Focus on effectiveness—what your actions will actually accomplish—and not self-actualization or other ways of trying to feel good about yourself.
~ Steven Pinker
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Fear
[F]ear is not a sign of personal weakness, but rather a natural state of discomfort that occurs whenever you’re out of your comfort zone. It’s there not to sabotage you, but to help you come alive, be more focused, and put you into the present moment and a heightened state of excitement and awareness. If you push the fear away, the only version of fear available to you will be its crazy, irrational, or contorted version. If you’re willing to feel it, and merge with it, its energy and wisdom will appear.
~ Kristen Ulmer
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Self-Care with Brian A. Prince
What strategies can help individuals manage personal challenges, including emotional and creative struggles, while maintaining growth and resilience?
A conversation navigating the complexities of identity, mental health, and artistic expression.
What I’ve realized is that, for me, I’m trying to just honestly recognize how I feel, when I feel it, and acknowledge it. [The] history of old-school Parkour, art school, and then doing stunts for film, kind of made me very good at ignoring how I feel and powering through it anyway.
~ Brian A. Prince (4:40)
The conversation examines personal challenges and strategies for resilience, emphasizing self-awareness and self-care. The discussion explores how external events, such as the pandemic and sociopolitical movements, prompted introspection and adjustments in mental health approaches. Techniques for recognizing and managing emotional states are shared, with a focus on therapy and understanding triggers.
Creativity and career balance are recurring themes, highlighting how transitioning creative pursuits into professional roles can lead to burnout. Brian reflects on finding sustainable ways to maintain artistic passion and adapting their career to preserve personal expression. Self-awareness, communication, and the need for support systems are underscored as critical to navigating these experiences.
Takeaways
Recognizing emotions — Accepting and addressing feelings is a vital step toward self-care.
Impact of external events — Significant global events can trigger deep personal reflection and change.
Balancing creativity and career — Turning creative pursuits into work can be rewarding but requires boundaries to avoid burnout.
Role of support systems — Having supportive relationships aids in managing challenges and maintaining growth.
Therapy as a tool — Understanding specific therapy needs improves its effectiveness.
Shifting priorities — Adjusting life goals and expectations is often necessary during transitions.
Creativity and well-being — Art and expression remain central to personal satisfaction and resilience.
Resources
@talltrainings and @thebaprince — Brian’s Instagram accounts.
Netflix’s “Arcane” — an animated TV show mentioned as a source of creative inspiration.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Process with James Fricker
What strategies can podcasters use to manage the complexities of content creation and sustain their passion over time?
The conversation explores how podcasters balance creative ambitions with practical constraints.
I think what would be a nice way to wrap it— would be, to create some kind of an ebook, or something like that, to condense a lot of the learnings into something.
~ James Fricker (12:24)
The conversation discusses the challenges podcasters face in managing their creative ambitions alongside time and resource constraints. Strategies for prioritizing tasks, such as focusing on specific platforms and using tools to repurpose content efficiently, are explored. The discussion also touches on how podcasters can manage information overload and set boundaries to maintain sustainability.
Career growth and the role of podcasting as a learning tool are significant themes. The potential for podcasting to foster connections within organizations is considered, with an example of private podcasts enhancing workplace culture. Inspirations like Tim Ferriss demonstrate the importance of preparation and structure in creating impactful episodes. The idea of consolidating podcast learnings into formats like ebooks is presented as a way to conclude a series thoughtfully.
Takeaways
Prioritizing tasks — Necessary for balancing podcasting with other commitments.
Repurposing content — Tools can help extend the reach of episodes across platforms.
Career growth through podcasting — Engaging with guests offers valuable personal insights.
Workplace podcasting — Potential for private podcasts to build organizational connections.
Concluding a podcast — Ideas like creating an ebook provide a meaningful closure.
Drawing inspiration — Examples like Tim Ferriss illustrate the importance of preparation.
Knowing limits — Recognizing when to stop fine-tuning an episode is essential.
Resources
Graduate Theory Podcast — James’s podcast focused on early career advice.
Movers Mindset Podcast — Craig’s long-running podcast about movement philosophy.
Repurpose.io — A tool for repurposing video and audio content for social media.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Relaxed concentration
The player of the inner game comes to value the art of relaxed concentration above all other skills; He discovers the true basis for self-confidence; And he learns that the secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.
~ W. Timothy Gallwey
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Starting where I am
I love the proverb: If there’s somewhere you need to be, you need to start walking. And the only place where I can start walking? …is right where I am now.
I’ve written a smattering of stuff about my training over the years. Once, in college, (age: 20) I was briefly in shape thanks to several semesters’ of effort put into Taekwondo. But in all that time since, I’ve always done well when someone else tells me what to do. “Do this today at this class. Come back for more.” I’ve also done well following the pack. There was an epoch where I was riding my mountain bike excessively, but I really got in shape when I started meeting up with others and trying to keep-in-sight people much better than me.
Last year, as the sun disappeared in a Pennsylvania grey winter, I began plotting a way to take what I had experienced when a seriously dedicated friend of mine had been planning my training, and turn it into something I could use in a self-directed fashion. I’m not a professional athlete and I don’t want to train like one. And on the other hand, simply “living my life” being active when I find those opportunities arising is not enough. I need some planning. So I’m working on that. Today, I’m just talking about the first piece of my plan: Tracking activity.
I have an older FitBit. It works fine, it’s not fancy-schmancy… but critically, I refuse to pay them monthly for extra bells-n-whistles. So this tracking sheet lets me take some notes about what I did each day, and to simply copy down the totals of time from the 4 zones that that FitBit tracks. Simply having the tracking system encourages me to be more mindful about activity—for example, it’s rather nice today, and I’ve a run in mind for later this afternoon.
The next piece of the puzzle is to begin working in activities that are more strenght-training in nature. A QM session, (there is one there on Tuesday,) some simple free-weight exercises, some bouldering, etc..
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Silence
Be the silence that listens
~ Tara Brach
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Toe-tal recall
When viewed through an evolutionary or naturalistic lens, to walk, run and move barefoot is, of course, the default human condition. Any alteration of this is an alteration of not just millions of years of bipedal hominid function, but hundreds of millions of years of natural selection’s honing and refining of foot structure.
~ Matt Wallden from, Toe-tal recall – What on Earth are our toes actually for?
This is a stupendous deep-dive into our feet. I love the clarity of, “[a]ny alteration of this”. Am I barefoot? (At this instant, yes. With my feet on very rough, old, worn concrete, on my patio, in 50°F weather.) If I am not barefoot, I want that to always have been a conscious choice—some specific reason for why I’ve chosen to alter the function of my feet.
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Thinking through
Ignore advice to simply follow your intuition or gut without thinking through whether the course is likely to be fruitful and rewarding.
~ Steven Pinker
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Gone already?!
I just want to say that sometimes the things we do online have outsized consequences in the real world. It’s easy to forget that there are real people behind every screen. I forget about that almost every day but better people than me provide some good reminders.
~ Gabriel Weatherhead from, «http://www.macdrifter.com/2021/09/thank-you-this-will-be-rough.html»
My title refers to the fact that it’s only been four months, and this link has already rotted. In September 2021 I marked this for later reading, (note the /2021/09/ in that URL,) and I only just got around to reading it. I read it as a locally-cached copy in my read-later software, and then realized the link was dead when I tried to write this blog post… :(
I’m so sorry. It was a nice piece about how he had reread some Vonnegut over the pandemic year and… and… it’s already gone?!
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Discipline
Everyone wants freedom. We want to be physically free and mentally free. We want to be financially free and we want more free time. But where does that freedom come from? How do we get it? The answer is the opposite of freedom. The answer is discipline. You want more free time? Follow a more disciplined time-management system. You want financial freedom? Implement long-term financial discipline in your life. Do you want to be physically free to move how you want, and to be free from many health issues caused by poor lifestyle choices? Then you have to have the discipline to eat healthy food and consistently work out. We all want freedom. Discipline is the only way to get it.
~ Jocko Willink
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Everything is figure-out-able
No matter what challenge or obstacle you face, whether it’s personal, professional, or global, there’s a path ahead. It’s all figure-out-able. you’ll find a way or make a way, if you’re willing to be relentless, stay nimble, and keep taking action. It’s especially useful to remember when things go wrong, because rather than wasting time or energy on the problem, you shift immediately to brainstorming solutions.
~ Marie Forleo
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Information loss
Our lack of perfect information about the world gives rise to all of probability theory, and its usefulness. We know now that the future is inherently unpredictable because not all variables can be known and even the smallest error imaginable in our data very quickly throws off our predictions. The best we can do is estimate the future by generating realistic, useful probabilities.
~ Shane Parrish from, The Value of Probabilistic Thinking
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It’s a good article—of course, why would I link you to something I think you should not read?
To be fair, I skimmed it. But all I could think about was this one graduate course I took on Chaos Theory. It sounds like it should be a Star Trek episode. (Star Trek: The Next Generation was in its initial airing at the time.) But it was really an eye-opening class. Here’s this simple idea, called Chaos. And it explains a whole lot of how the universe works. Over-simplified, Chaos is when it is not possible to predict the future state of a system beyond some short timeframe. Somehow, information about the system is lost as time moves forward. (For example, this physical system of a pendulum, hanging from a pendulum… how hard could that be?)
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Networking
In creative fields, I think networking actually hurts you in most cases. Don’t waste your time socializing with people who you think can help you. Just get better, and opportunities will naturally present themselves once you deserve them. Only focus on things within your control. And if you don’t know what those things are, find someone who can tell you. Don’t network, just work.
~ Whitney Cummings
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Flow with Minh Vu Ngok
How does one’s personal approach to movement and parkour evolve over time, balancing playfulness, training, and personal growth?
This conversation explores the evolution of a 15-year parkour practice and its impact on personal growth.
In the beginning, I used to do a lot of strength training and conditioning, like every week, or every other day. And now it’s not part of my routine anymore. Because I feel like I’ve reached a point where my strength is sufficient for the things I want to do.
~ Minh Vu Ngok (5:57)
The conversation begins with reflections on parkour practice, focusing on how approaches to movement evolve with time and experience. Early years are marked by goal-oriented training, while later stages emphasize enjoyment and personal expression through movement. Minh discusses revisiting older skills and overcoming mental barriers that arise from fear or lack of practice.
Teaching parkour is another prominent topic, including the cultural perceptions of parkour among beginners and the comprehensive programs offered by the parkour community. Minh highlights the flexibility of parkour as both a structured training activity and a broader lifestyle choice. Additionally, the balance between maintaining physical readiness and the joy of movement is a recurring theme, underscoring the idea that one earns the freedom to be relaxed and playful through disciplined preparation.
Takeaways
Balancing play and discipline — Physical preparation allows for relaxed and playful movement.
Cultural aspects of parkour — Parkour transcends a typical sport, encompassing community and lifestyle.
Evolving training goals — Training transitions from skill acquisition to sustaining fitness and joy.
Flexibility in participation — Parkour can be a casual hobby or an immersive lifestyle.
Teaching approaches — Coaches facilitate both foundational skills and deeper cultural connections.
Seasonal and personal rhythms — Energy levels and interests influence training patterns.
Resources
ParkourOne — A parkour coaching organization in Berlin offering training for various levels.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Philosophy with Galo Alfredo Naranjo
How does one integrate philosophical and practical approaches to movement and physicality in a meaningful and sustainable way?
This conversation explores the deeper connections between philosophy and movement in everyday life.
How do we mitigate injuries? How do you get in tune with your body, right? Versus just like, Hey, Coach, what am I doing today?
~ Galo Alfredo Naranjo (12:18)
The conversation focuses on integrating philosophy into movement and how visual thinking can aid in understanding and conveying ideas. Galo shares their journey from running a movement studio to adapting practices during the pandemic by leveraging visuals and online tools. He emphasize using philosophy to create connections and encourage meaningful practices beyond mere physical routines.
Additionally, the challenges of coaching athletes and fostering long-term habits are discussed. This includes balancing the structured training needed for athletic improvement with a sense of play to maintain engagement. The conversation also reflects on the deeper intentions behind movement and the importance of preparing individuals to sustain their practice independently after their formal athletic training ends.
Takeaways
Philosophy in movement — Embodying ideas through movement rather than merely discussing them.
Visual thinking in practice — Using visuals to explore and connect abstract concepts with tangible activities.
Balancing structure and play — Navigating between regimented training and unstructured exploration to sustain engagement.
Long-term impact of coaching — Helping individuals create sustainable practices beyond the athletic or structured training environment.
Connecting through shared values — Leveraging online platforms to build communities around similar philosophies and practices.
Intentionality in training — The importance of purpose behind physical activities for deeper engagement and understanding.
Resources
Motus Made website — A platform for newsletters and visuals related to movement and philosophy.
Ido Portal — A movement teacher whose philosophies influenced the discussion on content versus container in training.
Visualize Value by Jack Butcher — A program that inspired the creation of visuals for understanding abstract concepts.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Deluding oneself
Find a new topic or area or concern that has a small number of people that you respect behind it, but which has not become a culture-wide fad or conventional wisdom. If it’s already common knowledge, it’s probably too late to make a major contribution. If you’re the only one excited, you may be deluding yourself.
~ Steven Pinker
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Looping and decay
In contrast to dramatically slowing a recording down and extending its length, artists have also explored the possibilities of repeating short recordings over and over. The history of looping in modern composing is a story of the accidental beauty of technological imperfection and decay.
~ Ahmed Kabil from, Transmissions from the Ambient Frontier
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It’s worth the click just for the first photo, which has nothing directly to do with sounds nor music. And then further down you get a photo of a tape loop—the physical device that can play a section of tape forever without interruption. Along the way is a mention of sound art created as very-old [magnetic] audio tape sheds it’s coating. Plus 5 other sound-related shifts in perspective. I read this piece over and over, as if it were itself a tape loop. I see—hear?—several magnificent halls of exploration… which I’m running away from because I do not. need. another. hobby. New genres of music to explore, a full 24hrs [uninterrupted] that I could spend on Beethoven’s 9th, …
I’m a sucker for things which gift me with any shift of perspective. That’s a big part of why I love conversation: Every encounter with another mind is ripe with opportunity for my own growth.
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Trust with Brandy Heyde Montague
What challenges and insights emerge when discussing the craft and logistics of podcasting?
Exploring the role of trust and preparation in creating meaningful podcast conversations.
No matter how it goes, it will speak to somebody. Because I also think— I have to remind myself too, that even if the episode I’m doing reaches one person, and it makes a change in the day for that one person, it was worth doing it. And they’re reaching more than that, you know?
~ Brandy Heyde Montague (13:03)
The conversation centers on the art of podcasting, with a focus on the balance between technical challenges and the need for authentic, engaging discussions. Topics include managing unforeseen disruptions, such as noisy environments or technical glitches, while maintaining the flow of meaningful conversations. Brandy and Craig emphasize the importance of making guests feel comfortable and embracing the unpredictable elements that naturally occur in a podcast setting.
Another key topic is the trust and preparation involved in creating valuable podcast content. The conversation highlights strategies like researching guests thoroughly, preparing outlines, and fostering a sense of purpose behind each episode. Brandy and Craig reflect on the vulnerability and nerves inherent in podcasting, discussing how both the host and guest can overcome these challenges to craft impactful conversations that resonate with their audience.
Takeaways
The importance of trust — Success in podcasting often hinges on trusting that each conversation is meaningful and will reach the right audience.
Embracing imperfections — Technical glitches and interruptions are inevitable but can become part of the show’s authenticity.
Guest preparation — Thorough research and clear communication help guests feel valued and confident.
Impact measurement — Even reaching a single listener can make an episode worthwhile.
Host vulnerability — Nervousness is a natural part of podcasting but can be managed through experience and focus.
Dynamic processes — Different podcast hosts use varying levels of preparation, and there is no single “right” way to approach it.
Long-term engagement — Building connections with potential guests over time can lead to fruitful collaborations.
Open-hearted storytelling — Approaching conversations with passion and curiosity enriches the experience for both hosts and listeners.
Resources
Google Docs for guest preparation — A one-pager describing the podcast’s goals, format, and links to past episodes is used as a resource for guest onboarding.
Resources for podcast outreach — Mention of long-term outreach strategies involving platforms like Instagram and Facebook to connect with guests.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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Practice with Adam Ashton
How can podcasters sustain creativity, balance workloads, and adapt over time to maintain quality and engagement in their content?
The shift from raw, unedited episodes to a well-oiled podcasting system reveals an inspiring evolution in their creative journey.
We figured that if somebody picks up, you know, a book a month or they read five books a year, then we’ve kind of done our job.
~ Adam Ashton (10:59)
The conversation explores how the hosts of the What You Will Learn podcast transitioned from an impromptu production style to a refined system that lets them focus on their passion for books. Adam discusses their early days, starting with minimal equipment and editing, and how they gradually expanded their operation by outsourcing tasks like editing and social media to focus on the core creative aspects.
The discussion also goes into the freedom their backlog affords them, enabling them to engage with more substantial and meaningful books. Adam shares insights on the value of collaboration in sustaining motivation and avoiding creative burnout, emphasizing the importance of remaining relatable while producing quality content.
Takeaways
Collaboration sustains creativity — Working with a partner ensures accountability and enhances the creative process.
Shifting priorities over time — They transitioned from minimal production to a system with dedicated roles for non-core tasks.
Valuing quality over quantity — A significant backlog allows them to prioritize better books over shorter, less impactful ones.
Evolving personal identity — Despite podcasting for six years, they resist being pigeonholed as “just podcasters.”
Sharing knowledge accessibly — Their approach makes complex ideas from books approachable and engaging for listeners.
The importance of showing work — Transparency about their process fosters trust and relatability with their audience.
Scaling with systems — Outsourcing tedious tasks enables focus on creative and strategic podcast growth.
Resources
What You Will Learn Podcast — Adam’s podcast where the hosts discuss lessons from books.
Man’s Search for Meaning — Victor Frankl’s classic book, referenced as profound and life-changing literature.
Seth Godin — Author and entrepreneur mentioned in relation to learning about goal-setting and personal development.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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