And Another Thing

I really liked this post, by Malcolm Gladwell, about how hard it is to appreciate and convey the degree of difficulty of certain things to people who don't do them.  It's something I think about a lot. 

One thing that's really interesting and different about being a coach, instead of being a lawyer, is that I don't have peers who work with me.  There are other coaches in the department, of course, and I learn every time I sit down and talk with one.  But they don't know much about sailing, and I don't know much about their sports, so it's not like we can offer one another specific advice about the thing we're most focused on.  There are sailing coaches from other schools, and I learn from them, too, but we see one another mostly at regattas, where our sailors are competing with one another,so there's limited opportunity for information exchange.  One of the things I miss about being a lawyer is the ability to poke my head into someone's office and say, "Will you take a look at this?  Am I an idiot?  How do you read this?  Can I bounce an idea off of you?  What's your take?"   

Comments

[Bill]

That was a great post. I think a lot of the trappings of modern life (matching curtains, plates, etc) are fine if you care about them. But when I read your blog I have this vision of the perfect Portland lifestyle, a comfortable house, lots of friends to hang with, a job doing something you love, free time to write, a cool dog, the outdoors and plenty of time and inclination to enjoy them. To me, that stuff wins hands down over matching doilies, two-car garages, and uncomfortable, stuffy dinner parties.

[Bill]

Oops, sorry, I think put the comment under the wrong post.

Can you say a little more about how things are with you and NBT? Just general. I want to know if you're happy, figuring things out, etc. I've been combing thru for any posts by him and didn't notice any-- did he have fun?

[Norm]

Maybe you could try organizing a site for sailing coaches to pass on tips to each other -- like this one for debaters (http://www.cross-x.com) -- or just set up a mailing list for people to pose questions.