A great conversation. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on—because the recognizable voice of Krista Tippet is nowhere to be heard.
Michael Pollan and Katherine May →
Subtraction with Nima King →
What happens when you stop trying so hard and learn to find power through subtraction rather than addition?
Wing Chun training in a Hong Kong living room involves hours of standing still with no sparring, forcing practitioners to confront inner demons and abandon Western goal-seeking mentality.
I’ll tell you, Craig, this was the hardest thing at that time that I had to go through, both physically and mentally, because […] it’s just so difficult, you know, standing still there, not moving. It’s just so difficult! All these inner demons start to come up. You start thinking, and you know, there’s nowhere to hide.
~ Nima King (5:17)
Nima King describes his journey from training as a teenaged bouncer in Sydney, to becoming a student of Grandmaster Chu in Hong Kong, where his expectations of intense sparring and rooftop battles were replaced by hours of standing practice in a small living room. The training focused on empty hand forms rather than fighting techniques, creating a physically and mentally challenging experience where inner demons surfaced and there was nowhere to hide. Grandmaster Chu provided hands-on guidance through tactile cues, manipulating posture and stance to help students release tension points gradually rather than through sudden breakthrough moments. The practice required abandoning the Western mindset of conceptualization and goal-seeking in favor of embodied experience, with Nima’s teacher eventually banning him from asking questions to force this transition.
The conversation explores how martial arts principles apply to modern life, including parenting and professional goals. Nima discusses the challenge of not trying too hard despite his natural inclination toward the mentality of pushing through pain and injury. The practice teaches that letting go of control represents a powerful act rather than laziness or apathy, and that vulnerability challenges conventional masculine ideals of strength through aggression. Grandmaster Chu exemplified this power through humility, always bowing lower and greeting students with warmth rather than displays of dominance. The art becomes about subtraction rather than accumulation, finding ways to achieve goals with less effort by allowing things to happen rather than forcing them.
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Hand-Write. Think Better. →
A method for people who feel overwhelmed to start writing more on paper—which makes everything else easier
I’ve written a guide which shows how to use notebooks for clearer thinking: one notebook, simple practices, no elaborate systems. Written to help you stop re-thinking the same things and close open loops.
https://craigconstantine.gumroad.com/l/hand-write-think-better
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Stopped in my tracks! →
I was hustling from point A to point B when I rounded the corner and saw this.
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About notebooks →
The problem facing knowledge work in our current moment is not that we’re lacking sufficiently powerful technologies. It’s instead that we’re already distracted by so many digital tools that there’s no time left to really open the throttle on our brains.
Cal Newport, from https://calnewport.com/forget-chatbots-you-need-a-notebook/
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a few months. I recently went back to my lab notebook habit from 30+ years ago. It’s like discovering a bicycle for your mind: It multiplies the power of what my mind is good at. But not too much. (like a car where you’re completely cut off from the world.) Using a notebook I can hold thoughts outside my mind, return to them, and see them.
There’s also the magic that happens when you hold onto a thought long enough to write it down. That’s much longer than we usually hold on to any thought.
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Begin it →
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
~ John Anster
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Due proportion →
Philosophy demands self-restraint, not self-abnegation—and even self-restraint can comb its hair. The limit I suggest is this: Our habits should mingle the ideal with the ordinary in due proportion, our way of life should be one that everyone can admire without finding it unrecognizable.
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 5.5
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Stay in the tension →
I’m a little behind :) this episode of The Creatively Engaging is from 4 years ago, but is worth listening to.
About halfway through Anna and Monika start talking about what it was like to play the specific piece of music. There’s an interesting discussion about staying in the tension of being out of perfect timing… which all struck me as related to doing work as a creative in general.
@brucedevereux was also on Podtalk back at, https://forum.podcaster.community/t/persistence-with-bruce-devereux/540
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Adopting new podcasting standards →
I saw this the other day (via https://podnews.net/ ). A process for adopting new podcast standards…
https://podstandards.org/2025/10/21/a-process-for-adopting-new-podcast-standards/
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Forbearance →
Clearheadedness and action are not always enough, in politics or in life. Some obstacles are beyond a snap of the fingers or novel solution. It is not alway possible for one person to rid the world of a great evil or stop a country bent toward conflict. Of course, we try—because it can happen. But we should be ready for it not to. And we need to be able to find a greater purpose in this suffering and handle it with firmness and forbearance.
~ Ryan Holiday, from The Obstacle is the Way
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