Craig Constantine

Archeology and music

Simply sound-related things today: An image of a babbling brook and archeology…

It is possible that some 8,000 years ago, in this acoustically resonant haven, people not only hid from passing coastal thunderstorms, they may have used this place to commune with their dead—using music. That’s a possibility hinted at in the work of archaeologist Joshua Kumbani, of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and his colleagues.
~ Sarah Wild, from What Did the Stone Age Sound Like?

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Seems obvious that archeology would be interested in sound— but I’d never thought of that aspect of it before.

Can you explain it?

January 14

Physicist and science communicator Richard Feynman came up with another criterion, one that applies directly to the non-scientist likely to be bamboozled by fancy terminology that sounds scientific. […] Rather than asking lay people to confront scientific-sounding claims on their own terms, Feynman would have us translate them into ordinary language, thereby assuring that what the claim asserts is a logical concept, rather than just a collection of jargon.
~ from Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966)

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Confronting scientific-sounding things on your own terms is actually very difficult. What he’s described is not meant to be a way to decide if something is true—that’s much harder. He’s giving you a tool for quickly spotting scientific-sounding rubbish.

Having a clear why

January 13

It’s become cliché to talk about finding our ‘why’. That’s a shame because it’s absolutely, still, critically important, to us as podcasters. I was recently reminded of this point…

Ask yourself, why am I podcasting as a host, or as a guest? You must have a clear why, and it should be bigger than just “me.”
~ Alex Sanfilippo

Tell me your ‘why’.

And if you just hesitated— If you don’t immediately have an answer— Then you do not actually know your ‘why’.

You don’t have to post it! But you better know exactly and clearly what it is. Posting it just puts it out there, ensuring it remains real for you.

Whether or not you post it, you absolutely must have a ready-to-mind answer for your ‘why’.

For the longest running of my shows, Movers Mindset, my why is…

Each conversation feeds my insatiable curiosity, but I share them to turn on a light for someone else, to inspire them, or to give them their next question.

When I started that show, I did not have a clear ‘why’. It wasn’t until I took the Akimbo podcasting course in 2019, that I took the time to reimagine a lot of the two-year-old Movers Mindset podcast, and prompting from the course material and the coaches turned me onto asking myself, “uh, yeah, why?!”

Getting back to podcasting

January 12

Working with the garage door up, means I’m really just thinking out loud. I’m talking mostly to myself. It’s been a long time since I’ve done an episode for one of my own shows. Obviously the break was begun because of health issues in 2024. In the last couple of months though, I again do have the time. And I miss it. So I shall resume.

Mitochondria

January 11

That’s how I got mitochondria.
~ Randall Munroe, from Stromatolites

No one asked me, but if I was asked to summarize Munroe’s work I’d say: He’s mastered the art of finding insight by shifting the scale. Why is that hard? Why is that helpful? Why is that great? Because to it at the mastery level (as Munroe does) requires one to have integrated a lot of knowledge. A lot.

Sometimes I simply have to clean up

January 10

14+ years ago I started this blog. For many months it was basically my way of posting photos, which were also posted to a particular social platform. After about a year, I started posting more quoted stuff, and including the URL. There’s a little feature in WordPress (which powers this site) that if you drop a bare URL into a post, it will be auto-improved to be a clickable link when the post is displayed. So I took advantage of that and dropped bare URLs into thousands of posts.

Fast forward over a decade and obviously link rot is happening. So I’m changing to use page titles, and linking to the URLs. That way, when the link rots, at least a reader can see the title of where it used to go.

What’s your best self-introduction?

January 9

Introductions are not hard— …we’re just not prepared.

Whenever I’m on a podcast, I dread one inevitable question: “I know who you are, but tell everyone listening who you are!”

This is a moment when I feel painfully insecure, first-day-of-sixth-grade only-kid-with-braces level.

The things I like about myself don’t matter in this scenario; my task is to answer, essentially, “What is interesting, valuable, or remarkable about me to strangers?”
~ Mari Andrew, from It doesn’t have to make sense

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This is doubly related to people around here. Mari goes on to talk about David Nebinski and it’s worth a read.

But also, just yesterday I was in a little session presented by Andrea Wojnicki where she gave (among much more) a tidy little framework for introducing yourself. She pointed out that her framework is a place to begin. Once you get comfy introducing yourself you can expand and modify and do what you like.

So, what’s your current self-introduction?

…then read Andrea’s ideas, and then what’s your new, better self-introduction?

PS: Technically, it’s triply related since that’s a photo of some of Steve Heatherington‘s alpacas ;)

Optionality

January 7

Optionality lets you do things no one would give you permission to do. It lets you write excellent software and give it away for free if you choose. It lets you do things that don’t make sense in the current climate, but will long-term. It lets you be early while eventually catches up.
~ Jason Fried, from Achieving optionality

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I’ve never heard that word used that way, and I’ve never heard that business happy-place described so succinctly.

Show the web some love

January 6

Web sites!

Our beloved podcasting is built upon technology from the free (as in freedom and money) World Wide Web. We’ve come to take it for granted, so we just call it the web without even a capital-W.

Every podcast creator talks about getting more listeners. There are billions of people using the web. Searching on the web has to lead to a web site.

My challenge to you is:

Type “Your Show Title podcast” into a few search engines…

(You could also search for the title, or some critical words, or a guest name, from a recent episode.)

What did you get?

How far down those results is it to something that you actually control?

Is there even anything you control, anywhere in the results?

The only thing you can actually control on the web, is your own domain name.

…go to https://hover.com/ and find a domain name that you like.

Be more philosophical

January 5

If you want to make a positive difference in the world—or simply maintain your sanity—you need to step back. You need to learn how to be more philosophical—which means being more discerning about what you let into your mind and learning how to see the big picture, calmly and with perspective.
~ Ryan Holiday, from This Habit Is Making You Miserable

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Just in case you had a negative reaction to the word philosophical: I distinctly recall when I thought “being philosophical” meant telling others how to do things, or at least pontificating about how I do things better. I distinctly recall learning that the word comes from “the love of truth”—and how that struck me deeply. I distinctly recall that the more I learned about philosophy in general, the more I wanted to learn about my philosophy—first discovering that I didn’t have a definitely chosen one, and then beginning to choose.

Don’t ship junk

January 3

It’s easy to misunderstand the idea of agile and the minimum viable product. We shouldn’t forget that the unspoken rule is: Don’t ship junk. We send a message to the market when we’re in such a hurry that we don’t put in the care and focus needed to do great work.
~ Seth Godin, from Winging it

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What Godin is pointing at, I refer to as “being professional.” A professional is someone who understands what he’s talking about, strives be what he’s talking about, and—most importantly—is slightly annoyed by people who are not professional. If non-professional people don’t annoy you (a little bit), you need to recheck your self-assessment. Professionals recognize other professionals (regardless of their respective professions) and professionals prefer to associate with other professionals.

A phrase for 2025

January 2

2025? Inconceivable! Still, it’s time to settle on my yearly touch phrase for 2025.

SERENITY

In 2012 I began selecting a phrase or word to use as a guide. David Bourne pointed out there’s a word for that: Cynosure.

When I picked the phrase in 2012, I didn’t imagine it would become a yearly ritual. It required significant reading through my journals to realize I even had chosen cynosures for 2012 and 2015. Over the years I’ve used the following:

2012 – Will-power and self-possession
2015 – simplify
2017 – “A dream is just a dream. A goal is a plan and a deadline.” ~ unknown
2018 – hell yes! or, NO.
2019 – NO.
2020 – get less done
2021 – festina lente
2022 – choose wisely
2023 – choose today
2024 – HUMILITY

There are echoes. For example 2022’s is effectively a refinement of 2012’s. And there’s an over-arching story of simplification and increasing self-awareness. What more could I ask for?

Mostly I use these cynosures in my journaling. I generally end each entry by writing it, followed by memento mori. Here’s the end of 2024…

I’m obviously reminding myself of these ideas. I’m also preparing for my certain death. I will one day write a final journal entry, and it would be fitting to have “memento mori” be my final journaled words.

My choice for 2025 is meant to be aspirational. In some journal entries in December I was writing about themes I might seek more of in the new year; Tranquility, contentment, or perhaps gratitude? Serenity won out because I’d like to maintain my serenity, at all times. Even when active. Even in the midst of chaos.

It’s not you, it’s me

December 31

Life is rich and colorful but to justify the habit you tell yourself that your phone will somehow be more interesting. This is an excuse. If you’re bored by the situation you’re in it’s your own damn fault.
~ Tom Critchlow, from The Art of Being Switched On

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Yes, absolutely. There are levels to this art of being switched on. First is to be come self-aware enough to notice that you are generally off. Second, being able to notice in the moment when you are off. Third, being on. Fourth—and this makes the first three seem easy—being truly happy when others around you are switched off.

Hauling the mail

December 29

*hunh* I’ve been incorrectly using the phrase, “hauling the mail,” forever. I was going to use it as the title for a post about something else and went to see if I could find something interesting to quote… only to realize it means to move things at high speed. I’ve always thought it meant to do something that was once really amazing or challenging, but which is now so regular and routine as to be forgotten—that’s literally what hauling the mail is. Who (besides me?) notices all the hauling of mail which gets done? Anyway. Okay, mental data updated—and I’ll never use it again since it makes not sense for it to be about moving things quickly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How about ‘never’?

December 27

One of the reasons we work in six week cycles, is that it gives us a different definition of later.
~ Jason Fried, from Avoiding pile-ups

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I often remind myself (in my mind, in my journals, in blog posts, in 7 for Sunday… because I need a lot of reminding) that all of my problems arise because I overestimate what I can get done in the short term. Yes, that usually has a second part about the long term. And that’s not where my problems arise from. For me, it’s all about teeing up too much to do. Working in relatively short cycles, as Fried describes, and put things into the “now” (in this cycle) or “never” (not “later”!) categories is a big part of how I manage to not explode into chaos and depression three times a week.

Getting back

December 25

So much has happened in 2024. What do I have in mind for 2025? I’m looking forward to reading all my 2024 journal entries—I’m excited to see optimistic Craig get punched in the face (only because I know how that story ends.) I’m also looking forward to getting back to writing regularly here on the ‘ol blog. This is, after all, where the shift into my current epoch started.

One big lift?

December 23

Have you heard the phrase “a big lift”? It’s the idea of making a concerted effort to accomplish something big, in one steady effort. The idea being that some accomplishments just don’t quite ever get done via small, daily steps.

Each year, in NO!vember I set about weeding. I try to identify every single thing I’m doing, and then assess whether or not I want to keep doing that. This sets me up for December. In December everyone I normally interact with starts to assume everyone else is on holiday. Things generally get more quiet in terms of projects and work.

In December, I identify big things that I’ve either just discovered (perhaps I didn’t even see them until clearing out in NO!vember) or which I’ve been ignoring (which means they’ve been nagging at the back of my brain.) I try to find a big lift that will yield some sort of big benefit in the coming year—a big time savings, or a big force multiplier for me going forward.

In December, I point my efforts at one of those big lifts…

It invariably ends up being a huge effort—bigger than just “big,” several hours, every day! But each year, as I head into the new year, I ride on that bad-ass high of knowing I cleared the decks in NO!vember and picked off that one big lift in December.

Is there a big lift you can imagine that would shift your continents creating new opportunities or capabilities for you in the new year?

Between a rock and a hard place

December 16

I really enjoyed Curtis Cates’s episode 14, Transformation can be fun…!.

Lately, I’ve been back to my regular walking, and I’ve started getting serious listening time in. I was delighted to get a chance to hear from Curtis.

(Yes, yes, I’m way waay behind on the Hansel & Gretel Code.)

Like you, my to-listen-to podcast cup runeth over! I’m regularly adding newly-released episodes. But I also have a way of systematically looking through shows’ entire back-catalog. So I’m also, regularly adding very-old episodes.

Yikes!

…and I heard one of Curtis’s sound-bites as I typed that.

Anyway, if you’re already familiar with Curtis’s work, drop back into ep14 of H&G, just for fun. If you’re going “Curtis who?” … start below. And, you’re welcome!

art is personal
and what qualifies or disqualifies something as art is all up to you
~ Curtis Cates, from Kristo.art

PS: I don’t subscribe to shows; I add episodes one-by-one when I see interesting episodes via my daily RSS-feed reading.

How things feel

December 11

I have written about this before and it is something I wish to emphasize repeatedly: efficiency and clarity are necessary elements, but are not the goal. There needs to be space for how things feel. I wrote this as it relates to cooking and cars and onscreen buttons, and it is still something worth pursuing each and every time we create anything.
~ Nick Heer, from Delicious Wabi-Sabi

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Yes, “efficiency and clarity are necessary elements, but are not the goal. There needs to be space for how things feel.” Hear! Hear!

There are at least three reasons to read Heer’s points. Retro-digital photography is really a thing; the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi (appreciating beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete); A bit of hist wondering about software.

It’s the wabi-sabi that got me thinking about podcasting. I’m well-known for cutting the corner when it comes to editing the conversations I record. I’ve always looked at that as a necessity: If I tried to raise the level of quality by editing, I’d not be able to put the episodes out (or at least not as many.)

After reading Heer’s thoughts, now I’m wondering if I’m also—perhaps even more so?—drawn to the wabi-sabi of the conversations with all their blemishes, false-starts, uhm-and-ahs in place.