Marginal Gains, Conversation Starters, and Cramped and Cozy: What I’m Reading This Week

I’ve always got my eyes and ears open for a good new book, which helps to explain why my TBR (to be read) list is approximately 2.3 miles long.

But in addition to good books, I savor a good book review. This one from Adam Nicolson, tickles all my fancies. In his review of David George Haskell’s How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries, Nicolson addresses our fraught relationship with nature, as though we humans can ever really be separated from it.

Nicolson writes that Haskell’s book goes beyond the mere beauty of flowers and considers their evolutionary success. He argues that flowering plants should be just as prominently displayed in natural history museums as dinosaurs, for plants are the frameworks for our entire world order.

I can’t wait to delve into this book, once I finish working my way through my current library stack. Wherever you are in this moment of life right now, I hope you can find time to crack open (or listen to) a good book. There’s nothing quite like the magic of being transported to another world through words.

Until next time, stay safe and be kind!

Marginal Gains

I read James Clear’s book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones shortly after it was first published…in 2018. Since it’s been eight years — How has it already been eight years? — I decided to read a book excerpt someone recently shared.

The excerpt talks about British Cycling’s fateful decision to hire Dave Brailsford as its new performance director back in 2003. To say Great Britain had endured a dry spell in cycling is putting it mildly. Their record was abysmal: a single gold medal at the Olympic games in nearly a century and no first-place finishes at the Tour de France ever. Their reputation was even worse: “In fact, the performance of British riders had been so underwhelming that one of the top bike manufacturers in Europe refused to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw the Brits using their gear,” Clear writes.

When Brailsford started, he started small, not big, because he believed those small changes would all add up. He called his strategy “the aggregation of marginal gains.” Under Brailsford’s direction, everyone focused on direct contributing factors, such as bike seats and racing suits, and a plethora of indirect contributing factors, such as pillows and mattresses for the best sleep and massage gels that supported fastest muscle recovery.

Brailsford’s idea worked. The British Cycling team dominated in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, and they won five Tour de Frances in six years. Brailsford is a compelling case study in support of Clear’s extremely appealing argument that small changes compound, quickly.

What I find so attractive — and I suspect so many other people do, too — is that Clear’s theory places so much agency and possibility in an individual’s hands. If you don’t like something, change it from every conceivable angle. In this way, you’re not making or breaking a habit; you’re creating an entire ecosystem to support your goal.

I know slips, trips and falls and other potential SIFs are really challenging issues. It’s clear that if there were an obvious solution, y’all would’ve found it by now. Since there isn’t, you must be relentless in your efforts. I hope this excerpt gives you a renewal of motivation.

Conversation Starters

The big safety conferences are fast approaching. Quick, do you know what you’re going to say to all the new folks you meet?

If you struggle with small talk, fear not. Jancee Dunn offers advice for how to strike up a conversation with strangers that doesn’t rely upon the weather, traffic or the dreaded “How’s it going?” to connect.

Dunn spoke with expert communicators who offered some advice that includes asking about specifics, talking about feelings, getting personal and seeking feedback. I liked how their advice made me stop and think, “Why yes, I would love someone to ask me that.” Or, If I tweaked my phrasing with a couple words, I could probably have a better dinner conversation tonight. Above all, the piece is a great reminder that if I want to have meaningful interactions with strangers, I need to put forth the effort to engage — and be willing to listen.

Lately, I’ve been asking people about good TV they’ve watched or books they’re read. I also like asking about hobbies. And delicious meals folks have eaten, either at a restaurant or made at home; the latter is usually more interesting because it may require some creative adaptations for specialty ingredients or kitchen gadgets. I find that these questions usually elicit a full-face smile and lead to delightful conversations. Feel free to borrow these conversation starters, and please share your own ideas in the comments below!

And, to get us back to where we started, here’s the link to Dunn’s story.

Cramped and Cozy

Maybe it’s because I am hosting family for a few days, but this essay from Jack Butler spoke to me.

In a short piece that speaks volumes, Butler writes about his childhood home, where he and his four siblings grew up: “A full house can get tense. A sibling pair usually had to share a bedroom. Sustained proximity drives even family members to occasional madness. There were never enough bathrooms. We always seemed to be almost late to wherever we needed to go.”

Butler describes the privilege of returning to his parents’ house as an adult. A home that now houses his sibling’s spouses and nieces and nephews. But instead of crowded, his descriptions sound cozy.

Perhaps because these bustling visits are rarer, they are sweeter. Or perhaps because adulthood affords us the ability to appreciate our past and savor our present. Whatever magic might be at work, what a gift it is to have a raucous, chaotic, cramped home full of people we love, if only temporarily.

I encourage you to read Butler’s essay here.