In this week's P.O. Box:
Hibernation mode
Content roundup
Book Club: A new selection
This was a slow week for me as far as content goes.
I’ve been taking some time off from shows and just forcing myself to spend time thinking.
I’d be lying if I said I don’t get a bit antsy during down times like this—I enjoy doing stuff and feeling productive—but I also think it’s very important to hit pause every now and then, zoom out, and take stock.
There’s a quote I heard from Sam Altman that I really like that basically said that you should have a very high bar for doing anything but thinking about what to work on.
Of course, that statement feels a little silly when applied to the stuff I work on or call work, but it still rings true.
I know for me it’s easy to get rolling on the hamster wheel and never step off. You feel productive because you are moving, but it also makes it impossible to know if what you are doing on that wheel is the best possible way (or even most enjoyable way) to spend your time.
So with that nugget in mind, I’ve been going on walks, thinking, sketching out how I want my schedule to look this offseason, deciding what things I want to do differently and what things I want to double down on, and cooking up some new things to work on.
I’ll be back with more updates soon.
Other content notes:
We played a few different games on the Swolecast this week and attempted to prepare for the Combine.
ADP Chasing did indeed chase some ADPs this week but the title of the video should give you an idea of how the show actually went:
After Dark is back tonight with special guest Alec (aka FantasyGrinder)—a dude who absolutely dominated Underdog in 2025 (BR win, Dawg Bowl qualifier, and $250k in The Gauntlet).
Opportunities:
Want to write for Fantasy Life? Via our senior editor: “I'm looking to add a handful of highly motivated, SEO-experienced Fantasy Football/Sports Betting content writers to our team. Interested or know someone who's a fit?” Link to apply here.
Join the Underdog Ambassador Program. Site credits available. Details here.
🧱 Book #2 for February (STARTING): Lincoln At The Bardo by George Saunders
I’ve heard good things about this book in a few different places and it was available at my library, so let’s do it…
The year is 1862. President Lincoln, already tormented by the knowledge that he’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of young men on the battlefields of the Civil War, loses his beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, to typhoid. The plot begins after Willie is laid to rest in a cemetery near the White House, where, invisible to the living, ghosts linger, unwilling to relinquish this world for the next. Their bantering conversation, much of it concerned with earthly -- and earthy – pleasures, counterbalances Lincoln’s abject sorrow.
🧱 Book #1 for January (COMPLETED): The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami.
I guess I’m not as big a Murakami head as I thought because I didn’t realize until the Afterword that this book was an expansion of a novella he had started in 1980 and then picked back up 40 years later during COVID.
It makes sense, then, that I thought the beginning was a little disjointed…since he was literally tying together two different stories.
I really liked his note in the Afterword about writers that he attributed to Jorge Luis Borges:
There are basically a limited number of stories one writer can seriously relate in his lifetime. All we do—I think it’s fair to say—is take that limited palette of motifs, change the approach and methods as we go, and rewrite them in all sorts of ways.
I think there’s always a temptation to re-invent the wheel, but this is definitely a strong case for playing the hits. And no one plays the hits better than Murakami.
Got a question for me? Reply to this e-mail and I’ll get back to you…