Crying at Golf
Why the Ryder Cup makes me cry. Work from Home data. Theatre: thoughtful black woman critic. Life, Entrepreneurship: Using agency is fulfillment. Art: Sue Dunkley exhibition.
Crying at golf
Work from Home data
Theatre: black woman critic
Life: Using agency is fulfillment
Art: Sue Dunkley exhibition
Links: Polaris fellowship, dishonesty, energy ladder; September is the hottest month.
My father loved the Ryder cup. The year after he died I tuned in to listen to the Ryder cup on BBC radio. I hardly watch golf but the Ryder cup recalls my father to me.
That first cup after my father’s death. I cried. Extremely unexpected to me. I was back in London after a year studying in America. I had been in New York over September 11th and this Ryder Cup had been delayed due to those attacks. I recall I was in Soho. The situation felt surreal.
The game was close because it was all tied going into that Sunday. I can not recall why I was in Soho on a Sunday. The incongruence of it all. The sudden memories of my father and the sheer unbelievability of being alive came crashing together in emotion.
Crying is probably not too out of place in Soho. An area of drama, and break ups and happenings. Still it caught me by surprise as I don’t play or watch golf and hardly follow it.
This year, I didn’t watch the Ryder cup but I caught the articles on the drama. This event is one event where we see so many golfer cry. They also play as a team which is not typically of pro golf, although you see it in amatuer golf.
Quite possibly its only the stories we tell ourselves but Justin Rose commented this:
“We are united by a culture and a generation of players that have come before us. A good pairing on the European team doesn’t mean playing with your best mate. It’s about representing something bigger than yourself.”
Rory McIlroy said (as they lost the Cup last time):
This wasn’t about revenge. This was about redemption and showing what we could do.
Much of the commentary had an emphasis on team.
We feel inspired and special, on occasion, when we strive for purpose and goals beyond ourselves.
I think this element and the element of a solo sport becoming a team sport attracted my father. And through that me.
Henry Oliver has an essay on the importance of agency in doing great things. He tilts towards the entrepreneur lens, but it seems very relevant to creatiges and to living a life fulfilled.
This drive for autonomy is true across all sorts of disciplines. Try to imagine scientific breakthroughs, business innovation, or social improvement without people who are willing to be self-directed. When internal and external motivation are well-matched, talent can flourish.
Autonomy is a sign of talent in multiple places. It’s why entrepreneurs are more likely than salaried workers to have engaged in illicit activity as a teenager. It’s why young research scientists who narrowly miss out on funding applications early in their careers often outperform those who did get funding over the following fifteen years. And it’s why when capable school students are allowed to miss some classes and undertake self-directed study, they perform better on exams.
It’s not that entrepreneurs are natural rule-breakers. Rather, like many sorts of creative people, they want self-direction. They aren’t going to take the world at face value. They have to figure it out for themselves. Failure improves those scientists’ prospects because it gives them an increased dose of drive and perseverance. Once the system has rejected you, you are emboldened to be more autonomous. More freedom doesn’t mean capable students bunk off school: it gives them room to focus on their work.
Work from home (WFH) is mostly a pro agency idea. While individual organisations will have company-specific needs - ie some can be full remote, some will ned to be fully in-person - the systems-wide data are intriguing. The gain in commute time is significant and a portion of that is spent o more work.
Nick Bloom is one economist tracking this closely. He sums:
1) Micro-economic studies: these find small positive impacts of hybrid WFH on productivity, and mixed impacts of fully-remote WFH (negative when it's badly managed, positive when its well-managed). 2) Macro data: this shows US productivity growth accelerated as levels of WFH have jumped, suggesting a positive impact 3) Market data: this reveals massive adoption of WFH by firms globally and mostly favorable feedback from managers, suggesting a positive impact.
And
1) WFH levels: stabilized, with North America, UK & Australia highest, then Europe and South America, and Asia lowest. 2) Demographic variations by education (graduates about 2x levels of WFH) and age (highest for folks in 30s and early 40s). 3) Strategy: Hybrid popular for employee retention and recruitment. Fully-remote saves on office costs and enables national/global hiring 4) Management: Coordinate days together for hybrid, make in-person valuable for in-person activities, focus on good performance evaluations, and software to coordinate effective space and office use 5) Impact: Donut effect emptying city-centers, less commuting is speeding up the morning commute, and golf has taken off midweek
I went to the Sue Dunkley exhibition. Sue died recently. She was the mother of my brilliant playwright friend Jane Bodie.
I met Sue when she had late stage dementia. This does make the whole exhibition moving to me.
I believe it remains harder for women to make a living in creative arts. The starting point is high talent and stamina, but having the resources to support you in that work. I feel blessed that I have support.
I recall the story of sculptor Albert Giacometti. His wife, lovers provided enormous practical and emotional support. Without them, it seems unlikely he would have been able to focus on his work how he did.
Women are often dismissed as “difficult women”, they often have the care obligations.
In any event the work is powerful and serves a wider audience. If you are about for Frieze or around Cork St / Bond st in London. Go see.
I’ve come across a theatre critic, Kim, who has been reviewing theatre since the 1970s through the lens of being a black women. I’m hoping to have an interview Q&A with her, but thought I would note her body of work here.
This comment on white audiences is challenging and thoughtful. She writes me:
I was born the day before St. Patrick’s Day in 1957 in Lambeth. I did well not to be named Patricia! My mother was a nurse who came here from Jamaica in 1949, answering a call for help that had gone out across the Commonwealth. Kim is actually my name, not Kimberley or anything.
… I was eleven when Auntie took me to a play. I wish I could remember where it was but it was not a “proper” theatre, more like a church hall. It was an amateur production of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste Of Honey and honestly, it was pretty progressive of Pen to realise I would enjoy something so adult and so … well at the time the favourite word was ‘permissive’. She was right of course. I was transfixed by it. It is an important to me because it was the first time I had seen a Black actor playing a Black character on a stage.
I am looking forward to putting out a set of Q&A from her.
Links: Polaris fellowship applications open until 17 nov. https://x.com/benyeohben/status/1709973423047192916?s=20
Energy Ladder: https://x.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1710250863476781107?s=20
8 week writing fellowship for biology. Ideas Matter: A writing fellowship for biology. Great essays can help to build teams, found companies, and shift fields. We're launching an 8-week writing fellowship for aspiring writers:
https://x.com/NikoMcCarty/status/1709213941400764738?s=20
Highest temp September:
New Yorker on the fraud of the dishonesty studies: A look on the problems of certain social science studies.
Thanks for reading. Be well.