Hi funny people,

Hope you are having more and more feelings of spring in the air where you are. In Vancouver, we were promised a week of rain and got some sun, so I insured my motorcycle and am getting ready to get back on the road.

I find that when I come into spring, my body is so excited for sun that it is even harder to focus on moving creative projects along. My brain is like 'Squirrel!' because I am actually outside, trying to befriend squirrels.

How do you keep your jokes, writing and creative work in your head and also balance life and the urge to rush out to the sun?

Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman is often cited by folks for his 12 Favourite Problems approach to keeping different priorities top of mind.

It's what it sounds like. He had 12 different questions that were important to his work, values and personal life that he used to help filter new information that he was learning towards the goals and things that mattered to him. If you don't relate to the physics examples, this blog post shows the way a writer uses this technique.

Can you think of the most important problems that you want your brain to be focused on? Are some of these comedic or creative?

Here are my 12 Favourite Problems right now

1. How can I contribute to a comedy project to make funny social media content that engages people in processing climate grief and helps them move towards self-knowledge and climate action?
2. How to manage and balance my time between my creative work, personal life, personal care and day job?
3. How do I improve my skills at listening to my body for feedback and make space for this as a short, daily-ish routine?
4. How do I show up for the people in my life with compassion, consistency, and healthy boundaries?
5. How to consistently perform the care work of laundry, cleaning, eating healthy-ish in ways that get the job done, are ADHD-friendly and are not perfectionistic?
6. What are interesting ways to deepen the creative or comedic writing process? How do I share that with folks?
7. What can progressives learn from how the alt-right share and promote ideas online? What can we do to disrupt the alt-right?
8. What emotional processing and therapeutic tools and modalities are most effective, accessible and broadly teachable to others via social media and community organizing?
9. How can I host a comedy show in Langley that highlights a multitude of perspectives and feels accessible to attend?
10. How can I improve my cardio without investing too much additional time so that I can keep up in my Div 1 basketball league? How can I improve my core strength/manage lower back pain and carpal tunnel?
11. How do I connect to talk with people who have different political values in a way that bridges?
12. How do I joke about myself in a way that does not become self-deprecating?

These will slowly shift and turn over as I get interested in new things, but filtering things I read or listen to through these helps me sort through information more meaningfully.

Feynman also thought it was valuable to learn something, then explain it like you were talking to a child to see if you understand it fully. This exposes gaps in your understanding. Then he suggests going back and learning more if you need to.

To me, this is kind of like what comedians do in writing jokes. Think of the thing we want to say, break it down so that a diverse group of people will understand what we are saying. See where the laughs (or silences) are, and go back and tinker.

I like thinking that Feynman was just a science stand-up, tinkering with ideas until they were locked in, connected and ready for the stage.

What are your 12 Favourite Problems?

Next Workshop

We will see you tomorrow, Saturday April 15th at 10:00 AM PST, on Zoom for our informal joke writing meetup. You can come even if you don't have goals or jokes you are actively working on, you can join in and give feedback to others. Can't make this one? Next one is on April 29th, so mark your calendar.

Stay funny and see you tomorrow!

Em

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💙 Share jokes online 💙 We have a Cathartic Laughs online session this Saturday at 10am-noon PST on Zoom. Sessions run every other week.

💻 Zoom Link 💻 https://zoom.us/j/92589681139​
Meeting ID: 925 8968 1139, Dial by location: +1 778 907 2071 Canada
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aSC4fV13H

🎧 The Cathartic Laughs Podcast 🎧is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow for interviews with folks about how joking and humour helps then get through tough times.

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