noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.
I hear a rumbling sound coming from my slipbox. It’s a rumbling sound like that of a distant summer thunderstorm, after dark. It’s the sound of a giant, grumbling in the next valley over. It works fine. I’ve simply had an idea for something that I can only do, if the slipbox were digital. I’m tinkering with some tools to see how exactly I want to set things up if I switch to digital. Interesting times!
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What we miss about our own beloved Good Old Days isn’t so much the material things they remind us of—wholesome 1980s sitcoms, or musty thrift-store sweaters—it’s the particular feelings those days gave us, feelings which are now impossible to experience.
~ David Cain from, The Good Old Days Are Happening Now
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Cain rightly goes on to point out, that while we can’t feel those exact feelings again, there’s no reason we can’t—right this very instant—enjoy These Good Days. Ten years from now—presuming, of course—I can look back and think with a chuckle: Remember when I spent a couple years going really deep experimenting with knowledge systems. That was a fun exploration.
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Sanderson argues you should instead experiment to figure out what combination of motivation, and circumstances, and accountability work best for your particular personality. He responds well to tracking a daily word count in a spreadsheet. Others, he notes, thrive under the social pressures of a writing group, while others lean on deadlines to induce work. The key is recognizing that the urge to avoid hard things is human, and should be expected. It’s part of the process.
~ Cal Newport from, Brandon Sanderson’s Advice for Doing Hard Things – Cal Newport
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I’m filing this under “things I wish I had learned 30 years ago”. Some things I really track, and some things I just do whenever I feel like. One way or another though, it’s important that I be honest with myself. “Do I really want to do this?” …or do I just like the idea of being able to say “I did that”?
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How does the process of reflection and self-improvement shape personal growth and teaching methodologies?
Alan Tran is a parkour coach and collaborator from Raleigh, North Carolina. He’s the founder of Enso Movement and is a director for both the Art of Retreat and the United States Parkour Association. Alan continues to serve the parkour and movement community through active service and outreach.
I carved out the space to de-evolve and reinvent myself. In many ways, it wasn’t intentional by any means, at the start of my personal practices. But in many ways, it was a way for me to redefine who I was, who I wanted to be, and where my work would lead to.
~ Alan Tran (29:36)
The discussion weaves through themes of reflection, journaling, and the impact of vulnerability on personal growth and teaching. Through daily journaling practices, the importance of documenting emotions, achievements, and challenges emerges as a way to identify growth and patterns over time. Cultural connections, like the preservation of family history through photography, also highlight how past experiences inform one’s values and identity.
The conversation also explores innovative teaching techniques inspired by training a dog using communication buttons. This segues into reflections on coaching methodologies, the value of structured progressions, and how spontaneity plays a role in both teaching and personal development. By examining challenges like preparing for workshops under time constraints and balancing intuition with structure, the dialogue emphasizes growth through experimentation and self-awareness.
Takeaways
Reflection as a practice — Journaling and revisiting past thoughts help in recognizing personal growth and emotional patterns.
Cultural connections — Family stories and historical documentation preserve identity and values across generations.
Coaching methodologies — Structured progressions and spontaneity are key elements in effective teaching.
Experimentation and intuition — Creativity and growth often stem from embracing failure and learning under pressure.
The role of vulnerability — Being authentic and open fosters meaningful interactions and personal development.
Resources
Enso Movement — A Parkour and movement facility focused on coaching and community engagement.
A New Earth — Book by Eckhart Tolle that explores spiritual awakening and the importance of presence.
The Artist’s Way — Book by Julia Cameron emphasizing creativity through practices like morning pages.
What About Bunny — A famous dog trained to use communication buttons to “speak.”
United States Parkour Association (USPK) — An organization supporting Parkour practitioners and events across the U.S.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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To me, quality means doing the best you can with what you have to work with. Your environment. Your equipment. Your voice. Your experience. Your level of comfort. All of those things are part of your overall “working with” toolset.
~ Evo Terra from, «https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/making-your-commitment-to-quality-podcasting»
This is something I often struggle with. Terra is writing about podcasting specifically—something I spend a lot of time doing—but I have this problem more generally. It would serve me well to be thinking: Is this the best I can do now, with the tools, knowledge, situation, and skills I have now? If so, terrific! That’s great enough.
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This is one of the main obstacles to forming habits. Our hopeful idea of how it will go, and then our disappointment and frustration with ourselves when it doesn’t go that way.
~ Leo Babauta from, Why Perfectionism Stops Us from Creating New Habits – Zen Habits Website
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Nerd alert: I’ve always appreciated that Babauta takes the time to craft the URL paths (often called the “slug”) by hand. They’re not simply auto-generated from the titles of the posts. I love that this particular one, about perfectionism, has a single-word slug that contains the word “perfect”.
While writing this post I spun off to discover Grammar Monster. Yikes! Driven by my perfectionism, that’s the sort of thing that I could spend hours in. I backed away from it very slowly.
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Granted, cultivating a slipbox is a lot of work. This morning, as I regularly do, I was rereading journal entries. A year ago I had made note of a book, Trust Yourself, and how it had spurred some specific thinking. Finding mention of the book in my journal caused me to reflect on what I had written: Was it still accurate? Journaling for the win.
I had also made a little note, “(2tu1)” of the book’s slip in the slipbox. It took only a moment to flip there… and to discover I had written out 9 slips under the book with some take-aways and key learnings from the book. A crash refresher on the book, completely unbidden; A gift from my self-from years past.
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This simplicity was disorienting in a way. Many times a day I would finish whatever activity I was doing, and realize there was nothing to do but consciously choose another activity and then do that. This is how I made my first bombshell discovery: I take out my phone every time I finish doing basically anything, knowing there will be new emails or mentions or some other dopaminergic prize to collect. I have been inserting an open-ended period of pointless dithering after every intentional task.
~ David Cain from, What I Learned During My Three Days Offline
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It is still uncommon for me to be without my phone. I have to admit that sometimes I carry it simply because I have a flat pince-nez stuck to the back of my phone. Recently it’s dawned on me that I have another, identical pair in a tiny flat case not stuck to my phone and I sometimes just carry those and not my phone. Regardless, you’ll never see me whip out my phone—unless we have a question, what’s the weather, where’s the nearest…, and so on. It’s a tool I sometimes use, like shoes.
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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.
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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.
~ Ryan Streeter from, Embracing Dynamism: My Long-read Q&A with Ryan Streeter | American Enterprise Institute – AEI
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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.)
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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.
~ “Dynomight” from, So you’re thinking about writing on the internet
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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.
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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.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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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.
~ Ryan Holiday from, 12 (Stoic) Rules For Life: An Ancient Guide to the Good Life
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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.
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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.
~ John ‘Hedge’ Hall from, Coaching through Play: How Does it Work? | LinkedIn
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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.
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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.
Resources
David Axelrod podcast — An example of skilled, long-form interviewing.
Auphonic — Mentioned in the context of audio editing and credits.
Jazz improvisation techniques — Inspiration for dynamic and emergent conversation styles.
Podcasting course — by Akimbo; Influential in shaping Catherine’s podcasting approach.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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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.
~ Brett McKay, from A Counterintuitive Cure for Burnout
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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.”
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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.
~ Matt King and Christopher Watson from, The length of Earth’s days has been mysteriously increasing, and scientists don’t know why
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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.)
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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.
~ Rebecca Solnit from, Rebecca Solnit on Trees and the Shape of Time – The Marginalian
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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.
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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.
~ Piotr Wozniak from, The true history of spaced repetition – SuperMemo
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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.
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Why is it so difficult to make choices that we know will be best for us in the long run?
~ Peter Attia from, Hyperbolic discounting: friend and foe of goal achievement – Peter Attia
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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.
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