Something I’ve been accused of in the past. Also my favourite
Jeremy Loops song, and one that is very close to my heart for a couple of
reasons.
When we set off down a wrong course almost everything in our
nature conspires to get us to stay on that course. There are about three or
four big bad cognitive biases, plus just a desire to save face. Well, the
thinking that humans and markets are rational was debunked years ago; we’re
just busy now figuring out all the ways that we’re irrational. Marketers are
way ahead of the rest of us in figuring out how to exploit that.
I think this may be why we do tend to respect the concept of
not throwing good money after bad, not worshiping sunk costs, and the like. It’s
also why an outsider’s perspective can be uninformed certainly, but can also
point out the obvious that people on the inside of the box don’t see.
Learn from the past. Don’t worship it.
All these silly sayings: you can’t see the forest for the
trees when you’re stuck in the weeds, you can’t think outside the box, if you
reach for the stars you’re not going to come back with a hand full of mud.
Cliches. But with a strong element of truth.
I’ve always thought of myself as having more of a weakness
for hanging onto things too long than running away from things. Maybe that’s
just a matter of perspective.
Sometimes though, you run away or move away from something or
stop doing something only to realise that actually, the distance or separation
made you realise that you miss it, and that you were wrong. I just wrote that I
had nothing specific I was alluding to here, then I realised that was a
complete lie. Ha. Well anyway.
Speaking of things I hadn’t done in a while and then went
back to: one-armed dumbbell snatches. I had a strange urge yesterday to train
again in the afternoon so I went to the Virgin Active and did strict pullups
and one-armed dumbbell snatches. 32kgs both arms, first attempt. May seems like
a lifetime ago, but that damn thing was the bane of my existence for a few
weeks. I would wake up in the morning and think of the dumbbell. Nowadays I
wake up in the morning and think of something else. But I’m just as happy.
In other news, I’m sad to say but I think I’m finally
getting the hang of Twitter. I’m @gordonrink,
which is the name of the hockey rink at my high school. The original one; there
are now two. My high school was one of the early pioneers of ice hockey in the U.S.A., and Gordon Rink one
of the first indoor ice hockey arenas, and home to many happy afternoons as I developed
my love of ice hockey. This is before I discovered football.
Yeah, a good week. Another division of time between old job
and new. I’m really starting to feel much more comfortable in my skin at the
new job, which is great.
I also learned a valuable lesson this week, just as Shirfu
was using me in a lecture as an example of what not to do (it’s cool though, he
uses his family and long-time instructors as examples so you can tell how much
he likes you by how often he brings up the stupid sh*t you do). It’s actually
just the epitome of single-tasking. Focus on one thing at a time.
This is hard when you have many different things that you
like to work on. This is what I love about CrossFit; the having to be at least
proficient at a whole bunch of different stuff.
What else I love? People.
- “South Africa needs that kind of thinking.” – Nate
- “Who applies from the newspaper to be the CEO of a business? It’s ridiculous.” – Anton
- “God, I’m a slug!” – Steve
- “Are you sure you’re not sadistic?” – Ellie
- “Enlightenment can come at any time.” – Shirfu
- “My reality is the singular perception of my interpretation of past events as seen in context of a current situation.” – Roland
- “Oh, please tell me how my brain works ... at least then I'd know.” – Roland
- “You’re not just a random employee.” – Doug
- “I’d like to think there is a middle ground.” – Benni
- “Oh yeah, I guess I should have mentioned that part, huh?” – Ellie
- “And all because you liked Henk!” – Rob
- “It’s not over there at all. It’s over there.” – Jeremy
- “Well I’m very excited to hear about your …. Radical connectivity.” – Rob
- “You’re the very embodiment of enthusiastic!” – Rob
- “Particularly good, eh?” – Jeremy
- “Jeremy’s fans are crazy, yo!” – Mo
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