Friday Unwind 010
Worries about tech, football and risk
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the weekend —
If you need something to occupy your mind, here are a few things I’ve been thinking about lately:
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back (The Guardian)
The great essayist Rebecca Solnit observes some of the worst downsides to the increasing intrusion of technology in our lives.
I want to praise difficulty, not for its own sake, but because so much of what we want, we get through endeavours that are difficult. The difficulty is why doing something is rewarding; you have accomplished something, exerted effort and skill, stayed with the trouble, tested your limits, realised your intentions – or sometimes failed at all these things, and that too can be important, as can learning to survive failure.
The only question we need to ask ourselves about our work (Subtle Maneuvers)
The legendary producer Rick Rubin wrote: “We’re all artists, all creators, every one of us.” So, no matter what you do, this post from Mason Currey might give you a new perspective on your work.
Look alive out there! Better a dubious idea vivaciously executed than something that has been ever-so-dutifully thought through, all bases covered. Writing doesn’t need to cover its bases; sometimes a work’s faults and omissions are part of what makes it compelling.
Is Football Doomed? Chuck Klosterman Thinks So. (New York Times)
This review of Chuck Klosterman’s new book on football gives you a good look at how a sport can become such a big part of culture and a big business, both of which may lead to its demise.
Horse racing receded from the American imagination, he writes, because people lost their close everyday connection to horses. Something similar will happen to football. We are already losing our organic connection to it.
This is in part because fewer mothers, even in football-mad states, will want their sons to play the game due to fear of head injuries. Most young people will know the sport only from television and video games. It will become distant from lived experience.
Out of Control (The Art of Wandering)
From Michael Remedios, this is an excellent meditation on risk and the potential cost when we spend too much time and energy on what may not come to pass. It brings to mind a favorite Bible verse, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (Luke 12:25)
How much life are we sacrificing for things we have very little control over? Is there a way for us to address our worry, give it a sandbox to play in, but not let it metastasize into something that eats away at everything else we have in this moment.
Two Cents: Bill Walsh on Leadership
A good leader is always learning. The great leaders start learning young and continue until their last breath.
Champions behave like champions before they’re champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.
With gratitude,
J.S.