingFeeling Good With Goodguide.com
Running through my RSS feed reader tonight, I spotted an entry in [Bill Moyers Journal](http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html) referring to an interview with Daniel Goleman about his new book, *[Ecological Intelligence](http://www.amazon.com/Ecological-Intelligence-Knowing-Impacts-Everything/dp/0385527829)*. I just got a copy of the book from the author as a thank you for a short passage in it, summarizing a conversation we had while he was writing the book. I haven’t yet had a chance to read it, but I draw today’s post from watching the [interview video](http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05152009/watch2.html). I came away with a mixed impression. With this book, Goleman has done more to publicize the use of life cycle… Read More
Continue ReadingFlourishing in Maine
I need to take a day off from the serious stuff I try to post. My wife and I are settling into our summer routine in Maine. Starting in May, we move gradually up to our cottage in Brunswick, or as the Mainers would say we head downeast. Every spring we hold our breath as we open up, wondering how the place fared over the winter. The mothballs that local folklore says keeps the varmints out seemed to have done their job this year. But we always lift up the blankets to make sure that some family of mice hasn’t… Read More
Continue ReadingHappiness is Love. Full Stop
When David Brooks stays away from partisan politics, his columns generally make interesting reading. Brooks has become a diligent amateur sociologist (like I am), and now often writes about complexity, post-normal science, and non-Cartesian models of human consciousness and action. Today, he reports on a fascinating study that tracked some 200 Harvard men from their graduation through the rest of their lives. For the past 42 years, a psychiatrist, George Valliant has been overseeing the collection and analysis of the data. Brooks drew his column from an article about the so-called Grant Study to be published in the next issue… Read More
Continue ReadingStill Pursuing Happiness
Happiness is in the air these days. Maybe it’s just that spring has finally sprung in New England. Or maybe it’s that I spent last night in our Maine cottage for the first time since we closed up for the winter, even though the electric blanket was on high and we added an extra comforter. A few days ago I spotted [news](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/world/asia/07bhutan.html?_r=1&sq=bhutan&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print) that the government of Bhutan has officially changed their primary policy metric from the familiar Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to their own, unique concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH). They are developing a system to characterize the new… Read More
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