Calm companies provide meaningful work, healthy interactions, and flexibility for people’s lives. If your kid is home sick, you can set work aside and take care of them. If it’s a beautiful day, you can go for a run on the beach.
It was only a little over a year ago (as noted in my Calm Technology post) that first heard of calm tech.
Calm technology is designed to be unobtrusive and blend in with daily life. The opposite is technology that is distracting and disruptive, creating agitation and stress.
And of course, what would one—hopefully—build using calm tech?
The idea is to post here every day to report that I did what I was supposed to do. I’ll include what I plan to do for the next day’s activity. That forces me to plan ahead a bit. That’s the magic sauce because when I fail to plan, I fail.
This is not going to be a 45-day sprint of insane challenges. The idea is to be disciplined. Each day, plan something that is appropriate for me to do.
This post also presents a gallery of the ALL images in this series of posts. The gallery is dynamic so it will automatically grow as I add more posts to this series.
I love a scenic overlook, but give me a few minutes and I’ll be sitting with my eyes closed listening to the scenic overlook. I once dove in the ocean at the edge of the continental shelf—it’s a long story—but the sense of lack of place when you gaze into the abyss is unsettling. Sitting and listening to a vast landscape is the closest I’ve ever come to that. (And without feeling like complete panic is right behind the veneer of my thoughts.)
The World Soundscape Project worked from the basis that any given soundscape (or sonic environment) is a representation of how that environment is perceived by listeners within it. Soundscapes are themselves influenced by human behaviours. As a combination of all sound within a particular location, soundscapes may therefore comprise natural sounds as well as those from social and technological sources. As these sounds change, so does the ecology of the soundscape.
Soundscapes are amazing. I’ve always been fascinated by sound, and how our aural sense is a very old sense; it is connected to a much older part of our brain. Sound is very important to our sense of being. We hear in the womb, and at twilight our hearing recedes last to gracefully ring down the final curtain.
We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing… an actor, a writer… I am a person who does things… I write, I act… and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.
We now live in a world where [our relationship with detah] is the complete opposite. We have to repress the very thought of it. We can’t see it anywhere. It’s put into hopitals where it’s sanitized, where it happens behind closed doors. Nobody ever talks about it. Nobody tells you this is probably the most important life skill that you could have—to know how to deal with that fear of mortality. Nobody teaches that. Your parents don’t talk about it. Your girlfriend or boyfriend—they don’t talk about it. Nobody. It’s a dirty little secret. But it’s the only reality we have. We’re all going to die.
Maria Montessori’s ideas about education stem from the principles of choice, individual dignity, spontaneous order, experimental discovery, and freedom of movement. They stand in radical contrast to traditional schooling, too often based on authority, central planning, rigid instruction, and force. She once described children in such schools as “butterflies stuck with pins, fixed in their places.”
This is a great introduction to Montessori, both the person and her ideas about education. Back in the Precambrian Era, my school district did a few decidedly Montessorian things. Did those make a difference for me? …were they the most important things in my primary education? Great questions for which I’ve no answer. I will say that my greatest memories—the ones that are about education, not the ones which simply happened in and around my schooling as great as those are—from primary education are from those decidedly unusual-for-that-time methods. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.
What role does curiosity play in creating engaging and authentic podcast interviews?
Following the energy in a conversation uncovers insights that even guests don’t anticipate.
One of the things that is very very true for the folks that I work with—the sensitive rebels as I call them—is they often feel isolated. They feel alone. They feel like some weirdo. There’s no one like them. And so when I have guests who have wrestled with some of the same things, who had some of the same struggles, some of the same thoughts, and I put that out there, I’m like ‘No, you’re not alone. Listen to these right here. Here’s all of this.’ It’s such an important thing for them to see.
~ Steve McCready (17:48)
The conversation focuses on the role of curiosity in podcasting and the importance of being present during interviews. Steve explains how curiosity serves as the driving force for exploring meaningful topics with guests. Instead of relying on a long list of prepared questions, the process involves following conversational “energy” and identifying interesting threads to explore further.
The discussion touches on the themes of coaching and podcasting as parallel practices. Both rely on creating space for people to share their stories and identify strengths they may not have recognized. Steve also discusses his perspective on “sensitive rebels,” individuals who often feel isolated but can connect through shared experiences highlighted in podcast conversations. The conversation emphasizes the balance between structure and spontaneity to create authentic and engaging dialogue.
Takeaways
Curiosity as a guiding principle — The process focuses on following what sparks interest or energy during a conversation.
Balancing preparation and presence — Over-preparation can distract from being present and responding intuitively to the guest.
Serving the audience and the guest — The interviews aim to inspire listeners while also highlighting the strengths and stories of the guests.
Energy as a conversational cue — Noticing and following the energy of a guest helps uncover unexpected and meaningful insights.
Coaching and podcasting as parallels — Both practices involve identifying possibilities, connecting dots, and helping people see strengths they may have missed.
The role of isolation and connection — Sensitive individuals often feel alone, and the podcast provides a platform to illustrate shared struggles and connections.
No matter what we think of each other, maybe it isn’t at all important that I follow you, or that you follow me. We are both elsewhere, in more complete forms. Let’s find each other there.
Having recently completed the last step of a complete exodus from my personal participation in social networks, I can now say: I have no idea wether I’m interacting more or less with other humans, and I do not care. I’m less stressed and I don’t miss it. I feel so much better just never going to those spaces.
But, wow did I used to spend time there.
It’s almost as if the multi-billion-dollar companies know so much about manipulating human behavior that I was literally unable derive benefit. It’s almost as if I was simply a battery plugged into their matrix.
We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology, and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear recipe for disaster.
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
