excellence, actually How to Get Out of Your Head and Into the Zone
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Jan 29, 2026 A lively dive into how elite performers move from thinking to feeling while they perform. The hosts unpack situated cognition and the idea of a positive felt sense. They compare musicians, surgeons, climbers, and mathematicians and outline the four phases of competence. Practical tactics for building intuition, managing control versus play, and practicing your way into flow are highlighted.
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Honnold Climbs By Feeling
- Alex Honnold says thinking on a climb is a bad sign; he 'feels his way forward' instead.
- Commentators like Emily Harrington repeatedly referenced 'feel' during the Taipei 101 broadcast.
Use The Four Phases Of Competence
- Use the four phases of competence to know what practice you need: unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence.
- Move deliberately between phases to refine skill and regain conscious competence when needed.
Practice Builds Intuition
- Practice, not passive learning, builds the bodily intuition needed for situated cognition.
- Get off YouTube and do the work that develops skill and feeling in your craft.
