🧠 Thought of the Week

Duality is Underrated

“Work like an artist. Train like an athlete. Run fast. Walk slow. Be relentless and relaxed all at once. Grind hard. Rest hard. Stay up 3 days straight to bring an idea to life. Escape to the desert with no service and no schedule. Read deep books. Send dumb memes. Make friends. Destroy enemies."

Naval Ravikant has a similar philosophy: to “live like a lion, not like a cow.” In other words, we shouldn’t work all day, every day. Nor should we veg out and lie on the couch all day. Instead, we should alternate between periods of intense, high-impact effort followed by strategic rest.

Lions don't chase every animal. They wait for the right moment and the best prey. And just like a lion rests after a hunt, we need periods of downtime to recharge our mental and physical batteries. Rather than constant busyness or “grazing” like a cow, we should focus on high-leverage activities.

As a modern knowledge worker athlete, or “intellectual athlete,” you want to function like an athlete — train hard, sprint, rest, assess, repeat.

This idea that we’re just going to have linear output by cranking out work day after day, putting in the same amount of time sitting at a desk — that’s what machines and AI are for.

The real trick is to be both intense and chill. It means waiting for the right opportunities, executing with full energy and focus when an opportunity arises, and then allowing for significant downtime to recharge and recover.

📚 What I’m Reading

What Happens If No One Reads — Spencer Klavan [The Free Press]

Last month, as students returned to school, a new study made headlines because it found that the number of Americans who read for pleasure has dropped an astonishing 40 percent since the start of the century. 

Novels are basically the modern version of old philosophical dialogues — they’re less about cramming in lessons and more about spending time with the characters, letting the story shape you. C.S. Lewis even said that reading great literature changes your whole consciousness, like you literally become someone new.

That’s the kind of shit AI can’t replace. Life hacks, self-help tips — those can all be boiled down, summarized, and spat back out by a machine (or me). But a novel? You can’t shortcut the experience and the way it changes you.

⚾️ Inspiring Stoic Moment in Baseball

Shohei Ohtani Displaying Healthy, Grounded, Masculine Energy

I came across this clip the other day. Had I been watching this happen live, I probably would have thought nothing of it. But this clip breaks down exactly how unique and impressive Ohtani’s reaction was to an event that would normally have resulted in an all-out brawl. Here’s the story:

On June 19th, NL MVP Shohei Ohtani was hit by a 100 mph fastball from Padres closer Robert Suarez in the ninth inning of the final game of the series. Tensions were already high with both teams throwing at each other. This wasn’t an accident — it was a message. And the pitch wasn’t aimed at his hip, either. It was aimed at his face.

99% of players in that spot would’ve lost their minds — charged the mound, cleared the benches, etc. And who could blame them? A hundred miles an hour to the back hurts like a mother fucker. Instead, Ohtani takes a breath, waves off his teammates, and walks to first base like it’s just another day at the office. Then, just to make his point even clearer, he strolls toward the Padres’ bench with his hands behind his back — the universal “I’m calm, but don’t test me” posture.

And here’s why this clip stuck with me: Ohtani’s response is way more powerful than brute force. We’re used to thinking of traditional masculinity as aggression — yelling, fighting, proving. But this? This is mature, grounded masculine energy. It’s what it looks like when a man has his emotions under control. No need to posture. No need to prove. He literally ends the whole thing by shaking the first baseman’s hand!

The best part is that by refusing to fight, Ohtani embarrassed the other team more than fists ever could. Because that’s what they wanted — a brawl, an excuse. Instead, he called out their immaturity without saying a word.

That’s gangster.

📸 Photography That’s Blowing My Mind

Singapore-based photographer Yik Keat @yk captured the steep inclines of streets in San Francisco in a way that makes you realize what an architectural feat it is to build in a city with such monstrous hills. I can’t imagine coming home drunk…

Check out his Instagram page for more fascinating photography.

🎵 What I’m Listening To

Wilson’s vocals on this cover are incredible. Fast forward to the 3-minute mark to hear (at the time) little-known session guitarist Duane Allman creating the infamous Southern rock sound we all know and love.

📺 What I’m Watching

Every golfer wants to shoot lower scores. It took me a stubbornly long time to learn that consistently carding lower scores is less about skill than it is about decision-making.

Enter Will Robins, PGA member and creator of The Scoring Method, a teaching system that is revolutionizing golf instruction worldwide. Robins’ system is a course-management framework where the primary intent is to eliminate double bogeys and lower scores without rebuilding your swing.

This video was one of the most helpful “instructionals” I’ve come across. It’s easy to get sucked into the Instagram swing tutorials and Tiger Woods highlights, but the reality is, us normies will never have a swing like Rory McIlroy. We have to work with what we’ve got. So with that, here are my notes on the rules of The Scoring Method:

Instead of tracking things like FIR or GIR (which are just evidence of how much you suck), Robins suggests tracking metrics that you can actually learn from and take action on — all while creating a fun game within each round:

Play two games every hole.

  • 1) Enter the Scoring Zone: Get the ball within 100 yards of the pin in 2 shots.

  • 2) Get Down in 3 from inside 100. Worst case is a bogey.

    • Rule #1: Keep the ball in play at all costs. Choose the club that guarantees a playable next shot—even if that means less than driver.

    • Inside 100 yards: choose the shot you’d make 8x out of 10. Don’t chase perfect; pick the stock wedge/runner you can repeat and get it putting quickly.

What to avoid (the score-killers)

  • Forced carries. Lay up to a comfy number instead.

  • Short-siding yourself. Aim fat-side/center of the green.

  • Hero shots from the trees. Take your medicine and punch out.

  • Pin-seeking. A 30-footer from the center is fine.

  • Eliminate 3-putts. Master lag putting and make everything inside 4 ft.

He even created a PDF-downloadable scorecard, but you have to pay $20 for it. Instead, I asked ChatGPT to create one for me. Try it out!

💥 Comic of the Week

I thought I was the only one…

💭 Quote I’m Pondering

That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.

— Paoulo Coehlho, The Alchemist

🎙️The Observe & Rapport Show

Keith and Kyle sit down to discuss the benefits of running and the pros and cons of the current biggest brand names in the sport, the Epstein controversy, the origins of Lacrosse as told in the fascinating book The American Game and why it's in everyone’s best interest to do as they do in Copenhagen and smoke some weed, drink some alcohol and go for a bike ride.

📚 Books discussed in this episode:

📚 Books on My Watchlist

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