Feldman's Faves: June 26, 2023

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

It’s Election Day in Toronto so please make sure to do your part and vote. If election success is measured in signage volume then I think GONG (aka Candidate 44) wins in a landslide but I’m not quite sure it will be him…

BTW, if anyone can find me a knock off of Gradey Dick’s Draft Night outfit (that is in my size) I am willing to pay top dollar.

Congratulations to all of you with school aged children in getting through another year. The 2022/2023 was the first full school year back actually AT school since Covid and I am so happy for our kids – they needed this. And good luck entertaining your children this summer. I am prepared to babysit but, full disclosure, I don’t do discounts.

We just had a huge birthday week – all the best to Emily, Julian and Mike. I hope you all had a fun time celebrating with the important people in your lives.

No theme this week – just topics of interest.

THE REAL WORK: on the Mystery of Mastery By Adam Gopnik – As someone who tries his best to be a life-long-learner and who loves trying new things with varying degrees of success (e.g., golf = disaster), I was inspired by Adam Gopnik’s latest book. In The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery, Gopnik shows that every day people can find joy and purpose in seeking to master new skills at any age and can do so without fanfare. Whether it is taking up boxing in middle age, learning how to bake or taking dance lessons with his daughter, Gopnik finds the beauty in the process of seeking out mastery even more so than getting to the place of competence. We all had certain versions of this ourselves during Covid (sourdough bread comes to mind) but hopefully one of the lessons from that time is that this yearning to learn and to master can always be part of our lives. As one reviewer notes “The real work sets lasting, incremental accomplishment apart from transitory achievements, revealing what it means when we accomplish something we thought we could not do. To fully appreciate the real work in others means gaining some sense of how it feels for them to do it, so Gopnik apprenticed himself to masters in various fields—magic, drawing, boxing, dance, etc.—to grasp their singular attainments, strategies, and styles. In doing so, he discovered that mastery is not rare but all around us. It always has its genesis in practice, and it can be embodied in everything from learning to read to hitting a baseball. Within mastery, we also look for the unique human presence that injects it with personality, idiosyncrasy, and difference. As the author notes, we often “overrate masters and underrate mastery.” Gopnik builds his book around Seven Mysteries of Mastery, deciphering these matters with shrewd but self-effacing skill. The principles of magic—“an aesthetic of the clandestine”—also inform his other essays, especially the necessity of “the Other,” an audience, for an artist to find meaning. He demonstrates that regardless of our level of talent and ability, as human beings of parts, we need not be hindered by our limitations but can be goaded by them. The real work is within our capacities. Gopnik’s intelligence gleams on nearly every page, though he occasionally gets a little overly academic for a general audience. Yet, like Malcolm Gladwell, he has a gift for forging connections and making even the seemingly mundane compelling. In top form, Gopnik makes his subject intellectually and viscerally thrilling.” I’m not sure I will be able to convince either of my daughters to take a dance class with me any time soon, but one can always dream. Here’s a good review from the Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/04/the-real-work-by-adam-gopnik-review-the-art-of-expertise

Freakonomics Radio - Ari Emanuel Is Never Indifferent – I am always seeking out interesting people who do things just a little differently. Well Ari Emanuel (brother of Zeke and Rahm, and the inspiration for the Ari Gold character in Entourage) fits that description. Emmanuel was the black sheep of an incredibly successful trio of brothers (Zeke the doctor and Rahm the politician) who is “just” one of the top talent agents in Hollywood history, the CEO of a multibillion dollar entertainment company and a fitness nut. He is a character and famously gets bored during interviews, which is why this one is such treat. His moto of “never being indifferent” is instructive in explaining his success and a great way to live life. So is the fact that he is the baby brother with something to prove – yes birth order does matter…Here is an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “He turned a small Hollywood talent agency into a massive sports-and-entertainment empire. In a freewheeling conversation, he explains how he did it and why it nearly killed him.” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?i=1000615226809

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon