There are a bunch of insights in this little conversation with Ira Glass:
I’m ambitious! I want the stories to be special and I want the interviews to be special. The nervousness is my fear that they won’t be, and my awakeness to how hard it might be to get it to work. If you have any ambition, you march into the interview with a battle plan. You have this theory about what’s going to happen with this other person but you really have not the best idea if it’s going to work. Interviewing is an art form that so depends on the soul of the other person and also on how the two of you interact.
I particularly like that one about nervousness as a sign that we are doing something right as podcast creators. What’s the hard work? What’s the part that makes us a little nervous? Exactly.
I’ve often mentioned journaling. A few years after I began journaling seriously, I started taking time to read my older journal entries. Initially, I was setting aside some dedicated time early each month to simply spend time with my old journal entries. I was just randomly hopping around looking up things, and reliving old adventures (at least, those I’d taken the time to write about.) I soon ended up with bookmarks at various number-of-years-ago.
Eventually I wanted to reign in the time I was spending reading. (The author of my journals is the most fascinating person I know of, so I can really get lost navel gazing into my journals.) I process-ified the entire thing (which I’ll skip explaining because it’s not important) and now, every day, I read my journal entries from 1-, 3-, 6-, and 9-years-ago. It only takes a few minutes and it is endlessly illuminating.
Oh the adventures I’ve had! The thrills… the spills… the ups and downs!
[…] most of the fun is in the experience and not in the reminiscing. We don’t actually spend most of our days enjoying memories. How many minutes yesterday did you spend thinking about that trip you took last year?
This article by Hoffman is typical. You’ll probably love it or hate it. The part I’ve quoted is way down in the middle part and not a major point. But it leapt off the page for me. I’ve long known that journaling has at least corresponded with my improvements, in the sense that it has raised the depth of the downward dips—this is a very important achievement. Alone, it’s reason enough that I intend to never cease journaling. Hoffman’s mentioning reminiscing as being a valuable activity related to happiness, has made clear another reason to never cease.
It is essential to get lost and jam up your plans every now and then. It’s a source of creativity and perspective. The danger of maps, capable assistants, and planning is that you may end up living your life as planned. If you do, your potential cannot possibly exceed your expectations.
How does one balance pursuing multiple creative and physical endeavors while maintaining long-term growth and curiosity?
Practical insights into climbing, gymnastics, and writing illuminate the shared themes of persistence and adaptability.
My real goal is to get people thinking about how to apply all these different kinds of steps to their own training or injuries or whatever they are working on and be able to do things for themselves.
~ Steven Low (15:59)
This conversation weaves through the journey of pursuing physical and creative challenges, reflecting on how to balance growth and curiosity over time. Topics range from the iterative process of writing deeply informative books to the physical and mental intricacies of climbing and gymnastics. The discussion emphasizes the importance of problem-solving and adapting methods based on personal experiences and new scientific insights.
Personal anecdotes highlight the interplay of curiosity, physical limitations, and the satisfaction derived from mastering difficult tasks. The conversation touches on teaching as a vehicle for personal fulfillment, drawing parallels between activities such as rock climbing and whitewater rafting in terms of their unique ability to offer new perspectives and foster resilience.
Takeaways
The process of iterative refinement — Decisions about revisiting or updating projects depend on scientific advancements and user needs.
The importance of problem-solving — Physical activities like climbing offer unique opportunities for analytical thinking and pushing limits.
Balancing multiple interests — Shifting focus to new projects can sustain long-term curiosity and motivation.
Encouraging independent learning — Teaching concepts rather than step-by-step instructions fosters autonomy and adaptability.
Practical application of concepts — Trial and error helps individuals tailor training approaches to their unique circumstances.
Avoiding repetitive monotony — Preference for varied and challenging activities highlights the value of engaging pursuits.
The role of curiosity in growth — Directed curiosity helps bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application.
The appeal of outdoor activities — Activities like climbing and hiking combine physical effort with an appreciation for nature.
Adapting training methods — Personal experience and feedback guide modifications to improve outcomes.
The significance of goal-oriented training — Structured challenges provide satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.
The interplay of teaching and learning — Effective teaching ignites curiosity and helps others become self-sufficient problem solvers.
Resources
Overcoming Gravity — Steven’s book focused on mastering gymnastics-inspired training.
Overcoming Poor Posture — Steven’s book addressing common posture problems and their solutions.
Steven Low’s Blog — Articles exploring fitness, health, and training methodologies.
I often find things scattered about which make little connections appear in my mind. That’s literally what the word composition means when it’s used in the context of writing and literature; writing which composes something new from some number of other things already found. This little missive has been laying in the pile of such things for far too long… and so I’m putting up here to see where it leads us.
Way back in March of 2021 I listened to this podcast episode:
Marissa King: What she found is people consistently underestimated how much their partner was enjoying the conversation. So the short answer to this is you’re actually more likable than you think just the way you are.
David Spinks: That’s really interesting. What are the steps then? …for somebody to become a better conversationalist?
Marissa: Do they just have to become aware of that fact, and stop worrying about it so much? I think that’s part of it. And what I try to do throughout my book is actually to give people the tools of social science to allow them to apply this in their own life. […] So for instance, imagine you’re walking into a cocktail party. What we know, based on human interaction is when I walk in, I often will just see a wall of people. […] But we know that people actually don’t just form walls, that they tend to form small groups or clusters. The question becomes, which cluster do you go to? And people will have all sorts of different ways of choosing this. […] It turns out, that people are in these clusters, because of just the way that humans are built, that we have two eyes, and we have two ears, almost all conversation actually happens in dyads—groups of two. And because of this, if you look for an odd number group, whether it’s 1, 3, 5, 7… When you join that conversation, you’re giving someone else a conversational partner, and so you’re really creating balance. […] oftentimes if you apply this, or you imagine that you are one of these people who feel this aversion, or you feel like I don’t know how to do this, by applying these basic tools, it actually allows you to engage in these types of activities more comfortably.
(I did that transcription by hand and edited it all lightly for clarity.)
That show is all about communities. It’s intended for community builders, managers and moderators. A lot of its content is about health and wellness, as well as the more obvious topics of strategies and tactics for community building.
But this part of this episode really grabbed my attention from my “I record conversations with people” podcast creator point-of-view.
TWO PEOPLE
I’ve long believed that two is the perfect number of people in a podcast. Yes, there are exceptional instances of podcasts with the other numbers of people in them. But there’s magic in two.
ɕ
PS: In the above, that small idea about “composition”… that came from some other reading which I unpacked in, Thank you Miss Merrill.
Worse, this combines really badly with my default working style. I have a strong neurotic desire to finish things, and to fixate on my total output rather than time spent working. I’ll often push myself to complete my current task, going well beyond my allocated working time, and not being willing to take a break until I’m done.
This is an article examining what it means to rest, and how breaking one’s default behavior is critical. The bit I’ve quoted was definitely a problem for me. Changing my default thinking in the form of “shoulding” on myself has opened up several other doors to change. (Note that I still, very carefully grammared around implying I’ve been successful at change—that’s a default I’m still working on. :)
Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of thinking is fundamentally flawed. It’s based on power and position rather than on principle. Win/Win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others.
Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.
The general trend in falling productivity growth does not seem to be particularly recent. OECD data shows a long-term pattern of slowing productivity growth, dating back to the 1970s for many developed economies.
Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in a the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
