Pleasure, luxuryāthese things you call happiness, but I think that to wish nothing is the happiness of god, and when you wish to have only small things, then you make yourself closer to this divine and high happiness.
~ Socrates
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Author: Craig Constantine
Au delĆ du saut
Nous abordons toutes les dimensions de la pratique depuis l’histoire jusqu’au flow, en passant par les entrainements physiques, la technique, le mental, les valeurs … Tout ce qui vous permettra de mieux comprendre et ressentir le mouvement pour pouvoir aller plus loin.
~ Stany Boulifard Mallet from, L’Art Du DĆ©placement –
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I’m really excited about this. Two friends of mine, after very much work over several years, have finished a book. It’s in French (there’s discussion of doing an English version next) and available as a digital file if you’re not in France. Two thingsā¦
I had a conversation with Stany Boulifard Mallet (one of the authors) back in 2018.
And if you just thought, “lart du depla-what?!” and you’re the curious type, see my Art du DĆ©placement tag for my blog posts related to this beautiful movement community and its French roots.
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Work ethic with Mark Tweddle
What are the challenges and strategies for managing the technical, creative, and promotional aspects of podcasting effectively?
Audio engineers are adapting traditional skills to modern tools like Descript, reshaping collaboration in podcasting.
Thereās a value in the creative work, thereās a value in the hard work, thereās a value in story, thereās all these values about doing the thing, but what do you think having it be published would add for you?
~ Mark Tweddle (17:57)
The conversation covers challenges in podcast production, focusing on integrating traditional audio engineering with modern collaborative tools like Descript. Descriptās transcription and editing features facilitated collaboration for a multi-host podcast, enabling efficient feedback and editing processes. The discussion also explored the creative synergy between music, storytelling, and podcasting, particularly through the unique production dynamics of live recordings and audience interactions.
Another major topic is the difficulty of balancing creative work with the practicalities of podcast promotion. Despite producing compelling content, finding the right audience and ensuring the podcast reaches them is a persistent challenge. Mark reflects on how personal values and satisfaction drive creative efforts, questioning what publishing adds to the creator’s sense of accomplishment.
Takeaways
Evolving role of tools ā Collaborative podcast production and tools can streamline feedback and editing processes.
The challenges of transitioning from virtual to live podcast recordings ā live shows demand different preparation and adaptability.
The importance of storytelling in various mediums ā storytelling connects creators and audiences through shared narratives.
The intersection of music and podcasting ā creative integration of music can enhance storytelling and audience engagement.
The difficulty of podcast discovery and audience targeting ā even high-quality content may struggle to find its ideal listeners.
Balancing creative and technical demands ā creators need to manage their time and energy effectively.
The role of pre-planning in podcasting ā effective preparation ensures smoother production, particularly for live events.
Resources
Descript ā A transcription and editing tool for podcasts and audio production.
Sauce Productions ā Neil Harringtonās audio production company, specializing in podcasts and advertising.
Intimate Fame Podcast ā A dramatized podcast focusing on historical figures; upcoming episodes explore Marilyn Monroe and Wallace Simpson.
Hindenburg Pro ā Audio editing software for podcast production.
Edinburgh Festival ā Venue for live podcast recordings discussed in the conversation.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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What is philosophy for?
Philosophy isn’t a parlor trick or made for show. It’s not concerned with words, but with facts. It’s not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides actions, shows what should and shouldn’t be doneāit sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advise is to be sought out in philosophy.
~ Seneca
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Who’s in charge?
But then [Seneca] gives the real reason: āThe body should be treated more rigorously that it may not be disobedient to the mind.ā I think about that every morning just before I crank the knob. Who is in charge? The courageous side of me or the cowardly side? The side that doesnāt flinch at discomfort or the side that desires to always be comfortable? The side that does the hard thing or the side that takes the easy way?
~ Ryan Holiday from, You Actually Should Do Something That Scares You Every Day – RyanHoliday.net
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This made me think. Usually, I share others’ writing because I thought highly of it. In this case, I’m hesitant to say this, however: I’ve never thought my body was in charge.
Certainly(!) I have reflexes and bodily functions or urges which my mind has no control over. Certainly flinching (under cold water for example) is something you can learn to reduce. I’ve always thought of my mind as the one who’s not always the best captain of the ship. I don’t need to train to put my mind in charge of my body.
Recently I hurt my back. The story begins with my doing some truly pathetic, free-weight exercises to strengthen my back. I over did it. Then I ate poorly and wound up bloated and a few pounds heavier. Then I went rock climbing and worked on a problem (a challenging combination of moves and skills, in an easy to access location rather than 2 hours up some mountain, so one can spend time with it) that involved maximumāstrength pulling with my arms while pushing with my legs. Boink! Ow, my back. I managed to calmly pack my 20 pounds of things into my pack, walk back to the car and drive myself 3 hours home. There were a myriad of things that could have set me off in the moment, on the drive, and in the coming days: acute pain, inability to sleep well, the inability to reach my feet or wipe my butt, the fact that I did it all to myself while trying to improve my body, drivers on the highways and people who tried to talk to me, the overall setback, ā¦ so many things. But instead, I was reasonable with everyone. I did what I could do, rested and recovered. A week laterājust as I knew I would beāI’m back to where I was before I picked up the free-weights. Ready to try again at improving myself (and planning an even more gradual start.)
So I’m inclined to say: My mind is clearly in charge, even under duress.
What I was thinking about, in that first sentence here, was if I have trained to put my mind in charge, that means there’s room for more training.
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Two guides
Two ways exist to guide human activity. One is to force a person to act against his wishes; The other is to guide a person’s wishes, to persuade him with reasoning. One is the way of violence: It is used by ignorant people, and it leads to complete disappointment. The other is supported by experience, and is always successful.
~ Abraham Comb
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A rare repeat
Because sometimes I experience small periods of blissful serenity. Iād particularly like to be able to go there on a more regular basis. It seems to me that spending about 10 days doing nothing but meditating in silence would be a delightfully mind-altering experience.
~ Me from, Waiting for the next one ā Craig Constantine
I’m a process maniac. I have automation that feeds me links to my historical blog posts. This one from three years ago was something I really needed to reread (and was therefore very glad I was given the nudge to do so.)
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Opportunity with Gabriella Pitman
How can content creators balance the need for consistency and momentum with the risk of burnout and the desire to create meaningful, sustainable work?
The conversation unpacks the delicate balance between consistency and creative freedom for podcasters.
There is a certain amount of spaciousness in your mind in your emotions in your physical mental space. You need to have that kind of openness that emptiness in order for ideation to occur.
~ Gabriella Pitman (5:37)
The conversation explores the nuanced relationship between creative consistency and personal well-being in podcasting. Challenges such as burnout, audience engagement, and maintaining momentum without overextending oneself are discussed. Reflections on the publishing schedule reveal that rigid adherence to routines can detract from the joy and authenticity of creating. Gabriella highlights the importance of stepping back to recharge and regain inspiration.
A significant portion of the discussion centers on the evolving metrics and expectations in podcasting, particularly how creators can navigate audience demands without succumbing to the pressure of frequent publishing. Gabriella and Craig emphasize the value of intentionality in creative work and the necessity of pacing content creation according to personal capacity and audience needs.
Takeaways
Balancing momentum ā Maintaining creative momentum is valuable but must not lead to overextension or burnout.
Importance of spaciousness ā Openness and mental space are essential for creativity and ideation.
Publishing frequency ā Audience engagement does not necessarily require constant content output; intentional pacing can be more impactful.
Resistance as a signal ā Resistance can indicate either a need for persistence or a deeper issue requiring change.
Podcasting metrics ā Traditional metrics like download counts and schedules are not the sole indicators of success or audience impact.
Resources
South by Southwest ā Mentioned in relation to live concerts and content creation opportunities.
Seth Godinās Blog ā Referenced for its consistent publishing practice and influence on creators.
Spotify ā Discussed as a podcast platform that influences engagement metrics.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Listen
To have a dialog
~ Antonio Machado
First: Ask a question
Then: Listen
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The why
People think of that complexity as an expression of our capacity for abstract thought. We believe our brains are so complex because of the wonders we can build in our minds. Make no mistake, we can build wonders in our minds but what we have neglected is that those wonders are boot strapped on top of motor control. The first purpose of the brain is to guide movement.
~ Rafe Kelley from, Ā«https://www.evolvemoveplay.com/the-why-of-movement-practice/Ā»
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And the second purpose it to solve problems in the physical world. (How do I go over there? How do I avoid that danger? How do I get food?) To solve problems you need to be able to define what the problem is. You define any problem by imagining some desired state (I am over there. I have avoided that danger by running. I have eaten that food.) and then looking for options that can get you from the current state, to the desired state. So it turns out that the better your imagination is, the better you can be at solving problems. Faced with endless options, you mind turns out to be really good at heuristicsāmaking estimations in advance with limited knowledge (prejudice can be a good thing; assuming snakes are not friendly is an excellent heuristic.) All of which makes possible the beauty and diversity of our lives. Fortunately, we have a capacity for reason atop all of that which enables us to make choices so the possibility of beauty and diversity can be our a reality. I digress.
Back to Kelley’s point, if the entire edifice of our minds is built upon that first purpose, what happens if we starve the mind of the physical engagement?
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Other people’s thoughts
For the most part, false and harmful opinions are distributed and supported by influence. We are too likely to accept the views and thoughts of other people without trying to investigate them deeper and further ourselves. Unimportant people are those who accept other people’s thoughts without developing them themselves.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Lions and lambs
Since retiring as a lion, I have grown to admire and respect the lambs. As it turns out, they are the ones that have not yet been rendered idiots by the āhealth and fitnessā industry. Their meekness comes not from weakness of character, but from highly justified scepticism. Their sideward glances stem not so much from question such as āwhat am I doingā, but rather āwhat the hell are you doing..?ā And quite rightly so. What the hell are you doing?
~ “MoveMore” from, The Problem with āExerciseā ā MoveMore
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A quirky article from some place new (to me). The author (who is completely unidentified across their entire web site as far as I can tell) has a fun way of turning the tables on the standard lambs and lions. They also rail against the mainstream health and fitness representations of, well, “health” and “fitness”.
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Making choices
To create art we make choices. We do it with intent, seeking to make a change for certain people. When we find that our choices didn’t succeed, vulnerability with lots of personal angst is an available choice. The alternative is to learn from what didn’t resonate. Was it our choices in how we did the work, or did we bring this work to the wrong audience? You are not your work. Your work is a series of choices made with generous intent to cause something to happen. We can always learn to make better choices.
~ Seth Godin
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Novelty
I get the feeling that a lot of us are afraid of repeating ourselves – as if doing so demonstrates a lack of originality or a “less than” memory.
~ Jon Yuen from, Ā«https://www.yuenjon.com/articles/2020/6/5/remindersĀ»
Clearly (based on all these blog posts) I’m not afraid of repeating myself, and it feels in each moment as if I’m repeating myself. I see the same patterns in what interests me, and I think the same trains of thoughts. When I zoom farther out however, I see long, slow trends. The problem for me with repetition is that I find the salience of things tapers away towards zero. I’m [knowingly] within a few feet of a snake so rarely that my brain effortlessly applies maximum attention; but the number on the scale, not so much. What works for me is when the repetition is uncertain. I know I’ll read one of my quotes tomorrow, but it’ll be a random oneāand I’ll remember it instantly as soon as I start reading it. Repetition repetition on to something else thenā¦ surprise! ā¦more repetition!
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Tradition
For the majority of mankind, religion is a habit, or, more precisely, tradition is their religion. Though it seems strange, I think that the first step to moral perfection is your liberation from the religion in which you were raised. Not a single person has come to perfection except by following this way.
~ Henry David Thoreau
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The message
There are mountains of content. None of it is new. How do we decide what to practice or teach? A message can clarify this. There was a time when I did not have a message. I delivered great content, accumulated from various teachers Iād studied from. The participants had fun, but my lack of messaging left me without answers to questions like, āWhy does this much strength (or mobility) matter?ā or āWhy have you chosen these moves and not those moves?”
~ Kyle Fincham from, What’s Your Message?
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It used to be, that when I read things like this article, I would be launched into deep thinking. It’s nice to know what my message is. It’s nice to know why, specifically, each piece of my menagerie is in my care, why I continue feeding it, and what my hopes for it are. It’s nice. I point this out not in some attempt to jump on my soapbox about how everyone should sort their own menagerie outā¦ no. I’m literally just pointing out that my experience of it is nice.
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The more you say
The more you say, the more likely you are to blow past opportunities, ignore feedback, and cause yourself suffering. The inexperienced and fearful talk to reassure themselves. The ability to listen, to deliberately keep out of a conversation and subsist without its validity is rare. Silence is a way to build strength and self-sufficiency.
~ Ryan Holiday
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Somatic movement
A somatic approach to movement can help us get reacquainted with ourselves. This is our home base after all. It’s our guts and tissues, our thoughts and perceptions. It’s our subjective experience of life. [ā¦] When we cultivate self-awareness through movement, we come up against the boundary of self and other. We recognize that we don’t live in a vacuum.
~ Chandler Stevens from, Ā«http://chandlerstevens.com/blog/2016/11/9/connection-relation-and-somatic-ecologyĀ»
The word “reacquainted” leapt out at me. Every time I truly pause to pay attention, I’m immediately confronted by my physical self. There’s the inevitable settling towards senescence, and frankly that doesn’t bother me. I enjoy looking back at the things I was once capable of and thinking, well, that was nice! No, the confrontation I’m talking about is the stuff that I know is my faultā¦ and I’m not going to list physical metrics. Suffice to say: All I’d have to do it remove the stress and everything else would settle back to a wonderful baseline that I’d love to return to.
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The moral
The moral? To recognize that our best chance of contentment lies in taking up the wisdom offered to us in coded form through our coughs, allergies, social gaffes and emotional betrayals, and to avoid the ingratitude of those who blame the peas, the bores, the time and the weather.
~ Alaine De Botton
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How to think for yourself
Independent-mindedness seems to be more a matter of nature than nurture. Which means if you pick the wrong type of work, you’re going to be unhappy. If you’re naturally independent-minded, you’re going to find it frustrating to be a middle manager. And if you’re naturally conventional-minded, you’re going to be sailing into a headwind if you try to do original research.
~ Paul Graham from, How to Think for Yourself
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This is a case where I found it difficult to pull-quote. This at least gives you an idea of what the article is about. The challenge for me seems to be not becoming a raving lunatic when I’m off in independent-thinking land. I’ve learned to be able to swim in the conventionalāminded, littoral waters, and I’ve been told I can even be helpful there. But my native environment seems to be the deep ocean of solitary thinking. I need to constantly remind myself that coming back to shore is importantā¦ as is doffing the raving lunatic appearance before trying to fold myself back into collaborative efforts.
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