💪Finkel's Fast Five - Issue 132

Welcome to Finkel's Fast Five #132. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

ONE

 IMPROVEMENT - There are too many gurus and strategies and nonsensical "systems" out there in cluttered and crazy self-improvement land to count. I am all for getting better, but if your blueprint to improve is complicated and costs a lot of money and involves a rigid plan, it will likely fail.  You know what won't fail? The ideas in this piece from my friends at Art of Manliness about what I think is the easiest, most surefire way to actually improve: the Kaizen Way. Why do I like it? Because it's free. It's super easy. You can start accomplishing your goals immediately and it has worked for exceptional individuals as well as major corporations. Here's the piece.

TWO

 DEFEAT - Imagine that you compete in an individual athletic event and you are better than every single other human being on earth in this event. You are faster. You are stronger. You are, simply, the best. Now imagine the time comes to race in front of the whole world and in this event that you're the best at, you somehow lose by .01 of a second to the most famous person in your sport.  The story, of course, becomes about this famous person and how he miraculously won this event. In this case, that person is Michael Phelps and the event is the 100 meter butterfly at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But what about you? How do you live with a loss like this? The only human alive better than you is only better than you by one one-hundredth of a second. The "you" in this case is Milo Cavic and this feature by John Gonzalez on how the loss has defined (or not) Cavic's life is exceptional.

THREE

DOCUMENTARY - I love every single thing about the Summer Olympics. It sucks they were pushed back a year. Maybe it'll give someone somewhere extra time to train to beat Usain Bolt. Maybe not.  If you're feeling a little nostalgic about the Olympics (because they should be on right about now) I'm with you. And even though it's not the same, watching the documentary 'I Am Bolt' will take you back to a little bit of the excitement generated by the world's fastest man. It's an interesting watch because in America, we don't know too much about Bolt or his family or just how revered he is in Jamaica (and how much of a phenom he was - even in high school). I watched this with my son and we loved it.

FOUR

 SCIENCE - Ever wondered how geologists take samples of lava flowing from an active volcano to study? I mean, doesn't lava just melt everything?  Turns out that geologists cut open the silver skin of a live lava gush and 'scrape' the outer layer to reveal the (Dr. Evil voice) "liquid hot magma" and then they scoop it out with a ladle-type thing and put it in water and...the entire process is completely hypnotizing. The colors. The heat. The danger. It's... crazy and cool. Check it out.

FIVE

 A sad-but-true quote about science:  “We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows about science and technology."  - Carl Sagan

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