The Mix Tape, Vol. 92

May 21, 2021

Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Vol. 92 of The Mix Tape newsletter, mixing writing, content + pr strategy, Apple nerdness, and fitness.

This week’s Mix:

When courage becomes comfort
Find your signature move
Reframing failure
The end of an era at ESPN
The iPad Pro reviews are out, and they are all incomplete
What pets teach us
This week’s Florida photo

When courage becomes comfort

Does creative resistance hold you back? I’ve gone more than a few rounds with it.

At one time, after writing, pressing publish was an act of courage. I worried about what you would think. About your judgement.

That fear—that creative resistance—kept me from publishing regularly for more than a decade.

Now, though, repetition has turned courage into comfort.

I still care what you think. I hope you like and get value from what I write.

But if you don’t … it’s fine.

That’s why I’m going to try video as well. It’s scary.

You can read more about how meeting creative resistance here.

Find your signature move

Stew Fortier shares how Comedy Cellar founder Bill Grundfest helped legendary comedians like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, and Ray Romano lean into their unique superpowers—their signature move:

Bill realized that Maher was different: His observations were hilarious. He saw things other people couldn’t see.
Maher still didn’t realize that was his superpower yet, so he took a job hosting a new late-night talk show called Nightshift. Two months in, he was fired and replaced. Bill told him: “You got fired because tons of other comedians can do that job. You were replaceable.”
That conversation planted the seed for Maher’s first show, Politically Incorrect. Politically Incorrect revolved entirely around Maher's superpower: merciless, unique political observations.

Grundfest also told Jon Stewart:

“You are not the vehicle for your material, your material is the vehicle for you.”

In other words: The best things we create are extensions of what we do best.

Reframing failure

Charlie Bleeker once wanted to be a famous actor. She moved to Los Angeles and chased her dream:

I envisioned the dream roles, the Oscar speech, the interview with Jimmy Fallon and subsequent lip sync contest.
I’m 36 years old and neither famous nor an actress. But I don’t consider this a failure because I no longer want those things. Except for the lip sync-off with Jimmy. That’s a forever dream.
Recently I had dinner with my Dad and he said, definitively, “LA didn’t work out for you.”

But Charlie reminds us: goals are not fixed.

We change. So should the things we aspire to. She brilliantly reframes her time in LA as a success:

There was no shame when I realized I no longer want to act. It didn’t feel like failure. It felt like a clearer path.
So now I proudly call myself a writer. And my new goal is to write a book.

It’s ok to adjust our goals and dreams. That’s not waffling. That’s growth.

The end of an era at ESPN

Last week, SportsCenter anchor Kenny Mayne was let go at ESPN, ending a 27-year run at the network.

Mayne shared some thoughts in an LA Times column:

My advice to the young ones looking to get into this profession, any profession, always has been not about overcoming fear of failure, but disregarding it altogether. Like horse trainer Nick Zito once said, “you can’t even lose if you don’t enter.” My football coach at UNLV, Tony Knap, said look deep first, you can always find something underneath.

Good advice—which applies to the less young amongst us, also.

Many who made SportsCenter so entertaining in the 90s and aughts have moved on. Dan Patrick. Keith Olbermann. Craig Kilborune. Robin Roberts. And now, Mayne.

But the SportsCenter anchor I miss most is Charlie Steiner. No one lost their composure on air like Charlie.

I promise you this 90 second video will brighten your day:

These days, Steiner does radio play-by-play for the L.A. Dodgers. Sometimes I’ll turn on a Dodgers broadcast at night just to hang with him a bit.

All the big-time anchors who left ESPN went on to successful second acts. I’m sure Mayne will also.

The iPad Pro reviews are out, and they are all incomplete

Wednesday, the embargo lifted on iPad Pro reviews. Dieter Bohn at The Verge always does a great job:

Bohn discusses the dilemma of judging the new devices:

Seemingly every new iPad Pro inspires an admittedly exhausting but also necessary discussion about whether or not iPadOS is actually capable enough to justify the price of the hardware that runs it.

Federico Viticci, in his usual insanely in-depth review, nails the problem with discussing the new iPad Pro in his title: “iPad Pro 2021 Review: Future on Standby.”

The reviews focus on what they can: new hardware specs. Because we don’t know what software update are coming.

To be fair, the hardware specs are obscenely good: the new XDR display, the M1 chip, lots more RAM. These machines will fly—if the software lets them:

The perception since the iPad Pro’s introduction is that its hardware has consistently leapfrogged its software, leaving many to wonder about the untapped potential of iPadOS and a third-party app ecosystem that could have been vastly richer and more powerful if only iPadOS allowed developers to write more complex apps. Effectively, “too good for its software” has long been the iPad Pro’s hardware mantra.

We will learn about iPadOS 15 during Apple’s WWDC conference keynote on June 7.

For now, the iPad Pro remains a Ferrari with a restrictor plate; iPadOS limits what an iPad Pro can do relative to a Mac. As John Gruber put it:

The elephant in the room is iPadOS. It’s just not good enough. In the same way that Intel’s chips were holding back Macs, iPadOS has been holding back iPad Pros.

Here’s hoping Apple truly lets us take the iPad Pro where it is capable of going.

What pets teach us

William Willis writes about the passing of his dog Roxy and reminds us pets are more than companions. They are teachers:

I have grown philosophical at this stage of my life, and Roxy taught me more about life than any revered philosopher. She is a constant reminder to...
Stay strong.
Limit complaint.
Live in the moment.
Love unconditionally.
Enjoy small moments.
Play with wild abandon.

Absolutely. Our dog Lucy has taught me about respect, among other things. Lucy is respectful but expects respect in return.

Commanding respect is no easy feat when you’re prone to dragging your butt along the carpet. Somehow, Lucy manages the juxtaposition.

And both Lucy and our other dog Finn have taught us about about patiently awaiting miracles: sometimes, if you sit quietly, steak simply falls out of the sky.

Great and heartfelt thoughts by William. Rest in peace, Roxy.

This week’s Florida photo

My daughter Maddie and I at Universal Studios, outside The Incredible Hulk roller coaster:

When I got off the ride, I was about the same color as The Hulk. Sadly, my roller coaster days may be coming to an end.

In my defense, The Hulk’s coaster is intense:

The 3,670-foot-long (1,120 m) ride features seven inversions including a zero-g roll, a cobra roll, two vertical loops, and two corkscrews.

(I’m not retiring from coasters, however, until we get the chance to ride Universal’s new Velocicoaster.)

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As always, thank you for reading and sharing.

Please hit reply if you have questions, comments, or open rebuttals. (Or just want to say hi.)

Steady Beats | Matt Tillotson