He smiled a little. He looked forward, thinking, perhaps about the movie, as if it hadn’t crossed his mind for a long time. Then he grinned and said: “Money job.”
~ Ben Stiller from, Gene Hackman’s Simple Truth
It’s not clear, of course, exactly how Hackman meant for Stiller to take his simply reply. But, having seen The Poseidon Adventure, I’m taking it this way: Hackman is a consummate professional, able to deliver. “You need what done? I can do that.” That’s a professional.
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When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.
~ Richard Ford
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At one point I made a serious attempt at gratitude journaling. I learned that the many moments of delight I encounter on any given day don’t stick in my memory. In those moments I am aware of the experience (I really do think “if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is” often) but it drifts into the forgotten realms. I don’t randomly have thoughts like, “hey Craig, remember that delightful thing from that other moment?” I have to intentionally pause to make a space for those thoughts to appear.
Humans by nature have a strong desire to control and predict. We want to know what happens at the end of the story, and we focus on those things we can measure and easily influence.
~ Cierra Martin from, «https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2022/11/21/more-dancing-less-box-checking/»
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Can one remove a desire? This desire which I definitely have, has not abated through familiarity (something which I believe can cause a desire to fade.) I think the only way is to connect the many experiences which did not go through my control-it desire, and led to happiness. “See brain, we got to delight and there was not even an attempt at control there.” Pausing in moments of delight, as it were, to ask, “well… how did I get here?“
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Gnosce teipsum—know yourself. Know yourself in relation to your overt intentions and your hidden motives, in relation to your thinking, your physical functioning and to those greater not-selves, who see to it that, despite all the ego’s attempts at sabotage, the thinking shall be tolerably relevant and the functioning not too abnormal.
~ Aldous Huxley
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In a change of government the poor change nothing but the name of their masters.
~ Phaedrus
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So in a nutshell, Gömböc is cool, Hungarians are proud of it greatly. So naturally, they made a 4.5-ton statue replica of the shape.
~ Atlas Obscura from, Gömböc – Atlas Obscura
I could probably write a blog post about other interesting math-related puzzles and shapes that come from Hungary… or about the number of Hungarian mathematicians… but instead, I’ll just point you towards this particularly interesting thing.
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How can podcast hosts ethically navigate sensitive conversations while protecting their guests’ vulnerability?
Creating a safe space for guests involves mindful preparation and ethical guidelines.
Vulnerability is okay. Nakedness is not.
~ Jule Kucera (3:52)
The conversation explores ethical storytelling in podcasting, focusing on the host’s responsibility to protect their guests while crafting engaging stories. The discussion highlights moments when personal content felt too raw and decisions were made during editing to maintain respect. The concept of “vulnerability versus nakedness” is introduced as a guiding principle for ensuring sensitive topics are handled appropriately.
The discussion touches on the impact of post-production choices and the host’s editorial power, emphasizing the importance of maintaining trust and authenticity. Strategies for preparing guests, understanding their boundaries, and creating a safe conversational space are discussed as integral to fostering meaningful and ethical interviews.
Takeaways
Creating a safe space — Ensuring guests feel comfortable and supported during conversations.
Editorial responsibility — Making mindful choices in post-production to protect the integrity of the conversation.
Avoiding exploitation — Being cautious not to engage in “trauma porn” or exploit guests’ vulnerabilities for dramatic effect.
Guiding principles — Using mottos or guidelines, such as “vulnerability is okay, nakedness is not,” to navigate sensitive storytelling.
Lasting impact — Recognizing the permanence of recorded conversations and respecting how they represent both hosts and guests.
Resources
Reflections — Jule’s podcast.
Movers Mindset podcast — A podcast mentioned during the conversation as an example of careful and intentional storytelling.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; For that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they too go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; And I must abide by my award—let them abide by theirs.
~ Socrates
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It’s important to be aware of our own crystallizing experiences and how they affected us. I’m curious about what crystalizing experiences you’ve had, and I’m thinking beyond just moments, to books, people, videos, discussions, whatever left an impact. What stuck with you and changed the way you thought about things? This could be in any area of your life: work, learning, movement, writing, any hobby. What was the experience, and how did it change your practice?
~ Melissa Way
The Movers Mindset team has an internal project management system. (Basecamp.com in case you’re still mysteriously using something dysfunctional, like Slack, to run your team.) Each week, in a sort of loose rotation, we take turns kicking off some discussion by posting something—anything, whatever interests us when it’s our turn.
I’ve been coming back to this post from Melissa for nearly two weeks, trying to figure out where to start on a reply. Each time I start thinking, my mind wanders down a seemingly endless sequence of formative experiences; I can’t even begin to list them as they’d sound like an intolerable bragging-list. There are some unbelievable experiences ranging from, “been there,” to “done that,” and careening between, “literally cheated death,” and “hfsyesagainplease.”
Instead of trying to pick just one, tell the story, and pull out how the experience changed me, I’m going to ask, and attempt to answer, a meta question: Is life a journey of becoming, or simply a journey?
If it’s the former, then I should be paying attention for—perhaps even actively seeking—crystallizing experiences my entire life. I should be continuously repeating the process of asking myself what I should change or improve next, and then seeking out the experiences or knowledge to achieve that change. But having bashed myself on that cold anvil, incessantly seeking change and improvement, I’m now convinced that it’s the later.
Life is simply a journey.
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(Part 10 of 13 in series, Changes and Results)
Many moons ago I had frequent back problems. There were many things which provided me temporary relief, but this is not an article about temporary relief. This is an article about one of the things which actually fixed my back: Walking.
(Losing weight and fixing my feet are the other two things.)
I recall Ido Portal saying in a podcast with Daniel Vitalis, something to the effect of: Your spine is for orienting yourself in your environment. Your spine’s myriad of joints should be flexible and powerful. At that point in my journey, I wasn’t even really thinking of my spine as joints; It was simply something with an upper and lower portion, both of which were frequently in significant pain. That was the exact moment when I became convinced my spine was weak.
…and then I read _Walking Found to Provide Significant Relief from Back Pain. At the time, I was preparing for a parkour trip to Québec for an event they where having with the Yamakasi. So I was already focused on finding my weaknesses—my back!—and trying to fill them in.
…and then I read Walking, an article by Steve Kamb about walking to Mordor. Yes, that Mordor. It’s a challenge to walk 1,779 miles (but see below.) I took my exercise tracker out on a few of the common walks I like, and noted the mileage. I’ve been keeping track of the total ever since.
It’s 1,779 miles to get from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom. Then riding the eagles back to Minas Tirith cuts the return walk to Bag End down to 1625 miles. Plus 467 more miles, roundtrip to Grey Havens. Brings my total goal to 3,871 miles. This is roughly the entire length of the Nile river, or the distance from the surface to the center of the Earth. (Mid 2019 I’m a few hundred miles from Mt. Doom.)
There’s so much that can be said about walking. But rather than read more about walking, why not go for a walk?
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Perfect weather for an outside dinner, followed by exquisite in-house ice cream from Picco. Tomorrow we’ll #ardv17 but tonight we’re taking time for friends (John?! …where are you?? Drive faster!! ;)
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Our original colonists wanted freedom from English rule.? …yeup! New town names? …not so much.
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Based on what I know about software without deadlines, humans achieving immortality would be a disaster.
~ Jeff Atwood
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Next up… start learning some bio.
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There are people who build things and people who tear things down. Just remember which side you’re on.
~ Sharon Ann Lee
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Five basic principles of object-oriented design. Not the only five, but five which are, well, SOLID.
Single responsibility – A class should have only a single responsibility.
Open/closed – Open for extension; Closed to modification.
Liskov substitution – Objects can be replaced by instances of their sub-types without breakage or surprise.
Interface segregation – Many, specific interfaces – that is, APIs – are better than fewer, more general-purpose interfaces. (…or “interface” in the worst case.)
Dependency inversion – Depend upon the abstraction. (Not upon the specific concretion.)
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