Podcast reflections 1

Audiobooks are a great way to absorb information on the go and that’s the same with podcast. Normally I will listen to podcast when I am running but I want to keep my mind occupied when I am doing something routine like chores. Sometimes when I learn something interesting on the podcast I want to tell the world about it because I think they are valuable to you as well.

On Finding partners

From: Joe Rogan Experience #1905 Derek, More plates more dates

In the context of practicing martial arts, Joe mentioned about “Iron sharpens Iron” and I think that is particularly valuable when we want to be good at our craft.

When we spar, we want to spar with people that are better than ourselves so we are able to progress, see our flaws and learn from a more experienced partner. What use is there to spar with someone who is not as strong or not as nimble other than to boost our own ego into thinking that we are stronger or we are better?

There is also a good link talking about it as well.

Being a non religious person, I was unaware that the phrase has its roots in Christianity. Beyond the religious subtext, I think there are valuable principles the website points out like accountability, mutual benefit but ultimately I think this is about relationship because all of that cannot happen without a mutual understanding of each others goal. In the case of MMA its about being a better martial artist. And then comes the willingness or even the desire to want to engage with this other individual for practice, to expose one’s own weakness through practice or sparring to be better.

Partners? What about friends?

The word partner seem to be a very loaded word. It implies something beyond just the mere concept of friendship. It seems to suggest a mark of dedication, of commitment to one another for the pursuit of a common even mutual goal.

I personally find it really difficult to make friends more so when I am adult. When you are children it does not take much to find commonality, often just being in the same school, the same class, the same cca will be being common ground to be acquaintances and eventually friends. Looking back, the friendships I had when people who I met during my schooling years have very little to no common interest.

Mentors or Partners?

Partners also bears the connotation of being in the same level, of the same rank or status even. In my experience it is a lot easier to find mentors than partners with the same mindset.

This is especially so in the working environment where a mentor can be a senior colleague or simply your supervisor but it does not necessarily have to be a formal agreement between the two. Simply a relationship where the mentor guides one to develop professionally and points out resources where one can improve on is good enough.

How about dead people?

Often times it is also worthwhile to note that books are generally very good resource to fall back on if one is unable to find partners or mentors. Books are written by subject matter experts in a sense and although they cannot inspect you individually they do offer their expertise 24/7.

Furthermore books that are old does not mean they are bad. For example Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence people is a good book for anyone who wants to, well, have more friends, is written by an author in the 19th century but it does not make it a bad book. Although I would admit if the topic is on something that changes rapidly like technology it would behoove the reader to find something more recent. However even then one can still find books that are less current but still very relevant like design patterns , written almost 30 years ago, in tech time that’s about as old as you get.

Summary

Finding a partner is invaluable to one’s goals and growth but that role can be filled by a distant mentor as well if not then by a book. Learning opportunities are aplenty when you look for them.