Timetravel with Florence Nightingale. #AudioMo 09

Sometimes I hear something which leaves me awestruck. This is one of those…

Florence Nightingale spoke these words in 1890 and we today can listen to this old lady speak of her youth.

When I am no longer even a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore. Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

#AudioMo 08 The Unasked Question

It’s obvious isn’t? The Earth is the centre of everything!

Until in 1543 Copernicus came along and asked a question no one had thought to ask.

It takes a lot to make the obvious work, especially when it’s wrong.

Is there something in your life you have yet to ask the correct question about?

Thinking about ethics. #AudioMo 06

Do you lie?

Many years ago I read Sam Harris’s book about lying. And it got me thinking…

There are times like everyone, where I would avoid telling the truth and tell a ‘little lie’, for convenience. Why? Because, I didn’t want to deal with the consequences of telling the truth and it’s outcomes. And as I backtracked through my thought processes, I realised the motivation to lie was because my ethics weren’t in alignment with my actions.


Maybe I was claiming to be of some character trait but I wasn’t holding up to those ideals and if I was caught out I had to fudge my way around the reality by telling some porkies.

Makes you wonder what yours is? image: @nate_dumlao on unsplash

As the years have gone by I’ve had to look deeper into my ethics and what I really stand for and consider if I really feel some way. Am I living the reality of that ethic in my day to day? If I was to be asked about it, would I need to lie and if I did maybe my ethics and reality aren’t in alignment.

Over the years I’ve stopped lying. I won’t necessarily offer to tell the truth but if someone asks, I won’t lie and then we all will have to deal with how I see truth being told. In that I also am prepared in an instant to recount my statement if new information comes to light. I’m not attached at all to my opinions and can quickly change my mind.

I’ve thought through many of my ethics and know where I stand and when I’m asked about an issue not yet fully considered I will defer my response until I’ve given it due consideration.

Lazy Humans & that’s a good thing. #AudioMo 04

Yes, we’re all lazy but don’t abuse it.

And it makes sense when you come to think of it. As we evolved the one thing, the most important thing to get hold of, was calories and then using as few of them as possible when we did get them.

This inevitably leads us to gravitate to the lifestyle to maximise this reality. Eat as much calorie dense food as possible when available, lay down fat stores when there’s an excess and avoid any calorie burning activities if possible.

Welcome to the modern lifestyle.

But it’s not just physical activity. It’s also cognitive.

Black and white image of Ian thinking
Not always easy to think things through. I’m thinking through a large art project for installation in Sydney

The greatest use of calories is the mental gymnastics we perform throughout the day. So it’s only sensible to be as lazy in our thinking as possible and avoid any taxing processes to drain our reserves of calories. So we have our biases. Our default methods of decisionmaking requiring as little effort as possible. Things like confirmation bias, correlation and causation, stereotyping and racism. There are literially hundreds of these huristics to help us skip the thinking and make a quick and dirty decision. Which was fine when hunter gathering on the savanna. Things are a little more complicated now so maybe a little more complicated thinking is in order rather than defaulting to our earlier programming.

Stress for resilience #AudioMo 03

Too often it’s too easy for us to have all we need in this modern age. Maybe, not having having the convenience of food, climate control and transport would be a good thing to stress us and build a little resilience for our good health.

Riding to the shops instead of the convenience of driving.

Digital isn’t everything in the trade. #AudioMo 02

As much as we believe digital is the savour there are many aspects where we as yet still need the human touch to fix the limitations of the machines.

Screeding plaster into the groove which was incorrectly placed in the polystyrene pattern.

Hello and welcome to #Audiomo 2021

It’s the start of #audiomo a month of listening to others share and maybe contribute a little of one’s self.

Here’s my start with no promises of what’s to come.

Hello everyone. You can follow me @iankath on all the socials.