As someone who (in a past life) was an "elite athlete," my mind often thinks my body is capable of more than it actually is.
Well, it still is ... just less often and with a higher chance of hurting myself.
It's taken a lot of adjustments to find what routines work for me. They can't just be low-impact or good for me ... they have to be fun, and they have to allow me to improve, not just maintain.
I've found a couple of things that work for me, like the Carol AI Bike and HOTWORX.
Another one of my favorites is the X3 bar by Dr. John Jaquish. It's a metal bar that attaches to various bands and allows you to do variable resistance training. It's more efficient and effective than weights because, instead of using the same amount of force through the entire rep, you're able to do more weight where you're strongest and less weight where you're weakest.
He works with professional athletes, NBA teams, and more.
I shot a video with him about why X3's variable resistance is a better way to exercise. Check it out.
My son, Zach, is a holdout only because he prefers spending an hour in a gym. It's his meditation and his social hour all in one. I get it. I can't pretend I don't still enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights. But, I can recognize a lot of that is vanity and fun instead of prioritizing effectiveness and efficiency (getting more done in less time).
Taking a "Less is More" approach flies in the face of "No Pain, No Gain."
The X3 is portable; it doesn't take a long time to set up or use; and I feel stronger when I use it consistently. That means it is efficient and effective. Surprisingly, it is also fun.
The new X3 Force uses tracking & gamification to encourage use and progress. That is important because, with any of these tools, you still need to consider the Head, Heart, and Feet of the matter. It isn't enough to know what or how to do something. You have to want to do the thing. And then you have to actually do the thing.
I'm excited about this, because I think increasing longevity is a promising frontier, and I believe short effective workouts are fundamental to living healthier and longer.
Nine years in front of entertainment devices - another 10.5 years spent working. You get the idea.
If you have goals you want to accomplish, aspirational travel, and lifestyle plans - this really puts the idea of finding and living your passion in perspective.
Do you have the time to waste it?
VisualCapitalist put together a chart projecting longevity based on 2020 mortality rates.
I turned 60 this July, so I only have 20 years left, according to this calculator. I expect more!
There are some interesting statistical facts in this; for example, an average American baby boy can expect to live until 74 ... but if that boy turns 21, his life expectancy jumps to over 75.
While these numbers seem pretty high, there are two things to consider. First, COVID heavily reduced these numbers because mortality rates went up. That likely won't continue (though it will likely continue to affect your insurance premiums and pension benefits).
Also, remember that these numbers are based on 2020 averages, which likely differ from you (specifically considering your race, income, location, etc.). These numbers also don't take into account expected medical and technology advances, etc.
Finally, I think Purpose is one of the most important catalysts of longevity. People often die when they retire ... not because they're done working, but because they're done striving.
Have you listened to the new Beatles song? It took almost 50 years and new technology to create.
How did this happen? An AI system, made by Peter Jackson, uncoupled the vocals from the piano on a poor-quality tape demo from the 70s. The result – a song that would have never seen the light of day was able to bring John Lennon back from the dead to release new music for a new generation.
Was it a touching tribute and closure to an extraordinary legacy? Does it qualify as AI "art"?
We are seeing a surge in creativity due to the rise of generative AI.
People are doing amazing things with AI ... and it's making entrepreneurship accessible to a new group of people.
AI is exciting, but it is also scary. I would argue that it is a net positive. However, there are also clear drawbacks (and potential risks). For example, there are the obvious ones like deepfakes, art being stolen and fed into models without consent, etc. But, there's one that many aren't talking about...
It's a lack of nuance or understanding of art.
Here is an example of using generative AI to improve a famous art piece.
In my opinion, the creator completely missed the point when they tried to improve Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.
The truth is that I don't know their intent or thought process.
However, Nighthawks is famous for a reason. It shows a patron, presumably at a late-night diner, with a desolate urban streetscape outside. To the right audience, it embodies the isolation of a 24-hour modern society and big cities, and the hidden changes of the 20th century. It is a poignant composition and one of the most famous American art pieces.
First, he had AI parse the image and write a description of it. Then, he had it regenerate the image from the description. The setting became light. He thought he could make it better, so he moved people outside. He parses a description again and creates a new image again. He did this several times.
The result is what you see — a beautifully created composition lacking any depth.
The AI did its job; the human did not.
A better prompt or a more artful process would have had a better result.
But is it art?
Once created, art is in the eye or mind of the perceiver. So, should we care who or what creates it?
Here are some other questions worth pondering. Is AI at its best when it's amplifying human intelligence - rather than replacing it? Or ... is the goal simply to amplify intelligence?
The Universe often gives you increasingly painful chances to learn a lesson.
What do you think we're supposed to take from this?
Honestly, the fact that we’re at the top of the food chain is pretty miraculous.
We’re slow, we’re weak, and we’re famously bad at understanding large numbers and exponential growth.
Our brains are hardwired to think locally and linearly.
It’s a monumental task for us to fathom exponential growth … let alone its implications.
Think how many companies have failed due to that inability … RadioShack didn’t foresee a future where shopping was done online. Kodak didn’t think digital cameras would replace good ol’ film. Blockbuster dismissed a future where people would want movies in their mailboxes because they were anchored to the belief that “part of the joy is seeing all your options!” They didn’t even make it long enough to see “Netflix and Chill” become a thing.
Innovation is a reminder that you can’t be medium-obsessed. Kodak’s goal was to preserve memories. It wasn’t to sell film. Blockbuster’s goal wasn’t to get people in their stores; it was to get movies in homes.
Henry Ford famously said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs was famous for spending all his time with customers but never asking them what they wanted.
Two of our greatest innovators realized something that many never do. Being conscientious of your consumers doesn’t necessarily mean listening to them. It means thinking about and anticipating their wants and future needs.
Tech and AI are creating tectonic forces throughout industry and the world. It is time to embrace and leverage what that makes possible. History has many prior examples of Creative Destruction (and what gets left in the dust).
We're now midway through the Cowboys Season, and despite injuries plaguing the team, we just had a fantastic 43 - 20 victory over the Rams.
At every game, I run into this guy, and every game he wears a different creative, and well-thought-out costume. He sits on the 50-yard line. He wears Ferragamo shoes and a nice watch. For his day job, he is the Head of Psychiatry at a well-known hospital in the area. Yet, something about this game captures his imagination.
Jerry Jones does a lot right in how he builds his "Disney Ride." But this post will focus more on what the coaches and players do.
I'm regularly surprised by the levels of innovation and strategic thinking I see in football.
Football is something I used to love to play. And it is still something that informs my thoughts and actions.
Some lessons relate to being part of a team, while others relate to the coaching or management side of things.
Some of these lessons stem back to youth football ... but I still learn things watching games – and even more, from watching Dallas Cowboys practices at The Star.
Think about it ... even in middle school, the coaches have a game plan. There are team practices and individual drills. They have a depth chart, which lists the first, second, and third choices to fill certain roles. In short, they focus on the fundamentals in a way that most businesses don't.
The picture, below, is of my brother's high school team way back in 1989.
To re-state, most businesses are less prepared for their problems than an 8th-grade football team. Now, that might sound offensive to some of you – but if you think about it ... it's pretty accurate.
Losing to an 8th Grade Team
I shot this video right before the COVID-19 shutdown. I encourage you to watch it. I think it's 3 minutes well spent.
Football teams think about how to improve each player, how to beat this week's opponent, and then how to string together wins to achieve a higher goal.
The team thinks of itself as a team. They expect to practice. And they get coached.
In addition, there is a playbook for both offense and defense. And they watch game films to review what went right ... and what they can learn from for use later.
Contrast that with many businesses. Entrepreneurs often get myopic ... they get focused on today, focused on survival, and they lose sight of the bigger picture and how all the pieces fit together.
The amount of thought and preparation that goes into football - which is ultimately a game - is a valuable lesson for business.
What about when you get to the highest level? If an 8th-grade football team is equivalent to a normal business, what about businesses that are killing it? That would be similar to an NFL team.
Let's look at the Cowboys.
Practice Makes Perfect
How you do one thing is how you do everything. So, they try to do everything right.
Each time I've watched a practice session, I've come away impressed by the amount of preparation, effort, and skill displayed.
During practice, there's a scheduled agenda. The practice is broken into chunks, and each chunk has a designed purpose and a desired intensity. There's a rhythm, even to the breaks.
Every minute is scripted. There's a long-term plan to handle the season ... but, there was also a focus on the short-term details and their current opponent.
They alternate between individual and group drills. Moreover, the drills run fast ... but for shorter time periods than you'd guess. It is bang-bang-bang – never longer than a millennial's attention span. And they move from drill to drill – working not just on plays, but also on skillsets (where are you looking, which foot do you plant, how do you best use your hands, etc.).
They use advanced technology (including advanced player monitoring, biometric tracking, and medical recovery devices ... but also things like robotic tackling dummies and virtual reality headsets).
They don't just film games, they film the practices ... and each individual drill. Coaches and players get a cut of the film on their tablets as soon as they leave. It is a process of constant feedback and constant improvement. Everything has the potential to be a lesson.
Beyond The Snap
The focus is not just internal, on the team. They focus on the competition as well. Before a game, the coaches prepare a game plan and have the team watch tape of their opponent in order to understand the tendencies and mentally prepare for what's going to happen.
During the game, changes in personnel groups and schemes keep competitors on their toes and allow the team to identify coverages and predict plays. If the offense realizes a play has been predicted, they call an audible based on what they see in front of them. Coaches from different hierarchies work in tandem to respond faster to new problems.
After the game, the film is reviewed in detail. Each person gets a grade on each play, and the coaches make notes for each person about what they did well and what they could do better.
Think about it ... everyone knows what game they are playing ... and for the most part, everybody understands the rules and how to keep score (and even where they are in the standings). Even the coaches get feedback based on performance, and they look to others for guidance.
Imagine how easy that would be to do in business. Imagine how much better things could be if you did those things.
Challenge accepted.
And, in celebration of a Cowboys win ... here's me doing a cartwheel. I'm sure my body will feel great tomorrow ...
Some Professors put together IKEA-inspired instructional booklets for their algorithms and data-structures lectures. The idea was to make easy-to-understand explanations by removing words, and only using images. Ideally, this would allow them to be understood regardless of their native language or culture.
This is a pretty cool idea, or at least I thought so. My youngest son said, "I don't particularly understand IKEA directions or algorithms .... so this is basically the worst of both worlds for me." Finally, we agree about something!
Hopefully, you find it helpful. If not, there's always Wikipedia.
It is easy to keep up – until you pause or slow down.
Being an Early Adopter was a big part of my identity. At this point in my life, I am still early with respect to new technologies, but I feel like I'm losing touch with a lot of today's culture.
Perhaps this started over a decade ago? I remember finding my sons' slang and music off-putting.
As an aside, my youngest son, Zach, went through a phase where it felt like he used the verbal tic ... "Dude" in every other sentence. Parenting trick – I broke his habit by screaming "FOOPDEEDOO!!" every time he said it, regardless of when it happened, where we were, or who we were with.
If it's crazy and it works ... it's not crazy. He certainly stopped saying "dude".
OK, back to the point. I realize that the Top 40 is basically a list of 40 songs that I don't know (and feel like I only randomly know some of the artists). Meanwhile, my staff laughingly refer to my favorite stations on SiriusXM radio as old-man music.
To make the point further, my research assistant asked me if I knew about Bad Bunny. To me, it sounded like a Disney cartoon for Halloween. But, apparently, he is a Grammy-winning recording artist who won "Album of the Year" for music that I had never heard.
It didn't take long to get to the list of top Spotify artists. For the record, I do know most of those artists – but admittedly few of their songs.
But as I said, listening to the Top 40 is getting harder for me. Where's the rock (or songs with discernable melodies)?!
Meanwhile, I'm about to start a new art exhibit. I call it "Jen Sleeps At Pop Concerts"
So far, we've got Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Bob Seger, the Eagles, and the Rolling Stones. In case you're curious, she did not fall asleep at John Legend, Queen, or Ed Sheeran.
I love football. As such, it is fun for me to watch the games. But I also like the business of the game as well.
Over time, I've become a fan of the league ... and how deliberate they are about building teams and developing players.
Last week, I got to give a series of talks to a high-level entrepreneur group called Breakthrough Mastermind. Some of the other speakers included NFL Hall of Famer Mike Singletary and a starter on the league-leading Dallas Cowboys Defense, Osa Odighizuwa. Here is a picture of us from the event.
Let me know if you want a link to the actual presentations. I talked about AI and how it frees you to be your best. Osa spoke about what it takes to be a Pro, and Mike talked about teamwork and building teams.
It is Football Season. And, if you know me, then you know I'm a Cowboys fan (despite being raised in Philly, with season tickets to the Eagles – and Boston, with season tickets to the Patriots).
So, the week one 40-0 victory over the NY Giants was fun to watch.
It was even more fun after I saw some stats about this loss.
The 40-0 win was the largest shutout victory in Dallas's history.
Dallas is the fifth team in NFL history to open their season with a 40-plus-point shutout on the road, and the first since the 1999 Steelers.
The Cowboys are the first team in NFL history to open the season with a 40-plus-point shutout of a team that made the playoffs the previous season.
But feeding my occasional need for Schadenfreude ... the stats get worse for the Giants.
In this game, they lost 40-0, got sacked seven times, to the Dallas Cowboys zero, they also lost the turnover margin 3-0, and had their opening drive field goal attempt blocked (and then returned for a touchdown), and their QB, Daniel Jones, then threw a pick-six.
Supposedly, no team has done that in a single season - let alone a single game.
And for some additional contrast and dynamic tension ... ponder this!
Jerry Jones Is Going to Live Forever.
As if the Cowboy's experience wasn't enough to bring people in, Jerry has now immortalized himself as the mirror from Sleeping Beauty, excuse me, I mean as a virtual AI screen at AT&T Stadium.
It's a truly interactive experience where you can ask Jerry questions, and get responses in his voice - from an AI trained on the real Jerry Jones.
NEW at #ATTStadium: Meet Jerry Jones – An Interactive Experience. Ask @dallascowboys' Owner Jerry Jones questions and get his responses generated by AI technology for a unique, interactive experience.
People joke that new technologies are always adopted by porn first, gambling second, and then the entertainment industry after. These technologies have made their way to the NFL which means they are on their way to much broader adoption sooner than you might expect.
The Cost Of Thinking Linearly In Today's Age
Humans can’t do a lot of things.
Honestly, the fact that we’re at the top of the food chain is pretty miraculous.
We’re slow, we’re weak, and we’re famously bad at understanding large numbers and exponential growth.
Our brains are hardwired to think locally and linearly.
It’s a monumental task for us to fathom exponential growth … let alone its implications.
Think how many companies have failed due to that inability … RadioShack didn’t foresee a future where shopping was done online. Kodak didn’t think digital cameras would replace good ol’ film. Blockbuster dismissed a future where people would want movies in their mailboxes because they were anchored to the belief that “part of the joy is seeing all your options!” They didn’t even make it long enough to see “Netflix and Chill” become a thing.
via Diamandis
Human perception is linear. Technological growth is exponential.
There are many examples. Here is one Diamandis calls “The Kodak Moment.”
In 1996, Kodak was at the top of its game, with a market cap of over $28 billion and 140,000 employees.
Few people know that 20 years earlier, in 1976, Kodak had invented the digital camera. It had the patents and the first-mover advantage.
But that first digital camera was a baby that only its inventor could love and appreciate.
That first camera took .01 megapixel photos, took 23 seconds to record the image to a tape drive, and only shot in black and white.
Not surprisingly, Kodak ignored the technology and its implications.
Fast forward to 2012, when Kodak filed for bankruptcy – disrupted by the very technology that they invented and subsequently ignored.
via Diamandis
Innovation is a reminder that you can’t be medium-obsessed. Kodak’s goal was to preserve memories. It wasn’t to sell film. Blockbuster’s goal wasn’t to get people in their stores; it was to get movies in homes.
Henry Ford famously said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs was famous for spending all his time with customers but never asking them what they wanted.
Two of our greatest innovators realized something that many never do. Being conscientious of your consumers doesn’t necessarily mean listening to them. It means thinking about and anticipating their wants and future needs.
Tech and AI are creating tectonic forces throughout industry and the world. It is time to embrace and leverage what that makes possible. History has many prior examples of Creative Destruction (and what gets left in the dust).
Opportunity or Chaos … You get to decide.
Onward!
Posted at 06:24 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Food and Drink, Gadgets, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Movies, Science, Television, Trading, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)