Happy Sunday! After a few weeks, I think I’m back on schedule. I expected tax season to be the most difficult season for pressing the publish button for a Sunday Edition, but turns out the summer is far more difficult. Kind of makes sense.
My weekly reflection this week is a continuation of last week’s MLB debut we witnessed in Seattle. I’ve had a hard time shaking the enormity of the occasion. I can choose to look inwardly and how hard it was to make a quick decision to drive 22 hours across the continent to watch a baseball game. Not only that, but I could also decide to view that game through the most common lens — that it must be so wonderful for professional sports athletes to have their lives catered, their lives worshipped, and their bank accounts endlessly full.
But last weekend put a bunch of this into perspective for me.
There’s little glamorous about that lifestyle. I mean, there may be some glamour, but there are sure to be facets that regular folks like you and I have no pleasure dealing with. Here are but a few things I imagine happened for our past teammate who made his MLB debut:
- Getting the call for a promotion midway through the afternoon, only to have to fly throughout the night so you can play the next day on the other side of the continent.
- Having to arrange for your spouse to fly across the country, but on a different flight. You haven’t seen your spouse in two weeks.
- Having to fit into a brand-new group of teammates and work with numerous individuals you’ve never worked with or met before.
- Having to do hours of study and research to prepare for your ultimate examination in under 12 hours time and against one of the world’s best pitchers.
- Having to communicate with everyone at home and attempt to get them tickets, transportation, and some sort of plan for the next 24 hours.
- Having to rest and recover from any ailing injuries you’ve incurred.
- Having to step on the field in a brand-new routine.
- Having to complete interviews, photoshoots.
- Having to sign contracts and agreements under the direction of your agents and closest family members.
- Having to step into a visiting ballpark in front of 42,000 people rooting against you.
- Having to play in weather you’ve never played in before.
- Having to endure an onslaught of social media hatred few of us could ever imagine.
The list could go on. The enormous pressure bestowed on a young professional athlete as they make their debuts is beyond anything normal folks like you and I could fathom. Battling against the world’s top talents on the shortest of notice, across the continent, and in front of 42,000 people is not for the faint of heart. And to take the field, do reasonably well, and only to have someone on Twitter say you’re “horrific” or to have a mildly-knowledgeable TV commentator crack a joke at your expense in your first game?
Here’s what I know: I am reasonably knowledgeable in taxation and have been studying it for the last 13 years. I can navigate a computer quickly, and I know my way around the tax software like the back of my hand.
If you put me in front of 42,000 onlookers and had me complete the most complex tax return on the planet, only for some hot shot on Twitter to call me “horrific”, I’d probably want to punch someone in the face. I surely wouldn’t perform to the best of my ability. I am sure I would make mistakes — even obvious mistakes.
All of this to say — have some grace for people in high-pressure situations. Just because someone is famous, or in a position of power, or makes a large amount of money doesn’t give you the right to say disrespectful stuff. Your decency doesn’t get a night off because of someone else’s position in life.
The value, or lack thereof, in bi-directional linking
I am nearly certain l linked to this article from Nathan Snelgrove at some point in the recent past, but I’m going to do it again. Snelgrove commented on Casey Newton’s “Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter” article on Platformer, in which Newton argues that the power of bidirectional note-taking apps is more about retrieving something from storage than it is about memory or becoming smarter.
This makes good sense to me.
I’ve tried, over and over again, to build out some sort of knowledge database using these bidirectional methodologies. I tried it across my post-secondary study notes. I tried it for daily notes and record-keeping of the things I’m reading, consuming, or thinking about during the day. I’ve tried it for Bible study.
It’s this last area — Bible study — where bidirectional linking has only sort of taken hold and worked the way I imagine it should. Even still, it’s only part of that Bible study where bidirectional notes makes sense — I still prefer having digital notes in the margin (as Snelgrove discusses) and I’m on the hunt for an app that provides these notes in-line (I think I might have found the app).
Some folks swear by this way of working. But this doesn’t work for everyone. Or even every particular area of your life wherein you have to research, or keep notes, or track data. I want to make this sort of stuff work, and the inability to make it work sometimes has this consequence of making me feel inferior in some way.
Bidirectional linking in your notes does not govern how productive or smart or researched you are on any given area of life.
A Few More Photos from the Rogers Centre
I’m going to try to get the camera out a bit more during non-summer months this year, even though the lack of colour outside in dreary Manitoba winters doesn’t inspire any creativity at all. For now, I will share as much as I can of the green leaves and countryside from Summer 2025. Here are a few more keepers I have from the Ginter Girls’ first MLB game at the Rogers Centre a few weeks ago.
The Second Cup
Briggs & Riley Deluxe Wardrobe Spinner
This is a truly amazing bag for those who need to carry tailored clothing to their destination. Like any other tailored clothing item, though, the cost is steep.
Prosper, Texas’s Newest High School
Someone will tell me there is a long story behind this absolutely stunning new high school and that I’m not allowed to give any praise. So in my naivety, I’m going to say “Wow”, alongside “I wish we had nice things like this where I live.”
Canvas Vista by Joey Ruiter for Herman Miller
I am looking around at making a few minor changes to our office to provide better workspaces for more people. My business partner and I have a Canvas Private Office workspace, which works great for 95% of scenarios. This latest round of Canvas designs are more non-private in nature, and I’d love to implement them somehow in our small space.
Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
