Practice Session #9

Thanks for checking out my show notes! I’ll be utilizing this to clarify and elaborate on points that I didn’t convey as well as I would’ve liked to. I’ll also provide links to further information and resources.

Please note that I try to publish episodes on the day of recording (Sundays). However, I may not get to publishing the transcript and show notes until later. I will generally have the transcript and initial notes published on the day after recording (Mondays). From there, I may continue adding and modifying the show notes throughout the week.

I’ll be interspersing all my notes with the transcription from the audio, which will be displayed like this:

Intro.

[00:00]

CK: Okay. Okay. Here we go.

Heyo! I’m CK and you’re listening to Practice. I’m your functional systems integrator, and this is my podcast where practice is not just the theme of the show, but also the whole purpose behind it. I’m using this platform to practice podcasting and practice speaking in general, while espousing half-thoughts and providing unsolicited advice. So every week I’ll be talking about my experience with this process along with various lifestyle practices, as well as theories and ideas behind the virtue of practice itself.

Make sure to check out the detailed show notes for this episode where I’ll follow up on all the things I could’ve done better. You can find that and more info about this whole project at ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice.

And as always, I am fortunate to be here with my practice partner and partner in life: Pam.

Pam: Hello!

CK: And today is Sunday, April 26th, 2020. We’re coming at you from sunny SoCal, and it’s been pretty worn this week out here, huh?

Pam: It’s been hot!

CK: Yeah. Today it’s like hitting 85?

Pam: We hit 93 a couple of days ago.

CK: Yeah, so it’s nicer than last week when it was cloudy. It’s getting to be our summer. It feels like vacation.

And it’s been quite a productive week for me on the… productive front.

Pam: On the producing front.

CK: I was going to say on the podcast front, but I’ve been productive across a whole bunch of different projects. So let’s get right into it.

The latest on my podcasting practice.

[02:00]

CK: We’ll start with our podcasting segment, and this is the segment where I talk about my process- my process- my- my progress… with this practice.

Pam: All of those things.

CK: Yeah. I’m still practicing talking so…

This is the segment where I talk about my progress with this practice of podcasting. That’s almost a tongue twister there.

Pam: It is.

The podcast directory submission process.

[02:22]

CK: So actually, something that I forgot to mention last week was the process of getting Practice published in the podcast directories.

So I think I talked about a couple of weeks ago: the hosting for the podcast. And I’m using Castos for hosting, which integrates really well with WordPress, my favorite content marketing content management system, CMS.

And the directory submission process is separate from hosting. So once you get your podcast hosted, this is where your audio file lives basically (with the hosting). And the directories pull the audio from the hosting.

So like Apple and Spotify, they don’t own or host your audio. They just pull it from wherever you’re hosting it. And then the directories allow you to search for various podcasts and are there to play your podcasts. So of course you need to show up in Apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever directory that people are using in order for them to find your podcasts

And I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the submission process was easier than I thought. It was basically just adding your RSS feed, which is the feed that pulls up your podcasts, your episodes. And all you have to do is submit that URL.

Some directories you have to register for an account. But once you do that and enter your RSS feed URL, and that’s pretty much it. But the thing is that some of them take longer than others to approve your feed. And so that’s something that I wasn’t prepared for. So, you know, I’ve been talking about sharing this podcast on social media and stuff like that, but I had to wait for it to appear in the directories first.

So some of them actually took about a week and others took like a day or two. So it varies across the board. And I’ll include some notes, maybe in the show notes, but for sure in the agile podcasting guide that I’ll be producing on in terms of directory submission and timing and stuff like that.

So one good tip that one of our consultants, I guess, gave us for podcasting and publishing is to publish a trailer for your podcast. And that way, you’ll have your podcast showing up in the directories before you publish your first episode.

Pam: So you can do that trailer so that you can submit it everywhere and then you continue working and when you’re ready to have your first episode out, you don’t have this delay. You can just hit publish and the first episode shows up everywhere.

CK: Right, exactly.

So that’s something that is good to know.

What you should know when naming your podcast.

[05:59]

CK: And moving on the- Oh, actually not moving on yet.

In terms of the directories: So I originally was just going to call this podcast Practice, and I mean, that’s still the official title, but once I submitted it to the directories and I started trying to find Practice, I quickly discovered that there are many podcasts with the word “practice” in it.

So it was difficult to find mine if I could find it at all. And I think it being brand new. There’s not much cachet or data behind my feed yet, so I’m not sure what all goes into the algorithms that the podcast directories use. It looks pretty basic compared to, like, something like Google search.

But yeah, they all seem to have different formulas that they use to show you results from your podcast searches. So different directories. I found that, you know, sometimes if I just search for practice, my- this Practice podcast will come up, and sometimes I’ll have to search for Practice and Forces of Equal, which is what our podcast is under – our brand: Forces of Equal.

And so I decided to make the title of Practice with CK for the podcast directories so that it’s a little more specific and easier to find. And I did that like the day after I submitted. So I think I showed up in one of the directories. I think it was actually Stitcher. I showed up really quick and I saw that it was difficult to find just Practice. So I quickly changed it up to Practice with CK and it’s- it’s much easier to find now.

And so all you have to do is type in practice with CK in whatever podcast player you’re listening to. And it should show up. And actually some of them… Spotify is really slow at updating their feeds. So I don’t know if it’s because mine is new or just they’re behind, but Spotify seems really slow.

I don’t think last week’s episode has even showed up in Spotify yet. So that’s- and that’s been a week. I published that on Monday, so I’m not sure what’s going on there…

Pam: So that’s something to keep in mind. If you’re starting a podcast and you have a name in mind. Think about how people will find it, if it will be easy for them to search and find you. And also just go search yourself and see if there’s already a podcast named that or if there’s ones that are really similar.

You may not want to follow my lead here on the unmarketing front.

[08:19]

CK: Right, exactly. And on that front, in terms of like marketing podcasts or having, you know, trying to attract an audience or whatever, I may not be the best example. Like this Practice podcast may not be the best example for that because I’m not necessarily so tied to gaining a huge audience. This is more about the practice and hopefully I can help provide an example for people who want to do something similar or, you know, just dive into something.

So, you know, my motivation for this isn’t necessarily to gain a huge audience. It’s more to practice speaking and practice podcasting for other podcasts that I do want to gain an audience for. So yeah, this Practice podcast specifically is maybe a little different from what you know, others’ goals, may be. So, yeah, just keep that in mind when I’m talking about all this stuff about podcasting and agile podcasting.

Speaking of goals and motivations…

[09:29]

CK: So now moving on…

Pam: Speaking of goals…

CK: Yeah, exactly. So the goals I had from last week, were to release this episode by Monday, the next day, which I did. And actually I almost released it the day of that we did the session

So I wasn’t really planning on it, but I just ended up getting back on the computer and- Oh, I remember now, I kind of got bored with a research paper that I was reading and got distracted with this project and just started doing it. And so I could have published the episode that same day if I had planned to.

I ended up kind of getting to other things and running out of time, but I didn’t publish it on Wednesday- I did publish it on Wednesday- er…

Pam: You published it on Monday.

CK: Yeah. Sorry,

Pam: so.

CK: I don’t know where Wednesday came from. (Well, I’ve been messing around with my schedule over the past week.)

Pam: So you’ve streamlined the process enough that you can turn these episodes around within the same day, if not by the next day.

CK: Right, exactly. So I think this week I’m going to try to publish the episode today, after this session. See how that goes with that intention.

So another goal that I had from last week was to get more involved with social media, and I did that. It’s still slow and it’s still a slow and incremental process, but I’m making progress, and I think I shared across all platforms that I’m on.

So I shared on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram.

I think I shared on Instagram, I don’t remember.

Pam: I didn’t see it.

CK: Maybe not. (Looks like I didn’t. Doh!)

Pam: I have a related goal about your social media for myself, which is that, um, I’m trying not to tell you, “Hey, you need to look at Twitter” or “so and so replied to you,” because then it becomes my responsibility, or I feel like it’s my responsibility to get you on there, whereas it needs to be your- your habit and your thing.

And so that- that was a goal for me last week is to not tell you about things that were going on on your social media.

CK: That’s interesting, but I’m glad you’re excited to tell me about things that are going on…

Pam: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

CK: But yeah, it’s still a slow progress- progressing slowly, but I’m sharing more and more. And it’s getting easier to share now that I’m doing more, and I’m getting some feedback from it, which is great. And the feedback has been great and…

Yeah. So it’s exciting that I’m reaching people and people are interested. And you know, I just want to say that this isn’t for everybody. And I understand that. And you know, I don’t know how interested I would be in this if someone else was doing it.

But yeah, I- it’s, the motivation is not you know how many people are going to be interested. It’s to find the people that are interested. And you know, again, we were talking about push versus pull identity a couple of weeks ago, and this is more about me putting myself out there and trying to pull in likeminded people or people who have some kind of related interest in what I’m doing here.

So yeah, we’re just still going along with that, and I’m comfortable with that, and we’ll see where that takes us.

So I think that’s all I had for- Oh, actually… Okay so, goals were to release the episode by Monday. New goal is to release it today- by today, end of today. And I was also trying to get more into social media and I’m still gonna continue to do that.

And so the third goal from last week was to tighten up the website. And that’s just been going great. Like I’ve been working on a lot of website building this past week. And you know, the- this agile process has been a total revolution for me because, like, I can’t believe I got this website up and it’s, I mean, I’ve been trying to put out a minimum viable product, but this thing’s almost fully hashed out.

Like it was minimum viable maybe a week or two ago. And now it’s pretty much complete. Like, I can’t believe I got this all out within two months basically. And there’s so much content that’s coming out of this- are- out of these sessions of recording. And yeah, if you guys haven’t checked out the show notes yet, or the website yet, go check them out ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice and this like…

Pam: The show notes are actually my favorite part, so I encourage people to look through them and see CK’s commentary.

CK: Yeah. And I think that’s another thing, like this session where we’re recording is just more or less a conduit for additional content. So, you know, I provide links to science and other things that I talk about within the show notes. And I provide clarification, some self-psychoanalysis and, you know, elaboration on some processes.

So, yeah. And I’m hoping to produce more and more content around that kind of stuff. So yeah, this audio recording that you’re listening to is just like one piece of this puzzle. So yeah, check out the website, let me know what you think.

And so now I think my goals for this coming week are just to kind of keep things going as they are. Uh, something new would be trying to release the episode on the same day. But other than that, you know, I just want to keep progressing with social media and maybe tweak a little bit here and there with the website, uh, try to figure out a little bit more with the content strategy, but pretty much just kind of go on cruise control for the next week and work on other projects that kind of spurred on from this one.

So yeah, that’s the plan for now.

Freetalking tangent salad based on Spectral Potentiality.

[16:12]

CK: So now as we move on, we’re going to the freetalking segment. And this is a segment where I practice speaking by making tangent salads about the half-thoughts currently occupying my mind.

And if you’re new to tangent salads, these are basically just free thoughts that start with a topic, and I start going down a rabbit hole, and I may go on a tangent and start going down different rabbit holes and eventually just go on a whole bunch of different tangents. Hopefully sticking to the main topic or circling back somehow…

Pam: That’s my job.

CK: Yeah. But who knows where this is going to go.

So I’m a little nervous about today and I want to try to keep it concise. Like I was thinking, you know, we’ll just let things go, let it fly and see where it takes us. But I kind of want to try to keep this concise, hopefully do it within 10 minutes.

Oh man, my voice is going already. Uh, take a sip of something there. So I’m drinking coffee during the session.

🙄 Stalling a bit here. I was considering starting out on a tangent of my supplement regimen, but that would’ve taken us waaay off course.

Introducing Spectral Potentiality.

[17:27]

CK: So yeah, let’s just get started.

Pam: let’s do it.

CK: So I think I want to talk about spectral potentiality.

Pam: Okay.

CK: So we’ve talked about this before, kind of bounced- I’ve tried to bounce different ideas off of you, so you may recognize some of these ideas, but this basically goes hand in hand with my concept of functional systems integration, and it’s basically the foundation of my entire thought process.

So, first of all, let me explain what it is. And if you guys want more info, I have all this on my personal website at CKdisco.com/FSI  – for functional systems integration. And so on that page, I have what I call the key principle, and that’s spectral potentiality. And that’s basically the notion that in any instance, there’s a spectrum of possibilities.

So as humans, it’s in our nature to create boundaries around different concepts or observations or phenomena in our lives. And we do this in our heads, but in reality, this stuff is actually indefinite or infinite. So as humans, you know, we try to match patterns and create relations, you know, relationships with different things to basically put them in categories

And where this mode of reasoning reduces things to a set of options or, you know, like a fixed set of options, spectral potentiality postulates an unrestricted prospect of explanations, so…

Pam: So let me ask a question real quick there about, um, why we do that pattern matching. Um, is it- does it like make life easier cause we’re not constantly having to like look at something and go “that thing is a lamp,” “that thing is a car.” Like it- we’ve found the patterns and so we don’t have to spend all that energy thinking.

CK: Right.

Pam: About the patterns that make sense.

CK: Exactly. So, like, our brains go through tons of processes, you know, every millisecond, every nanosecond. We’re just processing a whole bunch of information. And so if we were to do that for everything. Eh, you know, we wouldn’t be able to do anything. It w- we’d just be thinking and trying to figure stuff out all the time.

And so developing a method of pattern recognition around certain objects, you know, you can relate things to other things that you’ve seen before or you’ve experienced or interpreted before somehow. And, you know, just continue that relation in order to alleviate your brain from working so much all the time, you know, with every new thing that it sees.

And so, you know, while that’s all great and helps us think more efficiently. It’s not necessarily letting us think more… what’s the word? Critically.

So, for example, like, you know, when you’re analyzing a circumstance, things get- tend to get boiled down to like a binary conclusion. You know, whether it’s yes or no, good or bad, black or white… people think things are one way or the other, you know, but…

Pam: They’re having it again, so they think it’s gonna turn out the exact same way.

CK: Right. Or it could turn out that way… or not that way. Like, but there’s a whole bunch of stuff in between, or there’s a whole bunch of stuff that may be on more extreme or those experiences. So a perspective of spectral potentiality requires, like, flexibility of your mind or mental agility to consider, not just the maybes, the indifferents, and the gray areas, but the whole continuum between the extremes and maybe even pushing those boundaries of the extremes and going beyond the limits of our current understanding.

So it’s just this perspective of possibility, you know, there’s all these different possibilities. And it’s maintaining that mindset at the same time while you’re, you know, thinking of these binary options.

So, yeah, this is kind of a- Oh man, this is why I was nervous. So, yeah, this is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, for the past couple of years, and now I’m starting to connect like a lot of different things to this concept, and I’m making like cross-associations with quantum theory and even just classical physics and thermodynamics and stuff like that.

And, oh man, I’m not sure if I’m ready to get into it right now, but I’m going to try. I’m going to try- We’ll try a little bit.

Pam: Let’s go on an adventure.

CK: Yeah, so… Oh man…

🤯 Man oh man oh man! This was so nervewrecking. BUT, at the same time, it was actually thrilling for me to start getting this idea out of my head and into the ether!

[23:36]

CK: So basically I’ve been- I got a whiteboard a couple of months ago and I’ve been filling it with the connections that I’ve been making with this idea of spectral potentiality.

And I’ve been going on this association right now with form versus function as well as spacetime. So the fourth dimension of time I’ve been working on that a lot with these ideas and… Ughhh… so…

Okay. Okay. I’m just going to say it.

Pam: Do it.

CK: So there’s a dimensional thought process that I think would be beneficial if people took. And this kind of expands concepts along the spectrum of Daniel Kahneman‘s system one and system two cognition.

So Daniel Kahneman is basically one of the fathers of behavioral economics. And he labeled system one processes as like our innate, primitive, ancestral thought processes. Like our reactive process. So this is like our primitive brain, like the brainstem, amygdala, you know, reactive, immediate reaction, like fight or flight type processes.

Pam:Survival.

CK: Right, exactly. And then system two processes are more prefrontal cortex, which is like the evolved part of your brain that is used for executive thinking, critical thinking, you know, reasoning.

So, there’s that concept, and that’s like one dimension of spectral potentiality, which is system one to system two. So it’s kind of like an active system where you’re recruiting your executive function and thinking through things versus the passive process, which is more your primitive brain function and you’re reacting to things.

So I’m not exactly sure if I’m using the right language or if this is totally accurate, but I’m relating active processes to executive function, like the reasoning, and passive processes to the reactive, like you know, the immediate reaction processes.

And then, I don’t know if this is the same spectrum or a different vector, but I’m really attracted to that push versus pull identity concept. And the push where you push yourself out there and try to kind of force yourself in front of people, I’m thinking is kind of like active process.

But then again, I dunno if that relates as much as system one or system two. So yeah, it might be different dimensions. So yeah, I need to think this out a little more, and this is hard to explain through speech.

I think it would be a lot more useful to be able to draw some of this stuff out, because I’m thinking in more than two dimensions.

Pam: Maybe you could draw it and put it on Instagram.

CK: Yeah, maybe. But yeah, I’m still, I mean, I still have drawings on my whiteboard that are still confusing me too. But, yeah, I think- I don’t know.

This is really dense, heavy stuff, and I think that’s all I have for now. But did any of that even make sense or is there like any concepts or ideas like kind of like popped out for you there?

Pam: Um, well you, you kind of lost me a little bit when you got into system one and two, but I do really like the idea of, um, like consciously being present in what you are deciding and how you’re reacting and understanding that it’s not one thing or the other in all circumstances. That you can look at the entire spectrum of what could be. And that you don’t have to do A or B, or you don’t have to choose A to sacrifice B. Like the- that there are so many more possibilities that you’re, like, you don’t even know because you can’t know.

CK: Right.

Pam: You don’t know what you don’t know.

CK: Yeah, exactly. And that goes- I mean, we could- I could go dive further into that and talk about like, uncertainty, how that relates to coherent superposition in terms of quantum theory. And you know, we can even go into particle versus wave duality and how that affects the spectrum. So I’m going to leave that for a future session

But yeah, these are the ideas that are, you know, bouncing around in my head that I’m trying to connect and I’m connecting it more and more lately. And this is kind of feeding my philosophy on coaching. So as I hash this out and work on, like, the framework, hopefully things will start becoming more clear. And if there’s any listeners out there that could make sense of any of this or want to point me to a certain direction, then yeah, please feel free because I am way too much in my own head with this stuff, and I would love to get some feedback or help or, you know, additional ideas from someone or from the outside.

Pam: Yeah, somebody please jump in and take the pressure off of me.

😅 Whew! I made it out alive!

It was obviously very difficult for me to articulate my thoughts, but not nearly as difficult as I imagine it would’ve been if I tried tackling spectral potentiality in the first episode.

It’s just incredible how this process of voicing my thoughts, or trying to, has propelled me to keep sharing more and more, and feel more and more comfortable in doing so.

Not only that, I feel like my cognition has revved up, and I’ve been making connections across various methodologies and strategies with this additional processing capability much faster and more efficiently.

Practicing the practice, and other practices.

[30:20]

CK: Okay. So yeah, I think that’s all I have for freetalking this session.

So let’s move on to practicing. And this is a segment where I suppose the virtues of practice and provide unsolicited advice.

So last week I. Put out the challenge of taking stock of your current schedules and seeing if you found patterns in your daily routines. Since you know, we’re in a different time now where people are staying at home, working from home, and routines might be kind of shaken up a little bit.

So if you’ve kind of taken note of how things have been going for you over the past couple of weeks. then… And if you haven’t, you know, you can think about that now, or you can consider that and try to work on what can come out of that.

[But basically what you want to do is find patterns, see when things are beneficial for you. See where things are kind of stuck or sticking for you and you know, you can consider how to change things up.

I mean, I know I’m being kind of generic with all this, and that’s the thing, like everybody’s different. So you kind of have to be mindful of that and figure out for yourself what’s going to work.

But I would recommend setting your schedule or creating your schedule around an anchor point. And that anchor point should be something that’s fundamental to you, that you know that’s not negotiable, that you know you have to do every day, or something that’s- that you’re going to do that’s gonna make the whole day function better.

And personally, I think for everybody, this anchor point should be the sleep-wake cycle. We, you know, humans run on a rhythm. I mean, the whole world runs on rhythms. Anything alive runs on rhythms, basically.

That’s probably like a first principle of life: is energy and rhythms. And so if you’re in sync with your rhythms and in sync with rhythms outside of you, then everything will function better.

You know? It’s like, let’s say- let’s use music, for example. You know, if you’re in a symphony and there’s a conductor, the conductor is basically- could be a metaphor for the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is basically your master clock in your body.

So I believe the SCN, the super- suprachiasmatic nucleus is located in your brain, kind of like behind your eyes. And so the light is a big- they call it a zeitgeber – it’s German for time giver. It’s a big- light is a main cue for your circadian rhythm.

So obviously…

Pam: Time giver. I like that.

CK: Yeah, zeitgeber. Zeitgeber. (I took German in high school. 😜)

So obviously, you know, humans are tuned to be awake during the day when it’s light out and to sleep and rest and recover during the night when it’s dark out. I mean, it’s kind of practical, you know, it’s obvious.

And so, you know, if you can sync your rhythms with the light cycle, so sink your sleep-wake cycle with the light-dark cycle, then you know, it sinks up your body’s inner clocks with the earth clocks and it allows you to function the most efficiently.

So, you know, when the conductor- when you’re in a symphony and you’re watching the conductor and everything syncs up, you know, the music sounds great. But, you know, if you’re not following the conductor and someone’s off a beat or- and then you know, someone else gets off a beat, it’s just a whole mess of noise.

So, you know, if you can sync your body’s clocks to the conductor or the SCN and sync it to your external forces, the Earth’s light-dark cycle. Then, you know, your body will be in symphony with itself and with the environment. So this just allows you to sleep better, it allows you to function better, it allows your brain to work better.

Pam: Digestion is better.

CK: Digestion’s better, you know, digestion’s on a clock.

And so, you know, if you can anchor your schedule to the sleep-wake cycle, and ideally you want to sleep and wake up, you know, you want to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day or close to the same time, even on weekends. And if you can line up the cycle, then yeah, like I said, everything’s more efficient. Everything’s in sync, in symphony, per se.

So, yeah, I think that’s the challenge for this coming week that I want to put out there is to figure out your sleep-wake cycle. And I understand that, you know, not everybody can line it up with the light- light-dark cycle. But if you can figure out like a consistent schedule, then that’ll help you be in more sync. you know, with all your own organ systems and the systems outside of you as well.

So I think that’s what I have for practicing.

Pam: All right.

Outro.

[36:39]

CK: So I think that’s all for now.

Pam: Great.

CK: Just rolled right- right through. Hit all the segments.

So yeah, I guess we’ll save more on spectral potentiality for next week. I almost even forgot the name of it myself, and I made it up.

So thanks for joining me on this adventure of positive reflection, agile podcasting, and functional lifestyle optimization.

Pam, where can people hit you up?

Pam: You can find me on Twitter @Pamela_Lund.

CK: And you can hit me up on Twitter @cKdisco. And again, make sure to check out the detailed show notes for this episode ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice let me know what you think of the website and if you have any feedback or suggestions or…

Pam: Or if you want to talk to CK about spectral potentiality.

CK: Yeah, uh yeah… Hit me up on Twitter. Let’s make spectral potentiality a trending topic. How awesome would that be?

All right. Well, so that’s all for now. I hope that you guys come back next week and keep on practicing.

Too-da-loo! ✌️

😲 I feel like I didn’t want this to end! I’m having more and more fun talking every week with this practice! Let’s keep on progressing!