Simply report problems →

Published March 2, 2018  ·  All posts on Mar 2  ·  

Now it may turn out that what a junior employee sees as a problem that they don’t have an answer to really isn’t a problem. On the other hand, some problems are much easier to identify than they are to fix. This is particularly true with ethical and cultural problems.

~ Ben Cotton from, You don’t need to have an answer to report a problem

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This piece is short, so my pull-quote may not make complete sense. I don’t like to pull-quote so much that you can get away with NOT reading the source because, in general, if I’m linking to it then I think the source is important enough to be read entirely.

I digress.

Ben raises a point here that jumped out at me once I saw it. I’ve been hearing and saying that same piece of advice and, yeah… it’s wrong. Yes, if you can bring a solution (or solutions, or even a half-baked first attempt at a solution) with the problem report, great! …but do not—never under any circumstances—refrain from speaking up when you see a problem. It’s either not a problem and you’ll level up when someone explains it, or it is a problem, or it’s a system in-built blind spot that is a problem… or… you know what? Just speak up.

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Persistence of tyranny →

Published March 1, 2018  ·  All posts on Mar 1

Tyranny is our capacity to rationalize exceptions to rights for our enemies. Tyranny is our willingness to dismiss violation of rights as unimportant or minimal.

~ Ken White from, «https://www.popehat.com/2018/02/15/the-persistence-of-tyranny/»

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Elet Hall: Not training, risk, danger, and Lyme disease →

Published March 1, 2018  ·  All posts on Mar 1  ·  

Elet Hall: Not training, risk, danger, and Lyme disease

What motivates and shapes individual approaches to physical training, risk management, and personal growth?

Elet Hall takes time out from a motorcycle engine rebuild to discuss his approach to training (and not training), challenge, risk, danger, consequences, and why he walked away from American Ninja Warrior. Along the way, we talk about Lyme disease, and his work with the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, before he shares his four words to describe his practice.

Strength of character is what I’m looking for in almost everything that I do.

~ Elet Hall (30:00)

The conversation begins with reflections on Elet’s experiences in Ninja Warrior and parkour, emphasizing the importance of meeting people where they are in their personal journeys. It touches on how perceptions of these activities differ and how they can be bridges rather than barriers for people seeking self-improvement.

Further, the discussion moves to Elet’s personal training philosophy, rooted in nature and holistic approaches. Topics like the subjective and objective impacts of training, footwear choices for outdoor activities, and the biological and psychological effects of connecting with natural environments are explored. He highlights the value of understanding one’s own body and tailoring training to personal goals and limitations.

The latter part delves into a life-threatening incident that prompted Elet to reassess motivations and commitments. This leads to discussions on Lyme disease, its impact on energy levels, and the necessity of intentional training. The conversation ends with a reflection on building strength of character through thoughtful engagement with challenges, whether in parkour, life, or other pursuits.

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Kinesthetic Literacy →

Published February 28, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 28

Dr. Hans Selye called it the General Adaption Syndrome. You are going to try to adapt to the new situation that is presented to you. If you don’t, your body goes through first alarm, “How do I make this work?!” and then resistence.

You realize you’re not going to bridge that gap and you resist that fact. “It’s ok!”, “It’s ok that I’m in an unhappy marriage!”, “I’m gonna make it work!”, “It’s ok that I’m in a bad job!”, or “I’ve still got seven hours to drive to new york!”, or whatever it is…

That’s the resistence phase. Then your body goes into exhaustion. And I meet more and more of my clients, more and more people in the world, are facing this exhaustion. They’re showing up with what we would call diseases of the autonomic nervous system– that I think include lupus, arthritus, fibromyalgia… Very many of the autoimmune diseases are the body turning on itself because it has reached a stage of exhaustion because we cannot make the gap between how they’re supposed to be in the world and how they are in the world.

~ Tom Myers from, Are you Kinesthetically Literate? – Tom Myers #101

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This is a wide-ranging podcast (you may want to skip over a bit of Daniel-specific Q-and-A up front) with the creator of the Anatomy Trains system of looking at anatomy as an integrated whole. They start on the basics and origin of Anatomony Trains but their dicussion travels VERY far afield discussing human domestication, parkour, birth, death and the future of our species. Two and a half hours well-spent in my book.

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No plan B →

Published February 27, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 27  ·  

There’s no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A.

~ Will Smith

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Honesty →

Published February 26, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 26  ·  ,

Humans are the most communicative species on the planet, but we’ve come increasingly to rely on the very cheapest signals: words. The problem with words is that they aren’t a scarce resource. Which is a more honest signal of your value to a company: when your boss says, “Great job!” or when she gives you a raise?

~ Kevin Simler from, Honesty and the Human Body

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I’m not sure I have a take-away from this. I don’t mean, “I’m not sure I have a take-away to share“, I mean I’m not sure I have a take-away, for me personally.

I’m sure only that this made me think.

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Digging into Ketosis and the Ketogenic diet →

Published February 25, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 25

Dom D’Agostino — The Power of the Ketogenic Diet (#172)

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This is a superlative question-and-answer session where Dr. Dagostino answers questions collected from Tim Ferris’s listeners.

It’s not so much a pitch about why you should do it (ketosis / the diet), but rather, it’s a deep discussion of all the details. What exactly is ketosis, how does it work, how do the systems in your body interact (at the various levels of organ, glands, hormones, cells, biochemics, and molecules.) Dr. Dagostino is obviously very much in favor of ketosis, but there’s a ton of useful information here.

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Nutrigenomics →

Published February 24, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 24  ·  

I always think back: We were in these small foraging groups of 30-to-50 people who were part of a larger tribe, who were part of a larger language group, and we were very connected to these people. We carved that 30-to-50 up, down to nuclear families, and we carved them up into neighborhoods, and now we’ve carved that up into even smaller units, and broken families, and now individuals, and everybody’s plugged into the internet with everybody, but they’re all alone.

~ Daniel Vitalis from, Eat Like A Centenarian: Culinary Genomics – Amanda Archibald #95

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Daniel’s guest, Amanda Archibald, discusses what Centenarians (persons 100 years of age and beyond) eat. It’s a fun and wiiiiiiide ranging discussion about food, human civilization and society.

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Dead end roads →

Published February 23, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 23  ·  

Masculinity-as-cultural-construct is one of those beliefs that sounds good in the abstract, perhaps. But I think most folks, men and women alike, feel deep in their gut that it isn’t so, isn’t desirable, and isn’t working. As someone who has examined the research and history of masculinity, I find the idea of it being wholly a cultural construct utterly untenable. It is a conclusion one can reach only by willfully ignoring large swaths of the data and the human experience.

~ Brett McKay from, The Dead End Roads to Manhood

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Masculinity is not — not “entirely”, nor even “mostly” — a social construct. I believe one is free to attempt to take on whatever role one wishes. (I see that as one of the big benefits of our current level of human progress.) But if you attempt the role of a “Man”, you do not get to simply make up what you think a Man should be.

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Eclipse photography 2/4 →

Published February 22, 2018  ·  All posts on Feb 22

The mostly eclipsed solar disk is in the middle of this photo– just a bit above the center. Normally, at this stage of the eclipse, the partly exposed solar disk would cause retina damage if you look at it directly. But thanks to this cloud… ok, fine, yes, clouds don’t block UV light so looking at this is a BAD idea. I looked quickly. A few times. It was TOTALLY worth it. Here, you can look all you want, but you might need to zoom in a bit…

The entire eclipse was very “busy”. It was clear, then some clouds, then clear, a cloud… the viewing conditions changed second-by-second. Truly a rare event to see.

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