The recent Performance Racing Industry trade show in Indianapolis was a more-than-three-day opportunity for Ben Hinc and I to discuss Apple, cities and publishing.
During our final dinner together of the trip, I blurted out, “What a time this is.” Ben was understandably puzzled, so I continued by saying something about how him and I, despite being relatively normal dudes, have the ability to reach nearly everyone on the planet.
I started a select few days of my senior year of high school with half-hour runs on the treadmill, a decent breakfast and a cold shower.
On these days, I’d be sitting in my first class of the day when I realized more than just how ready I was to visit the bathroom after getting a head start on my daily water intake goal. I’d realize how different my surroundings felt after I grabbed hold of the morning.
I’m quite conflicted over how to feel about the first half of 2018.
On one hand, I’ve attended six of the first eight Verizon IndyCar Series races of the year and was present for three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship rounds in a row at Long Beach, Mid-Ohio and Detroit. I always thought it would be a few years before I traveled to this many races but after finally attaining my driver’s license and a car last fall, it quickly became much simpler. From the season-opening IndyCar race in St. Petersburg, Florida to my first Indianapolis 500 and the recent Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix which fills a special place in my heart, it really has been a crazy cool year.
On the other hand, while all that has been happening right before my eyes, a lot hasn’t been happening. I’ve fallen flat on my face with all the habits I had lined up as the new year began.
As I arrived in Indianapolis yesterday to begin race weekend for the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500, a childhood memory came back to me and its meaning to me suddenly multiplied.
I remembered how I used to check out every Indianapolis 500-related book from my elementary school library, clamoring to find out all I could about Indy car racing’s crown jewel event after learning this type of racing even existed when it returned to Detroit’s Belle Isle in 2007.
I would agree that the tool matters less than the user, that a young boy in the Dominican Republic is better off having an unrelenting drive to play baseball and his bare hands than a nice leather glove but no love for the game.
Constraints create creativity.
But if corporate jobs are so valuable to companies, economies and families, why do their environments not elicit strong consideration of the best tools and wisest workflows? If these jobs are the natural progression for grade-school kids who become middle schoolers who go through high school who graduate college, why can we not say that this arena cares deeply about their hardware and software — the tools of today?
The opening paragraph of a Formula One article on Motorsport.com yesterday from Tom Errington:
Only five overtakes were completed in the season-opening race following the first lap and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said he would have turned the TV off rather than watch a “worthless” Grand Prix.
I’m not even sure how I came across this, because I never bother to follow F1 — for this very reason. But as soon as I read this, my brain instantly went into comparison mode.
I came across an opinion article written by Laura Lee Smith for The New York Times after it was shared several times by figures in the Verizon IndyCar Series community on Twitter, including track owners and teams.
Titled “Florida at 200 M.P.H.,” the piece is about Smith’s experience at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, based on her perspective as a Florida resident who “grew up in a motor-head family.”
Fans know that IndyCar is an incredible secret. Thus, exposure in The Times is valuable. I just don’t think this exposure was very good.
Very recently, I was walking in Downtown Detroit. If you’ve recently paid a visit to the D, you’ve likely at least seen or at most been pestered by a few persons with clipboards going on about how Jerry is having trouble learning Mandarin.
At least, that’s what it sounded like when I first encountered these people, given my (lack of) competence on the subject they wanted to raise my awareness of.