š¢Make It Betterš¢
š„Welcome to volume #00039!š„
IāmĀ Christian Champ. This is āÆļøThe Middle Way NewsletterĀ āÆļø. It is a place where I write, explore, share, and invite you along for the journey.
If you want to receive my readwise favorites from each week,Ā click hereĀ and enter your email.
š¢Make it Betterš¢
That is what we are all doing, right? We want to make it a better world for the people in our lives. We want to make it a better world for everyone, including those who come after we are long gone.
Last week I returned from a quick trip to LA to celebrate a mentor. My wife, brother and, I hopped on a plane during a pandemic to be there. We were in LA to celebrate Byron Reed. I met Byron in the early 2000s in Chicago at the LPAC gym. My brother, Byron, and I all view the gym as a sanctuary, making it the appropriate place for us to have met. It kicked off a long term friendship and mentorship.
Byron makes people better. He shows us what is possible through hard work, dedication, and being a good person. He helps people find and unlock their potential. Like a basketball player joining the Spurs and growing into a strong NBA player, Byron helps produce the kinetic energy.
The Los Angeles celebration brought together over twenty people whose lives Byron helped make better. The group included people whose careers, personal situations, and charities Byron helped start.
We get lucky when folks like Byron enter our lives. We get lucky when the folks that Byron helped enter our lives. When we celebrate them, we get reminded to play our part and make it better. That is why we are here.
šArticles to Readš
When Science Becomes a Belief System by Dr. Colin Champ
The latest Pazzi conspiracy has exposed this brush of the Nutrition Orthodoxy, confirming it as a belief system, as opposed to a scientific quest, inching closer to answering the question as to which is the optimal eating pattern for mankind (newsflash ā there are many and to define us all by a one size fits all approach is more a top-down ludicrous strategy than improvement). The Nutritional Orthodoxy has already claimed for us all that āthe quest for truth had been completedā and any opposition must be silenced.
As Carse reminds us, āScience at its very bestā¦calls for enlightened ignorance.ā As scientists we must know that we donāt know. But when we start to force our knowledge onto others at all costs and quiet the scientific opposition, this is no longer science. Sorting out the nutrition world would be like uniting the varying religions of the world ā or even reconciling the different factions within the same religion. Thousands of years have proved the difficulty in this task, and thousands more will confirm this. The only certainty is uncertainty
Brenda Steinberg asks Are you ready to be coached? and gives some of the key stumbling blocks to being ready.
My favorites from the piece:
Tolerance forĀ discomfort.Ā Successful coaching requires you to be proactive in embracing new ways of perceiving and acting. In doing so, you will likely experience fear or emotional blocks about new realizations and realities. You must be able to endure these periods of discomfort to realize the rewards of taking new and different approaches.
Openness to experimentation.Ā Trying something new means taking risks, and experiments with new behaviors may not work the first time. Waiting for the perfect timing or perfect performance will stand in the way of progress. If you think you already have the answers and are unwilling to explore new options, you are unlikely to be open or do the necessary reflection to change. You have to try out new ideas and actions, fail, learn, and try again.
Ability to look beyond the rational.Ā Behavior is not rational ā itās driven by emotions like fear, anger, and pride. Just because you āknowā what to do doesnāt mean that youāll act accordingly. Youāll gain a deeper understanding of your own behaviors and relationships if you explore their emotional dimensions.
šļø Listen / Watch šŗ
Former Sixers GM Sam Hinkey talks to the ESPN pod (Spotify)
Play the games where you can look in the mirror and say I'm good enough and I did well
Thinks of quality of decision making --> narrow confidence intervals and clear thinking
People in his life need to have the courage and conviction to make right decisions
If few peopleāss opinion matter a lot then most peopleās opinion wonāt matter by choice
Notice what you pay attention to.
Question every sentence. What do you want to focus on and remember.
Basayein by nature. 90per + chance he wouldnāt succeed. 3per chance. Need to get things just right for success and a long run. Want to make that 3 per chance 9 per ā as GM of the Sixers (and yeah he didnāt succeed)
Have to be ok with people laughing at you if you want to do something different
Do the little things slightly better each year and on occasion make big decisions
It's all about trade offs. Hard to predict what happens in the future. Low percentage three point shooters can become high percentage three point shooters
Best part of the journey is the amazing people you surround yourself with
We always make a bunch of mistakes. All bad decisions are on you when you are GM. We are bayesian. You don't have good odds of picking two hall famers even with the #1 picks
Most interesting part for him is trying to create interesting memories for people
Build the best team was his goal
Help young people do awesome things. Help people on their journey by putting your thumb on the scale for them
Looking to be authentic with anyone he partners with
Find the right people and partner. Be good for their career and make a difference in the universe
Find the right people to work with for a long time
Plant seeds and don't chase shiny objects
Find ambitious young people to help
Make outsized bets on people and get them in the right situations
Are they learning machines?
What learned skills and micro skills do they have
Plow all in on something when you find it
Input scorecard not output scorecard and swing hard when you find something you want tp do
What is it that you are going to regret from not doing? What are you doing to ask when you didn't do it?
Be passive to overly aggressive when the time is right
He thought he had a 1 in 5 chance at best to be an NBA GM and rat it at... got to 1 in 5 chance following the path he was on in 2003
Follow what interests you
Report and come at it with beginner's mind
Shared views where value is created is key
Compound trust with people that have a shared view
He thinks in ideas
He thought about going into coaching and mapped it out ... every 2 years and I'm moving jobs... its a murderous row and only a 1 in 10 chance to make it to the top... Didn't want to be 40 and have moved 10x. ā>This reminded me of why I didn't chase coaching, even though I wanted to be a college coach or NBA coach when I went to college. This was the same reason I only was a manager for the Wake Forest Basketball team for my freshman season (Tim Duncan's senior year).
The MetaGame with Peter Limberg at TheStoa
Anything can be a game and we want to play games --> health, wealth, career, diet, romance, masterminds, fitnessā¦ Make them games!
We can gamify mental models. Mental models we can play with -- Wilber, Tony Robbins, Aristotle (Cardinal Virtues), Zak Stein
Game unfolding --> ability to create and make a game on the spot (Mike Tyson keeping his eyes on the opponent --> wants to win the championship and the fight, BUT creates an additional game of not taking his eyes off the opponent and taking his soul). Like Jordan creating games by trying to dunk on someone
We need to play because it is fun and games make life fun. They also teach us and allow us to see the world differently.
Our culture needs serious play -- Religions letās try on views lets try to see the world from different ways and views. John Verveake -- we say play is either trivial to say not important or push into work.
Series play is when life or existence is at play. Global warming or a hellish state. Your heavenly existence is at stake.
Get your shit together (clean your room) all the way to saving the world. In the Middle --> get to minimum viable sovereignty then the daemon visits you... start listening = giving your gift aka ikigi aka dharma etc..... becomes used to solving the meta crisis.
"Becoming enjoyable usefulness" - David Chapman calls it this (in his book meaningless)
Swap goals for games --> mastermind - accountability group to follow through on goals. Can then swap games for goals.
Complex / complicated / chaotic / simple -- safe to fail probs
Look into someone's eyes and just breathe together
Don't get hijacked by the media/news -- remember all the goodness going on.
Album of the week is Akira the Don with Alan Watts
šĀ Books to Read or Listen toš
Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman (Goodreads)
I recently took SBKās Columbia class, which is launching again at the end of February, and is highly recommended. Click here to join. In the class you walk through each chapter in the book, practicing key lessons and learning with a great group of people.
SBK writes about his sailboat metaphor, which plays a key role in the book.
A dynamic sailboat is a better metaphor for life than a pyramid because the key is not which level you reach, but the harmoniousĀ integrationĀ that you have within yourself, and how that interacts with the world. You are a whole unit moving around in this world, and part of becoming a whole person requires this higher level integration of your security and growth needs.
š£Words of Wisdomš£
I read my books with diligence, and mounting skill, and gathering certainty. I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.
Spiritual Enlightenment - Jed McKenna
She looks at me like itās a trick question, but itās not; itās the first question. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Where is this going? If you know, youāll succeed. If you donāt, you wonāt. Thatās not just pretty talk, thatās the law.
Difficult Conversations - Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
Arguing inhibits our ability to learn how the other person sees the world.
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas and Robin Buss
āOnly a weak spirit sees everything from behind a dark veil. The soul makes its own horizons; your soul is overcast, and that is why the sky seems stormy to you.ā
Understanding Media - Marshall McLuhan
The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance.
šThanks for readingš
How can you make it better? Who can we help level up?
Any thoughts or comments, please share!
Namaste,
Christian
