I moved to Cayman aged 24 on my own, thousands of miles from family, friends and the familiar. It was wonderful, I threw myself into work, sports, meeting new people, learning about my new home. At the same time, sometimes it felt a little overwhelming, with one symptom of this being that my mind could never slow down. Luckily, I discovered something that helped me very much, and that was to borrow a friend’s 14 foot Hobie catamaran and take it out to sail up and down Seven Mile Beach. I then did this most weekends for a few hours for a relaxed sail.
What I had discovered is that sailing of this type is easy, but the use of both the eyes to observe and the body to do some basic motor functions (steering with one hand, trimming the sail with the other), together had the immediate impact of quieting my racing mind, bringing stillness. It was just enough to still the mind.
So what does this have to do with a post title of “Ironing, On the Edge”?
Well, I love to listen to podcasts, but I have found I can’t do this effectively while simply sitting still, either my mind gets distracted or I even may doze off. I’ve long known, then, that listening to podcasts (or audiobooks) while driving allows me to stay focussed on listening, as, once again, I am using my eyes to observe my surroundings and my hands and feet for driving. The thing is, I consciously seek to drive less and less these days as part of my own contribution to reducing carbon impact, so less chance to listen while driving. I do occasionally then listen while walking, but that is imperfect, as the action of walking is a little too automatic to have the “motor function” part of be conscious enough to quiet my mind sufficiently to give full attention to listening. Of course, cycling would work from a motor function standpoint, but not a safety one, as I want ALL of my attention on my surroundings while riding!
This then leads me to “Ironing, On the Edge”.
My latest simple discovery is that actually ironing clothes is a great way to replicate what I used to experience sailing that catamaran in Cayman (though yes, a little less wondrous, with no occasional flying fish swimming and jumping alongside me!).
I also now use ironing to listen to podcasts that are of deep conversations with thinkers, as those require the most focus from me. One of these is by a past guest on my own podcast, WhatComesNextLive, Roland Harwood, who has a terrific podcast of his own, called On the Edge. To give an example of the depth of his conversations, the most recent one I listened to, with Michael Garfield, included discussions of the following questions:
- What is the purpose of polymaths?
- Why is neuroplasticity is the best antidote to uncertainty and complexity?
- What is the nature of the technological and evolutionary transition we are in right now?
- Why would we want to live in the future versus the long now?
As you can imagine, some deep thinking in there, which I loved!
From this one, btw, the thought I am holding to muse on is that generalists thrive in more chaotic eras, hyper-specialists in more stable eras.
I look at myself as a deeply curious generalist and observe that I felt very useful to many people at the very early stages of the pandemic (having over 100 video calls with people seeking support in crisis management for their business, for example), but where things are super stable, whilst I can thrive in the working world, I find myself itching to get out and learn more.
My own sense is that generalists are wired that way to some extent. We are both deeply curious and also seek to see patterns between different areas of learning. I also imagine that these traits can also become further “wired” into us due to the phenomenon of neuro-plasticity.
Oh, and from the idea of chaotic and stable eras, I am deep into listening to the audiobook of “The Three-Body Problem“, in which the ideas of stable and chaotic eras play a pivotal role. My thanks to another past guest on WhatComesNextLive, Ben Ford, for pointing me towards this stimulating, engaging, educating and entertaining book!
Ok, sailing, ironing, podcasts, neuroplasticity, as well as the Three Body Problem. That’s enough for now, I’m off out for a walk!