Author: Craig Constantine

Belonging →

Published April 6, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 6  ·  

The second meaning of the word belong has to do with being an owner: Something belongs to me. To belong to a community is to act as a creator and co-owner of that community. What I consider mine I will build and nurture. The work, then, is to seek in our communities a wider and deeper sense of emotional ownership and communal ownership. It means fostering among all of a community’s citizens a sense of ownership and accountability, both in their relationship and in what they actually control.

~ Peter Block

Elsewhere, this is 4a829. — slipbox

Rhyming →

Published April 6, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 6

There comes a moment in doing your reading where new work begins to rhyme. When you start to see the connections. When you understand who influenced the person you’re engaging with right now.

~ Seth Godin from, On doing the reading

Elsewhere, this is 4useoo2. — slipbox

I find it difficult to figure out when to shift from empty-cup, learn-everything mode into the mastery mode. Godin’s insight about “rhyming” strikes me as a great test. In the beginning of some new learning adventure, everything is new and everything is surprising. The idea of noticing when a lot of things start to rhyme… of noticing when you can tell who or what influenced this thing you’re currently studying… that is when you notice that you have shifted into the mastery level of practice. Mastery does not—not by a long shot!—mean you are done. It’s more like the point where the airplane pivots and leaps into the sky: Now I am ready to begin my own journey.

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Folly →

Published April 5, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 5  ·  

What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble ourselves about taking the only step that is to deliver us from all trouble! As our birth brought us the birth of all things, so in our death is the death of all things included. And therefore to lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago.

~ Michel de Montaigne

Elsewhere, this is 4a827. — slipbox

Nope nope nope →

Published April 5, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 5

The History of Philosophy is an interactive tool enabling users to dig into a visual timeline of 2,500 years of philosophical thought and discover lines of agreement and divergence.

~ Ahmed Kabil from, The History of (Western) Philosophy

Elsewhere, this is 4ulote1. — slipbox

I glanced at this when it appeared in my RSS feed and I had two simultaneous thoughts: “Wow, I should really dig into—” And, “RUN AWAY!” Because, this is exactly the sort of maximally complicated data visualization that I would create.

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Time and strength [are] limited →

Published April 4, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 4  ·  , ,

One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.

~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Elsewhere, this is 4a825. — slipbox

What we seem to have forgotten →

Published April 4, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 4

Here is what we seem to have forgotten: America is not some finished work or failed project but an ongoing experiment. And it is an experiment that, by design, will never end. If parts of the machine are broken, then the responsibility of citizens is to fix the machine—not throw it away.

~ James Mattis from, The Enemy Within

Elsewhere, this is 4utema2. — slipbox

I’ll just drop that there.

…and I’ll go on to add that it’s interesting how, through loops and curly-Q’s, I often find myself at the same place. There’s a copy of The American Idea: The Best of The Atlantic Monthly in my currently-reading stack.

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Connection →

Published April 3, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 3  ·  

To act on whatever our intentions might be to make the world better requires something more than individual action It requires, in almost every case, people who may have little connection with each other, or who may even be on opposite sides of a question, to decide to come together for some common good.

~ Peter Block

Elsewhere, this is 4a824. — slipbox

Seek to learn →

Published April 3, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 3  ·  

Embracing a growth mindset means to get pleasure out of changing for the better (inward rewarding) instead of getting pleasure in being praised (outward rewarding.) […] to seek as many opportunities to learn as possible is the most reliable long-term growth strategy.

~ Sönke Ahrens from, How to Take Smart Notes

Ahrens of course discusses, and gives credit where credit is due, to Carol Dweck’s ideas. (See Dweck’s, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.) Her comment about “reliable long-term growth strategy” struck me as insightful. Her use of, “most reliable,” is an understatement. What other strategy would even be reliable?

If I want to grow, I need to learn. If I want to learn, I need to maximize those opportunities.

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Elsewhere, this is 4c2se1k. — slipbox

Obstacles →

Published April 2, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 2  ·  ,

When you start to see your world as something more in line as a tool and an obstacle to interact with, play with, you’re going to take that lesson and look at other obstacles in your life. Your relationships, your job, your work, your health even. All these things are going to be so strongly ultimately affected by this tiny little change of yourself and your city.

~ Caitlin Pontrella

Elsewhere, this is 4a823. — slipbox

Protein allocation →

Published April 2, 2022  ·  All posts on Apr 2  ·  

By definition LC is about dietary carbohydrate restriction. If you are reducing carbohydrates, your proportional intake of protein or fat, or both, will go up. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with a high fat diet, it seems to me that the true advantage of LC may be in how protein is allocated, which appears to contribute to a better body composition.

~ Ned Kock from, Dietary protein does not become body fat if you are on a low carbohydrate diet

Elsewhere, this is 4ubodi1. — slipbox

Zoinks! This short article is dense. I read each paragraph. Then slowly reread the paragraph, squinting slightly and turning each sentence over in my mind. It feels like there’s at least one actionable-item, (something to start doing, or something to stop doing,) in every paragraph. I’ve spent a lot of time in recent years trying to learn what I can about all the things in this article. It’s a beautiful assembly that backs up the thesis in the first paragraph, (which is quoted entirely above.)

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