[SB 225] Your competitive moat, aging in the 1970s and 80s, Same Old Lang Syne

Hi, I’m Matt, and welcome to Steady Beats. If you like to walk for a better life, and also like Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life,” you just might like this newsletter.

Fix Your Swiss Watch

After 25 years as James Madison University Athletics Director, Jeff Bourne is going out on top.

Bourne transitioned the school’s football program to the higher-tier Football Bowl Subdivision, where the team finished 11-1 and made the Armed Forces Bowl in just its second year after moving up. The men’s basketball team is currently ranked 20th.

On Full Ride, the mid-morning show on SiriusXM College Sports Radio, Bourne discussed what lies ahead for the school’s new football coach and the athletic director that will take over next year:

“We’re not going to hire somebody from outside that’s going to come in and try to change what we’ve got. We have an organization and a program that runs like a Swiss watch. I mean, it is in phenomenal shape. It doesn’t need to be fixed, there’s nothing broken. All you need to do is come in and do your job as an athletic director and build relationships.”

That comment, left me staring, mouth agape, at my HomePod Mini. And that’s weird, because the HomePod Mini is inanimate audio device.

But Bourne’s philosophy is such a contrast to what we do at Write of Passage after a cohort — or after we do anything, really — where we review everything and look for the highest-leverage changes to make. Team retros, student surveys, retros and surveys for our Editors, Mentors, and Gym Leaders, performance reviews … all of it aimed at rooting out where to get better.

A culture dedicated to improvement becomes its own competitive moat. A culture of belief that you’ve perfected everything becomes, well, the opposite of that.

To run reliably, even a Swiss watch needs service. 

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Why don’t we age like we used to?

This graphic of TV stars from the 1970s and 80s and their ages at the time blew me away:

The men in the top row all look like they are in their 70s. The women in the bottom row look 10-20 years older than their ages.

Why?

Some would say nutrition, but I don’t think so. You can make the case modern nutrition is worse, as we consume more processed foods and cook less at home.

We know more about the importance of exercise now, and that could be a factor.

Smoking surely played a role.

What is your theory? It seems clear we age more gracefully now, but I’m not sure why.

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Same Old Lang Syne: The Backstory

If you’re in to Christmas music, you have to love “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg, right? After all, it’s the song that opens Scrooge’s heart near the end of “A Christmas Carol.” Such a savvy choice by Dickens.

(OK—I may have made that last part up.)

Anyway, Fogelberg’s song tells the story of a former couple who run into each other on Christmas Eve. They reminisce, washing down a few memories with beers in the woman’s car.

But this will make you love the song even more: it’s based on the true story of Fogelberg running into an old girlfriend. This short TikTok has the backstory, and shares the thoughts of the woman in the song:

The classic recording of the song is terrific, of course. But I prefer this live version from Fogelberg’s 1991 album, “Live: Greetings from the West.”

In the live version, Fogelberg slows the pace of the lyrics in the final verse just a bit, making his sentiments even more painful to hear.

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