What I've Learned From My Books
The Crime of Punishment - Don't base your penal system on vengeance.
The Story Factor - Use stories, not facts, to persuade. People are up to their ears in information; what they want instead is someone and something to believe in.
The Bushmen - A lot of very valuable knowledge is lost when native cultures are rubbed out.
Out of the Earth - The way you treat you soil can literally destroy your entire civilization, e.g., the Mayans, the Romans.
Tested Advertising Methods - If you don't test the effectiveness of your advertisements scientifically, you waste your time.
Nirvana in a Nutshell - Pay attention. It makes good things happen.
Buddhism Without Beliefs - "IS," it seems, is about as far as any good philosopher can ever get in explaining the nature of existence before whatever he has to say moves from observable inherant truth to opinion.
Clearcut - You can plant trees. You cannot plant a forest.
Green Plastics - Biodegradable plastics exist, and they don't cost too much at all. If plastic must be used, it should biodegradable, if you can do it.
Tom Brown's Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival - Sunlight can distill water. Distilled water is absolutely safe water, save for .01% possible impurities.
The Science and Art of Tracking - You can track humans, bears, mice, ants, antelope, alligators, and trees across solid rock if you're willing to invest the time. The basics of tracking--pressure releases--are very simple.
Before the Basics - Talk to children like human beings, not toys, dolls, or puppies. Have conversations with them, and they will benefit from your attention, company, and support. And they'll learn to talk. And think. And express themselves. All good things.
On Becoming an Educated Person - Study with even lighting, lightly flexed posture, preferably in a specific place designated specifically and only for studying (or writing, or researching -- work). Before you study, decide you are going to study. If you're preoccupied, quit studying. Tend to the preoccupation, otherwise the preoccupation will interfere with and waste your study time. If you get bored, switch subjects, take a walk, eat some breakfast, have a fistfight. Do anything but continue studying the exact same way, if possible. Sleep, for the love of god. Excercise. Eat. Drink.
Cradle to Cradle - Separate your waste stream into biological, biodegradable wastes, and technical, indefinitely recyclable wastes. Avoid all other types of waste. Waste equals food.
White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts - Tell yourself what TO do, not what what NOT to do. This requires less than half the effort to accomplish the same thing.
Some Things Worth Knowing - Specialists are bad. Avoid them. Generalists are good. Raise them.
Permaculture: A Designer's Manual - Model your agricultural systems after natural ecosystems. These serve as perfect preliminary guides.
Go to www.civilizationdesign.com to see how the new site is developing!
What I have read, what I am reading, what I am planning to read. |