Tis The Season

In this week's P.O. Box:

It’s always interesting to hear stories about how high performers keep themselves engaged after reaching the top of the mountain.

Earlier this week I was listening to the legendary climber Alex Honnold on The Finding Mastery podcast. It’s been 8 years since his historic free solo climb of El Capitan (I remember first reading that story in my old office cubicle, mouth agape) and now he’s in a completely different stage of his life with a wife and kids.

Yes, the host asks him about consequences/risks with regards to climbing and having a family, but it was most interesting to hear him grapple with how the public has defined his entire life by that one climb and how it has been difficult for him to recreate that magic:

There are some parallels to chef Carmy on The Bear (yes, this season isn’t as good, stick with me)—another top performer who previously worked at the best restaurant in the world and now is chasing that dragon on a smaller scale.

His restaurant partner Sydney—as well as the entire restaurant staff—is fed up with him constantly changing the menu. In his head, doing this prevents complacency and helps push him to the greatness he thinks will help the restaurant achieve a Michelin star. But in reality, it is introducing unnecessary chaos and pressure on the rest of the staff.

I’m far from a high performer, but I do relate to this idea of wanting to “innovate” vs. “only” “improving.” I feel like I’m constantly debating with myself whether something has to be new/fresh or if an existing thing can simply be improved.

This certainly applies to making content, but I even feel it in the gym. Increasing weight always feels good and provides clear feedback that you are making strength gains, but I can also improve and make progress by adding reps—even if it isn’t as “sexy” and feels more like “improving” in this example as opposed to leveling up.

Honnold shares that he’s done some climbs since El Capitan that are equally as impressive, but have simply not gotten the buzz that the film brought to the other climb.

Carmy struggles to find joy in just perfecting the current menu and steadily improving the restaurant.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, except that it made me appreciate this concept from Sahil Bloom’s book about “life’s seasons.” The TLDR is that life has seasons, and what you prioritize and focus on will shift throughout those seasons. These seasons are not linear, and you will need to adapt and adjust your approach.

There are seasons for innovating and there are seasons for improving what already exists. The trick, I think, is not only learning to be okay with that, but relish the moment regardless of what that season calls for.

Anyways, Happy Fourth of July.

🤓 FANTASY LIFE: Weekly Roundup. This week we reacted to the Jonnu Smith trade, shook our head at Darren Waller signing, and shared five super deep WR skeepers.

I regularly write the Fantasy Life Newsletter. Get it in your inbox free every am:

☕️ BEST BALL BREAKFAST: 4 Big Beautiful BBMVI Drafts & A 4-TE TEAM! Also, Rotopat is a national treasure:

🎉 BEST BALL BASH + RANDOMIZER: 2 Drafts With 2 Mikes But No Good Teams?! The Bash returns with special guest Mike Robb, who stares down his opponents to submission. Next, Mike Wright from The Fantasy Footballers joins for an electric Randomizer.

☣️ LOLZ: The End Of Pro Gambling? Hit on a variety of hot topics, including a devastating blow to pro gamblers in the Big Bill and Underdog suing California.

⏰ OFF & ON THE CLOCK: How To Value Late-Round Tight Ends Now. Nez and I react to the shifting TE landscape and draft a Corgi team.

🚢 SHIP CHASING: A BBMVI Draft With A Twist. A draft that really tested our trust in each other.

💪 THE SWOLECAST: A Trivia Controversy Rocks The Swolecast. Topics include: the best fireworks and which five liquids you’d choose to have dispensed out of your hand.

📈 ADP CHASING: Risers/Fallers, Jonnu Trade & Waller Reactions. The fellas were live during the Darren Waller signing and shared their snap takes.

🥃 BEST BALL AFTER DARK: Shorty Vegas’ Galaxy Brain. Deposit Kingdom member Shortyyvegas joins and fires off some spicy best ball takes.

For After Dark shows, you can become a YT member for access or subscribe on Spotify for a private RSS feed (I post the video/audio there directly after the show).

🕹️ GUEST SPOT: Best Ball Jeopardy. Had a blast competing against destroying Neil Orfield. Very fun format/show idea.

We ran After Dark early this week, but I’ll be back on Monday for Best Ball Breakfast featuring special guest Josh Norris. Enjoy the holiday weekend.

☁️ Book #5 for June & July (80%): Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

I’m almost to the finish line here. I will admit that the disjointedness of the formatting is starting to wear on me, especially as I continue to gravitate to the Konstance and Seymour storylines and get frustrated when their parts abruptly end. Still, I’m glad we took the plunge with this epic. It just hasn’t fully gripped me in the way I was hoping.

🐊 Book #4 for May (COMPLETED): Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades by Rebecca Renner
🍌 Book #3 for April (COMPLETED): The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
💉 Book #2 for March (FINISHED): Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
🐃 Book #1 for February (FINISHED): The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry

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