J Keith Hall

History is just a long list of people confidently doing the dumbest thing possible at any given moment. Like the time Napoleon invaded Russia in winter. Or when Blockbuster turned down Netflix. Or when I explained Bitcoin to my wife in 2011… and only bought one $25 bitcoin. Learn from the past—or at least laugh at it. Follow me @JKHallATL for more author.jkeithhall.com

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Moral of the story: The yips are proof that your conscious brain is not your friend. It's a paranoid security guard that ruins everything by trying to help. Sometimes the scariest opponent isn't across the field. It's between your ears.

Let me tell you about the most humiliating breakdown in sports—when a professional athlete suddenly can't do the one thing they've done a million times. It's called the yips, and it's basically your brain staging a full-on mutiny. 🧵

The less you know, the more certain you feel. The juice doesn't make you invisible. It just stings when it gets in your eyes.

McArthur Wheeler went to prison. But his legacy lives on every time someone with zero expertise speaks with complete authority. Every terrible take delivered with maximum confidence. Every Polaroid aimed at the ceiling, mistaken for proof.

In 1995, a man robbed two banks with lemon juice on his face, smiled at the cameras, got arrested in an hour, and accidentally became one of the most important case studies in modern psychology.