Finkel's Fast Five - Issue #10

April 6th, 2018

The trick I haven't been able to master this week:
I saw a video on Wired magazine's website about how to fold a paper airplane that flies right back to you and I've watched it and folded a bunch of planes, hoping to have a big, cool reveal to my kids once I've mastered it... But I can't. My folding is never quite right. My angles are a little off. I'm a moron. The video is super cool though and this guy is amazing. Let me know if you figure it out.

I started this book and it's fascinating:
The book is called When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. I heard Pink in an interview describe this as not a "how-to" book but a "when-to" book and I was immediately curious. As I sometimes do, I bought it on a whim from that statement and it's brilliant. So far I've learned that our modern days are designed wrong (biology), our corporations schedule meetings illogically (chronobiology), you should never get surgery in the afternoon, and we are in dire need of a re-evaluation of why things are planned for when they are. It's Moneyball for your life schedule. Read it.

An incredible moment in large Jenga Giant history:
Everyone loves Jenga and the "life-sized" version is pretty cool. We all dream of getting to that point in the game where it's your turn, half the tower is on one block, and you Bruce Lee-level pull it out and the tower doesn't fall. At least I dream of that. Well, ex-NFL player Pat McAfee's father did it and the video is outstanding.

The 10-minute jump rope warm-up I started doing:
As loyal readers know, I work out early in the morning and one of the toughest things to do is get my legs out of "sleep mode" and into "let's lift heavy things mode". I started doing this jump rope warm-up routine to get things moving and it seems to be working. You just need a clock and a rope: 20 seconds two feet, 20 seconds one foot (left), 20 seconds one foot (right), twenty seconds rest. Do that for 10 minutes. OK, fine, here's a lame shot of me cranking this out yesterday morning with some inspiration from Ric Flair.

A tremendously written sentence I can't get out of my head:
"A tall, smiling kid with the charisma of a movie star, a smile like a sunrise, a swing as sweet as a banana split and the confidence of a riverboat gambler with his own deck has come along to rescue the game from the brink of anonymity..." - Legendary sportswriter Jim Murray, LA Times, November 28th, 1996, describing an up-and-coming golfer named Tiger Woods.

Have a great weekend and whatever you do, make sure you have the confidence of a riverboat gambler with your own deck.

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- Jon