Life As a FA

How to Motivate Yourself to Build (Notes from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, 2020) July 22, 2020

Nope, I’m asking. Not telling. It’s constantly a challenge.

Let’s see. A will to win. Certain things provide you a much clearer picture of an end goal. In life or careers, there is often always a next step for those that are driven. I know many people that have said it’s not a linear path, and therefore you see steps/ladders that may be uneven. It’s hard to take that into consideration to pursue action, then, especially if you’re back at square one. It must be some secondary motivator that keeps us looking forward.

I have an idea page of things I want to pursue. Talking about potential pursuits may be a first step. Talking with others, another. Writing them down allows a concrete step toward accountability. Then, what’s next? Talk to potential customers, people in the space, people that could be of interest. Design something, wireframe or code out a rough sketch. Maybe it’s something to see how much of a concrete idea it is. Ideas sometimes just need another opinion to spur passion – whatever can provide the spark to go further.

With a next step in a career, an idea written out for the next step can be a good thing. Approaching mentors or potential mentors or bosses (strategically) may be that step of accountability. The more people involved, the more likely that path could be disrupted as incentives to provide clear steps wane. The earlier you find that out, the better. It’s unfortunate but situations and circumstances can change on a whim for anyone, so it compounds with involvement of others. I’ve seen that time and time again with friends.

Now, I hope I didn’t discourage with that last paragraph. That wasn’t my intention. So, here’s some good news – work has become increasingly global with the progression of the internet / web, more so this year. There are more people online sharing, collaborating, open to discussion with minimal work except seeking the communities out. Tools are better organized and more broadly applied to help, and more people are generally sharing their experience for us to pattern match or adjust. Action is the step. Or asking what the action may be. Take it together.

• Coach Paul Alexander, Josh Hermsmeyer (Wharton Moneyball 1/22/20)
  • If you pit OL vs DL – OL is more reliable, similar to pitcher vs batter and pitcher wins
  • Beane in Moneyball – didn’t have money to spend so he wanted to get shots at college players since they were less random
    • PFF using survival curves (as time) for measuring lines (from PFF data scientist Timo Riske)
  • 16 of 17 INTs for Mahomes has been < 5 rushers
  • Coach – more hand-oriented now in passing game than leg-driving or shoulders for the evolution of run blocking
  • Josh – turned his attention to music and predicting the first song for halftime show
    • Prop from last year – how long will the national anthem last?
      • Over time, singer spent on song increased (ARIMA model) and he looked at male and female but female was longer at end
      • Gladys ended up going over
    • Billboard is predicting JLo’s most popular song – 20% as Let’s Get Loud or On The Floor (books, too)
      • Acts don’t often start with the most popular song, they end it
      • Setlist.fm as going through common starts
    • Game plan to push as many in the box with the numbers advantage, force Jimmy G to beat them
  • Some quantitative coaching models at PFF and other places
    • Mostert as the 2nd fastest athlete in NFL at the line, behind only Lamar Jackson, by mph
  • Helpful to sit behind someone as QB? (Jimmy, Rodgers, Mahomes) but counters as Peyton (thrown in), Steve Young
    • Qb as living embodiment of the system, not necessarily ‘system qb’
    • When do we get a handle on a QB?
  • Owners as billionaires that earned money in a different industry and hope to be able to transition to teams
    • Experience may or may not come – putting right people in there, getting lucky with all of the processes
    • Little edges, enough chances and them adding up together to finally have success while living through the ups and downs
• Ian Levy, Michael Hill (Wharton Moneyball 1/29/20)
  • Super Bowl week, Kobe Bryant death – Shaq statement and Kendrick Perkins clamoring for hatchet to be buried with Kdurant
  • MJ’s 3 and 2 years off and then another 3 – only had Scottie as the overlap of players
    • Kobe – 2 rings but 3 straight finals with Pau, sans Shaq, Lebron – taking some poor players and winning rings
    • Teams and styles that have changed to give credit to the great ones
  • Sac down 17 points with 2min 49 sec – broke a streak of 8,378 straight games of losses
• Dr. Shaili Jain, Prof of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, PTSD Treatment, author of “Unspeakable Mind” (Wharton XM, Future of Everything)
  • Father was a war vet & born in India, Shaili grew up in England and what she ever knew
  • Muted emotions, insidious infiltration of how people work, play and create beyond mind and brain
    • Infiltrates organs, independent risk factors for heart disease, cancer
  • Too many factors, 1/3 genetic (not on marker-level, though) to determine PTSD levels or exposure
    • Dose matters – more deployments = more likely, and cumulative effects
  • Average clinicians outside of VA have a tough time to diagnose & treat whereas vets and exposed know where they can see it
    • Adherence is much lower in people with PTSD and this is massively under-recognized
  • Last thing people want to do is talk to therapists – avoided trauma or be cut off, isolated
    • Health problems often make them lose control
  • Hippocampus is smaller in those with PTSD (not sure if it’s cause or effect), amygdala (part of brain that controls danger)
    • Lot of work done in epigenetics, learned behaviors and environment (followed moms that were pregnant during 9/11, escaped)
      • Work done by Rachel at Mt Sinai to follow their children based on biomarkers – PTSD in them/child
  • Her take – future is in prevention on three levels – primary, secondary and tertiary
    • Primary: prevent the traumas and crimes
      • Lots of people were starting programs that FELT like it worked w/o evidence or metrics for them
        • How do you train women to defend themselves effectively? If you have it, you can scale and replicate. Still need $
    • Secondary: before and after trauma – “Golden Hours” – can you intervene to prevent onset of PTSD?
      • Showing up in ER, instead of waiting for weeks/months/years when they show up to a therapist
      • Group out of Atlanta’s Emory University in the ER that did RCTs to show those that got prolonged exposure medicine improved
        • Cortisol recipients had less PTSD compared to those that didn’t – brain can heal quickly, comparatively
    • Tertiary: integrated care – 10 years prior, she ditched her other-campus psychiatry office to primary care
      • People show up in primary care, not often in specialty offices, attack head on
  • Treatment – first line, standard therapy would be talk therapy (prolonged exposure, EMDR – eye movement desensitization & reprocessing)
    • Focus on dismantling trauma, discussing the event
    • Biggest body of evidence for this being successful as first-line treatment, discussion capability without emotional/physical stress
      • Exposure exercises – measurable body response
    • Meds as second-line treatment (prozac and friends)