Whether it’s a book series or Netflix binge, there’s a specific feeling associated with a long story coming to and end. It feels empty. For me, that feeling comes from having been part of something bigger, and then having it taken away. That’s what it is to join some characters for an adventure, and then have that sense of purpose, striving and progress disappear. It’s exactly the same feelings that pull me strongly into the content, often to the point of overconsumption....
Learning to play the guitar will not get you a better handstand. That would be the logical conclusion for anyone who doesn’t examine the case very closely, and there’s really no incentive to examine the case closely. Yet, when you examine the case closely, it turns out that stronger fingers from holding chords on the neck of the guitar are also stronger when they need to hold a handstand position, digging the fingertips into the ground to balance....
Making is acceleration. It propels. It creates progress. Making is the opposite of consuming. Making is the difference between something and nothing. Making is all we have with which to oppose destruction. Making anew is what protects from stagnation and waste. Making is what lifts the standard. Making is the that which, when the universe’s inevitable heat death approaches, lets us say “at least we made something of our time here”....
I’ve started a daily planning routine with a simple 2020 planner. One page per day. One line per half-hour from 8-21:30. So far it’s carried several tangible benefits with it. I now have a place to log my daily mobility practice, so I feel a sense of continuous achievement and a “streak” of performance over time. I’ve got a place to keep track of grease-the-groove movements, which at the moment is dedicated to pull-ups....
One of the most costly and intensive mental operations anyone performs daily is task switching. It’s as though a brain just isn’t geared for clearing its RAM to make space for a new process. Instead, it gets stuck trying to compute the new task using some ancient page file mechanism, while maintaining the previous task in the RAM. There are a few scenarios that can play out when switching. I can switch perfectly (100%), get into the new mindspace, and start work....