Michael's Musings #4 (21.July.2020) - Biology x Basketball
The Third Door, Sturgeon's Law, Systematizing Intimacy, Redefining Productivity & How to Like People
Preamble: I realized that I’ve been living under a rock and haven’t explored all that Twitter has to offer. I now use it daily and love the intellectual community living there. I’d love for us to connect on Twitter!
Source: Quinten de Graaf
There is an old African saying, “When an elder dies, a library burns to the ground.”
When I read that, I'm reminded of the late Kobe Bryant. One of Kobe's greatest contributions to basketball is an obscene attention to detail. He obsesses over what seems to be the most trivial points--Jaysum Tatum catching the ball one step too high, Steph Curry angling James Harden one, or Kevin Durant threading a tight pass off the high post.
Rewatching those clips is difficult—I fucking miss Kobe.
Still, I refuse to believe that Kobe's library has burned down to the ground. It lives on in the modern game--physically manifesting in the footwork of players like DeMar DeRozan and metaphorically in the Mamba Mentality, the never-ending journey of becoming better than you were yesterday.
Another one of Kobe’s gifts to the game is his willingness to look outside basketball for inspiration. Remember, this is the Kobe who took up tap dancing to improve his ankle strength, foot speed, and rhythm. This is the Kobe who studied Bruce Lee's style of martial arts to react quickly while minimizing physical exertion. This is the Kobe who studied how great white sharks hunted seals, all to shut Allen Iverson down. This is the Kobe who lost the 2008 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics and responded by calling conductor John Williams, looking for insight on how to be a better leader.
Taking an interdisciplinary view is a potent way to guarantee innovation. Stanford Interdisciplinary designs its campus to bridge findings from Engineering to Art, from Computer Science to Medicine.
This week, I coupled two pillars in my life—Biology and Basketball—and wrote about how the new wave of superstars arbitrage pattern recognition, an evolutionarily beneficial adaptation, to get buckets.
You better be camping in line for the Biology x Basketball Drop.
Here’s a snippet:
"Off-Foot" Layups
Rhythm is another form of pattern recognition. Do you ever find it interesting that you can hum along to brand new pop songs despite not knowing the words or the artist?
It's because pop songs have a predictable rhythm and you've internalized what they should sound like after jamming out to Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber far too often.
Rhythm is also inherent in basketball. We've all done drills that have pounded into us a musical way of playing basketball. Half your team lines up on the left. Half line up on the right.
Your teammate gives you a pass that lines up the seams for your hands.
Catch. 1-2 step. Layup.
Close your eyes and you can surely remember the rhythm. The pound of the left foot followed by the pound of the right.
Defenders have also integrated this rhythm. They stay in front until they hear the 1-2 step and then they jump, ready to erase a layup from the sky.
What if you disrupted that pattern?
Source: ByAnyMeansBasketball
Luka and Donovan Mitchell are great examples of disrupting rhythm to gain a competitive advantage.
Here, Luka's defender is waiting patiently off to Luka's left. Once Luka takes that second step with his left, he's ready to jump and contest at the rim.
But Luka never takes that step with his left. He goes straight off his right foot.
1 step. Layup. Without the 2, his defender has no chance of catching up.
Luka has to manage a goofy-footed layup, but it's much better than trying to finish through a contest.
🤔 3 Thoughts
Source: Sandra Grunewald
The Third Door:
Alex Banayan didn’t want to be a doctor—that’s what his parents wanted. Alex wanted more—he wanted to be the next Bill Gates. After winning some seed money on The Price is Right, 18-year-old Alex Banayan set out to interview the world’s most successful people.
In his book, The Third Door: The Wild Quest to Uncover How the World’s Most Successful People Launched Their Careers, he learns that finding success is not unlike entering an exclusive nightclub. You know, the 143 in Echo Park, the Mansion of Orange County, or the Arena of KTown (yikes, I’m exposing myself).
There are always two main doors.
You can go through door #1 where the line wraps all the way around the corner. No promises there will be space for you, but wait in line and cross your fingers.
You can also go through door #2 where the Bottle Service and VIP folks have priority. Tell the bouncer your name and your clout will get you through the door.
Alex found that the world’s most successful take the third door. It’s the cracked window that ventilates the nightclub or the kitchen side door where food is delivered. Whatever the third door is, it takes courage and craftiness to open.
My partner and close friends have been job searching for a while now. The first door looks something like finding a position through Indeed:
Jeez. 188 applicants in 14 days for a SINGLE position?!
The second door looks like getting a job in your family business right out of college. The family name won’t carry on without you!
The third door is a bit more crafty. It looks like building out an online presence—the new type of resume. It looks like connecting with industry experts on Twitter. It looks like taking Visual Notes for conversations between smart people and sharing them for the world to learn from. It looks like leveraging your skills and online presence to create your own job like Will Mannon did to become the course manager for David Perrell’s Write of Passage.
Interesting opportunities come about when you accept that there is a third door into the night club. From engaging in the Twitter stratosphere and putting out my writing publically for the last month, I’ve already met potential collaborators from Texas all the way to Toronto.
Whatever you set out to do, remember the doors in. The first door relies on luck, the second door on privilege and I’m not interested in either. Build your own third door.
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Sturgeon’s Law: You Don’t Decide What’s Good
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author. During his career, he noticed that science fiction was often heavily criticized for being low quality. To that, he responded with an adage that is now known as Sturgeon’s Law:
“Ninety percent of everything is crap.”
Austin Kleon, author of Show Your Work!, furthers this saying:
The trouble is, we don’t always know what’s good and what sucks.
You don’t get to decide what’s good.
If you’re a content creator, you put your work out into the public and your audience tells you how they feel.
If you sell a product or service, you put that into the world and the market tells you how valuable it feels it is.
If you’re a basketball player, your defender tells you whether your new move is effective.
If you’re a student, your exams tell you how well you studied this time around (important disclaimer: it doesn’t tell you how ‘smart’ you are).
To improve, we need to get out work in front of the agents that decide whether it’s ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
Have a bias for action. Stop theorizing and start putting things out there.
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Systematizing Intimacy
I have a bootup sequence for my computer. It automatically opens up Roam Research, a Pomodoro Timer, and cuts access to social media for the first 3 hours of the day.
I have a system for creating micro-content for my long-form podcasts. I chop up the podcasts with Da Vinci Resolve, generate transcripts using Otter.Ai, and use Frame.Io to work with my editor.
Systems feel natural in some places and they feel more forced in others.
We may feel comfortable looking at our finances quarterly to rebalance our investments (i.e. curse at ourselves for not doubling down on Tesla/Peloton/Zoom), but we’d feel uncomfortable systematizing relationship troubleshooting.
That’s a complicated phrase, but I’m referring to what Tim Ferriss does with his girlfriend, as talked about on his interview with Ramit Sethi.
Tim has a monthly conversation with his girlfriend—it’s in the calendar—where they discuss things that are important for the longevity of their relationship. It’s a time where they’re prepared to talk about things that make each other uncomfortable.
They start with things they’ve been doing well, things they’ve dropped the ball on, and things they want to improve on. One person records all of the main takeaways and action items for the meeting. Then, all of it goes into Evernote—in reverse chronological order as a constant reminder of the state of their relationship.
Tim Ferriss has built a career out of systematizing improvement, and he’s brought it into the intimacy of his relationship.
I can see the benefit in this—often, relationships get bogged down with similar problems cropping up over and over. I can also already feel myself cringing at the thought of reading an Evernote file with what’s going well in my relationship (e.g. we have a lot of fun watching anime at night) and what’s going poorly in my relationship (e.g. I can often feel unheard).
But perhaps that discomfort is a good thing.
How do you feel about this?
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💬 2 Quotes
On Redefining Productivity:
Productivity is not about optimizing every aspect of your life or being well-versed on the latest and most flashy new app. The point of productivity is to do what brings you pleasure and to have more freedom.
We aren’t machines. We are humans.
To be productive, we all need to balance the logical, technical side with the emotional, intuitive side.- Lauren Valez, Forte Labs
Doing something efficiently is often not as important as doing the right thing.
We often get caught up in the weeds, spending time on things that don’t actually generate results.
I need the cleanest font for this poster.
I need the basketball shoe with the most traction.
I need to rearrange the wording on my resume for the fifth time this week.
There’s often one strategic choice or question that can guide you to only doing the tasks that truly matter. That’s what happened when the British rowing team focused only on answering the question:
Will it make the boat go faster?
If the change made the boat go faster, they did it. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t. There was only one goal.
My message to you this week is really a reminder for myself. There is little to be gained by switching to yet another new app. There is little difference whether I type 140 wpm or 142 wpm.
There are large differences when I choose to create instead of consume. I meet new people, grow creatively, and build my online home.
There are large differences when I choose to treat people like it’s their last day on earth. I listen with more intent and try to make their dreams come true in any way I can.
Focus on what makes a difference. That’s what real productivity is.
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How to Like People:
Derek Sivers realized that this world had far too much information. Many people recommended Michael Pollan’s book: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” but it held 450 pages filled with the history of food… no thanks.
Years later, Pollan would write “Food Rules,” a book that took all of his advice and put it into 64 “just do this” types of advice like:
Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
Avoid food products that make health claims.
That’s all Derek needed because he trusts Michael Pollan. I trust a lot of people too—from my mother to ByAnyMeans Basketball to Ali Abdaal and my partner. Like Derek, if I trust you, all I want you is to “just tell me what to do.”
I want to share the 9 Directives Derek has compressed to teach you “How to Like People.” I trust him, and I think you should, too.
Assume it’s their last day.
Be who you’d be when alone.
Assume men and women are the same.
Always make new friends.
Avoid harming the relationship.
Act calm and kind—regardless of how you feel.
Don’t try to change them—unless they asked you to.
Find wisdom in your opponents.
Purge the vampires—the people who drain you.
❓ 1 Question For You
How can you make someone else’s dream come true?
🙏 Infinite Gratitude
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” – Anonymous
Digging into the archives for this, but a well-deserved congratulations are in order for my friend Sophia, who is heading off to Arizona this week for medical school. Michael’s Militia (pictured below) will dearly miss you. We miss you and will listen to our podcast in perpetuity.
Congratulations to Micah and Katherine on their engagement. I’ve had the pleasure of going to school with the both of them for the last 8 years. I have many fond memories with both of them—individually and collectively. I won’t forget the weekend carpools back home, playing basketball with Katherine’s brother at the park, and the infrequent sightings of the two of them rollerblading. I wish you both a forever future overflowing with an abundance of happiness!
The kindness of students I’ve worked within the past. For those unaware, I decided to leave the Shemmassian Academic Consulting team to focus on writing and building a personal audience. It’s messages like these that remind me I’m helping people in the world. Thank you for the opportunity!
🎙️ This Week on Pass the Mike
Pass the Mike is my solution to information asymmetry in the premed space. This podcast demonstrates to aspiring doctors that medical professionals are just like them. Not only have they failed exams and tore their hair out writing late-night essays, but they also enjoy lives outside of medicine—some referee basketball games and others are on quests to engineer the best chocolate chip cookie.
Every Tuesday and Friday at 5 AM PST, a new episode will drop! Subscribe to the newsletter and our YouTube Channel to be the first to find out!
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Dhiraj Nallapothula - UC Davis MD/PhD Student Talks Medical Tourism and how the Growth Mindset and Internal Locuses of Control can Help Close the Education Gap (#007)
In this episode, I interview Dhiraj Nallapothula, an incoming UC Davis MD/PhD Student. We talk about:We talk about the importance of following your curiosity, why life is too short to spend on things you don't love and we do a deep dive on research he's implemented in 8 different lecture sections at UCLA on growth mindsets and internal locuses of control, finding that it may serve as a strong driver of closing higher education gaps for traditionally marginalized communities.
Following your curiosity (and why it’s not only important but NECESSARY)
Why life is too short to spend on things you don’t love
Research he conducted in 8 different lecture sections at UCLA on growth mindsets and internal loci of control
Practical ways to close the higher education gaps for traditionally marginalized communities
I met Dhiraj during my junior year of high school when we both attended COSMOS at UC Davis. He was also my roommate during my second year of college! I love the guy to bits and I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to share our conversation together.
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Humza Khan - Pre MD/PhD discusses the Crossroads of Science, Politics, and Literature (#008)
In this episode, Nicolas interviews Humza Khan, a rising 4th-year student at UCLA. Humza’s a Reddit aficionado (upvote), mentor, and future MD/Ph.D. applicant. They chat about:
Pros and Cons of Social Media
Polarization of the United States
Literature and lessons that changed his life
Choosing between MD, PhD or MD-PhD when they’re all so enticing
Balancing 20+ hour work weeks in lab as a full-time student
This eclectic conversation is rife with smiles and nuggets of information useful for all premed folks.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. Be sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for even more of my thoughts. I encourage you to reach out and ask me anything!