Author: Craig Constantine

I’ll be podcasting and presenting Art of Retreat 2022 →

Published September 16, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 16  ·  , ,

During the Sept 24th weekend, I’ll once again be recording conversations with community leaders and movement enthusiasts at a retreat in the Cascades outside of Seattle. Follow that link If you’re interested in the nuts-and-bolts of what I do in order to create some conversations. Over there, I’ll be posting replies as the project progresses over the next two weeks. I’ll be showing my work—preparation, packing, gear, field recording, and post-production. I’ll try to cover everything from ideation to the final deliverables.

The first piece of context is, what is the event that I’m attending? It’s an immersive gathering celebrating leadership in parkour. We bring remarkable leaders from the global parkour community together for 4 days of learning, sharing, and play.

https://www.artofretreat.com

The event is a concept which has been held in various locations over the years. It’s near and dear to me both in the sense that I’m into parkour and I’m into podcasting. I’m also leading an interactive session about Creating Better Conversation.

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Fear and misery →

Published September 15, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 15  ·  

The Stoics knew that fear was to be feared because of the miseries it creates. The things we fear pale in comparison to the damage we do to ourselves and others when we unthinkingly scramble to avoid them. An economic depression is bad; a panic is worse. A tough situation isn’t helped by terror—it only makes things harder. And that’s why we must resist it and reject it if we wish to turn this situation around.

~ Ryan Holiday

Elsewhere, this is 4a1010. — slipbox

You had me at dogs →

Published September 15, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 15

Quid and I have struck a deal. Every morning she flies up the stairs, leaps onto our bed, and attacks my nose with her sharp little teeth. And I am awakened.

~ Alexandra Horowitz from, What Do Dogs Know About Us? – The Atlantic

Elsewhere, this is 4utefa5. — slipbox

You had me at, “dogs.”

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Creatives with Tricia Rose Burt →

Published September 14, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 14

How does one navigate the challenges of fostering creativity and sharing personal experiences through podcasting and storytelling?

The conversation explores how creative transformation impacts personal identity and professional pursuits.

I made a very drastic leap. I quit my job, sold my car, divorced my husband, and moved over to Ireland because I thought I needed to completely remove myself to start over as this artist.

~ Tricia Rose Burt (3:24)

The discussion centers on creative transformation and the courage required to embrace a life of artistic expression. Tricia shares her journey of leaving a conventional life to pursue a career as an artist and storyteller. She reflects on how discovering their creative identity in midlife reshaped their perspective and drove her to inspire others to take similar leaps.

The conversation also explores the challenges and rewards of podcasting as a medium for storytelling. Topics include the importance of maintaining focus on a central theme, the intimacy of podcasting, and the difficulties of not receiving immediate audience feedback. Practical strategies are discussed, such as tailoring content to serve the audience while balancing personal vulnerability with broader themes.

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The chasm between →

Published September 14, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 14  ·  ,

Too often there is a chasm between our ideas and knowledge on the one hand and our actual experience on the other. We absorb trivia and information that take up mental space but get us nowhere. We read books that divert us but have little relevance to our daily lives. We have lofty ideas that we do not put into practice. We also have many rich experiences that we do not analyze enough, that do not inspire us with ideas, whose lessons we ignore. Strategy requires a constant contact between the two realms.

~ Robert Greene

Elsewhere, this is 4a1009. — slipbox

Not so easy →

Published September 14, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 14  ·  

The answer depends on whether he recognizes that though he may have subdued his external obstacles and enemies, he must overcome psychological foes — depression, anomie, angst — which are no less formidable for their ethereality. He must embrace the fact that though this world may be thoroughly charted, explored, and technologized, there remains one last territory to conquer — himself.

~ Brett McKay from, Sunday Firesides: Man’s Last Great Conquest — Himself | The Art of Manliness

Elsewhere, this is 4uaoca17. — slipbox

I would argue that all the external conquering and subduing was the easy part. That existential dread? That’s not so easy. The first part of solving that problem is of course realizing it is a problem for oneself. Yeah, I’m working on that.

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What happens now →

Published September 13, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 13  ·  

Do not bother about what will happen someday, somewhere, in the far away distance, in a future time; think and be very attentive to what happens now, here, in this place.

~ John Ruskin

Elsewhere, this is 4a1008. — slipbox

Just traffic fatalities →

Published September 13, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 13

Unlike chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, the “cure” for traffic fatalities will depend more on technology and policy than on medicine and health science. On the plus side, we as a society already have pretty clear evidence of effective strategies for improving the problem – e.g., stricter speed limit enforcement, restrictions on commercial and residential building along arterial roads, and mandates for safety features such as automatic emergency braking. On the minus side, we as individuals are very limited in our power to enact those strategies.

~ Peter Attia, from The Epidemic on the Road

Elsewhere, this is 4upete2. — slipbox

The article is about traffic fatalities in the context of the COVID pandemic. I’m focusing simply on the fact that more than 40,000 people died in 2021 in traffic fatalities. Sure there are lots of causes, but you know what the single most easily implemented change is? Of course you do. Slow down. Me? You’ll find me doing about 5-over-the-limit on the highway (so people don’t literally shoot me) and usually a little below-the limit otherwise. Often with the cruise control set. How about you?

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Emptiness →

Published September 12, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 12  ·  ,

People jump back and forth in pursuit of pleasures only because they see the emptiness of their lives more clearly than they do the emptiness of whichever new entertainment attracts them.

~ Blaise Pascal

Elsewhere, this is 4a1007. — slipbox

That’s… interesting →

Published September 12, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 12

But in our Physics Project we’ve developed a fundamentally different view of space—in which space is not just a background, but has its own elaborate composition and structure. And in fact, we posit that space is in a sense everything that exists, and that all “things” are ultimately just features of the structure of space. We imagine that at the lowest level, space consists of large numbers of abstract “atoms of space” connected in a hypergraph that’s continually getting updated according to definite rules and that’s a huge version of something like this…

~ Stephen Wolfram from, On the Concept of Motion—Stephen Wolfram Writings

Elsewhere, this is 4useoe1. — slipbox

I’m not sure what to say about this. I am certain that Wolfram is not crazy and that he is brilliant, but he’s pretty far beyond what I can understand. (Picture me doing that slightly askew, squinting thing.) On the other hand, if they really are making the progress they seem to be… it’s going to be a neat time to be alive, in another decade when they get things sorted out.

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