There are smart people in every “caste” of life. I use that term because it applies not only in application, but also by understanding of the bell curve applying to every criteria that could be reflected by any understanding of human individual reactions and behaviors.
Smart people of all castes eventually understand that those with cumulative money will decide the steps of mankind as it seeks to survive, perhaps while they thrive at some level. The top is probably correctly labeled as the 99th percentile, but those that thrive may ago as deep as the 85th percentile, depending on what values are measure for the thriving.
Working down to something like the 30th percentile are those who may not thrive, but survive, at different levels of satisfaction. Below that is those that barely survive, sometimes by any means available, and those that don’t. The non-survival may well be measured in the brain, including comprehensive understanding and psychological adaptation. Even the smart ones “down there” may not be able to, or even elect to, quit that station of “caste” if they are even viably presented with that choice.
Smart people realize that the money people will make choices for themselves, but the smartest of those will make choices that keep the middle 60% or so “in the game” to a great degree since that allows the Long Term Really Wealthy (“LTRW” my new term) their status in the long run. The thriving level will always stay in the game unless the top level is somehow flipped, say by something like the destruction of the existing way of life by outside (meteor or star interference) or inside (nuclear or cyber) influence.
Here’s the exponential change we are seeing now, which began in the 70s, when coding on tape, not cards, became more available to smart “Nerds” (a human aspect also measured by percentile, as is every variable aspect). The nearly level development of the “Money” of humankind has rested with physical presence, from individuals 5,000 years ago, to armies at local level, on to national level, and formation of unions of like minded nations.
That type of battle is actually taking place now and if the planet survives that, there may be a realization that the step of overwhelming might would not provide any long term well being for those who make that choice. If so, that realization would continue the upward acceleration that the Nerds would make the choices going forward, because the money people would see the value of the change.
Do I have to point out who are the acknowledged richest in the world? It is now largely the Nerds that are dwelling in that room. Well, the Nerds are recognized at that level because their wealth is largely known, exposed in the process of their earning of that level. Here is the thing with the LTRW: they acquired their money during a time in which the earning process was not subject to external measurement (in a tax and regulatory sense). As such their true wealth is not “known” to anyone, maybe not even to them in any finite way. Their interests, though, are maintained by how they “move” their money. Ever wonder why every big nation has a bank or two who make monetary decisions? They are now the ones who govern the “RISK’’ game as applied.
Wonder how it will move forward now?
Well, it just came out.
An Aaron Rogers Take: He faced “stifling” in his childhood and stretching through much of his adult life until a couple of years ago. He has faced stifling of his instinctive reaction to immediate circumstances. His family was first, then teachers, then coaches all of which he took for the most part because he was learning, from them and on his own, about life and about himself.
When you are first out of the womb you don’t think, you merely react. A good 80% of humanity has an instinct that doesn’t adequately check itself such that learning can be based upon physical impact to you. For about 10%, though, the instinct learns in the moment, as each “step”, both literally and figuratively, is taken in life. Rogers was probably one of the later, but that does not stop every governing body from trying to moderate a kid’s reliance upon their instinct. This is largely because such people had instinct that let them down at some point, and all of their teachers practice the instinct denial methodology.
There is way more on that subject, but let’s move to now, and all the bull shit discussion about what Aaron shares via the Pat McAfee show and social media. Everyone tries to put his comments and behavior in a box they understand. (Or, maybe they don’t care a shit and they just want to get audience because measurement of their worth is based upon such metrics.) I suggest that what Mr. Rogers (couldn’t pass it up) is doing is being Honest, with the whole world who would otherwise try to moderate his instinctive reaction to immediate circumstances. Honesty is another rarity.
There are several other notable people who trust their instinct and whose behavior, both physical and psychological, is not comprehended by the middle of the Bell Curve of people. Anyone who gets this even on the surface, please drop me a line.
WTF is what most people will form in their head as they read on. That is understandable, as what I put forth here is merely a seed, or better, a slight pause or weight shift in a step such that a new path, with a starting point recognized by your instinct, will be exposed on some level. Awareness in some will be immediate, but for most, it will have to attach (though I can’t imagine by mere repetition).
Here’s the story from the past that came into it’s long term awareness to date.
In the summer in which I was approaching my 7th birthday, our family of 5, but with one about to be added thereto about two months after the move. My house was the last on the street, with a playground next door and beyond the fencing of the playground was a woods that lead to a creek, then back up to the next town. I learned that day the obligations that could attach to living at the start of the path into the woods. I only phrased that out today, even though that was to be the start of my lesson.
Anyway, I was meeting the kids in the neighborhood at the playground, which was overlooked by high school kids from 9 – 12, then again from 6 – 9 at night. Adults came by regularly, from the town’s organization for all of the playgrounds, probably 5 in all. There was no misbehaving allowed, not that I had even seen any of that on any level from my last grounds for interaction with no adults around.
After the playground sport and art accessories cabinet was locked up and the older kids left, one of the older kids left on the playground suggested that we all go for a hike in the woods. This is the edge of the Appalachian chain and thus hilly in some respects everywhere. I follow some new acquaintances as I go into the woods for the first time, entering at the end of the alley that runs behind my house and the boarder of which, had it continued, would run about 10 feet off the fence one of the short sides of the playground, it being rectangular. I don’t know if anyone wants such a description, but I now recognize that my brain, run entirely on instinct, would have register all of the math that was occurring in front of it. In addition, it would get done with that and start to read all peripheral stuff that came up.
We went down gradually, cutting off the main path but below the fence line, eventually by 10 or more feet, above a small rook that had emerged from the playground edge, no pipe though, just a spring like trickle at first, but now with a containment pool about 3 feet below the one foot wide path we walked. Next thing I knew, I was shin deep in the pool. However, I had landed on my feet and could still move freely, just from down there. (Here is where my instinct taught me how to negotiate in the moment.)
I look up briefly, as I was completely surprised. I don’t register anyone taking obvious responsibility and my instinct then moves to how do I go from here. I ended up working my way out of the water, to the far and lower side from the path, see a path that rejoins the rest of them as they continue to come down hill, and I put myself at the back end of the line. As I did that, though, and walking parallel, my brain was registering all of the data that they gave. I put things in that phraseology now, because the operating society had learned what data can do.
Long story short, the results of which actually taught me a second, and maybe third lesson for the day, My instinct started paying attention to all of the physical stuff that was occurring as the result of the leader of the pack picking which sub path he might take. As the last guy, I saw everything well in advance and had no problem, even though the others did from time to time. I also saw alternatives that would have worked better, at least for me. My only free time in my last neighborhood was in a newly built group of houses inside and outside of the roadway named, Horseshoe Drive. Probably 20 plus houses, with lots of woods and big creek on top of a big rock hill. My older sister and I had some adventures there, along with some other kids, out behind the houses.
After a while, I discerned that the leader had decided to head back to the alley area. My instinct then found the better path, which also contained some places that could be tricky, like the creek or a sudden rise or a tree to be averted, and off it took me, picking my speed and my footfalls without a thought by me. There was some shouting, but none of it registered with me. As I kept going, I could hear the results of a failure by those that followed to pick the correct step, or not capable of taking the next step physically. I never paid a lick of a price for my move that day, and I was never not leading when I was in the wood after that. I mean, I ended up knowing that woods better than anyone else around.
The guys in my neighborhood fought off the other townies if they came across the creek and started up the hill to our side. We had spears, made of reeds pulled from the low land mud, allowed to cure in the back yard overnight, then the root carved into a point that would stick in the bark or young growth of a tree. We used garbage can lids as shields. Once after we repelled an attack, my closest friend, the biggest guy in our age group, said that no one could hit him with a spear. I told him I could and he said to try. He was ready and I was thinking to hit him below the shield that he was holding just under his eyes. What I learned that day, though, was that my brain would throw that spear exactly right to hit what my eyes were focused upon. I hit him between the eye and his nose, “right between the eyes”. That was the target that my instinct had learned, probably from TV.
Here, though, back to the path.
I was shown, though, that day, the path of not least resistance, but best resistance, taking into consideration the dimension of time that played out in the instance.
Much later in life, after 18 for sure, I played a lot of basketball in situations in which I was the minority race in the game, sometime to the extent of exclusiveness on my part. I have had stitches just outside my left eye twice, and on two other occasions, I had a “hard” contact broken in that eye. In all of those instances I took the punch, then rejoined the game. After the first broken contact, in River Rouge, MI, I found a piece and asked a guy if he could see the other piece in my eye as I pulled open the lids. I was aghast, but said no and I started back under the hoop. Someone asked what I was doing and I responded to no one in particular, “I can play you with one eye.”.
If you can take the first punch and stay in the game, then pick the paths of the game as it unfolds, you get to be the leader of the pack – in that moment. That last though is important. It is not necessary to be the leader at all moments. In fact, in negotiation, you are successful when you can get someone else to move to the front, and you just hang around to make sure they don’t misstep the path. If you are paying attention, you can see the opportunity for such a misstep in time to influence the awareness of both the leader and the other walkers of the alternative(s). If necessary, say if the leader has strayed, you can influence a different member to see the right path and call it out by either stepping or otherwise.
I learned that word in college, just like I learned a lot of other stuff just as a matter of being thrown into the pool and swimming around. I went to Engineering school at a pretty well-respected college, but I paid attention to all things around me and that is how I learned the word fortuitous, but looking back on my life, even before I knew the word, has truly fit that word.
Today, I was hanging out at my house, taking it easy because I was not feely great, when I got a call from one of my grandsons’ father, who has court ordained custody of him, saying that he had not yet shown up from school on the bus. I was after the scheduled delivery time, and we had rectified a failure to fill out the right forms that caused him to be denied the bus ride to school this morning. I filled out the form and drove dad and son to the school this morning and we turned in the form and were advised that everything was good.
However, dad did not grow up in the US and when he called at 5:15 he brought me on the “oh shit bus”. Called the school and were told, by recording, that they were closed. Call dad back and told him I would drive to the school, probably 12 miles and 20 minutes from my house at that hour, since he had to stay there in case he showed up.
I was about 2 miles into the drive when he called to let me know that LoZo was safe (my nickname for him). So how is that fortuitous? I got an adrenaline rush, I got to step up for Dad who has not had a lot of people of Euro American lineage with whom he has shared space in life, and now I was on the move instead of laying in my bed snoozing while my other grandson, whose custody I have, was playing video games after doing his homework for the day. Yep, in my life that is Fortuitous in a number of ways.
OK, stay with me on this if you can.
I have observed over my lifetime that sports has provided a metaphor of life for my brain. Maybe it is just me, but perhaps is settles in on other people as well, but not articulated as such.
Quick jump back: Centuries ago, those men who were not born into any financial safe place, if they were capable, would fight for a person who was in the financial/property/power game – the King, then his Dukes, etc. Sure, you might start in a remote location merely defending the town against would be robbers, but if you were good enough, and the King called up all reserves, you might battle in those contests that have come down in history as shifting or keeping power.
Then you get to the Scots and the Irish relative to England. The Scots and Irish would fight for compensation. They were mercenaries and both sides knew that (the English and both of them). They made financial gain as the result of fighting!
Let that sink in.
They did not, however, get a share of the Crown.
(Here’s a side story for you to consider, but move on from: The English used but feared both the Irish and the Scots. The Scots had established a foot hold in Northern Ireland because the Irish were more interested in the other parts of the island and the Scots were latitudinally advantaged up there, especially with easy access from the larger island they shared with England, and England’s claim of right and title to the land. Then the English might have had this realization down in London. Hmm, the Scots and the Irish sometimes help us, but they also can be a pain in the ass, especially if they agree to combine on occasion. Those Scots are not Catholic and neither are we, but they don’t accept our Kings newly created religion. The Irish are tight with the religion we have dethroned in our country. If we want to keep them occupied, what if we got them interested in fighting with each other on an intellectual basis?)
They were largely given food and shelter during the fight, but their income may have rested upon what they scavenged at the end of a victory, or even during a loss. Maybe when they got home, if they obtained enough, they could create their own place there. Perhaps if they were noticed, and had a smart superior above them, as was apparently more common in Scotland, they would be acknowledged at home with some level of value. Anyway, the kingdom could not be kept without them, but they did not have any real equity in the Kingdom.
Here is a given that is illustrated to us all (if we have been paying attention), by The Pandemic. (By the way, let’s just call it that, eh, so it is what it will become in history. No need for Covid or other names, we know, now, what a pandemic is.). Here is the major lesson that was being taught to the world, but which the Pandemic accelerated by about a decade, 5 years at least: The paradigm of the “Boomers”, which has reigned for fifty years, is OVER. The paradigm was going to give up ground as time ticked on, but what The Pandemic has shown is that the “time of happening” has accelerated exponentially (as it has always done), but that exponential travels faster than ever before because of the exponential increase in communication – world wide.
Thoughts can be recorded and shared, on purpose and just casually, almost immediately around the entire freaking world with the stroke of a thumb or finger! This reality allows for people to recognize that the sharing of rewards for contribution to the success of the whole such that having a good place to carry out your years of life is beneficial to all levels affected thereby. The fact that 1% of the living people control at least 80% of all manner of measuring financial control of the planet is becoming exposed to a greater extent and, again, The Pandemic has shown the disparity in a highly focused fashion.
OK, so here is the sports metaphor, as even I am getting tired of this now. In the NBA, the pro sport in which the participants can be clearly seen to be who they are in the process of playing, more so than any other team sport because of proximity, the athletes have risen to the height of receiving 50% of some “net income” figure, but more clearly defined than merely EBITDA. They are the warriors who know get a take of all proceeds of the war. The common man, who is willing to work for in a position that keeps the wheels of society turning will be claiming that same right.
The Hammer: The Mason’s who ended up creating this country, as they existed then, might have been able to see this all, since they can trace their formation back to the entire fighting process I laid out above. Also, they are founded as a Meritocracy. They only need take the next step that the country they created must take based upon the change in “times”. They need to consider a means by which a greater sharing of the proceeds of daily activity, which provides a society in which living is less “cantankerous”, with everyone truly capable of being included, is formed.
Now, I could tell you how that ball has already started rolling, but that is for another day.
I have a stick drive in my vehicle and it provides my “recorded” music. I started out in the AM radio, then 8 track paradigm, so I am still a bit old school, not having a streaming service do my music for me. I always have it on a mode where it skips around the drive for the next song, no real rhyme or reason that I can program.
Anyway, driving yesterday Melancholy Man came on, while I was sitting at a long light such that I got emersed in it. As I took in the words, I realized that for me this fall is the 50th anniversary of my real connection to the words, though I has heard the song for a couple of years before that on the radio. I was a college freshman, living on the top floor of an eight-story dorm, and I put the song on and sat in the window looking out, feet over the edge, but with no intention of jumping, or falling, merely enjoying the fact that I could see a long way, and I had my feet not “on the ground” as the song portends.
I heard the words then, but my life was such that I was not anxious about what life meant and the words were foreign to me, but I was contemplating the message none the less. Heck, I was at that age when my brain started wondering further off the path my parents, teachers, coaches and surrounding environment had presented to me as the sensible choice. The “beam of light” always caught my attention, as ever since I could recall my brain seemed to have presented me with alternatives to the paradigm into which I had been introduced by birth. At that time I had not had much contact with the guy whose life was “caught up in misery”.
Fifty Years later, I am aware of the misery paradigm, not directly for me but adjacent to my space such that I could feel it. Anyone who has been in Arraignment Court routinely knows of the impact of being caught up in misery, and I found it in other places a little closer to home as well. So, take a listen and if you have avoided both misery and those caught up in it, maybe work to adjust your paradigm to create some empathy in that direction.
With the Pandemic and the other changes wrought in the world over the past 50 years, it is clear to me that the wheels of life keeps rolling and the wave of reality created by the rolling is such that there are highs and lows of many different factors. As with the movie of the same name, there are occasions when a Perfect Storm, at which moment multiple different wheels are at their respective “lowest”, and it certainly seems possible that we (the whole human race) are facing such a possibility, with an end result like that of the movie. In such an event, misery will become more widespread than currently appreciated and a greater number will become melancholy. The answer, my friend, may well be blowing in the wind.
That phrase about cards was not made up by a fiction writer, it was used to described the financing model of “Developers”. My introduction to accounting occurred as the result of my practice of Tax Law. My introduction to the role of developers was my effort to get the final 20% or so of my client’s Contract Amount (a term of art) as he approached the completion of construction of a retirement community development. He did not consult me when he entered into the contract, only when he didn’t get paid.
Long story short, when I got my hands on some documents I went right to the closing documents from the day the financing was finalized by which the project actually got started. Immediately, I noted that of the $20mm or so that was secured from commercial lenders, $9mm went out the door immediately to the people that put the deal together. They did nothing much for such money, but the promise of profits issued by the accountants and estimating or assuming certain returns, etc. said to the developers that all would be good – in the long run.
Here is what I have since put together, as it is pretty obvious once you start dancing in the room that this band plays.
In majority of such situations, the original investors face financial hurdles of some significance that are not even alluded to in the “numbers” generated by the bean count measurers in their analysis of what will take place. As a result, if they do not have access to substantially more capital as things roll out, they will be highly strapped for money on the project. Then they face a choice of how to get the cash to finish, or how to fake out everyone until finish is achieved.
I could go on and on, but I don’t have the patience in this medium. HOWEVER, what I see from even a cursory understanding of what Trump’s tax returns show, he is heavily indebted to one or more entities who have not yet been identified. If or When those people want to bring the hammer down on him, he will have NO EQUITY left in any significant property interest upon which he relies to show his wealth. By the way, those owed will have recorded security in their investment, by which Trump has been forced to move from one lender to another for his whole “career”.
His contracts with people that use his name for their hotels show that he is paid for his name and has some rights to staffing choices, but his equity in the properties is limited and will likely extinguish upon the happening of certain events in attachments to the Governing Agreement. Once his name is fully tarnished, the name will loose the value upon which he relies.
Yeah, I know, you don’t get it or believe it. The good lawyers do.
I have cross examined guys like him and they give it up if the right questions are asked. At the end, they think they carried the day, but everyone in the courtroom, Judge, Jury and other counsel, all know that the guy just killed his position in the case. Trump would be like shooting fish in a barrel once he is sworn in.
Here’s a story. This happened probably in the neighborhood of 55 years ago. I was aware of the story, but only upon reflection has the lesson of the story been brought home to me. I thought I would share, as my friend Forest once opined aloud to me, “It’s no good unless you share it.”
Here’s the thing: at the time it happened I merely learned something from the story. But, that was good enough for me as I never insisted on a complete understanding of something my brain took in and assimilated.
The first time I tried water skiing was behind a wooden Chris Craft boat in the bay of Ocean City, NJ. The boat was not quick on the take off as it was heavy and made such that it could take the beating of the ocean while fishing out from the shore. I had fished in that bay for much of my childhood and had caught sting rays, sharks, robin fish, flounder, etc. there. My dad and sister were on the boat and a contemporary of my dad was at the helm. The skis were big wooden things designed to work for a man, and I maybe weighed 115 pounds. The water was not smooth at all and I was pretty much on my own. I was suspect of the helmsman simply because I had observed him repeatedly over time and knew that his reaction speed was minimal. (Turns out he was a classic: the guy who knew what he knew, but in doing something in which he had not been taught often had a void in a key understanding, which had never been resolved by him even if it happened repeatedly.)
I had devised that I should not stand up until I got going pretty fast. The goal was to floor the boat so that happened quick. Instead, helmsman accelerated as he would when fishing, in a relaxed mode. The skis started splitting and because I was still down I couldn’t bend the toes inward and just as they were pretty much past the point of no return, he floored it, I think because my dad told him to (just a few moments too late). I went over the skis, knowing I should let go, but not wanting to on a fundamental level because of the threats of me being at the mercy of the fish world over which I had always been separated from by a boat.
My sister and dad were laughing so much they did not alert the helmsman immediately and his take or feel, given the size of the boat and the low relative difference between me being dragged or skiing, didn’t cue him in as he looked forward. I hung on until I took in my third or fourth gulp of salt water and had to give it up. He only stopped after that, and then they went to retrieve the skis before coming for me.
Here is where I took control over the lesson that would be learned that day, though it was nothing conscious. I think my dad read my body language and allowed me to win the argument we would have otherwise had.
When they drove to me, finally, my dad launched the ski toward me in the water, with the typical thought that I would “get back on the horse that threw me”. That was the standard teaching method for things such as that. Here’s the thing. It wasn’t me and a horse. I had an adult upon whom I was directly dependent and over whom I had NO CONTROL. The boat was kept at his vacation home and he was older than my dad meaning I would have to RELY upon him. That was the lesson I learned that day and by which I was able to override the teaching methodology that almost every other kid would have been comfortable in – even while failing if it came to that. The lesson was that my evaluation of where my reliance would be place was valid and superseded everyone else’s choice in such regard. I would decide the control and reliance I would afford to anyone other than myself.
The thrown ski went right past me as I swam for the ladder and opined in no uncertain terms that I was not participating further. I don’t remember anyone trying to talk me out of it and I presume they read my body language well. I never heard about that day by anyone, so that was good on their part.
The next time I tried water skiing was behind a fast boat with a big engine and a crazy rich kid age 16 driving it. I was a year older and there were no adults around and no one advising me. Got up right away and was doing one ski by the end of the week on the Corps dam lake. Also jumped off a 50+ foot bridge with that crew of kids. So, the getting back on the horse concept might work for 90% of the population, but not for me, which was another good lesson to assimilate. I think that water skiing incident is about the only time I could not do something pretty well the first time I tried it – except girls/women!
OK, I have to try this even though I know I am rolling a big rock up a big hill. My hope is that because of the performance of some particular and peculiar athletes at this point in history, the “anomaly” may be recognized for what they might be. I am speaking of two guys in particular, but they are merely the headline getters. For a team that might well be made up of the same kind of person, I suggest that the Las Vegas hockey team of last year, who made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year of organization may provide a book that can be read. Understanding, it, though, is a whole nother matter.
As I type this I see talking heads on ESPN trying to put Patrick Mahomes in a box that they are comfortable with! And, that ties right into the formation of the Golden Knights hockey team. The same analysis has been applied to Kawhi Leonard.
Each of the players of that team were left off a list of protected players from other teams in the NHL. Well, for those guys out there, there may be some other players picked up by other means, but the bulk of the team were picked from existing teams and represented a choice by the team they were on. That choice had to reflect, to some extent, the evaluation of that team, by those who are in charge of such things, that their remaining value was not as good as others. Heck, the goalie from Pittsburgh had won a Stanley Cup for them. But, and that is the big but, he was clearly an odd ball and had some performances that just bewildered any talking head or metric measurer who cared to look into it.
I presume, that a number of other “selectees” fell into the same category: falling into the odd ball bowl. I will now extempore on the subject about I wish to express myself. There may be science behind some of what I speak, and I don’t have every single fact, so argue away on that. This is pure observational analysis based upon a lifetime of living, which happened to include traveling around the world to solve commercial disagreements of some magnitude. It also includes playing 5 organized sports as a kid, through high school and on through adult life. (I am one of the odd balls of which I speak, but I only recognized how that allowed me to succeed in many different environments, including three distinct foci in the legal profession. Perhaps the door of understanding was opened for me as a foreman in a steel mill.)
Let’s go to the start of a player in a sport. And, I will use basketball because I believe it provides a great example and one that I know. I also know baseball, football, swimming and track & field, but basketball is the same for every player and all of those other sports have the possibility of a specialty that separates one right from the start. I am thinking about 6th grade level starting, but it probably starts earlier now for many, which makes the divide I am about to describe even more emphasized by those who coach and measure progress.
On the very first day of basketball introduction, dribbling and passing/catching will be covered. Much of that will be in a standstill kind of situation, with some focus on dribbling while raising your eyes up to the person instructing the situation. Eventually, though, the primary movement thing that will be taught will be the layup drill. Everyone who had been to a basketball game has seen the layup line for warm up before a game begins, but that line is the principle teacher of how a layup should be made. From the right side you go off your left foot so the right hand can get high. Opposite on the left side. Once that “technique” is shown to the kids, it is repeated over and over. Now, the first thing that those that know will say is that the repetitive nature of the drill teaches “muscle memory”.
Here’s the thing. For the average person. The person who has learned not to trust their instinctive reaction. The person that learns things by being shown by others (sensory learning as opposed to intuitive learning, scientifically). Those with average intelligence and average spatial awareness, etc. The muscle memory is, perhaps, a necessary step. For the odd ball, though, it is merely boring to do something over and over, which you got on the first time you did it. I never realized this myself until reflecting upon the life I lived, and after being asked by my grandson, “Why do you expect me to get something the first time?” My kids never asked me that, so I didn’t get that I picked up new things readily. The first time I fly fished the guy who took me was stunned to learn that I had never tried it before. When I told him that I had seen it on TV he just shook his head. The guy was a classic sensor learner and could not comprehend that my acceptance of intuitive learning allowed for first time awareness.
As a kid, I immediately started experimenting with alternative footwork and handwork during a layup drill. My coaches, I now understand, thought I was goofing off. No, I was allowing for the fact that other people would be trying to stop my layup and my footwork and handwork might have to be adjusted. I did not articulate that to myself, which takes me, and you, into the room in which Mahomes and Leonard are comfortable, I THINK!
When each of us is an infant, the only way we initially learn is by relying upon our instinctive reaction. As soon as we do that we open ourselves to being corrected by parents, or other bigger people responsible for our actions at such time. This eventually extends to teachers and coaches. (Eventually, it gets to “bosses”, but let’s set that aside.) Most people learn to not trust their instinctive reaction to circumstances. To question it, if you will. Perhaps their intuition reaction has proved to be deficient in some respect, in which case they are self taught not to trust it. Heck, that has to happen to some people and I am guessing, based upon a life of living, that that it applies to the majority. Which means that learning to control intuition is a valuable first step for the average person. By observation, everyone now acknowledges that Mahomes and Leonard are NOT AVERAGE. Understanding “why” that is, though, is beyond those that have to accept that trusting intuitive reaction is not a good idea. What, however, if Mahones and Leonard exemplify the person who never had to doubt their intuitive reaction?
Wow, if you can get into that room, now think about what that means. Set aside, for a minute, that both Mahones and Leonard have great physical attributes in support of what their mind conveys to the various muscles that result in movement. Even with other physically adept people in play, there is a factor of “time” that gives a unique and substantive advantage to the person who has no doubt about their intuitive reaction such that they stay out of the way between their brain and their muscles. Think about that for a minute, without trying to put it in a box that you understand. Very few people get to adulthood without learning to question their intuitive reaction, even if for just a split second. Ah, think about that. To question your instinctive reaction, but to decide quickly is a rare thing in itself, and that makes for quicker decisions by those who do so. However, think about that equation without even the need for a decision because “it” was made by your intuitive trust.
Now, the first thing that jumps out is that the person relying upon intuitive reaction will get to the answer quicker. Here, though, is a thought for you: the person who operates purely on intuitive reaction, because it has never let them down, ends up picking a “path” in so doing. Picking a path is better than merely being faster/quicker – because it requires yet another “choice” by anyone who would try to modify what you are doing.
There you go. There is more, but that MAY be why Mahomes and Leonard stand out in ways that around which a bow has not been tied. If so, it is likely that even they are not aware of, or more likely bother to care about, the “why” of their ability to stand out. They merely “do” it and accept it.
I have way more on this subject, so if anyone gets even a hint of understanding, feel free to touch base. (This was typed and published without proofing or review, perhaps Hunter Thompson like.)
I cannot believe that people do not see the steps that Trump has and is taking with respect to my proposition that all he really intends by his term as president is to enhance his status as a “leader” in the circle of people he adores. He wants to be an Oligarch, and thinks of himself as Emperor of the USA.
First, he behaves like a little boy around Putin. Then, he holds up money to Ukraine in defense of the Russians in order to get a personal favor from them. Check out the body language of Trump and the two guys in the exchanges above. Their body language is a dead give away as to how they see him and his is a dead give away as to how he knows he stands with them.
He continues to maintain that everyone else is crazy when they determine that the Saudi Prince was principle agent for the death and cutting up of the journalist – while in Turkey.
Now, he has a call with the Turkish President, almost immediately pulls all US troops out of Syria and Turkey almost immediately attacks. The guy is the most obvious person I have ever witnessed.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE SEE HIS BEHAVIOR FOR WHAT IT IS?
He wants to show other despots that he can take their game to a new level. Why can he do that? Because the USA is the most dominant force in the world and he was given the office with the aide and assistance of what the Russians did. Seriously, if he is not checked, immediately, the impact on the entire world is going to be dramatic. He is giving turf to despots and will expect turf in return, but they will just thumb their noses to him, and it will be too late then.
Pretty soon it will some out that he is in debt to Russians, Chinese and probably Saudi’s as well. Just wait and see. Time to jump off the bus headed to the cliff, let him go alone!
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