If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.
~ Richard Cecil
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Discretion →
It’s subtle but critically important →
It’s broadly agreed these days that consciousness poses a very serious challenge for contemporary science. What I’m trying to work out at the moment is why science has such difficulty with consciousness. We can trace this problem back to its root, at the start of the scientific revolution.
~ Philip Goff from, A Post-Galilean Paradigm | Edge.org
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I once had a mathematics professor make a comment that it’s fascinating that mathematics is able to explain reality. I double-clutched at the time. And every single time I think about the point he was making, I still pause and my mind reels. If one is looking at—for example—classical mechanics, and one studies the ballistic equations, one can go along nicely using forces and trigonometry, and understand golf balls and baseballs in flight. Soon you realize your mathematics is only an approximation. So you dive into fluid mechanics, which requires serious calculus, and you then understand why golf balls have dimples and why the stitching on baseballs is strictly specified in the rules. All along the way, mathematics models reality perfectly!
But why? So you keep peeling. The math and physics gets more and more complicated—stochastic processes, randomness, quantum mechanics, wave-particle theory, etc.—as each layer answers another “why”… but it’s … is “cyclical” the right word? No matter how far you go, you can always ask “why” again, for the most complex and most accurate system you model and explain.
Down there at the bottom, that’s where Galileo declared there was a distinction between physical reality, and consciousness and the soul. We’ve had hundreds of years of progress via science on what Galileo divided off as “physical reality.” (And that progress is a Very Good Thing.) But as this article explores, is there actually a distinction? What if making that distinction is a mistake?
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Fellowship with Howard M →
How does the podcast “Seasons of Sobriety” explore the journey and challenges of long-term sobriety?
The process of creating a podcast about sobriety becomes a lesson in embracing imperfection.
If you try to have the perfect podcast you go perfectly insane.
~ Howard M (11:43)
The conversation explores the creation and purpose of the podcast Seasons of Sobriety, which focuses on the experiences of individuals with long-term sobriety. Howard discusses the challenges of finding guests with extensive recovery time and the deeper layers of personal growth required beyond abstaining from alcohol. He emphasizes the importance of sharing stories that can inspire others to believe recovery is possible.
The discussion also touches on podcast production, including the difficulties of editing, embracing imperfection, and maintaining creative integrity without monetization. Themes of connection and fellowship arise as critical elements, not just in recovery but also in the podcasting journey. Howard views his work as a contribution to the recovery community, aiming to foster hope and connection.
Takeaways
Creating a podcast — embracing imperfection and focusing on the message rather than technical perfection.
Long-term sobriety — exploring the deeper challenges beyond simply not drinking.
Fellowship and connection — highlighting their importance in recovery and creative work.
Curating podcast guests — focusing on individuals with decades of sobriety to provide unique insights.
Personal growth — the continuing journey and layers of change required in recovery.
Non-commercial podcasting — viewing the podcast as a charitable contribution rather than a business.
Resources
Seasons of Sobriety podcast — A podcast focusing on long-term sobriety stories.
Seth Godin’s Akimbo and workshops — Courses and content inspiring podcast creation.
Simplecast — Podcast hosting platform used by Howard.
Penn & Teller’s performances — Referenced for insights into embracing imperfection.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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A big ol’ distraction →
Quit your yakkin’ and get busy. Quit wasting time obsessing about pimping your ass and checking your stats. Instead, MAKE stuff. Make AMAZING stuff. Make stuff that is so good that people have no choice but to find out about it. Otherwise, you REALLY are just wasting your time. This game is already TOO hard and TOO BIG a time suck to fritter away on what is, for the most part, a big ol’ distraction.
~ Hugh MacLeod
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Humanism →
But if progress is real and important—how do we judge this? How do we justify that improvements to material living standards are good? That technological and industrial progress represents true progress for humanity?
~ Jason Crawford from, Progress, humanism, agency
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In a few dozen words, this article goes from zero to gloves-off, let’s take about the nature of what is good. Yes, please. Lets discuss this more often. I find, without exception, it’s completely pointless to discuss anything—the climate, energy sources, guns, health, rights… choose your favorite third-rail topic—if myself and the other(s) don’t share the same values.
And I mean the big values of philosophy. When I start thinking about what does human autonomy mean? …what rights and/or responsibilities does consciousness confer? …what is truth? Big yawning questions! …when we don’t agree on that stuff, then no wonder we’re at odds on the other things.
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Locomotion →
The mode of locomotion should be slow, the slower the better, and be often interrupted by leisurely halts to sit on vantage points and stop at question marks.
~ Carl Sauer
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Muffled →
Nothing you create is ultimately your own, yet all of it is you. Your imagination, it seems to me, is mostly an accidental dance between collected memory and influence, and is not intrinsic to you, rather it is a construction that awaits spiritual ignition.
~ Nick Cave from, Nick Cave on Creativity, the Myth of Originality, and How to Find Your Voice – The Marginalian
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This is a thought which seriously concerns me; What exactly, if anything, am I accomplishing in the totality of my life? In a very micro sense, I’m simply holding back entropy ever so slightly in one minuscule niche of the universe. I like to imagine this is like pushing the cuticles of my finger nails back: Comforting and aesthetically pleasing, but ultimately pointless because my nails continuously grow until they don’t at which point I won’t care any more. I’m not being morbid or pessimistic here. There’s nothing wrong with that micro-scale getting things done. I take comfort in the fact that pushing entropy back a bit is—quiet literally—all that anyone can do.
It’s when I shift to a much larger scale that things look quite rosy. I sleep well at night, (both literally and figuratively,) because I like who I am becoming, and I plan to keep at it. Along the way, a quite large number of people have said the equivalent of “what you did there made my life a little better.” What more could one attempt?
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Perspective →
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
~ Longfellow
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Experience →
Experience often deeply embeds the assumptions that need to be questioned in the first place. When you have a lot of experience with something, you don’t notice the things that are new about it. You don’t notice the idiosyncrasies that need to be tweaked. You don’t notice where the gaps are, what’s missing, or what’s not really working.
~ Chris Sacca
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