Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” A college friend of mine, a beautiful young woman I met when she was dating my first college roommate, sent me a card in my second year “at university” with the first sentence of Thoreau’s remark on the outside with the addition of “Or maybe it’s just a weirdo” on the inside.
Physically, I was raised in the US, but culturally I was not. Rehashing a bit of my history, my mother had been in the US less than 2 1/2 years before I was born, my father less than 2 years. For that and many other reasons I have always been out of step, out of sync with virtually all of my companions.
In my career, I was way ahead of virtually the rest of the world in realizing the power of analytics as applied to sports. Being that far ahead, that out of sync if you will, enabled me to fashion a 20+ year career in major league baseball, which came crashing down in the era after the publication of Moneyball and the excessive application of hyper-credentialism and age discrimination in baseball and in the rest of the US job infrastructure. (I was using statistical analysis in a full-time job to help a major league baseball team make decisions 15 years before Moneyball was published.)
Once again risking breaking my arm patting myself on the back, I am very proud of my writing. However, this is not a world in which writing is a skill highly prized. The scourge of social media, which I will always maintain is neither, has whittled communication into snippets and largely irrelevant photos. “Write? Why, when I can use AI?” I am out of sync again, this time to my detriment.
As is often the case I cannot articulate the reasons why I felt compelled to write this today. However, being able to express myself with whatever motivation is the most important reason why this blog has become important to me. The fact that WordPress has turned into a platform that would screw up a one-car funeral is very disappointing and has added stress that I don’t need.
I will not post tomorrow and might not post again until next Monday, December 2. It is also possible that I will move to Substack sooner than anticipated. You can sign up to follow me there.
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I was going to write about more developments that upset me because I think they are dangerous moves in a very wrong direction, but I need a break from such writing. How about this, instead?
From this Hemmings article comes this photo of Totem Automobili’s GT Super “Hestia” that was unveiled at JP Morgan’s Prestigious 40×40 Event in Paris earlier this month. The subject line of the email I sent myself with the link to the piece was “Give Me More Of These Even Though I Can’t Really Drive One.”
What a work of art! As Tara Hurlin wrote, “Totem Automobili kept the essence of the classic Alfa GTA by retaining the sports car’s original shape and form, down to its vintage-esque wheels, while incorporating modern technologies and flare throughout. Its striking triple-layer metallic red highlights its sleek, modern lines.”
As I wrote yesterday, maybe the entry of GM-Cadillac into Formula 1 for 2026 is a signal that the automaker has realized that synthetic fuels, and not electrified vehicles, are the solution. I think many millions of people feel as I do, that driving a soulless, glorified golf cart with no torque curve is not for us. As it turns out, EVs are not really a solution to any problem and a blind madness to adopt them will do nothing except waste billions of dollars and cost ordinary citizens their freedom to roam. (Obviously, the GT Super Hestia is not an EV.)
Happy Thanksgiving!
#OutOfSync