The Experience Curator is a periodic series giving you the most fascinating, exceptional, or fun moments from 5,000 BCE through today. From online content to offline stories to tantalizing tidbits, there’s plenty here to resonate with anyone (including you).
This edition features debunking a few million calorie myths, what it means to live intentionally, and who gets to claim authority over our culture and experiences. Oh … and a toddler-related resource that might make you pee your pants (with laughter).
Grab a beverage, remove your distractions, and let’s explore a combination of topics and mediums that I’ve found valuable … and I believe you’ll dig, too.
Your Wonderful World of Experience Curating
Before You Dig in
There have been some cool developments since the last Experience Curator edition.
For one, Brooke McAlary launched The Slow Home Podcast and it's fan-tas-tic. Whether or not you start with the interview she did with me, the show – and Brooke's Slow Your Home website – are well worth adding to your subscriptions.
Actually, Brooke may come all the way from Sydney, Australia for SimpleREV 2015 on October 2-3 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can see the evolving workshop leaders, REV Talkers, and key participants and decide if you'd like to join 100 simple living enthusiasts at our intimate community event.
Word Up (Text)
What would you say if I told you that there's no such thing as a “calorie,” at least according to your body?
Would you feel liberated? Would you call the Common Sense Police on me? Let's challenge the calorie dogma together and then you can let us know in the comments how you feel after reading J. Stanton's article.
The World of Simple
There are many reasons why Zen Habits is one of the most popular and respected blogs ever. But much of it has to do with Leo Babauta's mindset of an intentional life.
He explains what it means to have an intentional life and it has life-changing potential.
What if you were very aware of your intention for your actions? How would that transform the action, and your life?
What if you washed the dishes, but first said you are doing this as a service to your family, to make them happy, and as a form of meditation for yourself, to practice mindfulness? Doing the dishes would suddenly take on much more importance, and would cease to be boring. What if driving to work was done after mentally declaring an intention to help others at work, to make people happy, to find satisfaction through work? The drive might be much happier, and you might be less likely to get irate when someone inevitably cuts you off in traffic.
The only difference is intention. This is the Intentional Life.
What’s New (and Old) in Curating
Who gets to claim authority over our culture and experiences: humans … or increasingly trusted (but unknown) algorithms?
That's the central question Susan Cairns and Danny Birchall answer in an article titled Curating the Digital World: Past Preconceptions, Present Problems, Possible Futures. They come at it from a museum curator's perspective, but you'll easily infer the implications for how you live your life.
Just for Kicks
Don't read How To Put A Toddler To Bed in 100 Easy Steps unless you've had a toddler in your home. But if you have had those crazy critters running around before, prepare to laugh so hard that you'll cry.
It's around step 34 that I completely lose it. Every. Single. Time.
And, after taking short “I'm laughing too hard to continue” breaks, I lose it at least a couple more times before wiping the tears from my eyes and having my current toddler, Clark, look at me as if to say, “The joke's about to be on you, papa.”
Quote Notes
One quote seems especially relevant after my two year, super unsexy quest to get Experience Curating into print and audio formats. It comes from an Attendee Story at World Domination Summit 2012 and it's the kind of thing I'd like to say on the big stage soon.
Big sexy dreams are only accomplished one tiny, unsexy step at a time. – Nicole Antoinette
The Simple Time Capsule
Here’s a snapshot of the good, bad, and groovy from me over the months and years:
- November 2014: How Simple and Primal Living “Grok” a Ton with Mark Sisson – SASM 060: I got to interview one of my all-time biggest heroes, Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple, and people routinely tell me this is a top Smart and Simple Matters episode. You'll dig it too if you're Primal, Paleo, or “ancestral health curious.”
- April 2014: Wake Up. Fill Up. Come Home. Be Simple. (Video): Those eight words have been our unofficial SimpleREV tagline from the beginning. And although the video features me with an awkward head placement and occasional darting eyes (I was totally reading from a script), it lays the philosophical foundation of why SimpleREV helps people at various stages of their simple living journey.
Announcements
Well, you already know that SimpleREV 2015 event tickets are available.
So I'll just remind you that it's two months until World Domination Summit 2015 begins in Portland, OR. Can I wait for a third straight year of pure WDS awesomeness?
No. No I cannot.
Maybe I'll catch you around town to connect about all sorts of grooviness … perhaps even how cool it is to have Experience Curating in print and audio?
Can I get a “woot woot!” for WDS, Experience Curating, or just because it's fun to say it?
So what about you? What intriguing experiences – ancient to brand spankin' new – have you curated that I or others should see? Please share in the comments!
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Photo credit: Alan English