noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.
I am tempted to give a talk sometime that consists of nothing but applause lights, and see how long it takes for the audience to start laughing.
~ Eliezer Yudkowsky from, Applause Lights — LessWrong
slip:4ulela1.
This is a short piece which shines some good insight into the darker corners of how people use language.
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Twelve hundred miles he’d flown, from somewhere far away he’d never been. Steered north and west, finding his direction from the sun and the force that guides a compass needle. Flown until he saw the shape of humpbacked hills, the lines of little houses and the chimneys, heard the clanking towers, smelled the soup and coal dust.
~ Nicola Davies from, King of the Sky: A Lyrical Illustrated Fable of Belonging and the Meaning of Home – The Marginalian
slip:4ubaki1.
You know you are old when a summary of a stuipid story about a kid and a pidgeon tugs at the ol’ heart-strings.
Go ahead. I DARE you . . .
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After a couple weeks without news, I got past the hump and wasn’t craving it so much anymore. At this point I began reflecting on the habit from a distance, and I made the following observations …
~ Steve Pavlina from, Overcoming News Addiction – Steve Pavlina
slip:4usebo22.
100%
I substituted a syndication reader‡ and never looked back. I now read only the sources I want, when I want. Nothing beats my morning caffeine accompanied by a scroll through my feed reader. NOTHING I read is a “standard” news source. :)
‡ I suggest collecting your feeds into http://www.feedbin.com and then using Reeder (IOS, Mac).
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It seems to me that in a country so fundamentally shaped by immigrants, a societal sentiment so suddenly unwelcoming to them can only be the product of an absurd narrowing of perspective — an unthinking self-expatriation from history, a willful blindness to the cultural legacy of the past, and an inability to take the telescopic perspective so vital to inhabiting the present with lucidity, integrity, and a deep sense of connection to the whole of humanity.
~ Freeman Dyson from, Loneliness in Time: Physicist Freeman Dyson on Immigration and How Severing Our Connection to the Past Shallows Our Present and Hollows Our History – The Marginalian
slip:4ubafe1.
Well, regarding trying to understand “the other.” I initially agreed with her characterization and then I thought, “How much of it is spin?” and “How w/could I begin to unravel some of it?” Answer: By talking to people in the other camp.
Dyson adds a wonderfully generous and optimistic counterpoint: Not that I dislike the Americans on the whole; it is probably in the long run a good thing that they live so much in the present and the future and so little in the past. The fact that they are more alone in the world than average English people probably accounts for their great spontaneous friendliness. I had heard this friendliness attributed to the size of the country and to people’s loneliness in space, but I think the loneliness in time is more important.
~ Maria Popova
This strikes me as amazing. (As in, “I am amazed,” not, “wow, this is awesome.”) “Friendly” is not a word I’d choose to describe Americans. Hell, I don’t think it would make my top 3 list of such words. If I was being kind when selecting my words, I’d say, “motivated,” “inspired,” and “principled.” If I was being unkind— well then I’d hew to the old, “If you’ve nothing nice to say, say nothing.”
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There is a dial in front of you, and if your turn it, a stranger who is in mild pain from being shocked will experience a tiny increase in the amount of the shock, so slight that he doesn’t even notice it. You turn it and leave.
~ Paul Bloom and Matthew Jordan from, Opinion | Are We All ‘Harmless Torturers’ Now? – The New York Times
slip:4unyoi8.
Wat?! No I do not turn the knob.
But I do continuously strive to be the change I want to see in the world. I share and repost only the best things I can find. I add my commentary here, there, and wherever (think, “Facebook comments”) only when I can imagine a way that others could find it useful. That’s very different—by the way—from only leaving positive comments. I try to create new things that inspire people or, even better, which make them think.
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The vast majority of these resources are not directly related to the information on the page, and I’m including advertising. Many of the scripts that were loaded are purely for surveillance purposes: self-hosted analytics, of which there are several examples; various third-party analytics firms like Salesforce, Chartbeat, and Optimizely; and social network sharing widgets. They churn through CPU cycles and cause my six-year-old computer to cry out in pain and fury. I’m not asking much of it; I have opened a text-based document on the web.
~ Nick Heer from, The Bullshit Web – Pixel Envy
slip:4upobo2.
This is a long, in-depth read. You will be an immensely more well-informed user of the Interwebs after you read it— about six times.
Meanwhile, have you heard of the magical analysis tool that is http://gtmetrix.com ? You have now! Start dropping your favorite web sites into its analysis magic, sit back and weep at what we’re using the Internet for.
These screenshots are just the tip of the iceberg. GTMetrix shows an insane amount of detail.
This. Shit. Has. To. Stop.
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Single-task by putting your life in full-screen mode. Imagine that everything you do — a work task, answering an email or message, washing a dish, reading an article — goes into full-screen mode, so that you don’t do or look at anything else. You just inhabit that task fully, and are fully present as you do it.
~ Leo Babauta from, 8 Key Lessons for Living a Simple Life – Zen Habits Website
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Whenever I perform a save or equivalent preservation action, I stop and spend a second determining the context that needs to be associated with this artifact. Every single artifact has a bit of context.
~ Rands, from Everything Goes in a Context Bucket – Rands in Repose
slip:4uraai11.
Another idea: Long ago I cleared the home screens of my devices. I wake my phone and the screen is empty; Just the background image.
This requires a bit of work initially to drag all the applications off that first screen. There’s also a trick with IOS where you can dock your phone, and use iTunes to insert an empty page in the front. Either way, on IOS, once you clear the home screen, it’s smart enough to NOT drop any new apps on your pristinely blank screen.
At first, I opened my phone, a lot, and stared at the blank screen, “wait, why did I…” AND THEN I CLOSED IT. Now I think, “what’s the weather tomorrow?” Wake phone. Swipe down w-e- … touch, read weather, hit home (back to clear), close phone.
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What lessons can be drawn from navigating challenges and fostering perseverance in life, community, and personal growth?
Travis Tetting joins Craig for a heartfelt discussion of his coaching journey, community, and building things from the ground up. Along the way he describes his love for his community and the rewards of coaching. Travis explains how his bond to his family and Christian faith have given him the strength to get to where he is today.
I think, at the heart, at the core of a ‘heart of thankfulness’, is that ability to see what’s shaping you and what’s improving you.
~ Travis Tetting (30:35)
The conversation explores themes of perseverance, adaptability, and community building, centered on Travis’s journey through personal and professional challenges. A detailed story of overcoming setbacks, such as an airport ordeal while en route to a pivotal certification, reveals insights into resilience and turning difficult circumstances into valuable lessons. Travis’s reflections on training and faith illustrate the balance between physical discipline and mental flexibility.
The dialogue goes into the creation and evolution of a parkour gym in a rural area, emphasizing frugality, modular design, and fostering innovation. The gym becomes a space for cultivating not just physical skills but also community bonds and personal growth. Travis shares stories of impactful teaching moments, where parkour acts as a medium for life lessons, underscoring the importance of gratitude, perseverance, and sharing in overcoming obstacles.
Takeaways
Faith and perseverance — A strong belief system helps navigate personal and professional challenges.
Adaptability under pressure — Difficult situations can provide valuable lessons in resilience and flexibility.
Building community — The process of creating and nurturing a supportive environment enhances both personal and collective growth.
The role of gratitude — Viewing hardships as opportunities for growth fosters a positive outlook.
Innovative design philosophy — Modularity and multi-purpose design in gym structures encourage creativity and problem-solving.
Teaching as transformation — Teaching parkour becomes a medium for instilling life-changing values and skills.
Life lessons through movement — Parkour transcends physical activity, teaching patience, innovation, and mental resilience.
Overcoming adversity — Stories of setbacks, such as physical injury or logistical hurdles, highlight the importance of persistence and perspective.
Resources
American Rendezvous — A parkour event discussed in the context of training and community.
Axiom Parkour — The guest’s parkour gym, emphasizing modular design and community growth.
Williams Belle Instagram — Mentioned as an inspiration during training discussions.
ADAPT Qualifications — A certification program related to parkour, highlighting the significance of rigorous training.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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This raises the obvious question of whether there are any basic mental operations I still don’t have, how I would recognize them if there were, and how I would learn them once I recognized them.
~ Scott Alexander from, What Developmental Milestones Are You Missing? | Slate Star Codex
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I truly don’t understand how he does this. This is so bootstrap-meta, I’m just left staring at it like a chicken stares right before pecking idiotically at a pebble.
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On the other hand, if you dump your trash in the forest to avoid paying the city’s garbage fees, or haggle endlessly with the manager at big-box store to get things for free, you’re not helping anyone but yourself. Canceling TV service and taking up the more productive hobby of reading library books is Frugal. Saving the same amount of money by voting down property tax funding for your local school system is Cheap.
~ Peter Adeney from, Frugal vs. Cheap
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Even my title.
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Today’s indications seem to suggest that an even more major recession than the Great Recession may strike in the not too distant future. Why should this be the case? Am I imagining problems where none exist? The next ten sections provide an introduction to how the world’s self-organizing economy seems to operate.
~ Gail Tverberg from, The world’s weird self-organizing economy | Our Finite World
slip:4uoute4.
“Ten sections.” “Introduction.” Some thinking and integration of ideas will be required.
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There. That was a mouthful, and it makes you sound like a loser. But all of a sudden, you’re no longer a victim. Suddenly, you’ve framed the problem entirely in terms of things you can control yourself, and thus you can finally make some progress towards solving your problem.
~ Peter Adeney from, To Achieve Greatness, You Must First Acknowledge that You Suck
slip:4umoto1.
In terms of money and fitness— I suck. Yeah, you laugh… it is SO easy to brush this step off.
I brushed it off for about forty years.
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The only practical and lasting solution to global violence is that we must raise the global level of consciousness. Only when that occurs will violence cease to be part of the human experience. Until that happens violence will always be with us.
~ Steve Pavlina from, Ask Steve – How to Resolve Global Conflicts – Steve Pavlina
slip:4usebo23.
This is a beautiful observation. Beautiful in the sense that it let’s me stop fretting over violence and wars, and frees me to think about things like: Can I help [this person / these people]?
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First and obviously, I have precisely the same number of minutes of the day that you have. Second, I am ruthless about spending my time appropriately. An individual practice above might only save me 10 seconds, but that’s 10 seconds multiplied by completing that action a thousand times in the next month. That’s around 160 minutes. That’s just under three hours of my life.
~ Rands from, Rands Information Practices – Rands in Repose
slip:4uraai12.
Sometimes Usually Rands can really wax loquatiously which is a terrible habit for one to indulge in because it wastes one’s readers’ most scarce resource: Time.
Why do you tolerate the thousand paper-cuts that waste your time each day?
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Suffering is nothing more than a lack of consciousness. The more conscious you become, the less you suffer. The act of raising your consciousness is really a process of letting go of every thought that causes you to suffer. This process can take considerable time, but it does work. Every step you take in this direction will yield an improvement.
~ Steve Pavlina from, Ask Steve – Staying Conscious While Under Attack – Steve Pavlina
slip:4usebo24.
Self-improvement is an exercise in lifting oneself up by the bootstraps; Quite impossible and quite necessary.
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But there’s another way to do it, which is to turn down all the short cuts and try honesty instead. The bizarre thing about honesty, is that it actually makes you much richer than sneakiness, even while making you feel better about your work!
~ Peter Adeney from, Get Rich With: Good Old-Fashioned Honesty
slip:4umoge1.
All of my problems stem from over-simplifying things.
But, being honest with myself always cuts through my problems.
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Imagine if the NFL had to choose between receiving taxpayer funds or allowing its players to exercise their First Amendment rights. Imagine if Facebook had to choose between Section 230 immunity and incorporating the First Amendment into its terms and conditions. Imagine if the First Amendment got the shot in the arm that it desperately needs.
~ Marc J. Randazza from, «https://www.popehat.com/2018/06/19/randazza-trump-twitter-the-nfl-and-everything/»
This article is rabid. I mean, feces-flinging monkies rabid.
…and suggests a really intriguing idea: What if, in order to receive federal money, or other special consideration from the Federal Government, that entity had to incorporate the principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constituation?
This spun me off on a tangent I had once followed long ago: The Constitutional Law concept of “incorporation.”
Question: It is obvious that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restricts the U.S. Federal government. But does it also restrict each of the State governments?
What if your State constitution happens to NOT have free-speech protections built into it? Would that mean the State could limit your speech? What about all those other layers of government below the State government? What about all the other protections in the U.S. Constitution?
I mean– I bet you just ASSUMED the First Amendment protected you all the way down to your local government.
It turns out that the Judiciary, around the turn of the twentieth century, has been following a principle called “incorporation.” Thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution saying that States cannot deprive people of “liberty” without “due process of law” … BAM! The first Amendment is incorporated in “due process of law”!
…and then that made me nervous because it seems a little tenuous.
Try this: constitutional law concept of incorporation
…or Wikipedia’s, “Incorporation, in United States law, is the doctrine by which portions of the Bill of Rights have been made applicable to the states. When the Bill of Rights was first ratified, courts held that its protections only extended to the actions of the federal government and that the Bill of Rights did not place limitations on the authority of state and local governments.”
Wait, “portions”?! Oh this is sounding sketchy…
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( In late 2016 I began a small discussion with a few friends about an idea. Eventually the project became a web site [now gone] and this series contains the posts from that site. The project continues in the Parkour Forum. )
Originally published Feb 14, 2017
I feel the Manifesto should contain a preamble. This would be an opportunity to set the tone of the thing, to lay some groundwork and to set out the Manifesto’s goals.
…meanwhile, we’re still trying to figure out how a “group discussion” works with web/email via the Google Group.
One thing I do not want to do, is to put ill-formed chunks of thinking here (on the blog on the web site). So this [this post itself] makes sense in the blog, but my draft-chicken-scratch musings do not. So here is this blog post, and I will next post into the group my musings.
– Craig Constantine
The goal of this Manifesto is to lay out values and ideals in the context of Parkour. I am writing in the hope that this will cause others to think deeply about their own values, ideals, and personal philosophies. If you do not consciously choose these things, you are surrendering yourself to the power of ideas you do not know you have accepted.
Do you have a mind? Do you use it? How do you use it? What does your mind realize? What are your values and ideals? Where did you obtain them? Are they correct? How does any of that apply to your personal understanding of Parkour?
These are deep questions, all in the realm of Philosophy. But this Manifesto is not meant to be a rigorous treatise of Philosophy. By thinking about these questions, each of us can expand our personal Parkour, and increase the good that Parkour can accomplish generally. I also believe that by examining questions commonly encountered in the context of Parkour, we can each enlighten our broader, personal philosophies, values and ideals.
Is there value in movement? Do I have the right to move? When might that right be limited? What responsibilities do I have for my actions? Am I responsible for the ideas and conceptions formed by others who perceive my actions? What responsibilities do I have to my community of fellow tracers, or to my community at large?
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Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.
~ Bertrand Russell from, How to Grow Old: Bertrand Russell on What Makes a Fulfilling Life – The Marginalian
slip:4ubaho3.
I’m certain I have nothing to add to that. If that doesn’t make you the least bit wistful, then I’ll wager you are young.
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( In late 2016 I began a small discussion with a few friends about an idea. Eventually the project became a web site [now gone] and this series contains the posts from that site. The project continues in the Parkour Forum. )
Originally published Feb 3, 2017
The word manifesto traces its roots to the Latin manifestum, which means clear or conspicuous. A manifesto is defined as a declaration of one’s beliefs, opinions, motives, and intentions. It is simply a document that an organization or person writes that declares what is important to them.
A manifesto functions as both a statement of principles and a bold, sometimes rebellious, call to action. By causing people to evaluate the gap between those principles and their current reality, the manifesto challenges assumptions, fosters commitment, and provokes change.
[The following is a direct quote of what I initially wrote. Some of it is already supplanted as I write this.]
I don’t recall who (if anyone) I discussed the following idea with, but it has again bubbled to the surface of my brain: Let’s create a Code of Conduct for parkour/ADD. I’m envisioning a very simple web site; Just a sort of billboard that says this is the Code of Conduct. Then we start grass-roots spreading the word and expecting that every group/team step up to support this CoC by mentioning/linking to the CoC.
At first I thought of making it more complicated by having individuals register (with a closed loop email signup), or having people contact us (uh, me I suppose) to add back-links when they link… but then I thought. Nah. All it needs is to be a bit of a community discussion to settle on the Code (many such codes already exist, shouldn’t be too different for parkour/ADD). Then we enlist a few people to translate it into a few languages, and we put it up.
Thoughts? I know it’s doable… but I’m wondering if it’s *useful*…
In late 2016 I began a small discussion with a few friends about this thought. The discussion went — roughly — in three directions, and I wanted to lay this out here to begin a history of the project:
Goal – Discussion of what are we trying to create with this project; What is the concrete, objective thing we are creating? How do we define success; Is it creation of some artifact (a “code” of ethics/conduct?), or is it to reach some level of “adoption” of it?
Code – The most difficult part of the project. Statements of ethics are inherently complex and there is an enormously wide range of scope available. Part of this project will involve sorting out the “height of the bar”; The more complex a social/moral concept embodied in a statement, the more discussion and dissent will be evoked. We will have to balance the desire for achieving wide-spread, grass-roots adoption of the “code” against how far onto the moral high-ground the code sits.
Technology – What technologies, formats and forums are we to use for this project. We’re beginning in a “secret” Facebook group, but I expect to quickly outgrow this forum. I expect we’ll ultimately have to produce a web site to house the finished product, and I hope that can also include a narrative (aka “blog”) capturing the discussions and process. The later point being another reason I want to move “out” of a Facebook group asap, so we can capture as much of the discussion, permanently outside of FB.
A Traceur’s Manifesto
I’ve veered to using the word “traceur” in the hopes that people who self-identify with Parkour/freerunning/ADD will “recognize” it and will identify with it at least partially, while not being an instant lightening rod of diviciveness. (Using the masculine form in English, because that’s how English works. In other languages, we’ll use the appropriate default gender, which is also masculine as far as I know. eg, French.)
My choice of “manIfesto” is intended to be stirring; This entire project is meant to make people *think*, not actually to achieve changing their minds/opinions. So I feel “manifesto” comes from the moral high road by shouting out a declaration and a call to action. (Obviously, it has to be written so as to actually achieve those goals.)
The use of “A …” implies this manifesto is not presuming to be “The …” one true version of things. Also, “A Traceur’s …” can be interpretted to mean “the traceur who wrote the manifesto”, as well as to mean “this manifesto is for those persons who are traceurs”.
I remain open to being talked out of my opinions. But, after months of thinking about this. I’m convinced this is the best name *I* can come up with. So I’m leaving it here to provide an opportunity for you to talk me out of it.
Presuming it stands, I will build “infrastructure” to actually begin the project; a domain name, web site, google group for discussion, etc.
I’m glad you asked. There is a dedicated forum in the Parkour Forum
https://parkourforum.world/viewforum.php?f=8
As things get discussed, concensus is reached or decisions are made, things will find there way here to this web site.
The goal of this Manifesto is to lay out values and ideals in the context of Parkour. I am writing in the hope that this will cause others to think deeply about their own values, ideals, and personal philosophies. If you do not consciously choose these things, you are surrendering yourself to the power of ideas you do not know you have accepted.
Do you have a mind? Do you use it? How do you use it? What does your mind realize? What are your values and ideals? Where did you obtain them? Are they correct? How does any of that apply to your personal understanding of Parkour?
These are deep questions, all in the realm of Philosophy. But this Manifesto is not meant to be a rigorous treatise of Philosophy. By thinking about these questions, each of us can expand our personal Parkour, and increase the good that Parkour can accomplish generally. I also believe that by examining questions commonly encountered in the context of Parkour, we can each enlighten our broader, personal philosophies, values and ideals.
Is there value in movement? Do I have the right to move? When might that right be limited? What responsibilities do I have for my actions? Am I responsible for the ideas and conceptions formed by others who perceive my actions? What responsibilities do I have to my community of fellow tracers, or to my community at large?
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