A few weeks ago I finally got around to starting a dedicated newsletter for my thoughts on conversation over on called Open + Curious. This new, weekly newsletter is free to subscribers through Substack—you can read it on the web or via email.
Over on Substack I’m publishing more polished work. I’m sharing what I’ve learned and hopefully engaging in discussion.
The blog here at constantine.name remains the same; same posts, same quotes, same same. Here on the blog things are messy as I’m working with garage door up. There’s a lot of discovery and reflection happening here. If you’ve not been to the actual blog web site in a while, you may want to swing by my Projects Page to see what I’m up to.
What’s often left out of those criticisms of dynamism is what a dynamic society actually means that’s truly positive, and that is when you have a society where people are thinking up new things and starting them, you get the benefits of those ideas all the way downstream: better jobs, more better jobs, jobs that people are happier with, and the like.
This long-read goes deep into society, economics, and even politics. It’s a little different than things I generally post. The particular point quoted above feels like a non-zero-sum-game feature of trade among individuals. In a good trade, everyone separately agrees that they are better off after the trade. There’s net increase in “better off”—however we manage to measure that, be it in dollars, or smiles. (Aside: Coercion of any sort disqualifies a trade from being “good” in my estimation.)
Here’s something I’ve noticed about myself: If I read something great, I’ll sometimes write a short comment like “This was amazing, you’re the best!” Then I’ll stare at it for 10 seconds and decide that posting it would be lame and humiliating, so I delete it go about my day. But on the rare occasions that I read something that triggers me, I get a strong feeling that I have important insights. Assuming that I’m not uniquely broken in this way, it explains a lot.
I too have this tendency. In recent years I’ve been actively working on my own version of “See something. Say something.” as part of my changes to achieve results. My version is that nice things must be said out loud. No more sitting on the positive thoughts; Yes, I need to squish my incessant critical commentary. Dial that down, please. But I also need to practice letting out the good stuff too. Nice shirt. Smooth movement. This food is delicious. It’s so insanely comfortable here. Thank you for making this come together. If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.
How does play and movement intersect with personal growth, mental health, and the practice of Parkour?
Exploring how Parkour connects to mental health and play reveals deep personal insights.
It’s all about play. And I think that making— I love strengthening and I love building— you know, physical capacity. But in the end, that’s just a couple of stepping stones towards building people’s ability to play.
~ Kel Glaister (6:46)
The discussion opens with reflections on the influence of animals, like Kel’s dog, on humility and how they bring perspective to human movement practice. The conversation then expands to explore the cultural and environmental factors shaping Parkour, emphasizing the unique styles and strengths fostered by different regions. There’s an emphasis on how community and environmental context influence the practice.
Kel shares personal insights about the role of play in movement and the transition from self-critical motivations to a more compassionate approach. Craig and Kel discuss the impact of mental health struggles and how this shaped their training philosophy, shifting focus toward longevity and joy in movement. The role of organizations like Parkour Earth is also examined, highlighting the importance of global representation and grassroots involvement in shaping the future of the discipline.
Takeaways
Nonhuman animals in movement — They provide perspective and humility to human practice.
Cultural and environmental influence — Regional differences shape distinct movement styles in Parkour.
Play as a foundation — Movement should be guided by joy and curiosity, not just performance.
Mental health and movement — Training can transition from self-loathing to self-compassion.
Role of global organizations — Community engagement is crucial for creating representative bodies.
Training longevity — A sustainable approach balances physical and emotional well-being.
The role of ambassadors — Advocacy and representation strengthen global networks in Parkour.
Resources
Parkour Earth — An international body aiming to represent and advocate for the Parkour community globally.
Stoicism, in theory, is a philosophy. As a practice, it is a set of rules to live by. The Stoics believed that life was complicated—more importantly, that it was exhausting. So to create rules was to help ensure that we stay on the right path, that we don’t let the complexity and the nuance of each individual scenario allow us to compromise on the big, high standards we know we hold.
This is an enormous post. Normally something of this size would be twelve, separate posts. It’s nice to be able to leisurely read through this. I’ve gotten enormous return on my investment of time from these rules. I often remind myself, however, that these are aspirational. These are the ideals for which I’m striving. They are not the reef upon which I’m planning on smashing the ship through strict adherence.
This blog deals specifically with the games based aspect of coaching. I recommend using a model of explicitly teaching skills and then combining this with purposeful practice drills. With primary school children, that almost invariably means playing games.
I often mention parkour, FreeRunning, and Art du Déplacement and I just wanted to take a moment to mention that there are a ton of people (myself not included) who take teaching it very seriously. If you’ve ever wondered how it’s taught— well, here you go.
What are the challenges and strategies for transitioning a podcast to include a co-host while maintaining quality and authenticity?
A podcaster shares insights on balancing spontaneity with preparation.
You know, the magic [is] in the bottle as some jazz musicians say, right? Getting that group together, so that you can really have that spark and both drive the conversation forward.
~ Catherine Jaeger (11:40)
The conversation focuses on a podcaster transitioning to a co-hosted format. Topics include the challenges of adapting to a new medium, the steep learning curve of conducting engaging interviews, and the importance of pre-planning versus spontaneity in creating authentic content. Catherine reflects on their journey of podcasting, emphasizing the significance of balancing preparation and minimal editing to capture the essence of conversations.
Additionally, the discussion explores time constraints and their impact on the podcast format, highlighting the benefits of short, focused episodes for both creators and listeners. Other themes include building rapport with co-hosts, managing roles during conversations, and learning from various interviewing styles. Catherine also acknowledges the role of improvisation and intentional experimentation in evolving their craft.
Takeaways
Podcasting as a new medium — adapting from marketing to audio storytelling.
Role of co-hosts — strategies for balancing dynamics and responsibilities. Interviewing as an art — methods to bring out guests’ best stories.
Time constraints — fostering creativity and focus in shorter formats.
Audience consideration — balancing guest comfort and listener engagement.
Emergent structure — allowing conversations to flow naturally while retaining intent.
Improvisation and spontaneity — borrowing from jazz and theater techniques to create spark.
Preparation styles — individual vs. collaborative approaches to co-host planning.
Yet while the application and discussion of burnout has greatly expanded, what burnout is, exactly, and what causes it has remained stubbornly difficult to pin down. There is no clinical definition of burnout, no universally agreed upon yardstick for what constitutes it, no official diagnostic checklist as to its symptoms.
McKay draws our attention to a feature of burnout that spans all the various types of people, epochs, living situations, employment and work where we see burnout: Sameness. Monotony. Repetition without variety. This is clearly a feature of what causes me to burnout. I don’t think it’s sufficient to cause me to burnout, but it’s definitely necessary.
If I can change this feature, for whatever-it-is that I’m approaching burnout with, I can avert the catastrophe. When burnout approaches, I’ve tried planning, thinking that wrangling with the process to reduce the cognitive load might help. I’ve thought that better planning—break this huge long thing into manageable steps—would give me space and energy to recharge. But this never works. The long slog which I can clearly see, after I do a bunch of planning, simply makes the onset of burnout accelerate.
Instead, if I figure out how to bring novelty into the mix, that seems to always work. (I say “seems” because, although I cannot think of case where it did not work, I’m a pragmatist.) Often this works if I simply find the aspect of whatever-it-is which represents the biggest amount of work, and delete that. Whatever-it-is was going to slump to non-existence anyway, when I burnout, so I may as well cut to the chase. I find that having stripped away something that I thought was essential, whatever-it-was turns out to contain a little nugget of, “hunh, that’s interesting.”
If Earth were to shift to even longer days, we may need to incorporate a “negative leap second”—this would be unprecedented, and may break the internet.
The use of the phrase “may break the internet” made me smile. It’s not irony, and it’s serious. I do not want to think about what would happen if they inserted a negative leap second; The forward sort are bad enough, and don’t get me started on Daylight Savings Time. I digress.
This is a refreshingly clear, popular-science level article that covers the myriad reasons there is such variability in the exact amount of time it takes our magic marble to whirl precisely once around its axis. The very first thing most people never think of is how do we even precisely decide what “one rotation” is. (Hint: Astronomy.)
There’s an Etruscan word, saeculum, that describes the span of time lived by the oldest person present, sometimes calculated to be about a hundred years. In a looser sense, the word means the expanse of time during which something is in living memory. Every event has its saeculum, and then its sunset when the last person who fought in the Spanish Civil War or the last person who saw the last passenger pigeon is gone. To us, trees seemed to offer another kind of saeculum, a longer time scale and deeper continuity, giving shelter from our ephemerality the way that a tree might offer literal shelter under its boughs.
Trees are simply magical. Carl Sagan made a point in the original Cosmos series that everything uses the same basic machinery to read, and write using the same four “letters” of DNA. In a very real sense, trees are us with some different initial inputs. (Setting aside the more ephemeral, yet critical ways where we differ starkly from trees, like degree of consciousness, self-awareness, spirit, soul?) Stand next to an old enough tree and one is invariably transported to a higher level of thinking about being.
The popular history of spaced repetition is full of myths and falsehoods. This text is to tell you the true story. The problem with spaced repetition is that it became too popular for its own effective replication. Like a fast mutating virus it keeps jumping from application to application, and tells its own story while accumulating errors on the way.
If you’ve never heard of Super Memo, and you click over there, it’s likely to distract you for an hour. This article is both the origin story for Super Memo and for spaced repetition. I’ve read at least one other thing (I’ve not read this article in full, but I have read at least one other one), that is a comprehensive deep dive. Today, I’m sharing this in the hopes that you’ll glance over at it, skim around and realize that, since you will then be acquainted with Wozniak, I am not the most systems-crazy person you know of.
Sorry for the titular word play. This should be read foremost to understand exponential versus hyperbolic decay, and then to understand how to get your future self to do what your current self wishes. Attia explains it in the context of imagining future rewards. It turns out that using one (to assess the value of future rewards) makes actual sense, and the other turns out to be how our brains work (because: survival drove evolution).
Snoring? No really, go read it. Because if you understand the two methods you can hack yourself by setting up your goals to play into your mind’s predilection to make the wrong value calculation. In effect, rather than set things up the way that makes sense which frequently leads to failure thanks to our brains, we set things up in a more complicated way to fake ourselves into getting where we want to go.
What drives personal growth and the mindset necessary to embrace challenges in physical and mental practices?
A journey of self-improvement unfolds through insights on goal-setting, risk assessment, and personal evolution.
Through parkour, I’ve been able to open up my perspective on life a ton and it’s created so many different opportunities.
~ Seth Ruji (20:04)
The conversation centers on personal growth, emphasizing mental and physical discipline. Topics include the importance of structured training plans, the mindset needed to assess and embrace risks, and the influence of high-stakes challenges on personal development. Seth highlights how parkour fosters self-awareness, teaching individuals to recognize his limits and set realistic, achievable goals.
The discussion also explores broader life themes, such as balancing professional ambitions with personal well-being, maintaining discipline amidst challenges, and the joy of continuous improvement. Insights are drawn from parkour and professional experiences, underscoring the interplay between mental resilience and physical achievement.
Takeaways
Luck and preparation — Success often arises from seizing opportunities through meticulous preparation.
Self-identified risk — Parkour teaches recognizing and respecting personal limits to improve safely.
Goal flexibility — Goals should be ambitious but adjustable to maintain growth and motivation.
Balancing roles — Managing competing priorities like professional work and personal interests is essential for sustainable success.
Mindset evolution — Personal and professional experiences contribute to a broader perspective on life and goals.
Continuous learning — Breaking down challenges into smaller, manageable steps aids consistent progress.
Resources
Swift Movement Studio — A parkour and movement training facility in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Now Habit — A book on overcoming procrastination through practical strategies for effective goal setting.
It’s an endless list of little things that you think you’ve forgotten, but you haven’t. You are quite literally built to sense an infinite amount of subtle bits of signal from your fellow humans. We were not built to live alone in caves; we were built to live together in them.
As the “online interaction” soared in recent years, I’ve gradually moved away from feeling grumpy about the quality of (for example), video calls online. Through that time I continued to enjoy in-person interaction as much as I ever did, and I had already spent years massively reducing the frequency of those. My feeling is that all the online interaction has expanded—not replaced, nor “attempted to replace” nor anything negative like that—my human interaction. I’ve had multiple conversations with people from other continents I’d never had been able to meet in person.
I’m not suggesting “Rands” has it wrong. No, he has it quite right. I’m simply pointing out that these sense-limited interactions can be an enormous positive addition when we don’t think of them as replacing normal human interactions.
What experiences and insights shaped the transition from video to audio storytelling?
A podcaster’s journey uncovers the nuances of voiceover work and audio engineering.
It just puts you down back to the ground and reflect how quick it happened. I had a bad car accident, and it almost took my life.
~ Ben Moreno (22:48)
The conversation explores Ben’s creative evolution from photography to video production, and eventually to podcasting and voiceover work. This journey was driven by personal milestones, such as the birth of his daughter, and technical challenges, particularly in achieving quality audio for video projects. Craig and Ben discuss the differences in audio storytelling, including the unique demands of podcasting and audiobooks.
Ben shares a deeply personal story of a life-altering car accident, which led to reflection on priorities and values. Stoicism and daily Bible reading play significant roles in their life, providing a philosophical and spiritual foundation. Technical details about microphones and recording setups illustrate their passion for audio production, while their foray into narrating audiobooks highlights their continuous pursuit of creative challenges.
Takeaways
Creative transitions — Moving from photography to video and podcasting as a medium for storytelling.
Technical growth — Overcoming challenges in audio quality and exploring different tools for production.
Personal philosophy — The integration of stoicism and daily spiritual practices as guiding principles.
Adapting to challenges — Building a professional setup from limited resources.
Life lessons — A near-death experience leading to deeper reflections on priorities and faith.
Voiceover insights — The complexities and technicalities of narrating audiobooks.
Resources
Talk Active Podcast — A podcast encouraging the practice of wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation.
ACX — Platform owned by Amazon for audiobook creation and distribution.
Zoom H6 Recorder — A portable audio recorder often used in podcasting and voiceover work.
Rode Microphones — Discussed as a preferred brand for podcasting and voiceover.
What are the challenges and opportunities in advancing Parkour as a sport, a community activity, and a professional field?
The conversation explores the evolution of Parkour and its integration into schools and professional spaces.
The idea is we want a place that they can be creative, and not just be forced to do [movement] by the book. Maybe they could build stuff, maybe they can make new challenges.
~ Robbie Corbett (1:24)
The discussion begins with reflections on the creation of a pop-up Parkour playground tailored for schools. Emphasis is placed on designing spaces that encourage creativity and adaptability, offering both basic and advanced challenges. Robbie shares experiences working with equipment manufacturers and schools, highlighting the importance of lesson plans and collaborative design to maximize the utility of these spaces.
The conversation then shifts to broader topics, such as the evolution of Parkour as a sport and its interaction with other industries like film, Ninja Warrior, and tag. Challenges include appropriation of Parkour concepts without acknowledgment and competition from larger organizations like FIG. Despite these issues, the conversation recognizes the diversity and creativity within the Parkour community, showcasing its potential to innovate through unique events and grassroots gatherings.
Takeaways
Designing adaptable spaces — School playgrounds and pop-up structures can encourage creative movement and multi-age participation.
Challenges in recognition — Parkour faces appropriation from industries and organizations, hindering its independent growth.
Opportunities in collaboration — Collaboration with schools and communities can enhance Parkour’s accessibility and value.
Creativity in competition — Events like jams and non-traditional gatherings showcase the sport’s diversity.
The struggle with governance — FIG’s control over competitions creates barriers for Parkour’s self-regulated development.
Community engagement — Bridging small, insular groups could foster a more unified and collaborative environment.
The thing about status dynamics, though, is that they aren’t in one spot. There isn’t a whole world that is being fully and accurately perceived, except for one blank space that’s being glossed over.
This is an interesting unpacking of some metaphors. If one has a blind spot in vision, simply shifting your gaze or moving slightly, will reveal what one is not seeing. This is a key way in which the “blind spot” metaphor is inaccurate and insufficient for systemic differences (in people, culture, society, etc.). The metaphor of red-green color blindness carries more utility because it points out that the things, or the distinctions, which one can’t see are everywhere; they are not literally in one stationary location (the problem is not simply under this X on this map), and no matter what one does—gaze shifting, moving around, thinking a great deal—those invisible thing are not going to appear.
The only way I’ve found to get through such problem is to engage with others whose literal and conceptual perspectives differ from my own. I’ll sum that up as: Discovery.
How can the experience of working collaboratively in podcasting inform and enhance creative and personal growth?
Supporting others’ podcasting journeys can provide surprising insights into personal creativity.
Listening to that has led me to situations and experiences and people that make—that have me feeling uncomfortable in a good way, uncomfortable in a, ‘Oh, this is the next thing.
~ Cassandra Ellis (19:52)
The discussion emphasizes the importance of relationships in fostering creativity and collaboration, especially in the context of podcasting. Cassandra shares insights about hosting a “creativity potluck,” an event that inspired a collaborative partnership in supporting another’s podcast project. This interaction highlights the value of seeing creative work as part of an artistic continuum rather than a solitary task.
The conversation also explores how discomfort can be a catalyst for growth, urging creators to lean into challenges and follow their intuition. Recognizing podcasting as a relationship-driven process rather than an isolating endeavor provides a framework for discovering blind spots, whether technical, emotional, or creative. The exchange advocates for embracing small acts of courage and openness to serendipity.
Takeaways
Relationships in creativity — Learning happens best in connection with others or with non-human elements like nature.
The value of discomfort — Growth often comes from stepping outside one’s comfort zone.
Collaborative roles — Reframing roles as partnerships enhances creative dynamics.
Continuum of creativity — Podcasting and similar endeavors are part of broader artistic expressions.
Intuition and serendipity — Listening to internal cues can guide transformative decisions.
Blind spots in podcasting — Identifying personal or professional gaps can lead to better outcomes.
Guilt is the emotion that you feel when you believe you have failed to live up to your own moral standards. It is perhaps the most enervating emotion. It makes you want to curl up in a little ball to block it out and avoid it.
This raises an interesting question for me. There’s a lot I’ve considered in how I think when I’m depressed. (I mean, thinking when I’m not depressed, about how I think when I am depressed.) There are a lot of valuable ideas and actionable things in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. For all my efforts though (including professional therapy), I’ve never thought that guilt might be a source. I’ve surely considered it in passing. That phrase up there, “your own moral standards,” however slaps hard. Because I have insanely (using that word in the literal sense), high moral standards for myself. Seems to be that notching down to extremely high moral standards, and paying close attention to adding a modifier, “aspirational,” might be a wise maneuver.
How can podcasting be used as a tool for exploring personal and professional transitions?
Exploring the potential of podcasting reveals its role in both research and personal discovery.
Transitions for me are about spaces of change. And they are exciting to me because there’s movement happening and so the fact that there is movement happening means that if you lean into the movement. You can have a lot of really lovely things come out of it.
~ Jessica Burdett (11:19)
The conversation explores how podcasting can serve as a medium for both personal and professional growth. Jessica discusses the role of podcasting in fostering creativity, allowing space for exploration, and potentially contributing to developmental research in coaching. She reflects on how podcasting can help capture stories that provide insights into transitions and identity development.
A significant focus is placed on transitions as moments of change and growth. Jessica shares her fascination with these periods, emphasizing their potential for identity formation and the role of coaching in navigating such changes. The conversation also touches on Jessica’s evolving perspective on auditory learning, noting how podcasting has helped her recognize new learning strengths and opportunities.
Takeaways
Podcasting as a creative space — Its flexibility supports exploratory learning and creativity.
Transitions and identity — They offer a unique opportunity for growth and identity development.
Story-based research — Exploring stories can reveal patterns and trends in human behavior and transitions.
Coaching and transitions — Coaching methods can align well with navigating periods of change.
