Author: Craig Constantine

The primary cause

February 21, 2022 · All posts on Feb 21

The numerous influences of the shoe heel on the foot and body column are not fully understood by most medical practitioners. The practi- tioner commonly speaks of ā€œsensibleā€ heels. Such a heel does not exist. Any elevated heel under a shoe automati- cally initiates an altered series of foot and body biomechanics.

~ William A. Rossi from, Footwear The Primary Cause of Foot Disorders

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And sometimes I use my blog as a personal out-brain data storage system. I’m trying to link to a more definitive sourceā€”but you’ll find that link is pay-walled, (and of no relation nor benefit to me.) It’s a short read, well-worth finding a copy of.

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Remember sweetness

February 20, 2022 · All posts on Feb 20

It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.

~ Chuck Palahniuk

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I continue to practice shifting my perspective. Instead of “pain” and “pleasure” though, I struggle with “failure” and “success.” The danger of setting clear goals, is that it’s equally clear whether or not they are achieved. Not reaching a goal is clear, and real. And to pretend otherwise is foolish.

The trap is that I forget that each goal contains a degree of arbitrariness. Success (reach the goal) and failure (not reach the goal.) Do not admit of shades of grey. But I systematically make the error of moving those adjectives onto my own self-assessment. Did I reach that goal? No. Then: I’m a failure.

A friend of mine once said that it takes a special person to be able to set a goal they cannot achieve. The clevernessā€”in my opinionā€”in there is that to be that special person, you have to set a goal that you believe you can achieveā€¦ and then discover your belief was wrong. I had a beliefā€”some piece of a model of reality, a map of a territory, a piece of knowledgeā€”and I’ve now realized, as I fail to reach a goal, that I was wrong. That’s literally learning.

ā€¦so really, every time I fall short on a goal, I’m literally learning and getting better. Every time I set a goal and “succeed,” not so much.

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Information

February 19, 2022 · All posts on Feb 19

In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

~ Herbert Simon

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What information consumes

February 19, 2022 · All posts on Feb 19

In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

~ Herbert Simon

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It may be, as he says, obvious to Simon, but it really was not obvious to me. Until I read this I had always thought of myself as giving, or perhaps spending, my time on information. In recent years I’ve begun reminding anyone who’ll listen, that we all have large Oxo grips that extend from the ancient systems cobbled together which today form our intelligence, our fear, and our psyche. It’s easy to grab someone by those handles and lead them. That’s fine because everyone doesn’t try to grab me by those Oxo handles. But software is good at grabbing those handles. Hardware is good at it. And companies run by people who haven’t thought through the morality of what they’re building using software and hardware are really good at it.

So when I read Simon’s comment about information consuming my attention. I sat bolt-upright.

ā€¦and then I renewed by efforts to swat away anything that I catch gazing lasciviously at my weaknesses.

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Principles

February 17, 2022 · All posts on Feb 17

As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

~ Harrington Emerson

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This is strikingly accurate for all the domains I’ve tried so far. I believe it’s useful to begin by trying some method-work; To explore conversation as a mastery practice, it would be insurmountably boring to sit in my research library reading about conversation. But trying a few different experiments provides invaluable experience. Some things are reproducible, and some things aren’t. Why is that? Some things work as I expected, and some things don’t. Why is that? Some things aren’t connected the way I’d expected, (imagine if the light switches in your house worked lights in other rooms, instead of the one you expected.) Why is that?

Niels Bohr said something similar about Painful experience, and I agree. The experiences serve as guides on either side of the roadway. In the beginning, everything is unknown and the road is seemingly boundless. Some exploration however soon finds a guide limiting one side. Farther exploration moves along the road and perhaps finds the other side’s guide. Progress continues in a serpentine fashion along the road. As principles are learned, the road becomes clearer. Armed with the curiosity and inspiration born of experimentation, progress along the road accelerates as the guides become more clear.

In the endā€”or the end of the beginning?ā€”things again seem simple. One might even say they seem principled.

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Quiet desperation

February 14, 2022 · All posts on Feb 14

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

~ Henry David Thoreau

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Have it all

February 13, 2022 · All posts on Feb 13

When we try to do it all and have it all, we find ourselves making trade-offs at the margins that we would never take on as our intentional strategy. When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other peopleā€”our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our familiesā€”will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important.

~ Greg McKeown

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Trade-offs

February 13, 2022 · All posts on Feb 13

When we try to do it all and have it all, we find ourselves making trade-offs at the margins that we would never take on as our intentional strategy. When we don’t purposefully and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other peopleā€”our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our familiesā€”will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important.

~ Greg McKeown

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In the last year, I’ve been regularly returning to my personal mission. It’s a blazing beacon on the horizon. Every time I am aware that I should make a choice, I can honestly say this choice right here is in service of my mission. (The corollary of course is that those times when I’m not aware that I’m making a choice, my mission doesn’t help me at all.)

And I do literally mean all the things are in service of my mission. My choices about my commitments to people, family responsibilities, taxes, friendships, volunteer work, rest, relaxation, food, and many more things are all intentional choices now made in service of my mission. All those things, which others might say seem to be off-mission, are in fact making me a functioning, decent person who is then able to pursue a mission. There’s a whole suite of things that people incorrectly talk about as “home” life, (or “personal” life, or sometimes just “life”,) which they need to balance against “work” life. No. No no. No no no. I tried splitting my universe into work and life and that’s simply not reality.

There’s only “life” time. Stare unflinching at those choices that seem to be on the margins, for they too are just as much important choices about your life.

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Vulnerability

February 12, 2022 · All posts on Feb 12

I had no choice but to let my guard down and be vulnerable for the first time. Shockingly, rather than drive my employees away, it drew them closer. Young team members actually pulled me aside and confessed that they used to think I was “superhuman,” meaning I was unrelatable [sic]. Now that I was showing my vulnerability, they said, they would follow me anywhere. The lesson: Rather than striving to be superhuman, I would aspire to be less “super” and more “human.”

~ Linda Rottenberg

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Choices

February 11, 2022 · All posts on Feb 11

In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first timeā€”literallyā€”substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.

~ Peter Drucker

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Problems

February 10, 2022 · All posts on Feb 10

Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; Indeed they create our courage and wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to solve problems, just as in school we deliberately set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.

~ Scott Peck

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A synthesis of sleep

February 10, 2022 · All posts on Feb 10

I’ve written a lot about sleep. But when I found this “article” about sleep from 2016ā€” well, at 361 pages, it’s definitely not an “article.” Now that I found this article, I feel comfortable that in recent years I’ve not been writing about sleep. This topic is already well-covered.

And you really should go look at the PDF. Eight-hours a day? ā€”wrong. Same time to-bed/to-rise each day? Wrong. Single-phase, biphase, ā€¦ it’s all so complicated!

I hope that this article compiles all the basic ingredients of knowledge that are helpful in accomplishing refreshing sleep. As for the sacrifice, it is important to begin with the understanding that one cannot eat one’s cake and have it too. Healthy sleep may be incompatible with some modern habits, some cravings, or some lifestyle choices. At worst, refreshing sleep may be incompatible with one’s job or even long-term goals.

~ Dr Piotr Wozniak, May 2012 from, Ā«https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/sleepĀ»

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Truly humble

February 7, 2022 · All posts on Feb 7

Humility engenders learning because it beats back the arrogance that puts blinders on. It leaves you open for truths to reveal themselves. You donā€™t stand in your own way. [ā€¦] Do you know how you can tell when someone is truly humble? I believe thereā€™s one simple test: Because they consistently observe and listen, the humble improve. They donā€™t assume, ā€˜I know the way.ā€™

~ Wynton Marsalis

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