Clarity with Ron Decter

July 30, 2023

What are the challenges and opportunities of creating a meaningful podcast that effectively communicates its intended vision and resonates with an audience?

Craig Constantine and Ron Decter discuss the importance of moving towards dialogue rather than a typical Q&A format, making podcasts more engaging.

Ron’s podcast, Simplest State, invites you to explore the mysteries of higher consciousness and the potential of the human mind. They also discuss the struggle of describing one’s show in a few words, highlighting the importance of clarity and coherence in conveying its essence to potential listeners.

Simplest State is for anyone who’s ever felt that there’s something more to life than the mundane, that there’s something beyond the daily routine of life or someone who’s ever felt that the power of the mind is something much more than we have harnessed so far.

~ Ron Decter (10:48)

Takeaways

Embracing Dialogue in Podcasting — Shifting away from a journalistic question-and-answer style can add depth and authenticity

Exploring Profound Topics — Creating podcasts with deep and thought-provoking themes can attract a niche audience seeking intellectual and spiritual exploration.

The Importance of Defining a Podcast’s Essence — The significance of clearly defining a podcast’s essence in concise language.

Resources

Simplest State — Ron’s podcast can be found wherever you normally listen.

Make Noise — Eric Nuzum’s book mentioned in this conversation.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Physical literacy

July 30, 2023

I’ve been creating and capturing conversations for the Movers Mindset podcast for over 5 years. In the beginning the people and the content were directly related to Parkour. But it soon became apparent that there was something more. (Actually, it became apparently that there are two somethings. My general love for the art of conversation is one something. But here, I’m just talking about the other something.) Over the years, the podcast name and descriptions shifted to center on the word “movement” as I tried to point at the something more that I couldn’t identify.

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Physical literacy is often described as the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding that provides human beings with the movement foundation for lifelong participation in physical activity. Importantly, it incorporates elements that are beyond mere physical development, such as motivation and confidence to move, and ranks them just as highly as attributes like strength and speed. Anyone who trains in parkour for even a single session soon understands just how fundamental these non-physical elements are to our natural movement capabilities, and our potential.

~ Dan Edwardes from, The Power Of Physical Literacy – Dan Edwardes

I’ve been saying for years that in the Movers Mindset podcast, “I talk with movement enthusiasts to learn who they are, what they do, and why they do it.” People often ask me, “what’s the podcast about?” and I’ve always felt that my description doesn’t quite explain it.

But now I know what it’s about.

This article has given me a new phrase: Physical literacy. Thanks, Dan. This isn’t the first thing you’ve given me. (Dan joined me on the podcast back in 2019 for a wonderful in-person conversation titled, Dan Edwardes: Motivation, efficacy, and storytelling.)

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Souvenirs

July 28, 2023

I don’t collect many souvenirs. Sometimes I buy postcards when I visit places… and then I tape those into my journals. But in a very real sense a lot of what I write in my journals is meant to be a souvenir. Either way, the physical or the notational souvenir, is meant to trigger some memory.

Even institutions built for the express purpose of information preservation have succumbed to the ravages of time, natural disaster or human conquest. The famous library of Alexandria, one of the most important repositories of knowledge in the ancient world, eventually faded into obscurity. Built in the fourth century B.C., the library flourished for some six centuries, an unparalleled center of intellectual pursuit. Alexandria’s archive was said to contain half a million papyrus scrolls — the largest collection of manuscripts in the ancient world — including works by Plato, Aristotle, Homer and Herodotus. By the fifth century A.D., however, the majority of its collections had been stolen or destroyed, and the library fell into disrepair.

~ Adrienne Bernhard, from Shining a Light on the Digital Dark Age

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Always I’m thinking: Do I really want to add this thing to my pile? There’s a timeframe of only a few decades where any thing, or notation, has the chance to jog my memory. Sometimes I think of taking a photo… and then I think, why? Why this image right here? Maybe it would be better (I continue thinking) to just relax and enjoy the moment. Even the Library at Alexandria’s enormous collection was surely only a minuscule fraction of what humanity had created to that point. Why take a photo? Why make a notation? Why build a web site? :)

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Open + Curious Salon today

July 26, 2023

In the tradition of the literary and philosophical movements, each Open + Curious Salon is an opportunity to gather in real-time. It is a space where the exchange of ideas flourishes, where minds come together in spirited discussion, and where conversation skills are honed and practiced. Within the walls of the salon, the spirit of intellectual curiosity reigns supreme.

Details at https://openandcurious.org/

Fragmentation

July 26, 2023

What if I don’t know how to take something apart? One option is to apply excessive force and break the thing open. That works, but obviously sacrifices the thing; this is particularly useless if I wanted to take something apart because I need to fix it, or understand it. Generally, the smash method always works, but is almost never useful.

Yet thought also goes wrong somehow, and produces destruction. This arises from a certain way of thinking, i.e., fragmentation. This is to break things up into bits, as if they were independent. It’s not merely making divisions, but it is breaking things up which are not really spearate. It’s like taking a watch and smashing it into fragments, rather than taking it apart and finding its parts. The parts are parts of a whole, but the fragments are just arbitrarily broken off from each other. Things which really fit, and belong together, are treated as if they do not. That’s one of the features of thought that’s going wrong.

~ David Bohm from, On Dialogue p56

I’m perpetually on a journey of self-awareness. I’m quite often applying my mind to understand things. This idea from Bohm about fragmentation, and in particular fragmentation being bad because it misses out on the relationships and inherent properties of the natural parts (in the sense of disassembled-watch parts versus smashed-watch bits). This idea of fragmentation is a warning against my running with the first way I manage to understand something; just because I’ve found one way to understand (smash) something into understandable pieces, doesn’t mean that’s the best way.

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Self study

July 26, 2023

Useless to possess an obedient mind unless one profits to the furthest possible degree by its obedience. A prolonged primary course of study is indicated. Now as to what this course of study should be there cannot be any question; there never has been any question. All the sensible people of all ages are agreed upon it. And it is not literature, nor is it any other art, nor is it history, nor is it any science. It is the study of one’s self. man, know thyself.

~ Arnold Bennett

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Powerful questions

July 25, 2023

[P]owerful questions are the ones that cause you to become an actor as soon as you answer them or even reflect on them. You no longer have the luxury of being a spectator of whatever it is you are concerned about. Regardless of how you answer these questions, you are guilty Guilty of being an actor and participant in this world. Not a pleasant thought, but the moment we accept the idea that we have created the world, we have the power to change it.

~ Peter Block

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45 – Trail run

July 24, 2023

(Part 2 of 46 in series, Level 52 countdown)

This is a local trail that I frequent. It’s a loop with ~60m of total elevation. Super easy, but it crushes me every time.

Tomorrow: A 15-minute drill (pick number, do that every minute, last minute do double) of pushups and squats.