Tag: podcast

Talent

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It’s good to be precise in our language. It means we aren’t speaking one thing but meaning something else. 

It means we are impeccable with our word. 

A lot of times we talk about “talent” like it’s a thing. So-and-so is so talented. They’ve got a god-given talent. 

When we talk like this we forget that success is really a talent stack. Success isn’t a number, it’s an addition problem. When someone doesn’t quite make it, it means they were missing a level of the stack. When we don’t quite make it, it means we missed something. Sometimes life is baking and sometimes life is cooking – and we better know the difference when it comes to the talent stack. 

John Cena spoke about his to Joe Rogan (# 2423). 

Every four months, 200 potential wresters enter the WWE development program. Can you imagine if your industry had that treadmill? Want to be on top? Cool, good luck, we are hiring eleven people every week who want the same thing. Some simply won’t make it. Some will have a talent but that’s not enough. 

To make it you need to be an acrobat and a fast talker. 

“But that’s not the only attribute that makes one special. You may be a great joke writer. But man, if you don’t master stage presence, I mean, being a great joke writer with stage presence, but if you can’t lug the tour, you’re not talented for it.”

Lug the tour – what an expression. 

Cena’s a good interview even for non-wrestling fans. His talent stack came from two choices. 

First, always make the harder choice. Don’t do the easy things. It will feel worse first, but it will be better later. 

Second, take risks. It’s easier to take risks when you’re small and no one is watching. And if everyone is watching and you take a risk – and fail – that’s fine. It’s a learning moment and a chance to practice the first, doing hard things. 

How does information flow? 

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As a family we used to play this Nintendo game called Overcooked 2.  The goal was to make food orders. My high school experience at Wendy’s was never this fun. 

In Overcooked, your team must notice orders (they look like thought bubbles), prepare the order (cook meat, chop vegetables, wash plates clean), and deliver the requested combination. 

Like all good games, it’s was just hard enough. That ‘hard enough’ meant there was no doubt about the order. The NPC doesn’t fib or change their mind. 

Life’s different. 

Life is a game of telephone.  

“The goal is to flatten the org structure, not to the point where no one knows who’s in charge, but flat enough so ideas move fast,” Brad Jacobs wrote. 

“I’ve seen org charts where there are nine layers between the customer and the CEO. That’s bureaucracy. The shorter and more direct the line from problem to decision, the better.”

We also tend to measure the easy thing not the right thing. It’s the easy metrics that get us in trouble. 

In my high school class it’s easier to see “time on task” or “quietly working diligently” than learning. So teachers, me included sometimes, get lost and track who’s not doing their work. 

That can be a good proxy. If someone is watching YouTube all the time, they probably aren’t learning. But, man, I’ll tell ya, these kids are an enigma wrapped in a riddle. You just don’t now. 

So sometimes, usually after a calm Sunday, I head back to work wary. Wary of telephone and wary of easy metrics. 

Difficult? Hardly!

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“I was the fastest person in my regiment to be promoted to corporal. And I was in the marching band and I did an excellent drill as well. And, you know, something I take away from some of the commanding officers whom I grew close to, they would tell me that, you know, the ethic of the army was that whatever you imagine is the most difficult thing, you should simply re-conceptualize it as the easiest thing and then you just do it.”

From Conversations with Tyler: Dan Wang on What China and America Can Learn from Each Other, Dec 3, 2025

Something to Play For

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The new year is a fresh start, time to think about and assess our lives, direction, relationships and so on.

However, if you need a little extra framing, Bill Simmons spoke about how the Celtics are doing so well and why. It might be because…

“Every single guy has some sort of hunger for something. So it’s like Jalen Brown, Tatum’s not here. I’ve always thought I could carry a team like this, so he’s in. Derrick White. I’ve always thought I could do a little more offensively. Here we go. Same for Prichard. Simons, contract here. Cada, I’ve never gotten a chance.Hauser, finally getting more minutes. You’re going down line. Jordan Walsh. I would fucking kill somebody to play 25 minutes a game. Hugo, I’m 19, I’m a rookie. Josh Minot, thank God I’m finally playing basketball.”

It’s great. Each guy, no matter what level, has something to play for.

Framing Resolutions

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Reframing metrics is catnip. In book form this is Moneyball, but there are many posts about framing and metrics.

How might we frame a meaningful life? And what metrics?

“Ultimately, the number of things you did can’t be definition of a. meaningful life. It’s got to be what you did and whether you did it in the spirit of showing up for it.”

That’s Oliver Burkeman’s advice to Rich Roll (November 2025). Burkeman’s book, 4000 Weeks, was one of my favorites last year. Happy New Year.

How to Make Air Travel Better with Orthogonal Thinking

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Orthogonal thinking and alchemy means solving problems with nonintuitive variables.

A lot of great finance book use orthogonal thinking. Rather than ask: how to shop for Christmas on a budget, orthogonal thinking moves past money and asks something closer to: how to create meaningful Christmas moments.

That reframing changes the variable from dollars/gifts to moments/meaning. To get in that spirit, Blake Scholl told Tyler Cowen how to make air travel better (no indentation).

The other thing that we need to do, and this is part of why it’s not a solved problem, is we need to fix checked baggage. Because baggage check is unreliable and slow, we have people carrying onto airplanes things they absolutely do not want to carry.

If we fix airports such that baggage check is fast and reliable, then we can stop having carry-ons, and we can get on and off airplanes much, much faster than we can today. That would actually be the biggest win. Imagine an experience where you take your Uber to the airport. The bag that today you would carry on is in your trunk. You step out of the car, someone, maybe even a robot, grabs your bag from the trunk. You don’t see it again.

After you land, you get a push notification on your phone that says your Uber’s in slot seven A, and by the time you get to your Uber, your bag is back in the trunk. The customer experience is your bag teleports from the trunk of your Uber at your origin to the trunk of your Uber at your destination. That’s how they should work. Then you don’t carry on all this stuff and it’s much faster to get on and off airplanes.

Reasoning from Extremes

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“No one,” Zach Lowe told Bill Simmons, “is arguing for a longer season. No one wants more than 82 games.”

“I’ve never seen a study,” Dr. Longo told Rich Roll, “showing that if you do 12 hours of fasting a day you’re going to have a problem.”

Both of these November episodes fit within maxims for thinking analytically. Not all of life will include common ground, but when it does, we can start there and decide how much to move away from there.

Easy Diets

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In November 2025, Rich Roll release a podcast about fasting. This compilation episode included an overview of why fasting works, how to fast, an additional details. But, what stood out was the importance of design.

Dr. Valter Longo spoke about the effectiveness of a 12/12 fast. That includes a twelve hour eating window and a twelve hour non-eating window.

Roll pushed back, asking is that enough non-eating time?

Yes, Longo explained, there are positive health effects but more importantly it’s easier to do.
Dr. Michael Greger said the same thing – only in reverse. Greger’s early advice was about a daily dozen set of foods people should eat. A dozen foods a day?

Inconceivable! Vizzini shouts.

That led to a lot of explaining by Greger. It’s aspirational. It’s a suggestion. It’s something to work towards.

Actions are based on frictions. How easy is something: to understand, to follow, to fit with my current worldview?

Better fits may not be perfect fits, but they’ll happen more.

Olsen’s Little Things

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Greg Olsen is a former NFL player and current NFL broadcaster. He also coaches a middle school football team. What’s nice about Olsen’s perspective is that he’s played at the highest levels (“The U”, The NFL) and still says it’s the little things that matter. (Apple Podcast) ““The shit that Luke and I are yelling at the kids when we’re trying to coach seventh and eighth grade defense is the exact same coaching points the good coaches are trying to give pro bowlers. It’s all the same.”

What are those things? It’s not the highlights, flash, plays, or scheme. It’s “little technique, fundamental habits. How do we do pat and go in football? Like no one spends any time on that. And I think if people realized how much that would move the needle, they’d be shocked.”

Okay. So it’s the little things that matter. How do you coach them? Specific solutions

“But what I’ve learned is like you can be loud and you can be boisterous, but you have to give them solutions. You have to give them, it can’t just be, we got to tackle better.

“You missed that tackle, tackle them. Like, you know, go get them, go get them. Yeah, what?

“I don’t know, coach, I’m trying, but like, I don’t know what that means. So to your point, what I’ve learned is like, when you are yelling instruction, it’s got to be very specific. Alex, Alex, you’re tackling the wrong hip.”

The wrong hip. That’s specific. That’s fundamental. That’s helpful. It’s the little things.

Health is a verb

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“I don’t know why we made health a noun. Think about it. When it’s a noun, it’s an object to be obtained.

It’s something tangible. It’s a destination. Health should be a verb.

How many of us have been in the best shape of our life? If we stopped doing what got us there, we would fall backwards. So we, it’s an action.

Health needs to be an action you do every single day of your life. If you are, if we keep setting it up, like I’m going on a diet, I’m gonna lose 30 pounds. What happens once you lose the 30 pounds?

What’s your next move? This is the ozempic. What’s your next move”

From The Rich Roll Podcast: Dr. Mindy Pelz On Women’s Hormonal Health, Cyclical Fasting, Health As A Verb, Reclaiming Your Body’s Intelligence & Transforming Menopause Into Empowerment, Jul 31, 2025

Don’t hire a noun to do a verb’s job.