Tick tock →

Published August 5, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 5  ·  

Because we can look back and see that the way time has been measured throughout history has changed, it’s reasonable to imagine when looking forward that it will continue to change – our current use of hours, minutes, weeks and months may be as obscure and forgotten as the nundina, the akhet, or the gesh several millennia from now. The day, the year, and the movements of the other planets in our solar system, on the other hand, aren’t at the whim of the powers that be or of passing cultural trends. The 10,000 Year Clock, therefore, keeps track of these robust and durable units of time. The Clock’s main dial keeps track of the Sun, Moon and stars while The Orrery models our solar system.

~ Austin Brown from, Long Now’s Orrery Prototype For The 10,000 Year Clock – Long Now

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Immediately before reading the above article, I read something about the eastern Sahara Desert. About a researcher who managed to extract a 50-foot core-sample from a lake bed spanning 11,000 years of seasons. What is now a desert was once a lush paradise.

The projects and updates from the Long Now Foundation always fill me with awe and wonder. They always make me try to imagine 10,000 years from now. And that makes me feel like a slightly better person for having spent some time trying to think bigger-than-myself. But that core sample? …it covered still more. 10,000 years is but a blink in geologic time.

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Selene Yeager: Menopause, health, and writing →

Published August 4, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 4  ·  

Selene Yeager: Menopause, health, and writing

What challenges and insights arise from navigating menopause, maintaining health, and balancing creative pursuits?

Selene Yeager doesn’t shy away from topics other might avoid; in fact, she is leading the conversation around menopause. She shares her journey into creating a podcast about menopause, and her own experiences with menopause. Selene explains her thoughts on diet, nutrition, health tracking, and cycling. She discusses her relationship with writing, and what she’s currently reading.

Women drop out at the other end of the spectrum just as much, because they’re alone, their bodies are changing, and it’s worse; you feel like Carrie. It’s almost like Carrie. Remember that Stephen King book? No one is telling you these changes that are going to happen.

~ Selene Yeager (8:30)

Selene Yeager is a professional health and fitness writer, cycling and nutrition coach, personal trainer, athlete, and podcast host. She has written articles for many publications, including Bicycling Magazine, Runner’s World, and Men’s and Women’s Health, in addition to authoring, co-authoring, and contributing to over 2 dozen books. Beyond writing, Selene is the host of Hit Play Not Pause, a podcast focusing on menopause for athletes.

The conversation explores the complexities of menopause, emphasizing the intersection of physical changes, societal stigmas, and personal identity. Selene discusses her journey of embracing menopause as both a challenge and an opportunity, using her experiences to inspire and educate others. Topics such as hormonal fluctuations, their effects on mental and physical health, and the lack of open discourse surrounding menopause are examined.

In addition to menopause, the conversation highlights the speaker’s multi-faceted career as a writer, athlete, and podcaster. She shares insights into maintaining creative energy, managing time, and balancing professional and personal responsibilities. Discussions also touch on broader health themes like intermittent fasting, its specific impact on women, and the importance of listening to one’s body for optimal well-being.

Takeaways

The transformational journey of menopause — Women can navigate menopause as an empowering phase of self-discovery and growth despite societal stigma.

The interplay of science and storytelling — Communicating complex health information in relatable ways fosters understanding and action.

Challenges of aging athletes — Physical changes can lead to disconnection from familiar identities, but adaptation and support networks are crucial.

The pitfalls of intermittent fasting for women — Unlike men, women often experience adverse effects due to physiological differences.

Balancing creative and physical pursuits — Structuring time around energy rhythms can help sustain productivity and joy.

Supportive communities for menopausal women — Finding a network of peers can significantly ease the challenges of life transitions.

Resources

Hit Play Not Pause — Selene’s podcast focused on menopause for athletes, hosted by the speaker.

Feisty Menopause Community — Menopause guidance for active women.

Roar by Stacy Sims and Selene Yeager — A book addressing the unique needs of female athletes.

North American Menopause Society — Offers resources and certifications for professionals specializing in menopause care.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Zoomed way, way out →

Published August 4, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 4

It’s true that such adaptations are now anachronistic; they have lost their relevance. But the trees have been slow to catch on; a natural consequence of the pace of evolution. For a tree that lives, say, 250 years, 13,000 years represents only 52 generations. In an evolutionary sense, the trees don’t yet realize that the megafauna are gone.

~ Whit Bronaugh from, Ecological Anachronisms – Long Now

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There’s an effect in film making which you’ve seen but may not have realized exactly what you were seeing: The dolly zoom shot. “The dolly zoom is a famous technique invented by Alfred Hitchcock for his 1958 film Vertigo. The shot is achieved by simultaneously tracking backwards or forwards while zooming in or out.”

The narrator is too breathless for my tastes, but still, take a few minutes to watch this explanation of the dolly-zoom. You can thank me later: https://nofilmschool.com/2017/05/watch-what-dolly-zoom-can-do-you

Ahem. Now, back to my top-quote and what I wanted to say in the first place…

Text-based, disorienting dolly-zoom!

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Who has authority? →

Published August 3, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 3  ·  ,

Suppose he had passed his judgement upon a hypothetical proposition, and declared, ‘I judge the proposition, “if it be day, there is light,” to be false,’ what would have happened to the proposition? Who is being judged here? Who has been condemned? The proposition, or he who is utterly mistaken about it? So who on Earth is this man who has authority to pass such judgement on you?

~ Epictetus

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Community creation as art →

Published August 3, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 3

We make art with everything we are, the doom and the glory of it. We make art to know ourselves, to locate ourselves in the web of being, to make ourselves more alive. We make art that, at its best, helps other people locate themselves and live.

~ Maria Papova from, Keith Haring on Creativity, Empathy, and What Makes Us Who We Are – The Marginalian

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I think that art is, among other things, a physical something which exists separately from the artist. Art can be ephemeral—chalk work that disappears, a dance performance—but it exists in reality. (As a counterpoint: Art cannot exist solely in one’s imagination.) We even acknowledge that property of art being something-which-exists within the word artifact. (As in art-i-fact, and facts are concrete things which can be known about reality.)

Artists. Art. Artifacts.

Until just reading Popova’s comment, I hadn’t thought of creating a community as art; But now I am wondering.

I’m certainly a creative person, and creativity is required to create—hey, look at that—a community. Clearly a community isn’t summarily disqualified from being art simply because it is ephemeral, both in the sense of its appearance changing over time, and that it will one day cease to exist. But is it art?

Because a community sure looks like something that fits within what Popova is saying up there.

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Connections with David Reynolds →

Published August 2, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 2

How does podcasting facilitate unexpected connections and personal growth?

Podcasting leads to unexpected relationships, including connections with Holocaust survivors and international collaborators.

You had to really interact with people and get information and learn and ask questions and be kind of vulnerable too… ‘This might sound dumb, but I’m going to ask it anyway because I don’t know the answer.’ And everybody is really gracious and generous.

~ David Reynolds (6:53)

The conversation explores how podcasting has created unexpected connections and opportunities for personal and professional growth. David describes how chance interactions, such as a humorous online mix-up with a stranger, transformed into valuable conversations. Notably, the podcasting journey led to memorable interviews, emphasizing how meaningful stories emerge from unexpected connections.

Additionally, podcasting has introduced David to new tools, workflows, and skills they hadn’t previously encountered. The technical demands of podcast production, such as using multiple software tools, highlighted the complexities behind creating polished episodes. Beyond the technical aspects, the experience also influenced his personal life, fostering deeper reflections on relationships and ideas, including interactions with his spouse and interviewing his own parents.

Takeaways

Unexpected connections — Podcasting opens doors to surprising relationships, such as meeting international collaborators and interviewing Holocaust survivors.

Personal reflection — Hosting conversations helps clarify personal ideas and deepen understanding of relationships.

Skill development — Podcasting requires learning new tools, workflows, and technical processes to create professional episodes.

Community engagement — Creating a podcast necessitates vulnerability, curiosity, and active participation in a supportive learning community.

Completion mindset — Publishing episodes regularly encourages a mindset of finishing creative projects, including books and podcasts.

Interconnected growth — The lessons learned through podcasting ripple into other areas, such as writing, work habits, and personal conversations.

Serendipity in action — Being open to seemingly random events, such as a LinkedIn message, can lead to meaningful outcomes.

Resources

Lead. Learn. Change podcast — David’s podcast focused on impactful conversations about education and leadership.

Seth Godin’s creative insights — Ideas about embracing failure, publishing consistently, and fostering creativity.

Airtable — A database and organization tool used to streamline podcast production.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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When in doubt →

Published August 2, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 2

We once spent 7 years remodeling our house while living in it. *shudder* Note to self: Don’t ever do that again. In such a journey, you must learn to navigate a precarious balance between perfection, and omgbecky just get it done! Reflooring the entire house? …maybe lean toward the former. Gutting the only bathroom to subfloor and bare stud walls? …maybe lean toward the later. (Ask me in person and I’ll tell you some stories.) But there is a huge swath of work that falls in the middle area.

“When in doubt, rip it out,” became my matra in those years. Yes, we could fix, cover, repair, patch, shift, or ignore whatever-it-was. And we’d then forever live with the fixed, covered, repaired, patched, shifted, or… well, you can’t ignore it forever. So any time there was doubt, we ripped it out. Dug it up. Tore it down. And then—as time, energy, and money—were available we did it the right way. Or at least, the way we wanted it.

This principle works spendidly too for things other than one’s physical domicile. “What would be the right way, or at least the way I’d want it to be?” will lead you on a journey of exploration.

What’s the right way to repair the crown wash atop our chimney?

How should I convey all these features, benefits and doo-dads to new community members?

How should I organize this book I’m writing?

What would whatever-this-is be like if I did it the Right Way(tm)? …why is that the Right Way(tm) and what if I did it differently?

…but this is actually a post about my slipbox. I’ve not posted recently about it, and it continues to grow. Mostly I continue collecting quotes. But the main part of the slipbox is growing slowly as well. The topmost-level numbers are major divisions, conceptually. “4” is a hierarchy of analects. (I’ll pause while you search.) And “2” is for books.

Any time I want to refer to a book, I add a reference like, “(2b2)” on a card. I had setup the 2nd-level-letters to be MDS leading digits. So that’s a reference to the 2nd book in the 2b section. The point isn’t to understand the structure, when I see a reference… I can just go find the slip. I’m simpy explaining how it was setup. When I set it up, I thought a structural organization would be the way I’d like it.

I was thinking I’d put notes about the books elsewhere in the slipbox. Turns out I’d rather keep a few notes directly “under” the slip for the book itself. But that means I can’t easily find Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow—great book by the way. I have to go find its MDS number and then go into that slipbox section. So yesterday I pulled all the slips out of the “2” section and redesigned the entire thing.

“When in doubt, rip it out.”

The section is now simply organized by title. That book is now under “2to1″ —”to” from the title, first book under “to”. But the first rule of a slipbox is that you cannot change the address of a card. Other cards likely refer to it. And my blog posts have slip addresses on them. And I have digital documents with slip addresses in the names.

So I spent hours hunting and searching through everything, updating blog posts, updating filenames of digital files, updating notations on slips, … hunting down the physical books and updating the notes I keep in the books. It was a big undertaking.

If you’ve been following along with my slipbox journey, you’ve seen me write about how the slipbox enables having a conversation… with the ideas in the slipbox. It sounds wacky, I know. But my experience yesterday showed me it’s true. Every idea, every slip, were mine originally—I put them all in there. But I had an entire day’s worth of new ideas, connections, rereading parts of books, making new notes, … it was totally worth every minute, (yesterday and to date creating the slipbox.)

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Enthralled →

Published August 1, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 1  ·  ,

When one is enthralled with the beauty on the surface of the ocean, the immensity of its depths can never be discerned.

~ Wu Hsin

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Second best bee →

Published August 1, 2021  ·  All posts on Aug 1

It was a bit spooky to see my own reflection in this bee’s eye. And the best bee photo I’ve ever taken is amazing, even if I do say so myself.

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Cognitive biases →

Published July 31, 2021  ·  All posts on Jul 31  ·  

If our goal is to help people make better choices, it helps to first create better feelings.

~ Seth Godin from, Narrative and feelings | Seth’s Blog

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Godin often makes insightful points like this one. But I often wish he’d use his enormous reach to also talk about the other part—

If our goal is to help people make better choices, it helps even more to show them how they can use their rationality. It’s an inbuilt feature of being human—sometimes I’ve argued it is the defining characteristic of being human. It is, in fact, our planetaryily-unique super power. (We have other super-powers, like compassion, which I think may not be unique to humans.)

Yes, as Godin points out, we should create better feelings for others. But how great would each of our lives be if we weren’t governed by our feelings. The goal isn’t to eliminate feelings nor emotions—that’s a dumb idea. The goal is for all the parts of who we each are, to get the appropriate due.

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