More Context, On Context
More Context, On Context
And how I'm a little bit like Don Rickles
I wanted to follow up on last week’s post on context by sharing a couple of conversations I had and an excellent example from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The first is a story a reader shared with me:
Just read your latest substack:
On the college course comment: one topic I specifically struggled with in college was deferred tax accounting. For the last 15 years, it has been one of my specialties in serving clients. During the last three semesters, I have had a chance to return to my alma mater and teach the class. Full circle.
The second story was a conversation with a friend about him having waited ten years to return and get his MBA. He’d recently had a colleague ask him about going back and getting an MBA, and the advice was to wait, spend some time in the real world, then go back to school and reap the benefits of all that context.
Two great examples of how context can influence our learning.
My third example comes from the Baseball Hall of Fame. I, along with many other Minnesotans, am eagerly awaiting the results of this year’s ballet because our fellow Minnesotan, Joe Mauer, is in his first year of eligibility.
For those of you who may not know of Joe Mauer, he was a high school legend in St. Paul. He was the #1 quarterback recruit in his class and had committed to playing at Florida St. He would also probably have been good enough to play Division One basketball if he hadn’t concentrated on the other sports. None of this mattered when his hometown Twins took Mauer with the #1 overall pick.
I can recall the excitement and anticipation of waiting for him to go through the minors and finally play in a Twins uniform. For ten years, Mauer was as good of a catcher as there ever has been. He won batting titles and played gold glove defense, and in 2009, the last year the Twins played in the Metrodome, he was the American League MVP.
I met Joe once when I was at Northland Country Club. He’d been injured and didn’t make the All-Star game for the first time in years. He and his now-wife came to Duluth for the break and played golf at Northland. I introduced myself on the practice tee and said: “It’s ironic that you’ve got some time off and are here to see my work. When I have some time off, I like seeing your work.” He laughed, and I left him to enjoy his round.
I’ve never been so vetted to the results of a Hall of Fame vote. Mauer was an outstanding player and a better human being, and I hope he becomes a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Back to the lesson on context. The HOF ballot is voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America members, but you don’t get the privilege right away; you must have been a member for ten years before becoming a HOF voter. The reason is context!
Speaking of context, I joined Micah Woods for an episode of his ATC Double Cut podcast, and we added more context to our approach of reduced disruptive maintenance.
The context we believed necessary was that we still topdress and aerify, but we have reduced the frequency and amounts dramatically from what is typically recommended. We have also attached the decision-making for such practices to data rather than rote.
I hope you enjoy listening. We joke that I’m a bit like Don Rickles to Micah’s Johnny Carson. Rickles was a guest on the Tonight Show over 100 times during Carson’s career. Love me or hate me, you can count on me showing up for an ATC pod with some regularity.