Billy Oppenheimer
@bpoppenheimer • 111,878 subscribers
research assistant to @ryanholiday and @rickrubin | my writing: https://t.co/uq7u9HbTfQ
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![As he was struggling to break into Hollywood, Matt Damon read about how Quentin Tarantino did it: Essentially, he got a big-name actor (Harvey Keitel) to want to star in Tarantino’s first movie (Reservoir Dogs) then leveraged that to get the movie funded. “And so,” Damon said, “We wrote ‘Good Will Hunting’ and that part that Robin [Williams] eventually took—we called it ‘the Harvey Keitel part.’” “Ben [Affleck] and I wrote the movie specifically because we wanted the parts as actors…But we knew [we needed] a big-name actor who could get us some money because Ben and I were worth nothing. And so we wrote ‘the Harvey Keitel part’ really open-ended. So we could adjust it: if Morgan Freeman or Denzel Washington wanted to come in and play it—we could make that character from Roxbury [a neighborhood in Boston], and we could explore the historic racial tension in Boston. If Meryl Streep took the part—instead of a father-son relationship, we could make it a mother-son relationship. So we really left it open-ended because we wanted to cast as wide a net as possible because we were just trying to get the movie made.” “And then once we got Robin to sign up to do it, that’s really what got us a green light to make it…He changed our lives.” Takeaway 1: In one of my favorite talks, "Runnin' Down A Dream," the venture capitalist Bill Gurley explains that while studying the career trajectories of three of his heroes—the restauranteur Danny Meyer, the coach Bobby Knight, and the musician Bob Dylan—he noticed a pattern: They studied the career trajectories of the icons in their respective industries. Like Damon, they studied how others successfully got their foot in the door then climbed to top of their profession. And then, they took similar steps towards doing the same. Coincidentally, Tarantino did this too. He made scrap books for each of his favorite filmmakers: Brian De Palma, Howard Hawks, Douglas Sirk, and Martin Scorsese. "I was like a film historian," Tarantino said. "I was obsessed with studying how they did it, the evolution of their careers." "Greatness isn't random," as Gurley puts it. Instead, it's usually a predictable step along a studied path of strategically modified emulation and, of course, determination. Takeaway 2: In the clip above, Damon goes on to explain that, not only did Robin Williams sign on to be in "Good Will Hunting," he also went off script and improvised one of the most iconic lines ("Son of a bitch, he stole my line") in the movie. It reminded me of something Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull writes in his book, Creativity. Inc.: "Getting the right people is more important than getting the right idea…If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better." - - - “Bob Dylan said, 'I'm a musical expeditionary.' I looked up 'expeditionary'—it's to travel for scientific research or exploration. And that's what Dylan did...For hours upon hours upon hours, he studied what other artists did. He was a mimic. He was studying, studying, studying.” — Bill Gurley Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1725583869011796289/amplify_video_thumb/1725582501249228800/img/xDCqoa2MA4l4-ObP.jpg)
As he was struggling to break into Hollywood, Matt Damon read about how Quentin Tarantino did it: Essentially, he got a big-name actor (Harvey Keitel) to want to star in Tarantino’s first movie (Reservoir Dogs) then leveraged that to get the movie funded. “And so,” Damon said, “We wrote ‘Good Will Hunting’ and that part that Robin [Williams] eventually took—we called it ‘the Harvey Keitel part.’” “Ben [Affleck] and I wrote the movie specifically because we wanted the parts as actors…But we knew [we needed] a big-name actor who could get us some money because Ben and I were worth nothing. And so we wrote ‘the Harvey Keitel part’ really open-ended. So we could adjust it: if Morgan Freeman or Denzel Washington wanted to come in and play it—we could make that character from Roxbury [a neighborhood in Boston], and we could explore the historic racial tension in Boston. If Meryl Streep took the part—instead of a father-son relationship, we could make it a mother-son relationship. So we really left it open-ended because we wanted to cast as wide a net as possible because we were just trying to get the movie made.” “And then once we got Robin to sign up to do it, that’s really what got us a green light to make it…He changed our lives.” Takeaway 1: In one of my favorite talks, "Runnin' Down A Dream," the venture capitalist Bill Gurley explains that while studying the career trajectories of three of his heroes—the restauranteur Danny Meyer, the coach Bobby Knight, and the musician Bob Dylan—he noticed a pattern: They studied the career trajectories of the icons in their respective industries. Like Damon, they studied how others successfully got their foot in the door then climbed to top of their profession. And then, they took similar steps towards doing the same. Coincidentally, Tarantino did this too. He made scrap books for each of his favorite filmmakers: Brian De Palma, Howard Hawks, Douglas Sirk, and Martin Scorsese. "I was like a film historian," Tarantino said. "I was obsessed with studying how they did it, the evolution of their careers." "Greatness isn't random," as Gurley puts it. Instead, it's usually a predictable step along a studied path of strategically modified emulation and, of course, determination. Takeaway 2: In the clip above, Damon goes on to explain that, not only did Robin Williams sign on to be in "Good Will Hunting," he also went off script and improvised one of the most iconic lines ("Son of a bitch, he stole my line") in the movie. It reminded me of something Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull writes in his book, Creativity. Inc.: "Getting the right people is more important than getting the right idea…If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better." - - - “Bob Dylan said, 'I'm a musical expeditionary.' I looked up 'expeditionary'—it's to travel for scientific research or exploration. And that's what Dylan did...For hours upon hours upon hours, he studied what other artists did. He was a mimic. He was studying, studying, studying.” — Bill Gurley Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer8,482,723 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
![In the back of a comedy club, a struggling comedian got a chance to talk to Jerry Seinfeld. He said he’d been struggling and sacrificing for about 10 years to “make it” as a comedian. Approaching his 30s, he was worried he’d taken the wrong path. Seinfeld gave him this advice: “This [pointing at the stage] is such a special thing,” Seinfeld says. “This has nothing to do with ‘making it.’” “But did you ever stop and compare your life?” the struggling comedian says. “I see my friends, and they’re making a lot of money. They’re moving up. They’re all married. They’re all having kids. They have houses. They have a sense of normality.” Seinfeld makes a disgusted face and then says, “let me tell you a story. This is my favorite story about show business.” “Glenn Miller's orchestra is doing a gig...They can't land the plane because it's winter, a snowy night—they have to land in this field and walk to the gig. They're dressed in their suits. They’re carrying their instruments. They’re walking through the snow—it's wet and slushy. And in the distance they see this little house…They go up to the house and look in the window. Inside they see this family. There's a guy and his wife—she’s beautiful. There's two kids, and they're all sitting around the table. They’re smiling. They're laughing. There's a fire in the fireplace... These guys are standing there in their suits. They're wet and shivering, holding their instruments, and they're watching this incredible Norman Rockwell scene. And one guy turns to another guy and goes, 'How do people live like that?' That's what it's about.” Takeaway 1: Comparison, it is said, is the thief of joy. James Altucher has written about a cure for comparison. Usually, when we compare ourselves to someone, we compare ourselves to a select few aspects of their life (their house, their good looks, or their professional success, etc.). Instead, James writes, “picture that you can change places in every way with them. But then it’s forever...Would you do it.” Usually—as Seinfeld’s story illustrates—the answer is…no, you wouldn’t want their whole life. Takeaway 2: One of the differences between Seinfeld and the struggling comedian is the way in which they view comedy. The struggling comedian sees comedy as a means to some end—there’s some amount of money or celebrity that would make him feel like he “made it.” For Seinfeld, comedy is an end in itself. “[It] has nothing to do with ‘making it,’” as he said. For Seinfeld, as Ryan Holiday once told me, “The work is the win.” - - - “The set I get to do tonight at 7:20 PM is the win. I get to do comedy—I won. It being predicated on doing X or being bigger than Y—no, no, no. To me, it’s always just been about the work. I’m on house money, full-time.” — Hasan Minhaj Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1657074620174925824/amplify_video_thumb/1657074521151504407/img/4aY3ppbPXNWk2JnI.jpg)
In the back of a comedy club, a struggling comedian got a chance to talk to Jerry Seinfeld. He said he’d been struggling and sacrificing for about 10 years to “make it” as a comedian. Approaching his 30s, he was worried he’d taken the wrong path. Seinfeld gave him this advice: “This [pointing at the stage] is such a special thing,” Seinfeld says. “This has nothing to do with ‘making it.’” “But did you ever stop and compare your life?” the struggling comedian says. “I see my friends, and they’re making a lot of money. They’re moving up. They’re all married. They’re all having kids. They have houses. They have a sense of normality.” Seinfeld makes a disgusted face and then says, “let me tell you a story. This is my favorite story about show business.” “Glenn Miller's orchestra is doing a gig...They can't land the plane because it's winter, a snowy night—they have to land in this field and walk to the gig. They're dressed in their suits. They’re carrying their instruments. They’re walking through the snow—it's wet and slushy. And in the distance they see this little house…They go up to the house and look in the window. Inside they see this family. There's a guy and his wife—she’s beautiful. There's two kids, and they're all sitting around the table. They’re smiling. They're laughing. There's a fire in the fireplace... These guys are standing there in their suits. They're wet and shivering, holding their instruments, and they're watching this incredible Norman Rockwell scene. And one guy turns to another guy and goes, 'How do people live like that?' That's what it's about.” Takeaway 1: Comparison, it is said, is the thief of joy. James Altucher has written about a cure for comparison. Usually, when we compare ourselves to someone, we compare ourselves to a select few aspects of their life (their house, their good looks, or their professional success, etc.). Instead, James writes, “picture that you can change places in every way with them. But then it’s forever...Would you do it.” Usually—as Seinfeld’s story illustrates—the answer is…no, you wouldn’t want their whole life. Takeaway 2: One of the differences between Seinfeld and the struggling comedian is the way in which they view comedy. The struggling comedian sees comedy as a means to some end—there’s some amount of money or celebrity that would make him feel like he “made it.” For Seinfeld, comedy is an end in itself. “[It] has nothing to do with ‘making it,’” as he said. For Seinfeld, as Ryan Holiday once told me, “The work is the win.” - - - “The set I get to do tonight at 7:20 PM is the win. I get to do comedy—I won. It being predicated on doing X or being bigger than Y—no, no, no. To me, it’s always just been about the work. I’m on house money, full-time.” — Hasan Minhaj Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer7,064,999 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
At a show on his Solo Tour, John Mayer confessed: “I wait for most things to be over. I wait for this to be over to do the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing...” To counter this tendency, he implemented a rule. “Because I’ve realized, he said, “Everything you love and hate leaves at the same speed: Done. Done. Done. The thing you hate that you have to do tomorrow will be over before you know it, and the thing you're looking forward to tomorrow will be over before you know it.” “So I have a new rule in my life,” Mayer said, “and the rule is: Never wish for less time. Waiting for things to be over is just wishing for less time. Waiting for this to be over to get to the next thing—that's just wishing for less time.” “So wherever you go, just make a home right there and do that thing…Wherever you are, go, 'this is where it's all at right now.' I’ve been having the time of my life because I figured that out…” Takeaway 1: John's realization—that “everything you love and hate leaves at the same speed”—made me think of something that Dr. Anna Lembke writes about in her book Dopamine Nation: “One of the most remarkable neuroscientific findings in the past century is that the brain processes pleasure and pain in the same place. Further, pleasure and pain work like opposite sides of a balance.” “And one of the overriding rules governing this balance,” she said, “is that it wants to stay level…With any deviation from neutrality, the brain will work very hard to restore a level balance—what scientists call ‘homeostasis.’ … With any stimulus to one side, there will be a tip of an equal and opposite amount to the other side.” Pain and pleasure, good days and bad days, the things you're dreading and the things you're looking forward to—everything leaves at the same speed. Takeaway 2: The brain’s tendency to think about the next thing is called “prospection.” “Our brains were made for nexting,” the psychologist Daniel Gilbert writes in a chapter titled “Prospection” in his book Stumbling On Happiness. “When researchers count the items that float along in the average person’s stream of consciousness, they find that about 12 percent of our daily thoughts are about the future.” In other words, the average person spends 1 out of every 8 hours thinking about the next thing, “which is to say…each of us is a part-time resident of tomorrow.” We are constantly nexting, Gilbert explains, because of “the illusion of foresight”—the illusion that “prospection can provide pleasure and prevent pain.” The reality is that “the future is fundamentally different than it appears through the prospectiscope.” The reality is that (whether through the prospectiscope or in the present) everything—pain and pleasure, the things you're dreading and the things you're looking forward to—leaves at the same speed. - - - “So wherever you go, just make a home right there and do that thing…Wherever you are, go, 'this is where it's all at right now.' ... I’ve been having the time of my life because I figured that out...” — John Mayer Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer3,006,163 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
![Early in his pro tennis career, Andre Agassi couldn’t beat a player named Boris Becker. Agassi particularly struggled with Becker’s serve. “His serve was something the game had never seen before,” Agassi explained. Studying film of Becker, “I started to realize,” Agassi said, “He had this weird tick with his tongue. I’m not kidding. He would go into his rocking motion, and just as he was about to toss the ball, he would stick his tongue out. It would either be right in the middle of his lip or to the left corner of his lip.” If in the middle of his lip, Becker would serve the ball up the middle. If to the side, he would serve the ball to the side. After he learned the way Becker revealed himself with a tongue tick, Agassi said, “The hardest part wasn’t returning his serve. The hardest part was not letting him know that I knew this. I had to resist the temptation of reading his serve for the majority of the match, and instead, choose the moments when I was going to use that information on a given point to execute a shot that would allow me to break the match open.” Agassi won 9 out of the next 11 matches against Becker. After Becker retired in 1999, over a beer, Agassi said to Becker, “By the way, did you know you used to do this with your serve?” Agassi said, “He about fell off the chair. And then he said, ‘I used to go home all the time and tell my wife, it’s like he reads my mind! Little did I know you were just reading my tongue.’” Takeaway 1: In a collection of biographies of prominent Greeks and Romans, the ancient historian Plutarch writes, “In the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice…Indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes the greatest revelation.” Similarly, in the Acknowledgments at the end of his book, “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz,” Erik Larson writes that when he began his research for the book, “I set out to hunt for the stories that often get left out of the massive biographies of Churchill [because] they seem too frivolous. But it is in frivolity, in the little moments, that Churchill often revealed himself.” In the frivolity, in the little moments, in a small thing like a phrase, a jest, or a tongue tick—often, much is revealed. Takeaway 2: In his book, “Creativity, Inc.,” Pixar co-founder writes about one of the principles that guided him in life and in business: “When faced with a challenge, get smarter.” Agassi began to study Becker because, after yet another loss to him in the semifinals of the 1988 Indian Wells Open, Agassi writes, “I promise myself I won’t lose to him the next time we meet.” To make good on that promise, he knew he didn't need to get better. He needed to get smarter. “Tennis is about problem-solving,” Agassi says after telling the Becker story. “And the more you understand...the more problems you can solve—in life and in business.” In sports, in business, in life—when faced with a challenge, get smarter. - - - “Knowledge [is] like gold—a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine.” — Robert Greene Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1778115633193930830/amplify_video_thumb/1778115378767425536/img/KcRfK8pg9jghNDdp.jpg)
Early in his pro tennis career, Andre Agassi couldn’t beat a player named Boris Becker. Agassi particularly struggled with Becker’s serve. “His serve was something the game had never seen before,” Agassi explained. Studying film of Becker, “I started to realize,” Agassi said, “He had this weird tick with his tongue. I’m not kidding. He would go into his rocking motion, and just as he was about to toss the ball, he would stick his tongue out. It would either be right in the middle of his lip or to the left corner of his lip.” If in the middle of his lip, Becker would serve the ball up the middle. If to the side, he would serve the ball to the side. After he learned the way Becker revealed himself with a tongue tick, Agassi said, “The hardest part wasn’t returning his serve. The hardest part was not letting him know that I knew this. I had to resist the temptation of reading his serve for the majority of the match, and instead, choose the moments when I was going to use that information on a given point to execute a shot that would allow me to break the match open.” Agassi won 9 out of the next 11 matches against Becker. After Becker retired in 1999, over a beer, Agassi said to Becker, “By the way, did you know you used to do this with your serve?” Agassi said, “He about fell off the chair. And then he said, ‘I used to go home all the time and tell my wife, it’s like he reads my mind! Little did I know you were just reading my tongue.’” Takeaway 1: In a collection of biographies of prominent Greeks and Romans, the ancient historian Plutarch writes, “In the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice…Indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes the greatest revelation.” Similarly, in the Acknowledgments at the end of his book, “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz,” Erik Larson writes that when he began his research for the book, “I set out to hunt for the stories that often get left out of the massive biographies of Churchill [because] they seem too frivolous. But it is in frivolity, in the little moments, that Churchill often revealed himself.” In the frivolity, in the little moments, in a small thing like a phrase, a jest, or a tongue tick—often, much is revealed. Takeaway 2: In his book, “Creativity, Inc.,” Pixar co-founder writes about one of the principles that guided him in life and in business: “When faced with a challenge, get smarter.” Agassi began to study Becker because, after yet another loss to him in the semifinals of the 1988 Indian Wells Open, Agassi writes, “I promise myself I won’t lose to him the next time we meet.” To make good on that promise, he knew he didn't need to get better. He needed to get smarter. “Tennis is about problem-solving,” Agassi says after telling the Becker story. “And the more you understand...the more problems you can solve—in life and in business.” In sports, in business, in life—when faced with a challenge, get smarter. - - - “Knowledge [is] like gold—a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine.” — Robert Greene Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer2,484,705 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
![I think about this twice a day. Every morning when I sit down to read & then when I sit down to write, I say to myself, "Accept the initial agitation." When you try to focus, Andrew Huberman explains, "the brain circuits that turn on first are of the stress system." Meaning: "The agitation and stress that you feel at the beginning of something—when you're trying to lean into it and you can't focus—is just a recognized gate. You have to pass through that gate to get to the focus component." There's a common misconception, Huberman continues, "The misunderstanding around how certain brain circuits work has led to this idea that there's some secret entry point—maybe marked 'flow' on the door—and there's a trampoline up to that door, and you just open that door, and you're immediately in [a deep state of focus]. And nothing could be further from the truth." The truth is: "There is a gate of entry. You have to wade through some sewage before you can swim in clear water. That's the way I always think about it." I once told Andrew that I say to myself, "accept the initial agitation," every time I sit down to read or write, and he said, "the agitation is indeed the doorway to the whole process." - - - The clip below is from Andrew's 2020 interview on Rich Roll's podcast (](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1734688163552260192/amplify_video_thumb/1734687902729195520/img/Ijq6WIeyPvuDQa7t.jpg)
I think about this twice a day. Every morning when I sit down to read & then when I sit down to write, I say to myself, "Accept the initial agitation." When you try to focus, Andrew Huberman explains, "the brain circuits that turn on first are of the stress system." Meaning: "The agitation and stress that you feel at the beginning of something—when you're trying to lean into it and you can't focus—is just a recognized gate. You have to pass through that gate to get to the focus component." There's a common misconception, Huberman continues, "The misunderstanding around how certain brain circuits work has led to this idea that there's some secret entry point—maybe marked 'flow' on the door—and there's a trampoline up to that door, and you just open that door, and you're immediately in [a deep state of focus]. And nothing could be further from the truth." The truth is: "There is a gate of entry. You have to wade through some sewage before you can swim in clear water. That's the way I always think about it." I once told Andrew that I say to myself, "accept the initial agitation," every time I sit down to read or write, and he said, "the agitation is indeed the doorway to the whole process." - - - The clip below is from Andrew's 2020 interview on Rich Roll's podcast (
Billy Oppenheimer2,693,712 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
![In 1997, at the age of 27, Matt Damon won his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay ("Good Will Hunting"). After Damon won the Oscar, he went home, sat down on his sofa, & looked at the award. As he looked at it, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a heartbreaking thought. "Imagine chasing that, and not getting it, and getting it finally in your 80s or your 90s with all of life behind you and realizing what an unbelievable waste of your life...It can't fill you up. If that's a hole that you have, that won't fill it." "My heart broke," Damon said. "I imagined another one of me [not getting that award until I was] an old man, and going like, 'oh my god. where did my life go? What have I done?' And then it's over." Takeaway 1: Many successful, rich, famous, etc. people talk about chasing success, money, fame, etc., getting it, and realizing that it didn't feel like they thought it would. That it didn't, as Damon said, fill the hole they had. One of my favorite analogies for this pattern comes from Sam Hinkie. Hinkie was asked about what he's learned from reading Robert Caro's books—about some very successful, rich, famous, etc. people. "I think of it like the Pacific Salmon," Hinkie said. "They spend their whole life making this journey upstream to spawn in this one spot. And as soon as they do, they die. That's largely what Caro shows you." Takeaway 2: Before he was a big-time comedian, Hasan Minhaj was asked if he thought he was going to become a big-time comedian. “I don’t like that question,” he said. “I fundamentally don’t like that question.” Because that question implies that he is only doing comedy as a means to some end (success, money, fame, etc.). “No, no, no,” he said, “The set I get to do tonight at 7:20 PM is the win. I get to do comedy—I won. It being predicated on doing X or being bigger than Y—no, no, no. To me, it’s always just been about the work." "The work is the win," as Ryan Holiday once told me. - - - "It's such a gift to be able to [do] something and to love it for the sake of it...I see people with talent, with all those things. But the one thing they don't have is just that love for doing it for the sake of it...So if there's anything, just find joy in what you do for the sake of it." — Rodney Mullen Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1655288185642012674/amplify_video_thumb/1655287895060611081/img/0PBPKIczysTsU5Gx.jpg)
In 1997, at the age of 27, Matt Damon won his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay ("Good Will Hunting"). After Damon won the Oscar, he went home, sat down on his sofa, & looked at the award. As he looked at it, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a heartbreaking thought. "Imagine chasing that, and not getting it, and getting it finally in your 80s or your 90s with all of life behind you and realizing what an unbelievable waste of your life...It can't fill you up. If that's a hole that you have, that won't fill it." "My heart broke," Damon said. "I imagined another one of me [not getting that award until I was] an old man, and going like, 'oh my god. where did my life go? What have I done?' And then it's over." Takeaway 1: Many successful, rich, famous, etc. people talk about chasing success, money, fame, etc., getting it, and realizing that it didn't feel like they thought it would. That it didn't, as Damon said, fill the hole they had. One of my favorite analogies for this pattern comes from Sam Hinkie. Hinkie was asked about what he's learned from reading Robert Caro's books—about some very successful, rich, famous, etc. people. "I think of it like the Pacific Salmon," Hinkie said. "They spend their whole life making this journey upstream to spawn in this one spot. And as soon as they do, they die. That's largely what Caro shows you." Takeaway 2: Before he was a big-time comedian, Hasan Minhaj was asked if he thought he was going to become a big-time comedian. “I don’t like that question,” he said. “I fundamentally don’t like that question.” Because that question implies that he is only doing comedy as a means to some end (success, money, fame, etc.). “No, no, no,” he said, “The set I get to do tonight at 7:20 PM is the win. I get to do comedy—I won. It being predicated on doing X or being bigger than Y—no, no, no. To me, it’s always just been about the work." "The work is the win," as Ryan Holiday once told me. - - - "It's such a gift to be able to [do] something and to love it for the sake of it...I see people with talent, with all those things. But the one thing they don't have is just that love for doing it for the sake of it...So if there's anything, just find joy in what you do for the sake of it." — Rodney Mullen Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer3,256,394 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
I think about this twice a day. Every morning when I sit down to read & again when I begin to work, I say to myself, “Accept the initial agitation.” When you try to focus, Andrew Huberman explains, “the brain circuits that turn on first are of the stress system.” Meaning: “The agitation and stress that you feel at the beginning of something—when you’re trying to lean into it and you can’t focus: you feel agitated and your mind’s jumping all over the place—that is just a gate. You have to pass through that gate to get to the focus component.” There’s a common misconception, Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D. continues: “the misunderstanding around how these brain circuits work has led to this idea...a kind of obsession with the idea that we have to feel good in order to be productive.” “And nothing could be further from the truth.” The truth is it’s the reverse: we have to be productive—we have to start working, we have to lean in and get going, accepting the initial agitation—in order to feel good. So along with “accept the initial agitation,” sometimes—when I don’t feel especially good, motivated, interested, or energized—I say to myself, “Forget how you feel right now.” “It will feel good,” Huberman says, “but there’s a whole staircase in which it feels kind of lousy...The early stages of hard work and focus are always going to feels like agitation, stress, and confusion.” “Remember: there’s a gate of entry. You have to wade through some sewage before you can swim in clear water. That’s the way I always think about it.” - - - “Mood follows action.” — richroll The clip below is from Andrew’s 2020 interview on Rich’s podcast (
Billy Oppenheimer1,406,493 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
![After his second year at Michigan, Tom Brady wanted to transfer. He wasn’t playing in games, and he was so low on the depth chart that he only got 2 reps in practice. Brady met with his coach to express his frustration, “The other quarterbacks get all the reps.” Coach replied, “Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. All you do is worry about what the starter is doing, what the second guy is doing, what everyone else is doing. You don’t worry about what you’re doing.” Coach reminded him, “You came here to be the best. If you’re going to be the best, you have to beat out the best.” And then he recommended that Brady meet Greg Harden, a counselor who worked in the athletic department. Brady went to Harden’s office and whined, “I’m never going to get my chance. They’re only giving me 2 reps.” Harden replied, “Just go out there and focus on doing the best you can with those 2 reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can.” “So that’s what I did,” Brady said. “They’d put me in for those 2 reps, man, I’d sprint out there like it was Super Bowl 39. ‘Let’s go boys! Here we go! What play we got?’” “And I started to do really well with those 2 reps. Because I brought enthusiasm, I brought energy.” Soon, he was getting 4 reps. Then 10, “and before you knew it,” Brady said, “with this new mindset that Greg had instilled in me—to focus on what you can control, to focus on what you’re getting, not what anyone else is getting, to treat every rep like it’s the Super Bowl—eventually, I became the starter.” Takeaway 1: Greg Harden telling Brady to focus on being great during his 2 reps reminded me of a piece of advice from the entrepreneur Mark Cuban. “People come to me all the time and tell me they’re stuck,” Cuban explained. “They’re stuck in a job they don't like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They're stuck on a team they don't like.” “I just tell them, ‘Be great.’” “The reality of life is that you can’t just always quit your job. You can’t just always go to your boss and say, ‘Give me the promotion, or I’m out of here.’” You can’t just always go to your coach and say, ‘Give me more reps, or I'm transferring.’ “So when you’re stuck, you’ve gotta find it within yourself to say, ‘Ok, this is where I am. And if I’m going to be here, I’m going to be great.’ Because if you’re great at your job, typically other people and companies find out, so it creates opportunities.” Takeaway 2: In the field of strategic management, there is a distinction made between “lead measures” and “lag measures.” Lag measures are the results you’re trying to achieve: getting a promotion, winning a championship, being the starting quarterback. Lead measures are the actions that predictably drive those results. The core characteristic of a lead measure, the authors of “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” write, is that “a lead measure can be directly influenced by you.” To achieve your goals, they write (echoing what the Michigan Coach told Brady), “apply a disproportionate energy” to the things that are in your control. Starting at Michigan and for the rest of his career, that’s what Brady did. After he was selected by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, Brady was asked: “Are you aware that [along with starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe] there’s another quarterback here that they drafted last year?” Brady said he was aware of that, “and I know he’s a heck of a player. But I’ve always concerned myself just with the things I can control. I don’t put a lot of thinking into the other guys because I know I’m not at my best when I’m not just thinking about playing as well as I possibly can.” - - - “I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. Ever. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. I learned that in college. It didn’t matter what the other guys were doing. It didn’t. It mattered what I was doing.” — Tom Brady](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1889420652937093254/amplify_video_thumb/1889420299851980800/img/oD1eK98V6-V5uyRP.jpg)
After his second year at Michigan, Tom Brady wanted to transfer. He wasn’t playing in games, and he was so low on the depth chart that he only got 2 reps in practice. Brady met with his coach to express his frustration, “The other quarterbacks get all the reps.” Coach replied, “Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. All you do is worry about what the starter is doing, what the second guy is doing, what everyone else is doing. You don’t worry about what you’re doing.” Coach reminded him, “You came here to be the best. If you’re going to be the best, you have to beat out the best.” And then he recommended that Brady meet Greg Harden, a counselor who worked in the athletic department. Brady went to Harden’s office and whined, “I’m never going to get my chance. They’re only giving me 2 reps.” Harden replied, “Just go out there and focus on doing the best you can with those 2 reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can.” “So that’s what I did,” Brady said. “They’d put me in for those 2 reps, man, I’d sprint out there like it was Super Bowl 39. ‘Let’s go boys! Here we go! What play we got?’” “And I started to do really well with those 2 reps. Because I brought enthusiasm, I brought energy.” Soon, he was getting 4 reps. Then 10, “and before you knew it,” Brady said, “with this new mindset that Greg had instilled in me—to focus on what you can control, to focus on what you’re getting, not what anyone else is getting, to treat every rep like it’s the Super Bowl—eventually, I became the starter.” Takeaway 1: Greg Harden telling Brady to focus on being great during his 2 reps reminded me of a piece of advice from the entrepreneur Mark Cuban. “People come to me all the time and tell me they’re stuck,” Cuban explained. “They’re stuck in a job they don't like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They're stuck on a team they don't like.” “I just tell them, ‘Be great.’” “The reality of life is that you can’t just always quit your job. You can’t just always go to your boss and say, ‘Give me the promotion, or I’m out of here.’” You can’t just always go to your coach and say, ‘Give me more reps, or I'm transferring.’ “So when you’re stuck, you’ve gotta find it within yourself to say, ‘Ok, this is where I am. And if I’m going to be here, I’m going to be great.’ Because if you’re great at your job, typically other people and companies find out, so it creates opportunities.” Takeaway 2: In the field of strategic management, there is a distinction made between “lead measures” and “lag measures.” Lag measures are the results you’re trying to achieve: getting a promotion, winning a championship, being the starting quarterback. Lead measures are the actions that predictably drive those results. The core characteristic of a lead measure, the authors of “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” write, is that “a lead measure can be directly influenced by you.” To achieve your goals, they write (echoing what the Michigan Coach told Brady), “apply a disproportionate energy” to the things that are in your control. Starting at Michigan and for the rest of his career, that’s what Brady did. After he was selected by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, Brady was asked: “Are you aware that [along with starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe] there’s another quarterback here that they drafted last year?” Brady said he was aware of that, “and I know he’s a heck of a player. But I’ve always concerned myself just with the things I can control. I don’t put a lot of thinking into the other guys because I know I’m not at my best when I’m not just thinking about playing as well as I possibly can.” - - - “I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. Ever. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. I learned that in college. It didn’t matter what the other guys were doing. It didn’t. It mattered what I was doing.” — Tom Brady
Billy Oppenheimer1,354,312 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
At one point, Matthew McConaughey had his acting career, his family, a foundation, a film production company, and a record company. In 2008, he shut down the production company and the record label. "I was making B’s in 5 things," he said. "I want to make A's in three things." By shutting down the production company and the music label, McConaughey said, "I did start making much better grades, so to speak, in those 3 things." “Alright, alright, alright.” Takeaway 1: “If you seek tranquillity,” the philosopher King Marcus Aurelius wrote, “do less.” And then he points out that doing less "brings a double satisfaction." You get the satisfaction of having fewer things on your to-do list. And you get the satisfaction of doing those fewer things at a higher level. You get "to do less, better." Takeaway 2: Shutting down the production company and the music label, McConaughey said, was hard to do. He liked having a production company and a music label. It reminds me of the legendary Apple designer Jony Ive's definition of focus: “What focus means is saying no to something that you—with every bone in your body—think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you’re focusing on something else.” Focus requires sacrifice. Making A's, so to speak, requires saying no to things you like and want to do because you’re saying yes to things you love and have to do. - - - "You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another—intensity defeats extensity every time...As Schopenhauer wrote, 'Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity.'" — Robert Greene Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer2,857,056 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
During the filming of "Forrest Gump," director Bob Zemeckis realized he had a problem: The kid cast to play the young Forrest had a thick accent—sounding nothing like the way Tom Hanks was portraying the adult Forrest. Hanks' simple solution would define the iconic character: "Bob said, 'We got a problem here, you have to teach this kid how to talk the way you talk,'" Hanks says. "And I thought, 'Why don't I just talk the way he talks?'" The kid was from Mississippi and had a thick Southern accent. The iconic Forrest Gump accent and mannerisms were simply a result of Tom Hanks imitating the kid. Takeaway 1: The iconic characterization of Forrest Gump was a solution to a problem. Creativity is often forced out of necessity like this. The iconic POV scenes in Jaws, for instance, were also a solution to a problem: the mechanical shark broke. So director Steven Spielberg had no choice but to film the movie without his main character. Takeaway 2: One of the hottest actors in Hollywood, Hanks could have demanded they find another kid or that the kid figure out how to sound like Hanks. Instead, Hanks adapted and adopted the kid’s speech and mannerisms. Jerry Seinfeld talks about how great artists are like slalom skiers. “I always say, ‘If I’m the skier Lindsey Vonn, I don’t care where you put the gates on the mountain. Put ‘em anywhere you want. I’m going to make the gates.’” Seinfeld continues, "That’s how you have to think: ‘I don’t care what happens, I’m going to adjust to it.’” - - - "Creativity and adaptability are inseparable." — Robert Greene Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer2,728,231 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
![This is one of the greatest displays of the creative process I've seen. John Mayer perfectly demonstrates something that many of my favorite artists all say: You become creative by creating. "You just keep going 'til you get something," Mayer says/sings. "You gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it…it doesn’t matter [what comes out of your mind/mouth].” Dr. Andrew Huberman talks about how the brain circuits that turn on before those involved in creativity are of the stress system. I've heard him use 3 analogies to explain this. 1) It’s like you have to wade through sewage before you can swim in clear water. 2) It’s like when you try to lift your max on the bench press—it takes time to work up to that weight. 3) It’s like your best creative work is on the other side of a door at the top of a staircase—it takes time and effort to get up the stairs and through that door. In other words, Dr. Huberman says, you become more creative the more you create. Many artists talk similarly about what Mayer refers to in the clip as "ouija boarding" (just sort of spitting out words and sounds). John Legend says his songs start with what he calls “the mumble track.” “It’s just me humming and mumbling nonsense,” he said. Judd Apatow says his movie scripts are all a product of the Down-Up theory: “Get the ideas DOWN then fix them UP.” “Give yourself permission to suck," Judd says. "Anything goes. Just get something down.” Even if it’s nonsense, he says. Keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it. - - - Before I started writing online, I told Ryan Holiday I was just waiting to know for certain what I wanted to write about. “Just start," he said. "You’re trying to map out the whole 9 innings. Just throw the first pitch…You’re better off starting imperfectly than being paralyzed by the delusion of perfection.” Rather than being paralyzed by the delusion that creativity comes to you, you're better off "forcing it, forcing it, forcing it," as Mayer said. "Go get it from the universe." Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1647000062617088000/amplify_video_thumb/1646999414395863040/img/X2RKMwX8W5POHkkR.jpg)
This is one of the greatest displays of the creative process I've seen. John Mayer perfectly demonstrates something that many of my favorite artists all say: You become creative by creating. "You just keep going 'til you get something," Mayer says/sings. "You gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it…it doesn’t matter [what comes out of your mind/mouth].” Dr. Andrew Huberman talks about how the brain circuits that turn on before those involved in creativity are of the stress system. I've heard him use 3 analogies to explain this. 1) It’s like you have to wade through sewage before you can swim in clear water. 2) It’s like when you try to lift your max on the bench press—it takes time to work up to that weight. 3) It’s like your best creative work is on the other side of a door at the top of a staircase—it takes time and effort to get up the stairs and through that door. In other words, Dr. Huberman says, you become more creative the more you create. Many artists talk similarly about what Mayer refers to in the clip as "ouija boarding" (just sort of spitting out words and sounds). John Legend says his songs start with what he calls “the mumble track.” “It’s just me humming and mumbling nonsense,” he said. Judd Apatow says his movie scripts are all a product of the Down-Up theory: “Get the ideas DOWN then fix them UP.” “Give yourself permission to suck," Judd says. "Anything goes. Just get something down.” Even if it’s nonsense, he says. Keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it. - - - Before I started writing online, I told Ryan Holiday I was just waiting to know for certain what I wanted to write about. “Just start," he said. "You’re trying to map out the whole 9 innings. Just throw the first pitch…You’re better off starting imperfectly than being paralyzed by the delusion of perfection.” Rather than being paralyzed by the delusion that creativity comes to you, you're better off "forcing it, forcing it, forcing it," as Mayer said. "Go get it from the universe." Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer2,489,853 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
![This is one of the greatest displays of the creative process I've seen. It perfectly demonstrates something known as the "Creativity Faucet." When you go to the studio, John Mayer was asked, what do you do to generate ideas? “Well, I don’t always do it,” he admitted, “because it requires a stupid bravery all the time.” He strums a couple chords without singing. A nice melody begins to form—“you can sit here all day [doing this] and go, ‘Okay, maybe that’s something.'” “But if you don’t go,” and then he improvises vocals, “Sunlights beating on the corner of the walls / and I’m a Mr. know-it-all / heaven calls / get yourself right / get yourself right,” he stops playing, raises his finger to his mouth, and explains, “if you’re not ouija boarding immediately, you’re wasting time.” “You just stare at the corner of the wall,” he says, before he improvises some more, “Stare at the corner of the wall / try to get it going on / but I can’t sometimes / you just keep going 'til you get something / maybe I’m a little bit shy / maybe someday I’ll tell you why,” he stops singing, “you gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it.” “It doesn’t matter [what comes out of your mouth]...You gotta get fearless, fearless, fearless, fearless…It’s hard to do.” Takeaway 1: In the clip, we see John Mayer's ability to generate vocals steadily increase. It's a perfect display of what Julian Shapiro—who (among other things) is incredible at deconstructing how things like creativity work—calls the “Creativity Faucet.” Essentially, creativity works like “a backed-up pipe of water,” Shapiro writes. “The first mile is packed with wastewater. This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water arrives.” At the beginning of a creative session, almost always, bad ideas come out of the faucet first. The John Mayers of the world have the discipline and “a stupid bravery,” as Mayer said, to get through the backed-up pipe of bad ideas, to empty the wastewater, to “just keep going 'til you get something,” as he sang. Takeaway 2: To let out bad ideas, to empty the waste water, Mayer said, you have to “get fearless, fearless, fearless.” In another interview, Mayer was asked how he defines writer’s block. “Writer’s block,” he said, “is when the two people inside of you—the writer and the reader—when the reader doesn’t love the writer. Writer’s block is not a failure to write. It is a failure to catch the feedback loop of enjoying what you’re seeing and wanting to contribute more to it.” A creative block is not a failure to create. It is a failure to accept that you must empty a lot of bad ideas before good ideas can flow. It is a failure to get fearless, fearless, fearless, fearless. - - - “You gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it...You gotta get fearless, fearless, fearless, fearless.” — John Mayer Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1737204782576656753/amplify_video_thumb/1737204636690288640/img/ANUeaiGQ9OrG6-By.jpg)
This is one of the greatest displays of the creative process I've seen. It perfectly demonstrates something known as the "Creativity Faucet." When you go to the studio, John Mayer was asked, what do you do to generate ideas? “Well, I don’t always do it,” he admitted, “because it requires a stupid bravery all the time.” He strums a couple chords without singing. A nice melody begins to form—“you can sit here all day [doing this] and go, ‘Okay, maybe that’s something.'” “But if you don’t go,” and then he improvises vocals, “Sunlights beating on the corner of the walls / and I’m a Mr. know-it-all / heaven calls / get yourself right / get yourself right,” he stops playing, raises his finger to his mouth, and explains, “if you’re not ouija boarding immediately, you’re wasting time.” “You just stare at the corner of the wall,” he says, before he improvises some more, “Stare at the corner of the wall / try to get it going on / but I can’t sometimes / you just keep going 'til you get something / maybe I’m a little bit shy / maybe someday I’ll tell you why,” he stops singing, “you gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it.” “It doesn’t matter [what comes out of your mouth]...You gotta get fearless, fearless, fearless, fearless…It’s hard to do.” Takeaway 1: In the clip, we see John Mayer's ability to generate vocals steadily increase. It's a perfect display of what Julian Shapiro—who (among other things) is incredible at deconstructing how things like creativity work—calls the “Creativity Faucet.” Essentially, creativity works like “a backed-up pipe of water,” Shapiro writes. “The first mile is packed with wastewater. This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water arrives.” At the beginning of a creative session, almost always, bad ideas come out of the faucet first. The John Mayers of the world have the discipline and “a stupid bravery,” as Mayer said, to get through the backed-up pipe of bad ideas, to empty the wastewater, to “just keep going 'til you get something,” as he sang. Takeaway 2: To let out bad ideas, to empty the waste water, Mayer said, you have to “get fearless, fearless, fearless.” In another interview, Mayer was asked how he defines writer’s block. “Writer’s block,” he said, “is when the two people inside of you—the writer and the reader—when the reader doesn’t love the writer. Writer’s block is not a failure to write. It is a failure to catch the feedback loop of enjoying what you’re seeing and wanting to contribute more to it.” A creative block is not a failure to create. It is a failure to accept that you must empty a lot of bad ideas before good ideas can flow. It is a failure to get fearless, fearless, fearless, fearless. - - - “You gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it...You gotta get fearless, fearless, fearless, fearless.” — John Mayer Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer1,837,472 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
In 2009, Lin-Manuel Miranda was invited to perform at the White House. His musical “In The Heights” had just won a Grammy & 4 Tony Awards. So the White House was expecting him to perform something from Heights. Instead, he debuted a song from a rap album he’d been working on: Miranda explained that he'd been working on this "concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip-hop...Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton." The crowd laughed. "You laugh, but it's true!" Miranda replied. "He was born a penniless orphan in St. Croix of illegitimate birth, became George Washington's right-hand man, became Treasury Secretary, caught beef with every other Founding Father. And all on the strength of his writing. I think he embodies the word's ability to make a difference." Takeaway 1: Lin-Manuel Miranda said he initially picked up Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, "thinking maybe I’ll get a funny song out of it—some jokey-rap thing about the Hamilton/Burr duel." Then, as he read it, "I thought I would write a bunch of songs that tell the greatest hits of Hamilton’s life." Then, as he wrote the songs, he realized it could be a musical. Most things of magnitude start small. Talking about working with Nobel Prize winners, interviewing the great minds of his time, and studying the greats of all time—Richard Hamming famously said, to do great work, you have to: "Plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow." Takeaway 2: When Lin-Manuel Miranda told people he was working on a hip-hop album about a founding father, people laughed. He worked on the concept for 8 years—so, Miranda said, “I had a lot of people look at me like I was crazy for a very long time.” Speaking to entrepreneurs at the startup incubator Y Combinator, the billionaire Peter Thiel drew a Venn diagram on a whiteboard. In one of the overlapping circles, he wrote, “seems like a bad idea,” and in the other, “is a good idea.” The intersection is the sweet spot for doing great work, Thiel said. Everyone knows that to do great work you need natural ability and you need to work hard. But there’s a third ingredient that doesn’t get talked about or written about as often: the ability to work on what "seems like a bad idea." - - - As he was working on what he thought was going to be a hip-hop album, Miranda met his hero, the composer Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim asked him what he was working on. "And I told him, 'I’m working on this hip-hop album, like a ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ concept album about Alexander Hamilton.' And he threw back his head and guffawed, and he said, 'No one will expect that from you. That’s amazing. Keep writing that…Keep surprising us.'" Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer2,228,087 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
Gorillaz got the "Clint Eastwood" beat from a preset on a 1980s portable electronic music instrument:
Billy Oppenheimer1,912,474 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
Jerry Seinfeld: I'm never not working on material. Every second of my existence, I'm thinking, could I do something with that? Howard Stern: That, to me, sounds torturous. Seinfeld: Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you're comfortable with.
Billy Oppenheimer1,800,050 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
![Late in the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, Villanova blew a 10-point lead. With 4.7 seconds left, UNC hit a 3-pointer to tie the game. Villanova's head coach, Jay Wright, called a timeout, and as his players walked to the huddle, they were all saying the same word: “Attitude.” “It's the most important aspect of our program,” Coach Wright explains in his book titled, Attitude. “We wear 'Attitude' wristbands. And when we break a huddle, we say '1, 2, 3, Attitude.'” The test of Attitude, Wright taught his players, is: “Where is your mindset after something bad happens to you?” Where is your mindset after you blow a 10-point lead? Where is your mindset after your opponent hits a 3 to tie the game with 4.7 seconds left? “When I looked into the eyes of our players,” Wright writes, “I saw no anger or regret. No one bemoaned [the UNC player's] 'lucky shot,' or that any of our guys had failed to stop him from grabbing the pass that led to that shot, or anything else.” Instead, “they were all saying, 'Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do. Attitude. This is what we do.'” With this mindset, the players returned to the court. Villanova's Kris Jenkins inbounded the ball to Ryan "Arch" Arcidiacono. Arch dribbled up the left side of the court, crossed half court, cut right towards the 3-point arc, where he underhanded a pass to Jenkins, who caught the ball with 1.3 seconds left, and, in perfect rhythm, jumped then released the ball with 0.6 seconds, and hit a buzzer-beater to win the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Takeaway 1: A primary indicator of physical fitness is recovery time. If you are doing all-out sprint intervals, for instance—people who are physically fit recover from one interval to the next faster than those who are not physically fit. “So then, what is mental fitness?” the mental performance coach Greg Harden likes to ask. “Mental fitness is about recovery time,” Harden says. It's about, as Coach Wright said, where your mindset is after something bad happens to you. After something bad happens, people who are mentally fit recover faster than those who are not. Takeaway 2: Just after Kris Jenkins hit the buzzer-beater, Coach Wright famously barely reacted. Before his guys went back on the court, he explained, “I processed all the potential scenarios.” Most likely, the game was going to go to overtime where UNC would ride their wave of momentum and win the game. “No matter the outcome,” Wright continued, “because of the way our players responded after UNC tied the game ["Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do."]—I felt like they had the greatest lesson in life. I felt like that was an accomplishment that would follow them through their lives.” Ryan Holiday once told me, “You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.” Wright got to that place. He had done the work to instill in his players a mindset, he said, “that they would carry with them for the remainder of their days on earth.” “In that sense, I knew we had already won.” Everything else was extra. - - - “The fact is, none of us control what happens to us in life—but we do control our responses to those circumstances...no matter how tough it gets or how much of a challenge you face in the final 4.7 seconds of a game.” — Jay Wright Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1728462346371141913/amplify_video_thumb/1728462099540561920/img/43WsctxAb-oPJwSC.jpg)
Late in the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, Villanova blew a 10-point lead. With 4.7 seconds left, UNC hit a 3-pointer to tie the game. Villanova's head coach, Jay Wright, called a timeout, and as his players walked to the huddle, they were all saying the same word: “Attitude.” “It's the most important aspect of our program,” Coach Wright explains in his book titled, Attitude. “We wear 'Attitude' wristbands. And when we break a huddle, we say '1, 2, 3, Attitude.'” The test of Attitude, Wright taught his players, is: “Where is your mindset after something bad happens to you?” Where is your mindset after you blow a 10-point lead? Where is your mindset after your opponent hits a 3 to tie the game with 4.7 seconds left? “When I looked into the eyes of our players,” Wright writes, “I saw no anger or regret. No one bemoaned [the UNC player's] 'lucky shot,' or that any of our guys had failed to stop him from grabbing the pass that led to that shot, or anything else.” Instead, “they were all saying, 'Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do. Attitude. This is what we do.'” With this mindset, the players returned to the court. Villanova's Kris Jenkins inbounded the ball to Ryan "Arch" Arcidiacono. Arch dribbled up the left side of the court, crossed half court, cut right towards the 3-point arc, where he underhanded a pass to Jenkins, who caught the ball with 1.3 seconds left, and, in perfect rhythm, jumped then released the ball with 0.6 seconds, and hit a buzzer-beater to win the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Takeaway 1: A primary indicator of physical fitness is recovery time. If you are doing all-out sprint intervals, for instance—people who are physically fit recover from one interval to the next faster than those who are not physically fit. “So then, what is mental fitness?” the mental performance coach Greg Harden likes to ask. “Mental fitness is about recovery time,” Harden says. It's about, as Coach Wright said, where your mindset is after something bad happens to you. After something bad happens, people who are mentally fit recover faster than those who are not. Takeaway 2: Just after Kris Jenkins hit the buzzer-beater, Coach Wright famously barely reacted. Before his guys went back on the court, he explained, “I processed all the potential scenarios.” Most likely, the game was going to go to overtime where UNC would ride their wave of momentum and win the game. “No matter the outcome,” Wright continued, “because of the way our players responded after UNC tied the game ["Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do."]—I felt like they had the greatest lesson in life. I felt like that was an accomplishment that would follow them through their lives.” Ryan Holiday once told me, “You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.” Wright got to that place. He had done the work to instill in his players a mindset, he said, “that they would carry with them for the remainder of their days on earth.” “In that sense, I knew we had already won.” Everything else was extra. - - - “The fact is, none of us control what happens to us in life—but we do control our responses to those circumstances...no matter how tough it gets or how much of a challenge you face in the final 4.7 seconds of a game.” — Jay Wright Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer1,289,145 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
![John Mayer is a master of his craft. He’s also one of the best I’ve come across at using analogy and demonstration to articulate and demystify the creative process. Here’s a 14-clip (~7-minute) masterclass on mastery and creativity: TL;DW 1/ “Whenever I want to write a big song, I can't...That's when I get writer's block: when I try to write a song to fill the entire galaxy. I've never gotten a song that way. But if I write about something the size of a glass of water—a week later, I notice it's got the universe in it. So I'd rather have the universe in a glass of water than try to make a glass of water fit in the universe.” 2/ "What connects with people is you connecting with yourself." 3/ “Writer’s block is when the two people inside of you—the writer and the reader—when the reader doesn’t love the writer. It is not a failure to write. It is a failure to catch the feedback loop of enjoying what you’re seeing and wanting to contribute more to it.” 4/ “Don't shoot ideas down before you have them. 'That won't work' is the worst thing you can ever say. 'That didn't work' is cool, but 'that won't work' is not a way to go through life.” 5/ “I’ve seen the Cool metric change so many times. I'm not telling you don't chase Cool. I'm saying…by the time you reach what you think is cool, Cool is like, 'over here now.’ ‘The princess is in another castle.' You know what I mean? That's a Mario reference.” 6/ "I'm one-half consumer, one-half artist. So I try to put music out that I myself would want to hear as somebody on the other end." 7/ "I'm seeing a lot of motivation about you following your passion, but I'm not seeing any critical thought to what that is or how to be better at that. So, really the product is passion and that's strange to me. Because my product growing up was sitting in a room yelling, 'Mom, I'm practicing,' for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. 8/ "But then also read up...You know, this stuff doesn't just appear. It comes from somewhere. And as soon as you realize you love something—it's almost like catching up with some great TV show on season 9, and you can go, 'oh my God, that means there's 8 seasons before this." 9/ "Whatever you learn is the tip of the iceberg. Dive underwater and find the rest of the iceberg." 10/ "So listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan brought me back to people like Kenny Burrell and Albert King and Jimi Hendrix and Elmore James. So it became this family tree growing out of my CD player." 11/ "I came up with these guys as like references…It’s like if you're into the NBA and you wear different jerseys and you pretend you're a different player in the driveway—that's what I was doing..." 12/ "Which is a wonderful technique for being yourself. Failing to sound exactly like the person you want to sound like is a wonderful way to sound like yourself." 13/ After watching Cory Wong play guitar, Mayer told him, "You have an anatomy thing working on your right hand. Your hand is shaped in a way—you have long fingers, very sinewy hands—that you're able to play like that. That is an example of someone making the most of their anatomical gifts... And I wish more people could embrace finding what their strengths are anatomically—the way your hand is shaped, the way your mind works, whatever—and play to those strengths." 14/ Mayer picks up an acoustic guitar and demonstrates his songwriting process. “Well, I don’t always do it,” he admitted, “because it requires a stupid bravery all the time.” “You just stare at the corner of the wall," Mayer explains then improvises some vocals, “stare at the corner of the wall / try to get it going on / but I can’t sometimes / you just keep going ’til you get something,” he stops singing. “You gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it…it doesn’t matter [what comes out of your mouth].” Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1688293445029302272/amplify_video_thumb/1688292988126937089/img/ru_kWINYMd3dmACB.jpg)
John Mayer is a master of his craft. He’s also one of the best I’ve come across at using analogy and demonstration to articulate and demystify the creative process. Here’s a 14-clip (~7-minute) masterclass on mastery and creativity: TL;DW 1/ “Whenever I want to write a big song, I can't...That's when I get writer's block: when I try to write a song to fill the entire galaxy. I've never gotten a song that way. But if I write about something the size of a glass of water—a week later, I notice it's got the universe in it. So I'd rather have the universe in a glass of water than try to make a glass of water fit in the universe.” 2/ "What connects with people is you connecting with yourself." 3/ “Writer’s block is when the two people inside of you—the writer and the reader—when the reader doesn’t love the writer. It is not a failure to write. It is a failure to catch the feedback loop of enjoying what you’re seeing and wanting to contribute more to it.” 4/ “Don't shoot ideas down before you have them. 'That won't work' is the worst thing you can ever say. 'That didn't work' is cool, but 'that won't work' is not a way to go through life.” 5/ “I’ve seen the Cool metric change so many times. I'm not telling you don't chase Cool. I'm saying…by the time you reach what you think is cool, Cool is like, 'over here now.’ ‘The princess is in another castle.' You know what I mean? That's a Mario reference.” 6/ "I'm one-half consumer, one-half artist. So I try to put music out that I myself would want to hear as somebody on the other end." 7/ "I'm seeing a lot of motivation about you following your passion, but I'm not seeing any critical thought to what that is or how to be better at that. So, really the product is passion and that's strange to me. Because my product growing up was sitting in a room yelling, 'Mom, I'm practicing,' for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. 8/ "But then also read up...You know, this stuff doesn't just appear. It comes from somewhere. And as soon as you realize you love something—it's almost like catching up with some great TV show on season 9, and you can go, 'oh my God, that means there's 8 seasons before this." 9/ "Whatever you learn is the tip of the iceberg. Dive underwater and find the rest of the iceberg." 10/ "So listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan brought me back to people like Kenny Burrell and Albert King and Jimi Hendrix and Elmore James. So it became this family tree growing out of my CD player." 11/ "I came up with these guys as like references…It’s like if you're into the NBA and you wear different jerseys and you pretend you're a different player in the driveway—that's what I was doing..." 12/ "Which is a wonderful technique for being yourself. Failing to sound exactly like the person you want to sound like is a wonderful way to sound like yourself." 13/ After watching Cory Wong play guitar, Mayer told him, "You have an anatomy thing working on your right hand. Your hand is shaped in a way—you have long fingers, very sinewy hands—that you're able to play like that. That is an example of someone making the most of their anatomical gifts... And I wish more people could embrace finding what their strengths are anatomically—the way your hand is shaped, the way your mind works, whatever—and play to those strengths." 14/ Mayer picks up an acoustic guitar and demonstrates his songwriting process. “Well, I don’t always do it,” he admitted, “because it requires a stupid bravery all the time.” “You just stare at the corner of the wall," Mayer explains then improvises some vocals, “stare at the corner of the wall / try to get it going on / but I can’t sometimes / you just keep going ’til you get something,” he stops singing. “You gotta keep forcing it, forcing it, forcing it…it doesn’t matter [what comes out of your mouth].” Follow Billy Oppenheimer for more content like this!
Billy Oppenheimer1,381,992 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
