Okay, I’m still more than a little under the weather and it was a close run thing getting this out even this week so we’re heavy on links and light on commentary.
Hopefully back to normal programming next week. Surely!
Enjoy.
THE BESTOF’S
BEST IN SHOW
Not much in pop culture escapes a tarring by the South Park brush and this duo have been equal parts brilliant and brutal in their takedowns over the years — their treatment of Harry and Megan’s Worldwide Privacy Tour a recent one of countless examples.
Further, they have remained resolutely untamed in finding nothing off-limits and it’s a foolish reporter or MC who invites them anywhere near a microphone in hopes they’ll be suitably cowed by ceremony or occasion.
Alan Watts, brilliant as he was, had no shortage of character flaws that might have been explored in their standard fashion making this animation truly unique only for the utterly un-South Park reverence with which he, and his message, are treated.
Enjoy.
Meanwhile, in far grimmer news.
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. So said Mark Twain or Oscar Wilde depending on which AI you ask, but I see reports promising the progressive demise as similarly optimistic. And even if we are post-woke it’s going to take a long time to come out in the wash.
We have the same, disastrous, patterns of institutional power to activists and moral projects to bureaucrats.
And then just the most recent example of what this looks like when it makes contact with the real world because it was long before the fires that destroyed LA that the Golden State lost its Midas touch.
Scott Morrison’s callous observation that I don’t hold a hose, mate, explaining his Hawaiian holiday while much of the country burned was, if not the end of him, certainly the tipping point, but the bullshit coming out of LA in the past few weeks makes Morrison sound like Mother Theresa by comparison.
Not least, because he was right—he didn’t hold a hose.
But the powers that be who ignored repeated warnings and instead of doing their job in maintaining the necessary protective infrastructure like reservoirs, and ensuring the funding of fire services for equipment and training, the clearance of ground vegetation, and who instead pursued an agenda of social engineering including, but certainly not limited to:
And never missing an opportunity to fly a flag, wear a badge or otherwise stake a claim to every cause-célèbres in the geopolitical sphere over and above their (state or local government) remit.
Are now the same ones who now have the fucking cheek to say that it’s unseemly to ‘politicise’ a disaster. But as Warby details in the article above this exactly is how this pretence of government always plays out:
When things break, they’re just broken. It went out of service. It’s been a while. Broken things aren’t fixed, but we nailed the resolution denouncing Putin.
From at least the 1990s and likely long before then, criminal networks prostituted, raped and tortured thousands of young girls in towns and cities across the UK. And the authorities, despite being aware of what was happening, did very little to intervene.
And everywhere else this progressive light shines you will have lives, property, businesses - and everything else you are charged with or claim to protect— like environment and wildlife— ground through the gears of an ideology.
All just grist to the ideological mill.
If you’re having trouble making the connection go and watch Chernobyl
And, as a further example, of the ‘everything’ definition of totalitarianism, Tchaikovsky gets the Disney treatment. Fucking spare me.
…no one is going to see Tchaikovsky’s festive classic hoping for the latest in right-on opinion – it is meant to be a comforting spectacle for families to enjoy together, not a political lecture.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/01/10/the-new-woke-nutcracker-made-me-want-to-vote-reform/?
Statistics tell us only about one in four enjoy any measure of ‘fitness’.
I don’t know how many of the remaining 75% have either never been fit or haven’t at least tried but it must be very few, so the problem is less about getting started than it is about not stopping.
Never stopping.
If you further consider that of the one in four who are fit and that most of them will also be in a cycle of start-stop-restart then, if never stopping is the idea—and it is— we’re clearly going about it all wrong.
But always in the same old ways, and for the same old reasons.
Firstly, the latency between effort and reward that makes getting started a challenge is only mirrored when we stop and the slow but sure decline, at first, invisible, becomes obvious only when all too late and you’re back, if not physically, but certainly behaviorally, at square one.
It’s hardly a quirk of humanity that sees us take things for granted, the weird here is not that we forget how hard-won our exercise, dietary or lifestyle accomplishments are but we forget they are, and only ever will be that work.
I’ve seen it a thousand times, the ink is barely dry on a suite of new habits and we (humans) fall for the fantasy: this is just the new me now.
And it is, sure.
If you maintain these practices.
And nothing surer than it won't be if you don't.
But, no. The work is now optional. Apparently. Now it’s a genetic blessing, a natural athleticism, an innate discipline.
It’s none of the above. It’s a delusion. It’s a cycle that can only be defused by forever balancing the acknowledgement, and satisfaction, of what you have accomplished, with the recognition it didn't happen without effort—and nor will it continue without effort.
Perhaps not the same degree of effort as the behaviours become more habitual, but certainly some effort.
Forever some effort.
And one way to motivate that effort is to keep those inevitable downsides front of mind as Seth Godin describes here.
we can make decisions in the future without enough regard for how we felt the last time we were in a similar situation.
https://seths.blog/2025/01/memo-to-the-future/
If it’s rock bottom that serves as the catalyst to action— and it often is— then there is only reason to experience it once.
Just remember it. And never stop.
But there’s a flip side. Because our tendency to let the good things in life slide — our failure to grasp and then hang on to the positive is often nothing other than the failure to truly notice. We needn’t ever ‘look’ for the discomfort, the inconvenience, the sheer hassle of getting and staying fit and are only all too sensitive to the short-term negatives that never fail to materialise in our daily lives.
An evolutionary asymmetry that has us equally discounting—never seeing —the good, or, if we do, glossing over it and just thinking 'good' or 'better' or any other generalised, meaningless, impression but as detailed in the article below the intention to notice is not even close to enough.
Like telling a drowning person - just swim — it might be right, but it’s not helpful and wanting or even trying to look doesn’t mean we know how.
Sometimes it’s in disrupting our default programming and how we look at something. Or disrupting our default programming in where we look at something.
But the one thing that becomes obvious when you set about disarming the knee-jerks is that everything is a knee-jerk.
And when that’s the case, your world is very small.
Which is not to be further misconstrued— yup, that’s another knee-jerk— into believing we need to unpick and analyse everything.
No. It’s more the fact that you’re often not hearing, seeing, noticing, experiencing at all.
You’re not even remembering. You’re just on autopilot playing out a script.
high-level enjoyment, like a sport, is composed of many interlocking micro-skills that must be trained individually, but which reinforce each other.
So that’s how you can notice more. And now it’s time for practice.
Our exercise is based on an assignment that Jennifer Roberts, an art history professor at Harvard, gives to her students. She asks them to go to a museum, pick one work of art, and look at only that for three full hours.
We are not asking for hours. But will you try 10 minutes?
So keeping a painful memory alive is better than having to re-live it, and we can learn to notice helping us respond to reality— in favour of programmed reactions— but, in either case, success or failure is often determined at the outset.
You may have seen the Happiness Formula that points to the importance of managing expectations:
Happiness = Reality / Expectations
Like any ‘coaching’ skill, we’re best to learn to apply this knowledge for— and to—ourselves so we can first recognise them (expectations) as the sole variable in that equation over which we might enjoy some direct influence.
But this is not to be mistaken as an argument for pessimism, or even realism, but as in the article below from The School of Life on how to endure —more to realise the raw power that can be harnessed here for good or ill.
More specifically how a mismatch — getting it wrong— will not just take the air out of your sails but can sink you altogether.
Consider about the most anti-coaching environment you could imagine: a special forces selection. Not only is nobody coaching you, they are doing everything in their power to make you quit. But for all the tools of pain and privation at their disposal— it’s the manipulation of expectation and the false dawn, in particular, that is easily the most effective at breaking spirits.
You turn a corner on a seemingly endless (10+ hours) pack march to finally see a truck parked at the side of a dusty road.
You’ve made it. Food and warmth await. You’re told to jump in and wait a few minutes to see if anybody else has made it inside the required window. In the next few minutes, more broken bodies shuffle onboard.
And then you’re off. Homeward bound, or so you believe. But after a mere 2 minutes down the road the truck pulls over. There’s a change of plans, and you’re told to get out and march the rest of the way— the remaining half of the way.
Or you can quit and stay on the truck. And many do, unable to summon the strength to go again because this shatters will.
Others rouse themselves, jump down and painfully put their packs on while the truck disappears into the distance.
Steeling themselves for the pain to come, they stumble down the road only to find the truck parked again—for real this time— just around the first corner.
About the most painful walk you could ever do.
Only more painful if you didn’t.
It isn’t necessarily difficulty that sinks us; it’s misconceived notions of what a task should legitimately demand.
https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/how-to-endure/?
A fitness practice never ends and the way to make sure you stay started is to adopt the mindset that reflects this reality— you are not finished.
You never will be.
If you want to make positive changes in your life, never go more than a day without making that change.
https://bigthink.com/business/how-the-two-day-rule-can-make-your-daily-work-life-much-easier/?
There’s a paradox here. One who renounces immediate goals for the sake of diligent practice generally ends up reaching higher goals than one who shoots for quick results.
Seth Godin nails the course correction process of fat loss, muscle gain, strength development… whatever —of the daily practice. And it’s greatest danger.
The second question is, “how do we make it work better?”
https://seths.blog/2025/01/does-it-work/
Austin Kleon once famously observed that “people want to be the noun without doing the verb.” Here’s a question from Mark Manson that will help you cut to the chase.
It’s a mountain of a dream and a mile-high climb to the top. And what took me a long time to discover was that I didn’t like to climb much. I just liked to imagine the top.
https://markmanson.net/question
It’s often said that the solution to obesity is simple: reduce your caloric intake and increase your physical exertion. But that’s an oversimplification in today’s world. Those two imperatives are necessary but insufficient. Modern-day weight loss requires a hybrid approach that includes not just nutrition and exercise but also mindfulness, connection to nature, and even community.
https://tacfit.com/ask-coach-sonnon-addressing-obesity-holistically/
Dr Jade Teta, with a nutrition crash course, beginning with hunger:
If you want to lose fat and keep it off, you must control hunger. The goal needs to be maximal hunger suppression with minimal calories. If you know the science related to hunger and food, then you can accomplish this with ease.
https://t-nation.com/t/hunger-the-definitive-guide/283827
And then metabolism and calories.
What you do has a direct impact on whether a calorie is a calorie. You can't separate calories from lifestyle.
https://t-nation.com/t/the-hidden-story-about-calories-and-weight-loss/283770
Here’s Dr Rhonda Patrick’s recipe—and reasoning— for her Green Smoothie.
…people have asked me why I choose to drink a substantial portion of the vegetables I consume
instead of just eating them. It all boils down to a matter of expediency
Carbohydrates are an important food group and can be a useful part of your diet, but some carbs are much healthier than others.
https://www.themanual.com/fitness/best-healthy-carbs/#dt-heading-frequently-asked-questions
An echo of the ideas here — and preview to next week…
…is my wearable making me smarter about my body or dumber about my body? A lot of people are ceding control and awareness of their own physiologic state to a wearable.
https://zhealtheducation.com/blog/is-your-fitness-tracker-actually-harming-your-health/?
The general recommendation is to maintain consistent lifestyle habits and behavioral patterns that align with the circadian rhythm for better health, including timing of wake/sleep, feed/fast, and exertion/recovery, as well as light exposure, because life is full of events that will periodically disrupt the natural rhythm.
https://ericcressey.com/artificial-light-at-night-what-you-need-to-know/?
Morning mobility in just 4 minutes with GMB.
This is a minimal routine we put together specifically for people who don’t want more.
https://gmb.io/morning-mobility/?
MISCELLANEOUS
Recommendations reflect what I’ve been reading/listening to/watching/using recently but, in most instances, and especially where music is concerned, will not have been released in the past month.
MUSIC
BOOKS
TV
The Day of the Jackal
APP
CLIP
Have a great weekend.
- OLI