Head ramping

Instead of letting your head dangle forward when you’ve logged on, put some strength in your swipe and use a little muscle in your upper back to hold your head and spine up.

~ Katy Bowman, from What Your Phone is Doing to Your Body and How to Fix It

Over in the Movers Mindset project, Bowman is someone who has long been on my to-talk-to list. Some day!

Until then, you’ll just have to read everything she writes. It’s terrific. Large amounts of actionable stuff around bare feet. This article is about what you are doing to yourself through your habitual phone use—uh, it’s horrific. But then, maybe if you were empowered with some knowledge, then you’d change? (I know that worked for me!)

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Bezzle

Agent K put it best, “Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” Some things once known, cannot be unknown.

There’s a useful concept to think about here: “Bezzle,” JK Galbraith’s term for “the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it.”

~ Cory Doctorow from, Pluralistic: 29 Jul 2022 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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This interesting, tiny detour of a word is just one bit of gobsmacking available from Doctorow. He’s actually writing about managing our retreat from all the housing we currently have in flood plains. But along the way, he takes us into the World of the Inconceivable via radium suppositories. (And yes, I did proofread the previous sentence.)

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Play with Alyssa Serpa

What influences the balance between seriousness and playfulness in physical training and movement practices?

Physical challenges highlight the intricate relationship between personal growth and self-reflection.

I think that there is a lot of creativity for one— but also, just progression, that happens in the space of being playful, goofing around, and not taking your practice too seriously.

~ Alyssa Serpa (13:07)

The conversation focuses on the interplay of seriousness and playfulness in Parkour and how each can influence personal growth and training outcomes. Insights are shared on the importance of reflecting on one’s commitment to training and how shifting priorities shape practices. A nuanced discussion emerges around how environmental factors, such as the pandemic, have impacted community interactions and travel.

Another theme explored is the role of injuries in redefining one’s approach to physical movement. Recovering from injury led to creative exploration and a greater focus on playful practice. The dialogue underscores the importance of striking a balance between structured training and unstructured play, with a strong emphasis on the joy and personal autonomy gained through movement.

Takeaways

Balancing seriousness and playfulness — Finding the right mix enhances both enjoyment and progress in training.

Creativity in movement practices — Playful exploration can lead to unexpected growth and insights.

Physical activity and life balance — Staying active contributes to overall well-being and stress management.

Impact of travel on training — Travel fosters connections but also comes with costs like carbon footprint and financial strain.

Adapting through injury — Recovery periods can become opportunities for lateral growth and skill refinement.

Value of vulnerability — Allowing space for experimentation and failure encourages new possibilities.

Importance of community — Engaging with peers locally and internationally enriches the training experience.

Resources

@alyssa.serpa on Instagram

@AlyssaSerpa on YouTube

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Reflection with Joe Wehbe

How can podcasting be used as a reflective tool and integrated into personal and professional growth?

Understanding how solo podcasting can refine public speaking and storytelling skills.

I knew I wanted to start a podcast just because it was a great format. I was going to learn a lot, and it was going to be interesting to have conversations around a lot of things I care about and people’s perspectives.

~ Joe Wehbe (1:29)

The conversation explores podcasting as a medium for personal growth and professional integration. Joe describes how starting a podcast as a solo endeavor helped refine public speaking skills and brought clarity to his thoughts. The discussion emphasizes the iterative relationship between writing and podcasting, where written content often serves as a foundation for podcast topics and vice versa.

Joe shares insights on reflective practices, mentioning the interplay of writing, conversation, and podcasting as tools for self-awareness and development. He highlights the unique role of podcasting in creating reusable resources and fostering connections. The conversation also touches on feedback and audience engagement, illustrating the evolving nature of the podcasting space.

Takeaways

Creating solo podcasts — A method for practicing public speaking and concise communication.

Integration of podcasting — A way to blend personal interests with professional goals.

The role of writing — Writing serves as a foundational tool to clarify and organize ideas before podcasting.

Reflection in podcasting — Podcasting as a secondary draft to refine and communicate ideas.

Community building — Conversations foster network growth and deepen audience connections.

Audience engagement — Feedback is essential for refining podcasting formats and content.

Resource development — Podcasts can serve as a personal resource library for future reference.

Resources

Joe Wehbe’s web site

Seth Godin’s Podcast — A source of inspiration for adopting the “host-on-mic” format.

Notion — Used for organizing ideas and creating headings for blog and podcast content.

18 & Lost? — A collection of stories about life after high school, written by everyday people.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Virtue and adversity

I may wish to be free from torture, but if the time comes for me to endure it, I’ll wish to bear it courageously with bravery and honor. Wouldn’t I prefer not to fall into war? But if war does befall me, I’ll wish to carry nobly the wounds, starvation, and other necessities of war. Neither am I so crazy as to desire illness, but if I must suffer illness, I’ll wish to do nothing rash or dishonorable. The point is not to wish for these adversities, but for the virtue that makes adversities bearable.

~ Seneca

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3.5 each

I don’t know why, but I never learned to solve a Rubik’s Cube. I am exactly the right age; the durned things appeared on the scene just before I got to primary school and they were common in my high school. But I never got into it. I had one, of course. I pretty much immediately took it apart (very carefully) to see how it worked… just honestly curious about how it worked, not trying to solve it. When I put it back together, I put it together in the solved state because it seemed obvious that if I put it together randomly it couldn’t be solved by then trying to rotation-solve it as usual.

Aside: Yes, of course I did. Any time I found a cube, I’d surreptitiously mechanically detach and flip a few pieces, and then scramble it. Few people are good enough to quickly figure out what has happened.

…and then I never was interested in solving one after I understood how it worked. Tetris? Okay, yeah, that game ate years of my life—because you can’t solve it, you just do it. Anyway, I’m 50 and I just got a Rubik’s Cube.

And what am I doing? Measuring it: Let’s call it 2.2 inches on an edge. How many of them are there? Wikipedia says 350,000,000. Crap, that’s a lot of plastic. How big a pile is that? How big are 350,000,000 2-inch cubes? …and I was hoping Wolfram Alpha would give me units of Empire-State-Buildings or something. Instead, I learned something about the total number of Angels according to the Bible. (That should get you to click, no?)

What’s that? How many ESBs is it? …oh, sorry, it’s 0.0583 ESB. I know right? We’ve only 6% filled the ESB with Rubik’s Cubes?! We need to ramp up production.

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*click*

The power of preserving silence is the very first requisite to all who wish to shine, or even please in discourse; and those who cannot preserve it, have really no business to speak. … The silence that, without any deferential air, listens with polite attention, is more flattering than compliments, and more frequently broken for the purpose of encouraging others to speak, than to display the listener’s own powers. This is the really eloquent silence. It requires great genius—more perhaps than speaking—and few are gifted with the talent …

~ Arthur Martine from, The Art of Ordinary Conversation

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Months ago, I presume, I had marked this Parrish article for later reading because it’s stuffed full of wonderful insight about conversation. That’s something about which I happen to be passionate, you know? Today I was giving it a thorough, leisurely read and the bit I quoted above screamed at me to be the lead quote of a post. I’d wager it caught my eye when I months-ago marked it for later reading. Turns out I have the book containing the original source, Martine, A. (1866), Martine’s Hand-Book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness, pp 8-9, librarything.com/work/1885064/book/101201787

I read the book a decade (or more?) ago when I obtained it. But now I’m inspired to re-read a few of its chapters now that I’ve become reacquainted with conversation as an art in itself.

“Okay, Craig, get to the point.”

Sometimes bricks of thinking and action click perfectly into place. In this case: A web page from 2013 which I’m only just reading in 2020, a different web page I read a decade ago, an author working just after our Civil War, my personal journey, my interest in conversations and podcasting. I quite often worry about all the things I regularly jam into my brain; they’re good things, but they are so numerous that my brain sometimes feels overstuffed! And then, click. It’s all worth it.

Do you have ways of regularly exposing your self to… well… whatever it is you need to feed your mind?

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Telling the story better

The Movers Mindset project is challenging for me. I have a large number of pieces in place. I’ve discovered many different interesting questions to explore, and I’m well on my way to digging in to find some answers. I’ve created something which I wish I could have found many years ago, early on in my journey.

And yet, I haven’t found many people who see value in the project. Everyone likes the podcast, but that’s as far as I can seem to get the idea to go.

Here’s what I have so far…

Movers Mindset explores themes like independence, self-direction, and human excellence through podcasts, website content, and a community of like-minded people. In the podcast, I interview movement enthusiasts to find out who they are, what they do, and why they do it; The podcast focuses on the journey of self-improvement and its underlying motivations, as well as movement’s fundamental place in society. On the website we publish free content, (much of it in three languages,) including podcast transcripts, show notes, articles submitted by people, and original content. In the Movers Mindset community I’m looking to discuss everything related to independence, self-direction and human excellence; I’ve started discussions on how to make the Internet work for you, thoughts about social networks, questions and answers about training from athletes, podcast-guest followups, and more.

Feedback on the project has been overwhelming positive. Over the past four years I’ve slowly expanded the project. I’ve changed things along the way, giving the project a new name back in 2018 and recently breaking the podcast episodes into seasons.

How do I do a better job of telling the Movers Mindset story?

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The end of solitude: Overtaken by technology

How, then, can we find and embrace emptiness in the sea of digital activity we swim through every day? The possibility of constant communication and information can make us allergic to absence. It’s not just that the technology is ubiquitous, invasive, and addicting. Its presence in our lives belies the deeper issue that the Wilson study touched upon: the ability to sit still with ourselves.

~ Susan Cain from, «http://www.quietrev.com/the-end-of-solitude-overtaken-by-technology/»

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