Alfred
…”When I hear you give your reasons,” Watson remarked, “the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning, I am baffled until you explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours.”
“Quite so,” Holmes answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
“Frequently.”
“How often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then how many are there?”
“How many? I don’t know.”
“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.”
from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle
Bruce
…just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder…
Questions are being asked.
Lots of questions.
Have you ever had one of those weeks (lives) in fantasy where you just know going in that it’s not going to be good?
Yeah, me too.
Especially over the past few weeks.
Three teams: 2-1 in Week 13 and 0-3 in Week 14.
As I mentioned to another manager in the Discord server, there’s a reason why I’m a teacher and not a finance brother.
When it comes to analytics, I am not the master of my domain.
This is not to say I’m not analytical.
I think pretty reflectively (obsessively?) about all things fantasy hockey and most other things too. However, most of my fantasy hockey analysis involves thinking about “playing the long game.” This seems to be, at times, not the manner in which some approach their respective teams. With all due respect, there are managers out there who are interested in “who’s the best streamer” rather than which player would benefit their teams in the long run.
Now I realize that in weekly head to head matchups, we need more of the here and now, but it might be more beneficial if our adds were a bit more holistic in nature. That is, instead of chasing the next new shiny toy, I prefer to look for streamers with benefits. Patience, Professor. Patience.
Gordon
In an obscure part of Newark International Airport on an uneventful early Sunday morning, a man leaned against the wall. One leg bent on that same wall, with a cowboy hat cocked forward, he might have been a Clint Eastwood character come to New Jersey.
Just the two of us, facing each other from opposite sides.
…No way. It just couldn’t be.
(…“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.”)
I was killing time, awaiting my flight to Savannah, Georgia to reunite with my college roommate who I hadn’t seen since graduation some years before.
My dear reader(s) (if I may be so bold to assume the “s”), over my lifetime,
“there have come to my ears (and eyes?) several incidents which are hard to reconcile with the settled order of Nature.”—Dr. James Mortimer, excerpt from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
…excuse me. But you look like…Are you Richard Petty? Why yes, I am Richard Petty. Richard Petty?…(laughing a bit) Yes, I am that Richard Petty.
You won’t believe this, but I’m on my way to visit my best friend who’s a huge NASCAR fan and you are his idol. Would you mind…
…and of course he did. “To Smitty, from Richard Petty #43” he signed on the back of my voter registration card. It was the only sort of piece of blank paper I had on me at the time.
And he couldn’t have been more genuine, any more generous.
Sometimes seeing and observing meet.
Perhaps you’re wondering, what does this all have to do with what we’re doing here?
I’ll let you decide for yourselves.
Joker
…a priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Bartender turns to them and goes, “What is this some kind of a joke?”
And so it’s gone over the past little bit.
Two clips capture the essence of my fantasy hockey results over the past few weeks.
1. “It’s almost as if you (I) have no business training at all.”
and
2. Every decision I’ve ever made in my entire life has been wrong.”
Lately, it’s felt that way with respect to my fantasy hockey decision making.
Perhaps I’m (we’re) being a bit too hard on myself (ourselves)?
Riddler
Alone and at my computer before the students came in today, my back was turned away from the entrance to my classroom. A voice called out my name and I turned to see that a substitute teacher was standing in front of me.
“I brought you a little present,” she said. “It cost me a whole five dollars. Found it at a thrift store and thought you’d like it.”
That little gift had within it the passage quoted above. And it got me thinking…
Grayson
So, for now at least, I’ve come to the realization that I need to step it back a bit. In an effort to not only see, but to observe as well.
Sometimes an object beheld too closely is difficult to observe.
I would encourage you to do the following (I’m talking to myself as well): take a step back from your respective teams and ask a few questions:
1. What am I trying to do here?
2. Where am I in the standings?
3. How do I balance short-term solutions with long-term benefits?
These questions may seem a bit too vague for some. Nonetheless, I think that we sometimes can get a bit too stuck in the weeds. I mean, the weeds are good. Nate’s in the weeds. Blake’s in there too. They know the weeds. They’re good in the weeds. There’s a lot to uncover in the weeds. But too much time in the weeds can get us off course. Eventually you have to come out of the weeds. because only you know the path you’re traveling.
So step it back a bit.
And you might just find out how to observe a bit better.
Thanks for reading.
Apples and Ginos 