Investigation with James Adams →

Published July 22, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 22  ·  

Investigation – with James Adams

What role does problem-solving and creativity play in the intersection of programming, parkour, and personal growth?

The discussion reveals how creativity and self-discipline shape one’s approach to challenges in life and movement.

Sometimes the right thing to do is to walk away from the problem or to recognize that it’s not the right time or you’re not in the right place for it.

~ James Adams (14:39)

The conversation explores the intersection of programming, parkour, and personal growth, highlighting the common thread of problem-solving. A discussion unfolds about how programming serves as a versatile tool, akin to a multipurpose screwdriver, allowing for efficiency and creativity in tackling challenges. This framework extends to parkour, where physical and mental obstacles mirror problem-solving in technical domains.

The social dynamics of parkour play a significant role in fostering confidence and personal development. The practice’s non-competitive, collaborative nature offers opportunities for self-improvement and resilience. Topics of balance and burnout emerge, with reflections on the importance of stepping back when challenges become overwhelming. Additionally, James shares insights into his Parkour Clinic project, which provides free sports therapy consultations, blending his technical expertise and passion for movement.

Takeaways

Programming as a tool — Provides efficiency and a creative outlet for problem-solving.

Social aspects of parkour — Enhances confidence and creates a supportive community.

Importance of stepping back — Recognizing when to pause instead of pushing forward on challenges.

Combining interests — Merging technical skills and physical movement to create unique solutions.

Parkour’s mental impact — Encourages resilience and a problem-solving mindset in both physical and abstract contexts.

Non-competitive environments — Cultivates collaboration and individual growth.

Parkour Clinic project — Offers free, remote sports therapy consultations, focusing on conversation-based solutions.

Resources

Parkour Clinic — Offers free online sports therapy sessions.

James’s Blog — Personal blog discussing various topics, including programming and parkour.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Human existence →

Published July 22, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 22  ·  

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

~ Bertrand Russel

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The price of the ticket →

Published July 22, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 22  ·  

What a journey this life is! Dependent, entirely, on things unseen. If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earth quake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win.

~ James Baldwin from, The Light Between Us – The Marginalian

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I’m not sure how many things I’ve linked to over on Popova’s Marginalian project. By now you should be directly following it and reading everything she’s publishing. I’m frozen by indecision; there are so countless many superlative books, and Nothing Personal is yet another one. Drat!

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Priorities →

Published July 21, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 21  ·  

Lack of time is lack of priorities. If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices that put me in that position, so I’ve forbidden myself to reply to, “how are you?” with “busy.” I have no right to complain. Instead, if I’m too busy, it’s a cue to reexamine my systems and rules.

~ Tim Ferriss

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Reasons and persons →

Published July 21, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 21  ·  

You’ve probably heard this scenario before. It originally comes from Derek Parfit’s 1984 book Reasons and Persons, where he actually answers the question. (Though you may not like the answer.) To answer it, he has to go though a set of even weirder scenarios. Here’s most of them, edited aggressively.

~ “Dynomight” from, Reasons and Persons: The case against the self

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This article turns a number of complicated thought experiments into a disorienting dash through a hall of mirrors. I’ve not read Parfit’s book, but I’ve encountered these sorts of thought experiments before. On one hand I’m drawn to thinking about them because I feel I should be able to have some foundational, (although not necessarily simple,) principles that I can use to answer them. Which is a working definition of, “I want to be rational.” Until I start really digging into the experiments and things get really complicated. Why, it’s as if being a limited-in-resources mind forced to interact with in an intractably complex world, may not be something with a clear, correct, let alone singular, solution.

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Utterance is magic →

Published July 20, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 20  ·  ,

This is why utterance is magic. Words do have power. Names have power. Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.

~ Ursula K. Le Guin

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Always a good reminder →

Published July 20, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 20

We often turn it into something bad: I suck for not being disciplined, I suck for not being able to focus, I’m not strong enough, etc etc. But it’s just a part of being human — we all have fear, uncertainty, doubt, resistance built into our survival instincts.

~ Leo Babauta from, Working with Your Inner Resistance – Zen Habits Website

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My “I suck” dialog has different vocabulary, and I have a penchant for petulance. Nonetheless, it’s always a good reminder to be aware of it. I can sabotage myself, without fail, by setting expectations—any expectations—for anything I’m working on. The only way I can stay balanced on the narrow, mountaintop spine of rock that is sanity is to pay attention to the next steps. There’s not really much option about where the path along the ridge leads. In recent months I’ve been tinkering on a new project creating something I’ve been curious to try for a long time. It’s interesting, but not particularly difficult work. It’s definitely creative, and I’ve repeatedly found interesting little twists in the path. Am I going somewhere in particular with the project? …not really. I have ideas of what might be farther along the path, but that’s more an interesting additional possibility, rather than the reason for doing the work.

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Fair winds →

Published July 19, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 19  ·  , ,

Somehow these less-than-ideal conditions raised his game, spurred him on to greatness. There’s a definite lesson here. Fair winds do not a great captain make. We dream of finding our own greatness one day, but we want it to happen when the sun is shining.

~ Hugh Macleod

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Pet peeve #7 →

Published July 19, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 19  ·  ,

Web pages which neglect to include two of the most important pieces of information: Who and When. Yes, all web pages. Thou shalt always list the author. (“Anonymous” is a legitimate answer to, “who?’) Thou shalt always list at least a general composition/publication date. Online, it is already difficult to place things into context. Having a Who and When gives that many more clues to place things into context.

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Three dots →

Published July 18, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 18  ·  , , ,

Let me be clear that no part of me idealizes the bygone agony of waiting three weeks for a letter from your lover to cross the Atlantic—a letter that might never arrive from a lover who might be dead by the time it does arrive. But let me also be clear that, in another century or two, if humanity is wise enough to survive and reconsider its compulsions, posterity will look back on us gobsmacked that we put ourselves through the agony of the three pulsating dots.

~ Maria Popova

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