Ryan Scanlon

I will stand on this, but Buc-ee’s is so mid Overrated food, way too crowded, merch is questionable at best, and a nightmare to navigate that parking lot

@DKThomp @conorsen MLB is an example of a league that has done things to expand the game (ABS, pitch clock, etc.) while NBA has done things to shrink the league (tanking, 65 game min for awards, etc.) Fascinating study

ABS rules. Umpire shaming is fun. People like it. Perfect for an age that relies on expertise but also distrusts experts as people, and also has anxieties about automation. Other leagues should come up with new rules that aggressively shame referees. Every time an NBA ref misses a traveling call, he takes a tequila shot. Every time an NFL ref on the NBC broadcast gets a pass interference wrong, someone from Fear Factor makes him eat a tarantula. “But the integrity of the game” you whine. Dude, 16yos are stealing their dad’s credit card to do 7-way-parlays and putting up the family car for collateral. The integrity horse has bolted the barn. Eat the damn tarantula.

An interesting paradox that is developing in college sports is loyalty among coaches only gets stronger while loyalty among players has never been weaker.

AI has led to a certain type of perfectionism where humans can send out hundreds of tailored job applications. An AI productivity tool leads us to believe we are preparing the perfect daily routine, but instead, it accomplishes nothing because we never take action and do the thing. It’s an obsession with preparation. Much of the attention goes to AI, but what has a chance to plague my generation is a reluctance to do things and instead, get stuck in an endless loop of creating new systems for instituting action.

Highly recommend reading Paved Paradise

@reefbotany Yes agreed to paid the cover, went to sign it, and asked for a tip on the screen at the same time as the signature

@Scantron__ Like they asked you for the tip as you paid the cover?

I went to a bar that had a cover and they flipped the iPad around me asking for a tip. Got to be one of the most unhinged things I’ve seen

Best time zones for sporting events: 1. Central 2. Eastern 3. Mountain 4. Pacific

We like to think it is always what could have been but that doesn’t matter to the world. It is about what we produce. The potential we realize. What we actually put forth. We don’t remember Vera Wang for her potential as a skater just like we don’t remember Phil Jackson for his time as a player.

That sounds like a nice pithy quote, but it is devastating advice

@kylascan @Marketplace @planetmoney I am so there, can’t wait

Come hang out in LOS ANGELES with me and Kai Rysdall and @Marketplace and BOULDER, CO + ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO with the @planetmoney team!

@conorsen You’d think multi-year contracts, but then you see stuff like Mensah and Duke. However, think you’ll see a rise in players going to mid/low majors out of school, balling out, and then transferring up to really get paid. See Siena. Probably lies in how long they decide to stay.

Is there any kind of plausible contract system in college basketball where a Western Kentucky could keep a core group of players together for 3-4 years without the stars getting bid away by Big Ten teams if they outperform expectations?

Ronnie Coleman cooked when he said, "“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights.”

Crazy the fitness community has become to broadcast every fitness pursuit to the world. Everything is done in the name of content. Every lift. Every run. Everything. Fitness is a pursuit done to nourish the mind, body, and soul. It isn’t a performative act. It is a betterment of yourself, not a betterment of your content in hopes of validation from an algorithm.

The more you etch yourself into the digital world, the harder it is to escape. Distancing ourselves from these things is healthy, and it’s important to highlight the vulnerabilities and the vices. And to look at ourselves and ask, am I watching others live, or am I the one living?

Success is like a butterfly, the more you force it and pursue it, the more it eludes you. But if you turn your focus away from it and instead focus on the approach while moving lightly, it comes to sit softly on your shoulder. Christopher Morales-Williams with the same mindset! open.substack.com/pub/scantron/p…

Joy is a competitive super power. Alysa Liu retired from figure skating at 16. She was tired of not not having fun, tired of being consumed by her sport. She came back two years later with a new goal: to have as much fun on the ice as possible. And now she’s an Olympic gold medalist. Liu won her first national title when she was just 13. But by 16, after competing in the 2022 Olympics, she decided she’d had enough and stepped away. She said pressure and losing her identity trying to be an elite athlete made it all miserable. But then, she said she went on a ski trip that reminded her just how much fun she could have doing a sport. Something in her brain clicked. Maybe she could bring fun to figure skating. Maybe she could approach it in a way that could be full of joy and life and love. She unretired at 18 and won a world championship the next year. At 20, she was ready to face these Olympic games differently than in 2022. Liu went into the women’s figure skating final in third place. After her short program, she said: “Even if I mess up and fall, that’s totally okay, too. I’m fine with any outcome, as long as I’m out there.” One of the greatest competitive advantages is having fun. People love to romanticize the athlete, artist, or entrepreneur who has a chip on their shoulder, fueled by anger and resentment. But the truth is that if you’re not having fun, you are not going to last long at whatever it is you do, and you certainly won’t get the best out of yourself. There’s a foolish idea that you either have to be full of intensity or full of joy. But that’s nonsense. It’s no surprise one of the first things out of Alysa’s mouth after her free skate was: “That was so much fun!” Joy and intensity can coexist, and in the best performers, they almost always do. Alysa is unapologetically authentic and true to her values. She has said where she used to skate to win and be technically perfect, she now uses competition as a chance to show her art, to have fun, and to put herself out there. She’s a fierce athlete with an infectious sense of joy in her sport. And she broke USA's 24-year gold medal draught in women’s figure skating doing it. Excellence requires focus, determination, a little bit of crazy, at times obsession, and living a mundane lifestyle that many people would find boring. But excellence also requires that you find deep joy in your craft, that you learn how to have fun while working hard. What makes for excellence—and not just in sports, but in anything—is the combination of intensity and joy. It’s the latter that makes the former sustainable.

The college football transfer portal and NIL associated with it is insane. PFF has Sam Leavitt at 104 (4th round pick) on their big board. The 104th pick in the NFL commands a 4-year contract for ~$5M. To get that value for one year is crazy work. Although, I have heard more in the ~$4M range. I get Leavitt’s game may be better for CFB than the NFL (like Diego Paiva), but a correction has to be coming because the current market is wildly unsustainable. I don’t know if we are ready for it.

@tomcoppens_ @zachpogrob Excellent form on those cleans brother

Working out really does alters your brain chemistry. It shows you a glimpse of your true potential.

@thesamparr “Gratitude is the wine of the soul. Go on. Get drunk!” — Rumi

This impacted me