Would life be better or worse if everything had a numerical readout that could display its current status? 

Last night I went for some power benchmarks on the trainer and found out that my V02 power and LT threshold are about 60-80W lower than this time last year.  It’s a little depressing on one hand, but a little freeing on the other because now I know just how bad things are and how far I have to go to catch back up.  Numbers are nice.  But what if your roof told you it had 17% remaining, or the 2nd gear syncros in your car were 28% good?  What if you could read out 53% happy, 62% stressed, 7% frustrated?  What if your marriage was 81% healthy?  Would it help?  Would it make you depressed?  Would it make you paranoid?

I find myself often frustrated with a lack of feedback at places like work, and frustrated with an overabundance of feedback from things like cars.  Power meters have made training for cycling a lot easier for me, in that it keeps me honest, makes sure that I’m actually training what I need to be training and helps me track progress, but in the end, power numbers don’t win races.  Succeeding requires intuition and developing wisdom as to handle a particular situation.  As much as I can find myself frightened by the possibility of a dead engine, transmission, roof or sewer line, it’s probably best just to pay attention, not worry about the things I have no control over until they become problems, and exercise the best of my wisdom along the way.

Of course, on the flip side, since I’m sufficiently convinced everything is going to break immediately, I know how much it will cost to replace and where to go to get it when it finally does.

Today I clicked over to the New York Times and found out that jazz great Louie Bellson passed away this weekend. He lived a long and very full life, releasing his last record this past year with Clark Terry. Whenever one of the jazz elders passes it’s always a sad occasion as it closes the aperture of living history back to an era when it was truly the top music of its day, full of creativity and talent. Louie will be remembered for many things including the popularizing of the double bass drum, appearances with every major jazz band and artist, being married to Pearl Bailey when interracial marriages weren’t universally accepted and being coined “the world’s greatest drummer” by Duke Ellington.

I’ll remember him as a kind, sincere and genuine individual who had more class anyone and even at 80 could drum circles around all but a few. He was never the loudest, the most technical, or the most flamboyant, but he soloed with an unsurpassed level of nuance and sensitivity. He was one I’ve the nicest people I’ve ever known.

In my past life as a musician, I had the opportunity to perform with Louie on several occasions and on one tour as a member of the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. I was on stage with him in Montreux, Paris and North Sea. At North Sea, when he entered a concert late with his wife and begin walking slowly down the aisle, Tony Bennett stopped singing and announced to the hall that Louie was there. For a person of such significance, he was down to earth, enjoyable at breakfast or on the morning bus ride and always willing to talk about touring with Duke, or performing at the White House, or the time when he and Dizzy… I’ve performed with multiple Grammy winners and musicians who have even greater name recognition, but Louie will always, always stand out.

While cliche, it’s important to remember that our lives are fuller for having known people than sadder for losing them. Louie leaves behind an amazing legacy of music, of faith, of education and goodwill.

Peace.

Hi Everyone,

If you attended Quest’s Finance Workshop on Saturday and wanted a copy of my PowerPoint presentation (for the numbers) or wanted your very own copy of the excel spreadsheet to fill out, they can be downloaded from here.

Excel Spreadsheet/Handout

PowerPoint Presentation

Or, if you’re just really bored and want to point out all of my grammatical and spelling errors, have at it!

Hope this finds you well,

Alan