Focus on what’s before you →

Published December 21, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 21  ·  

And when you’re distracted? See what’s distracting you and choose, mindfully, what’s most important in that moment. Maybe what’s distracting you is worth your time after all.

But where your energy goes is where you’re going.

~ Hugh MacCleod from «https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2017/06/27/how-to-stay-focused-at-work/»

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Slowly I changed how I interact with waiters, how I reply to email, how I use my phone (note particularly that I use it and it never uses me,) how I chop wood, how I show up for video calls, how I walk, and so on, and so forth…

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The warrior sense of humor →

Published December 20, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 20

Lastly, these remarks are inclusive. They’re about “us.” Whatever ordeal is coming, the company will undergo it together. Leonidas’s and Dienekes’s quips draw the individual out of his private terror and yoke him to the group.

~ Steven Pressfield from, The Warrior Sense of Humor

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This also ties into what makes a good team. I don’t mean hyperbolic imagining of the team as some military unit. Rather, plainly stating what lies ahead, what will be challenging, and what are the goals for the team builds cohesion. The more the team members understand each other, the better they can empathize. Only when there’s empathy—my ability to use it and your awareness that I can and do use it to better help and understand you—can the barriers of fear be removed; fear prevents people from asking for help and from asking how they can help others.

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45 minute meetings →

Published December 19, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 19

Meetings always expand to fill the available time. Therefore, first be sure that the meeting has a goal and when the goal is achieved, the meeting is done. Second, things often go faster and better when there is a known deadline. To this end we almost always set an end time when scheduling a meeting.

But we usually pick one hour for a meeting’s duration. Then we try to schedule back-to-back meetings and are surprised when everything turns into a flurry of rushing to the next meeting… that meeting that starts at 4, right after the meeting that ended at 4. This never works.

Schedule all your meetings to be 45 minutes. Magic happens.

Everything gets done in the 45 minutes—or if doesn’t, you had far too much packed into your usual one-hour meeting—and you have time for the rest of your life between the meetings.

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Point Reyes →

Published December 18, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 18

Tyson Cecka: Obstacles, artistry, and depression →

Published December 18, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 18  ·  

Tyson Cecka: Obstacles, artistry, and depression

What drives the creation and refinement of spaces and objects for parkour, and how do personal and communal experiences influence this process?

Tyson Cecka unpacks his design process, how he began to build parkour obstacles, and where he finds inspiration. He discusses his current plans and goals, and explains why he doesn’t consider himself a great artist or creator. Tyson shares his experiences with depression, how it’s affected his life, and how he’s working through it.

Failure should be a lesson. If you’re doing your trials correctly, every failure would be a lesson that you could then apply going forward.

~ Tyson Cecka (5:12)

This conversation centers on the intersection of creativity, movement, and mental resilience. Tyson discusses how his initial interest in parkour evolved into designing and building obstacles, driven by necessity and a desire to refine and optimize solutions for movement challenges. He explains how his creations are deeply informed by observing others and learning from failures.

The discussion also taps into broader themes of community influence, personal struggles with depression, and the balance between maintaining control over spaces and embracing organic creativity. Tyson reflects on the importance of spaces that allow for exploration and adaptation while highlighting the iterative process that shapes his work and life philosophy.

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Someone has to be the first guinea pig →

Published December 17, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 17  ·  ,

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series The interviews from my perspective

Adam McClellan / Episode 1

The story behind episode one is challenging. How much do we want to know? How much do we want to share about the birth of the podcast? That all plays into Episode One. I picked Adam as the first guest because I wanted a guinea pig. I had bought a Zoom recorder and some microphones and cables. There’s a guy who did our audio editing for the first two years, and I had sent him some test audio files just to verify that when I press “Record” it does what we think it does.

I had been training with Adam for years, so I approached him and said, “Hey, I’m thinking about starting a podcast. You want to sit down and have a conversation?” In hindsight, I now realize it takes a lot of chutzpah to actually say, “Okay, I’ll sit down with microphones,” but he was totally up for it. I said, “I need a guinea pig. I’m going to screw it up, and I want you to just be game for a radical F-up.” And, sure enough, now I realize the zeroth rule of podcasting is always press “Record” and then double-check that you’ve actually pressed “Record.” These days we actually have a system, because sometimes it still happens. The person who sits in and listens actually takes notes and uses the time codes from the recorder. So you have to actually look at the recorder, and if the timer isn’t running, we know that I haven’t pressed “Record.”

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2020 vision →

Published December 16, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 16  ·  

I often known when a bad joke or a terrible pun is coming. My confession is that I really enjoy that feeling of knowing there’s going to be a terrible groaner in… 3… 2… 1…

Except that in today’s case, I already wrote it.

”2020 vision.” As in, “20/20 vision.”

You’re welcome! Go start beating all your friends over the head with “insightful” comments about having 2020 vision for the coming year.

In other news: 2019 was the year I started using reading glasses. My past track record of prognostication and beginning-of-the-year vision statements, combined with my vision deteriorating… nope, lost it, I feel like I had something clever to say here. But no, it too is decagon.

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CRM’ing your friends and family →

Published December 15, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 15

This is daft… wacky… but possibly so brilliant, that I want to share it.

I’m seriously considering put all my friends and family into a ‘customer’ relationship management (CRM) system. Wait, don’t block me just yet…

*unfriend*

You see, for many years now, we’ve been sending out Christmas and Holiday greetings to an increasingly large list of our friends and family. Large. List. Growing. It takes days of shopping and stamp obtaining and writing and sealing and then a special trip to the post office for the sub-set of cards that need to go by AirMail overseas…

…and as I do each card, I think, “oh!” And a bunch of stuff I want to share, say, ask, etc. for that person/family/whatever pops into my mind.

So all I really want—the reason I’m considering CRM’ing all these nice people—is a something that will suggest one of these contacts… well, I’m not going to say how many how often I’d need to do… at certain intervals. Then I would be able to write a note or an email or make a phone call…

Because the other option would be to convert the “holiday” cards into “yo wats up” cards and just make a stack and do them throughout the year. :)

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Thoughtfully giving and receiving decisions →

Published December 14, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 14  ·  ,

Decision fatigue is a well-known effect. I’ve long since learned to be mindful of when I am going to encounter this, and to take steps to avoid or reduce it. There’s a paradox where I used to want the option to make decisions, while not having the energy to make good decisions.

Also long ago, I started intentionally reigning in the urge to have an opinion when a decision is available. I now think, “do I want to have an opinion on this?” and I try to steer myself towards, “no.” There are countless examples, but they most often fall into, what I’ll call, refinements. This is when something is happening, and it is happening because I’m following someone’s lead. Our culture encourages that leader to solicit opinions; I’m presented a dinner invitation, but asked, “where would you like to eat?” These refinements come in a huge variety, but usually, that leader had an idea in mind when they set the ball rolling. These days, whenever I can, I don’t add an opinion to the mix.

I’ve gotten really good at not having an opinion. In fact, I’ve realized this is now a problem. Everyone is so used to people complaining—about everything; the movie, the food, the traffic—that they assume I too am going to complain later, after going along with their choice.

Each of us needs to practice giving the gift of making thoughtful choices for others. Each of us needs to practice accepting those gifts graciously, (up front, and during and after without complaint.)

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Tis the season →

Published December 13, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 13  ·  

I like paying for my software when I’m buying it from a company that’s responsive, fast and focused. I like being the customer (as opposed to a social network, where I’m the product). I spend most of my day working with tools that weren’t even in science fiction novels twenty-five years ago, and the money I spend on software is a bargain–doing this work without it is impossible.

~ Seth Godin from, On paying for software

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Tis the season… to talk about paying for the things we get value from. Last year Seth wrote that great gem about software and I whole-heartedly agree.

Here’s a short list of a few pieces of software which I gleefully pay for, without which everything I do would be vastly more difficult or outright impossible: Hover, BBEdit, Hindenburg, Overcast, Reeder, Feedbin, Tower, Transmit, OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, iaWriter, Discourse, Basecamp and Front.

As a bonus round, here’s a short list of a few online services or publications which I also gleefully contribute to, because they provide me with magnificent information that makes my world a better place: Brain Pickings, Müvmag, PodNews, Once is Never, and WikiPedia.

My challenge to you for the holiday season: Post your own lists somewhere public, and share the love for the software and services that make your life better throughout the year!

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