The Best Books From My 34th Year

What do we do about hard books? You know, the ones. You keep reading the same page over and over again, absorbing none of it. Like attempting to swallow a mouthful of cinnamon. What do we do about those books? Do we struggle through? Or put them down? For Readers, capital “R,” this is a very important question. Because you … Read More

Moderation Application: How To Have Your Cab And Drink It Too…Sometimes

Reading time: 8 minutes, or less than half the time than it takes the entire grit-eating world to make grits. WE ALL KNOW THAT HEAVY DRINKING is not good for us. But, while we don’t want liver disease, we’d like to hold onto some of the benefits: fun, liquid courage, a good excuse to go streaking through the quad. The … Read More

‘Everything in Moderation?’ Wait, how much is that again?

[Reading Time: 9 minutes, or less time than it takes to milk two cows] MICHAEL JORDAN IS FAMOUS for his work ethic and practice routine. If you study Jordan’s career and attitude towards work and practice, you come to an obvious conclusion: to be the best, you really only need to work hard occasionally. “You don’t want to push it,” … Read More

How To Get Full On Less Food

Reading Time: ~4 minutes (or less time than it takes to boil an egg, if you know how…) “We are always looking at the things around us in relation to others.” The Situation Growing up, one of the dietary staples for my brother and me was eating bowls of cereal. Pretty typical. But the problem was that, from ages 8-22, … Read More

How To Get 10% Smarter in 15 Minutes

Reading time: ~5 minutes (or less time than it takes to find your keys) Summary: Walking or biking to your job might actually make you better at it. Imagine in less than an hour you have a huge meeting, or exam or, if you’re particularly troubled, a stand-up comedy set. The venue is 20 minutes away. This thing is huge, … Read More

My Meat Experiment

For 3 years I’ve been eating 99% plants and measuring impact on my health. Now, I’ll do the opposite– this is my Meat Experiment.

Scenes from Paris II: Luxembourg Gardens, Napoleon, and Midnight in Paris

In Part I of Scenes From Paris, I described the first couple days in Paris– food tours, my frenligh speaking, and a brush with romance. In this Part II, I follow the footsteps of all-time greats like Napoleon and Oscar Wilde and… Owen Wilson… IT WAS CRISP AND COOL on that Saturday morning, just 48 hours after touching down in … Read More

9 Great (and All-Time) Books From My 33rd Year

All of the books I finish are at least Good, some are Great, and an exceptional few are All-Time. If a book isn’t Good, i.e it fails the Gladwell test (“is this thing worth my time?”) for too many consecutive pages, I’ll stop reading, and frisbee it across the room into the belly of my beanbag. But on this list, … Read More