Reading time: About 5 minutes, 1000 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/31
Scree
noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.
Organic
The project started with the intent to regenerate a forgotten piece of land in a dense Coburg pocket. Felicity and her husband, architect Marc Bernstein, purchased the awkwardly shaped 250 square metre block to make it happen, but council deemed the land ‘undevelopable’, and banks were unwilling to approve finances.
~ Amelia Barnes from, An Ultra-Sustainable Home On An ‘Undevelopable’ Melbourne Site
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To be clear: The property is 250 square-meters, or ~1,700 square-feet. Get to a large computer screen. Get your beverage of choice. Then, click through and get lost on that site.
Meanwhile, the thing that struck me was the undulating ground cover outside the master bedroom. It’s good (but not particularly original) to use something that doesn’t require a lot of water (as opposed to turf grasses)—but to shape the ground into something interesting struck me as whimsical. If I don’t have to mow it, then it doesn’t need to be flat. I wonder where else, in the design of my own environment, am I stuck in my thinking.
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Extraneous as passing fiction
After this era of great pilots is gone, as the era of great sea captains has gone — each nudged aside by the march of inventive genius, by steel cogs and copper discs and hair-thin wires on white faces that are dumb, but speak — it will be found, I think, that all the science of flying has been captured in the breadth of an instrument board, but not the religion of it. One day the stars will be as familiar to each man as the landmarks, the curves, and the hills on the road that leads to his door, and one day this will be an airborne life. But by then men will have forgotten how to fly; they will be passengers on machines whose conductors are carefully promoted to familiarity with labelled buttons, and in whose minds the knowledge of the sky and the wind and the way of weather will be extraneous as passing fiction.
~ Beryl Markham from, A Different Solitude: Pioneering Aviator Beryl Markham on What She Learned About Life in the Bottomless Night
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As if there’s anything I could write which would add to that.
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Do you get my meaning?
And one of my goals as the communicator is to make it as easy as possible for you to get the meaning I’m intending to convey.
~ Shane Parrish from, Language: Why We Hear More Than Words
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The article also has a tidy explanation of irony. Irony (humor, sarcasm and many other linguistic forms) work so well because they are very powerful. A few words said and heard in person can transfer large ideas. The article goes all the way to mentioning our “power to attribute mental states to others.” A subtle and, frankly, amazing power of projection. My mental state, plus your mental state, plus my saying some words, should have gotten you to this other mental state. Heady stuff.
If I wrote, “That was fun.” you’re pretty sure those three words were only part of what the speaker was trying to convey. By default, we have to go with the literal interpretation, but feel we’ve been gypped. We feel the urge to skip back a few lines looking for hints to reveal the rest of the meaning meant to be conveyed. We are accustomed to having to write much more to get the same job done. I have to write: Then, with a wry smile, “That was fun.”
Which is all very interesting. But today, the question I have is: Wait. How did I ever get good at this insanely complex process without ever having anyone explicitly tell me anything about it?
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Charles St.John | Quick Wins for Business Online Presence
On Castbox.fm — Charles St.John | Quick Wins for Business Online Presence
How can fitness businesses, particularly Parkour gyms, enhance their online presence effectively with limited resources?
The interplay of websites, search engines, and social media for fitness marketing is unpacked.
There are, what I believe to be, relatively quickly implemented things that are fairly simple for marketing that can have massive payoffs. And then lots and lots of other things that can give you like that extra 10 percent, to get a couple more students […] but might take hundreds of more man hours.
~ Charles St. John (3:31)
The conversation explores the challenges and strategies for enhancing the online presence of fitness businesses, particularly Parkour gyms. Topics include domain name selection, which can significantly affect search engine visibility and customer acquisition. Suggestions include prioritizing a memorable, high-level domain and avoiding similar names to competitors. Emphasis is placed on focusing efforts on impactful marketing practices rather than getting bogged down by less rewarding tasks.
The discussion highlights three critical spheres of online presence: direct communication through a website and email, visibility in search engines like Google, and engagement on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Tools like Google Business Profiles and link management services such as Linktree are recommended for simplifying user interaction and driving conversions. Broader marketing strategies such as targeted ads and presence across multiple digital spaces are suggested for maximizing impact.
Takeaways
Effective domain names — Ensuring distinct and memorable domains helps in establishing a unique identity.
Online presence — Establishing a synergy between websites, search engines, and social media is critical.
Google tools — Utilizing Google Business Profiles for easier discovery and accurate information representation.
Ad management — Using platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads to track and refine marketing strategies.
Consistency in branding — Maintaining uniform handles and descriptions across platforms simplifies user recognition.
Conversion optimization — Leveraging tools like Linktree to guide users toward desired actions such as signups or purchases.
Resources
@stjohn.charles — Charles on Instagram
Charles St. John — On LinkedIn.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Who we are
The Stoics believed that, in the end, it’s not about what we do, it’s about who we are when we do it. They believed that anything you do well is noble, no matter how humble or impressive, as long as it’s the right thing. That greatness is up to you—it’s what you bring to everything you do.
~ Ryan Holiday from, Discipline is Destiny: 25 Habits That Will Guarantee You Success
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Depending on where you are on your own journey, this could be the greatest 25-item list you’ve ever seen, or it could be 24 items of hogwash. How great is that? For me, it’s the one about being kind to oneself which I need most to let sink in farther. Every absolute rule, every simple guideline, and every pithy virtue becomes problematic when taken to the extreme. It’s almost as if *gasp* life is complicated, and I’m a complex person.
I feel like I’m living in the negative. My life isn’t a passing timeline of “this is nice” punctuated with some stuff that qualifies as work, chores, and maintency-things. Instead, I feel like any time I’m in a span of “this is nice”, I’m on borrowed time. It’s is always “this is nice, but…” followed by something I feel I should be doing just as soon as I’m done loafing. It’s as if my personal demon is relaxing, just out of sight at the bar as I loaf here on the veranda, but still dutifully keeping track of exactly how long I’ve been loafing. I continuously feel like things will go better for me (in the way mobsters would say that) if I choose to stop loafing rather than waiting to see how long I can get away with it. That’s not healthy and thus my awareness of the need for self-kindness.
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April 30, 2023 — #30
Reading time: About 5 minutes, 1100 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/30
What does done look like?
And then they got home, and there were piles of tasks, emails and messages waiting for them. The urgency of those piles threw them off their best intentions.
The urgency of piles throws off all of our best laid plans.
~ Leo Babauta from, The Urgency of Piles
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If I could have one wish this holiday season (maybe I should start marking silly pop-culture references in a different typeface) it would be that you’d just go read everything he’s written. If I could have two wishes, it’d be for you to click on his name which takes you to a listing of all of my posts related to him, and then for you to continue onward to read each of his things I’ve linked. But, to dig specifically into his topic of piles, I’ll try to make a point about working all the way to done.
Some things are never going to be done in the sense of disappearing from your life; our household will always have a gentle snow of tax-related paperwork accumulating through the year. That’s technically a pile. But that pile has a home (out of sight) and related things always, immediately go on that pile, where they sit until tax season. That pile has no tension associated with it. Laundry is the same way; of course there’s always some dirty laundry in a “pile” (both a physical pile and in baskets which have homes.) But again, no tension. That’s where dirty laundry belongs.
What causes tension is when your expectations (I want things a certain way—like a tidy, uncluttered home) conflict with reality (the mail, taxes and laundry are strewn about.) The key is to realize that the second 90% of anything is the unglamorous part we’d prefer to skip. We want to jump ahead to the first 90% of the next thing.
What do I mean by the second 90%? Filling up the gas tank as you approach your destinationis part of the journey. What does done look like driving somewhere? The car’s normal state is to have some reasonable amount of gas in it. Drive it (the first 90%… the fun part involving getting somewhere) and get gas (the second 90%… the un-fun part including leaving early enough to have time to stop for gas.) What does done look like mowing the lawn? I need the time and energy to clean the mower at the end. What does done look like doing laundry? I have time and energy to do the ironing, folding and putting-away parts. And yes, big project that involve multiple sessions of working? Each session has it’s own done to reach.
Do this for everything. Every. Thing. Ask: What does done look like? Do I have enough time and energy to actually get to done? …or am I just excited by that first 90% and I’m going to quit there?
You’ll quickly realize you cannot get everything (literally everything) to a “done” that corresponds to your expectations. The hardest part starts once you realize that you’ve over-stuffed your life. The real problem is that you really don’t have the time and energy to do the second 90% of every thing. The real solution then is to make the hard choices to undo the mistakes that un-simplified one’s life.
And by “you” I mean “me.”
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Should have read the label
There is a part of you that will *become* your job/profession.
~ Toby Nagle from, 20 years in
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That’s number 7 from his 10-point listicle.
Also: I’ve taken to using the word “listicle” only when I mean it as a compliment. Versus, my perception that everyone else means it as derogatory. I think that being able to organize one’s writing into a coherent, ordered list of things all of which are on roughly equal footing, shows a significant level of comprehension and integration. Most short writings which have a numbered list of points are crappy click-bait, and people rightly derogate them. This is not that, so there. (English is a mess, but ain’t finger-painting fun?i)
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Antifragile
The aims of safety-ism were noble. They saw that young people were experiencing greater amounts of anxiety, stress, and depression than previous generations and sought to remedy their angst by protecting them from anything that could potentially harm or upset them.
~ Mark Manson from, Trigger Warning: Reality Hurts
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It always seemed obvious to me that wasn’t going to work. When I find something which triggers me, that’s a problem with me; That points me towards something I can improve upon. The problem is not the problem. The problem is my attitude towards the problem.
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Adam McClellan | Double Your Profits, Double Your Fun
On Castbox.fm — Adam McClellan | Double Your Profits, Double Your Fun
How can Parkour coaches and gym owners enhance their programs and business practices to better serve their clients and staff while addressing unique challenges?
A coach explores the challenge of bridging personal values with the priorities of clients.
What’s the path that my students and their parents, if they have them, are going to walk through and make that really easy for them to do? It might start as just starting or beginner program. And then there might be another choice, take this path, or that path. Here’s the value in one, here’s the value in the other, but let them decide, give them the freedom to choose.
~ Adam McClellan (3:42)
The conversation addresses challenges faced by Parkour coaches and gym owners in aligning their values with those of their clients. It emphasizes understanding that parents often seek benefits like confidence, discipline, and community for their children, beyond athletic skills. Strategies for effectively presenting program options to clients and balancing simplicity with flexibility are also discussed.
The discussion explores broader topics such as staff management, including gaining buy-in for new initiatives and recognizing individual strengths within the team. Insights are shared on leadership, trust-building, and leveraging the collective wisdom of experienced professionals to guide conversations and decision-making.
Takeaways
Understanding client priorities — Recognizing that clients may value outcomes like confidence, discipline, and community over purely athletic development.
Balancing simplicity and choice — Creating guided pathways that provide clear options without overwhelming clients with too many choices.
Implementing upgrade programs — Offering higher-value, optional services as a way to grow the business without alienating existing clients.
Gaining staff buy-in — Addressing the challenge of aligning staff perspectives with the goals of new initiatives and higher-priced programs.
Trusting team members — Encouraging leadership through identifying and developing individual strengths within the team.
Shifting presentation strategies — Adopting a flexible and discussion-driven approach to group sessions, allowing collective wisdom to guide outcomes.
Bridging knowledge gaps — Helping clients and staff see the value of programs through tailored explanations and processes.
Navigating pricing challenges — Exploring ways to offer premium services without making clients feel pressured or alienated.
Adapting leadership styles — Understanding that effective leadership involves trust, delegation, and allowing room for learning through mistakes.
Leveraging group insights — Recognizing the value of collaborative discussion for solving complex problems and generating new ideas.
Addressing misconceptions in coaching — Acknowledging that coaches may need to adjust their expectations to align with client priorities and perceptions.
Resources
Parkour Generations — A global organization promoting Parkour through classes, events, and community.
adam.mcclellan@parkourgenerations.com
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Active resistence
The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto. The electric bike I rented was huge and unwieldy, but that tug of its motor never left my mind. I went to climb a hill and it felt as if a giant had gently placed his hand on my back and pushed me forward. That stupid smile has been on my face ever since.
~ Craig Mod from, Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
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With that name, this guy is clearly awesome, right? If you want to go down a fun rabbit hole, do some searching for “how popular is” and “usage of” with your first name. Yikes, statistics. But I also like this piece because it’s about bicycles. In particular, it’s about electric bicycles which I have been very intentionally ignoring the existence of, for fear of developing a yearning for another bicycle. *ahem* I digress.
What I really love about Mod is that a few years ago he took down everything he was doing, which was all free to read with a “hey please support me” …and he said, “hey guys, please support me, I’ll go write and photograph and I share it with you.” And it worked.
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April 23, 2023 — #29
Reading time: About 5 minutes, 900 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/29
Unlearning how to pose
The old and the very young have always held sway for me because of bald and unerring candor, and the lack of affectation. They had either stopped posing or had not yet learned to pose.
~ Mylinh Shattan, from “Old Age is Not for the Young”
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Intentional or not, I’m awarding style points for the innuendo which Shattan’s use of the word bald brings to that first sentence. Beyond that this piece is the epitome of fusing a personal story with an overview of a book. I’ve not done that often—if at all, sorry, I’m too lazy even to search—in short-form as she has.
But in classic “this stuff is me doing my personal reflection with the garage door up” style, it occurs to me that I do do it a lot in micro-form. Basically every one of these my missives combines something I found lying about, a bit of commentary about it, and then my personal thoughts or stories. Am I draw to other writing which is of similar form? Am I unintentionally writing within some genre whose name I know not? Am I crazy? Am I insane? (Am I the victim of evil doers out to destroy me? Perhaps. I don’t know what it is— a deep-fried feeling I guess.)
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Kill it. Kill it with fire.
It was the briefest slice of light, a telltale shimmer, that revealed you. It glinted up your thread, running down from the ceiling to the lamp sitting incongruous in the middle of an unpacked living room. Did you stow away in that lamp, riding rough in the back of the moving van, those three long evening hours? I hope you did. You deserve this space as much as we do.
~ Peter Welch from, To the Tiny Spider That Came With Us From Brooklyn
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I don’t want to say I aspire to write as well as Welch. (I do. Just don’t want to say it.) I stumbled on his stuff pretty late in his writing arc. This piece makes me happy. Go ahead, click, it’s not too long. Perambulate through it. The more you perambulate, the better will be the ending.
…unless you don’t like Welch’s writing. Then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ move along. Nothing to see here.
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Mwah wah wa wah wah
Friends’ mouths vanished. I roamed shops and streets suddenly filled with featureless people, their speech now as indecipherable as that of Charlie Brown’s invisible schoolteacher: wah wah wah wah wah. Whenever I saw the masks and thought of all they had erased, I felt dismay.
~ Rachel Kolb from, How Masking Changed My Experience of Being Deaf
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I read lips quite well thanks to lifelong hearing impairment. When I was intensely working to learn and use French, it took me a while to realize that my subconscious lip reading was causing me trouble. Somehow, someone speaking French caused this subconscious stress from some part of my visual processing brain. I really don’t have words to describe it. I did not realize any of this, until I noticed I had developed a habit of not looking at people when they spoke French.
Obviously, masking affected people who rely to any extent on reading lips. But during our Era of the Masks I’ve been wondering how much the loss of visual information effects everyone. Everyone reads lips. And suddenly you’ve lost that visual comprehension component. Even if it’s subconscious, that’s going to effect us.
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Jimmy Davidson | Inescapable Fundamentals of Business
On Castbox.fm — Jimmy Davidson | Inescapable Fundamentals of Business
What are the challenges and strategies involved in building a successful Parkour-based business?
Identifying a niche and understanding your audience transforms Parkour teaching into a viable business.
If you are trying to sell to everybody, you end up selling to nobody. So you really need to understand what a niche is like, what is the very hyper specific area and group of people and specific avatar that you’re trying to sell to?
~ Jimmy Davidson (3:31)
The conversation explores the challenges of running a Parkour-based business, emphasizing the critical nature of understanding fundamental business principles. Jimmy shares insights about how entrepreneurs often lean on their Parkour experience but struggle to apply it to business challenges. Key topics include the importance of defining a niche, understanding the target audience, and recognizing one’s knowledge gaps.
The discussion also touches on the larger mission of spreading Parkour and the joy of movement to a million people. There is a clear focus on maintaining alignment with this goal while scaling the business and supporting the broader Parkour community. Jimmy acknowledges the tension between pursuing mentorship and staying dedicated to their existing business endeavors.
Takeaways
Understanding fundamental principles — Running a business requires mastering basic skills like sales and identifying a target audience.
Acknowledging unknowns — Entrepreneurs often face challenges because they don’t know what they don’t know.
Defining a niche — Trying to appeal to everyone can dilute the effectiveness of a business.
The role of mentorship — Supporting other entrepreneurs can extend a shared mission without diverging from core goals.
Mission-driven business — A clear purpose, like teaching a million people Parkour, can guide decision-making and strategy.
Resources
Fix This Next — by Mike Michalowicz, on identifying and solving business needs in order of priority.
Freedom in Motion Gyms — Parkour gym business with locations in Southern California.
@jimmydavidsonpk on Instagram, and Jimmy@freedominmotiongym.com
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Firsthand
Everyone is heavily influenced by what they’ve experienced firsthand, because what you’ve experienced is more persuasive than something you read about.
~ Morgan Housel, from Rare Skills
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That’s one small insight from a bunch in an article nominally about finance. Most of the others also apply to life generally. What’s that old saw from Twain? Something like, “holding a cat by the tail, you’ll learn something through experience that can be learned no other way.” I find it fascinating that, although I’d wager none of you have done that with a cat, we all have a good idea of what we’d learn in the doing.
Related, I once managed—mostly successfully—to wrangle a 6-foot iguana which had horrifically befouled itself, into a warm, steamy shower enclosure, myself remaining outside. It occurred to me to use long oven mitts, to grab from behind, and to keep her oriented so her thrashing tail swung in a plane not including any of me. Through that experience I learned a lot about an iguana’s claws, the true range-of-motion of that body plan’s limbs, and the level of focus and determination she had from millions of years of evolution. We also developed a new relationship: me, wary. Her, indefatigable drive to some day murder my pasty, clawless ass.
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April 16, 2023 — #28
Reading time: About 6 minutes, 1100 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/28
A form of movement
If you do not have a movement practice or access to a good movement teacher, then finding a physical practice that you enjoy and makes you feel empowered is a good place to start.
~ Soisci Porchetta from, «https://www.humanpatterns.net/blog/2018/10/3/why-we-should-all-have-a-form-of-movement-practice»
You already love moving, (or nothing I write is going to convince you.) The only question then is where are you in your journey? Are you in the age of roots, fire, water or air? It’s very important to realize there are going to be major transitions in one’s journey through life. I consider myself typical in that movement played a huge role when I was young. There was a significant period in my 30’s where I lost the plot. I was lucky that I didn’t lose touch with movement for too long. Looking back from 20 years on, I believe that I was trying to hold onto an identity.
At the time, what I was doing was a big part of who I saw myself as. I didn’t understand that who I am, was going to change—is supposed to change! Naive, I denied the feelings which were suggesting I change. As I said, it turns out I was lucky.
As is often the case: No takeaway. Just food for thought.
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