LeWrong

Enough has already been said about the ESPN spectacle "The Decision" -- a one-hour special dedicated to LeBron James (an NBA free agent) and his selection of his 2010-2011 team. If you are unaware of what I'm talking about, then allow me to be the first to welcome you back from that rock you were under.

I just have one thing to add to what has become a colorful, national discussion (even the almost-irrelevant Rev. Jesse Jackson has thrown in his two cents).

Simply put, LeBron gave up (yes, "gave up" as in "quit"). Now let me be clear, my "quit" doesn't refer to any in-game, basketball-related performances -- actually, Mr. James has been quite masterful over his seven years in the NBA. It is my belief that LeBron gave up on that extremely rare quest to change the very landscape and fabric of a major professional sport. Great athletes make history all the time, but every blue moon, an athlete makes a serious attempt to join the hallowed Pantheon reserved for "ALL-TIME GREATS."

This quest for greatness has less to do with the team goal to win NBA championships than you may think. A classic example would be Dr. J -- his "greatness" was established well before his Sixers team won the 1983 title.

Why do people fondly recall Dr. J and not Dominique Wilkins or John Stockton? One thing's for sure...the conversation cannot be centered around stats. If you mention titles, then I'd probably throw out the names Clyde Drexler or Hakeem Olajuwon. Big names? Yes. An all-time great? Not hardly!

Defining "greatness" is always a touchy subject. Don't believe me? Just bring up the subject at your local barber shop. My definition is based mostly on that "ooh-aah" that gets lodged in your long-term memory bank. As previously stated, I care less about stats or even titles -- I believe that many of us know greatness when we see it!

Getting back to LeBron...

Mr. James (I refuse to call him "King" until he gets a ring) is the latest prodigy with a legitimate shot at joining Kobe as one of the only "greats" of this generation. His latest move to Miami diminishes our ability to evaluate his "ooh-aah" moments apart from those of his new All-Star caliber teammates. Having a D-Wade and Bosh on the roster is a definite step-up, but it also dramatically lowers the level of difficulty for winning a particular game or championship.

With that said, in my book, LeBron isn't completely out of the "greatness" running, but he's significantly raised my "ooh-aah" expectations. What he could've probably done in a couple of championship seasons in Cleveland as the bonafide "man" will now take many more seasons as a key cog on a team stacked with talent and experience.

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The Mathematics of Timeshares

While on vacation, I attended a timeshare presentation. To say the least, it was a masterful study in marketing and advertising. For some reason, the part that I always get stuck on is the numbers. If I understand it correctly, I can own a piece of property -- a 1-BR condo in this case -- for one week each year for ~$20K? Wouldn't that imply a total property cost of >$1M (52 weeks x $20K)? Jeez, is it too late for me to get into the timeshare business?

The other part that gets me is the "home resort" concept. I was sold on the whole "points" program and the option to go almost anywhere I want. But the up-front costs and annual maintenance fees are based on the home resort (a place which I may never return to). Seems to me that you'd want to have a cheap property (cheap as in "lower maintenance costs") as your home resort, but ample enough points to go where you want...when you want. In which case, you're not really buying a share of a single piece of real estate, but instead becoming a shareholder in a global vacation property program. I'd also suggest that the up-front costs be based on how many points you're buying (I suppose that the home resort could trigger a minimum point threshold to qualify).

On second thought, I'd guess that my ideas screw with the inherent benefits of property ownership (i.e., tax write-offs, name on a deed, etc.). I'll keep working the numbers to figure out to make this thing work. Am I missing anything?

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Location:Atlanta Airport

Winning...By Any Means Necessary: Valid or No?

As a sports enthusiast, I see the "winning...by any means necessary" adage played out at the pro, college, and even youth sports levels. Recent examples -- performance-enhancing drug (PED) use, rampant recruiting violations, getting someone else to take your SAT, and even lying about your age to get a second run at a HS basketball career -- have led me to believe that either punishments are too lenient or we're in the midst of a generation of individual shallowness and critically low self-esteem.

In our youth sports, I often wonder what drives a coach to ditch kids who have been working hard for him all season for blue-chippers at the end of a long basketball season just so that he/she can be better positioned to win a trophy? Is this somehow related to trophies that they didn't win when they were 13? Are they counting on their team's performance to improve their job prospects or social status?

In the college ranks, John Calipari is a winning coach who continues to leave violations and sanctions in his wake as he does whatever it takes to get the best "one and dones" (top-ranked players who go to college for a year only to fulfill an NBA requirement). Wouldn't be a problem if his blue-chip freshmen were actually scholar athletes with credentials that qualified them to be enrolled as students in the first place. Sadly though, I haven't heard any outcries from his current or former schools about the (lack of) academic performance by his star players. I guess the agreement is to overlook academics if the wins keep pouring in...

Have we all forgotten Dexter Manley's teary-eyed admission to Congress that he couldn't read? Who was at fault in his case? His high school? Oklahoma State University? Society?

The time has long come for us to set a standard to ensure that our next generation is decently educated and prepared to earn those millions of dollars. I'm not focusing on the professional ranks only because they're too far gone to include in this discussion. However, as for the youth through college ranks, we seem more than happy to throw these kids on a global stage and then gawk and point if/when they fall into legal or financial crises.

Are we, as a society, saying "wait until they're 18 so we can exploit these kids -- for our entertainment -- legally"? If it's your kid, then do you care that the "system" is not set up for them to finish their degrees in a timely fashion for life after playing basketball? Guess we could always say that many of the top athletes will sign contracts that will make them financially secure for the balance of their lives. Too bad that the NBA is littered with stories of star players who have filed for bankruptcy due to the simple fact that no one taught them how to manage the people who managed their money...

By the way, most Division I universities offer classes for that.

Sowing and Waiting

I think one of the great moments of parenthood is seeing your planted seeds take root and grow in your kids. It comes in flashes -- brief moments which could easily be missed if you're not looking for it.

I've had quite a few of those moments recently. I hesitate to speak of them because, like a young flower, I fear that they're way too fragile and I'm passionately risk-averse! Instead, I pray for them and trust God to continue to order their steps. What I can say is...

• Thing 1 (the eldest) is finding his identity and his voice. Praying hard for his breakthrough!
• Thing 2 (the princess) is blossoming in almost every way! Her light bulb isn't just "on", it's radiating.
• Thing 3 (the toddler-in-charge) lightens up the room when he marches in. Yes, he marches.
• Thing 4 (the infant) does what babies do -- look cute.

Until next time...

The Burden and Blessing of Preparation

Never really gave "it" much thought...until I started speaking up at meetings.

While sitting in the back of crowded conference rooms, I often observed and listened to people with lots of brass on their shoulders, experience on their resumes, and gray strands in their hair. At some point along my journey, I must've broken that pattern by either asking a poignant question or offering some differing (yet enlightening) perspective. I was probably surprised that I didn't get put back into place by some really smart guy sitting at the big boy table. Nonetheless, at some point, I transitioned from being a mere notetaker piggybacking someone's meeting invite to becoming an honest-to-goodness stakeholder (with his own meeting invite and a seat at the big boy table!).

Since that moment, here's my most shocking realization: out of a crowded conference room of 30 people, you'd be lucky to find 5-6 people who actually "get" what is being discussed or how the issue at hand can be resolved. That's a good 80% of folks who are either pontificating (i.e., talking a lot but not stating anything of substance), skating (i.e., not talking and hoping no one realizes that you're clueless), or simply faking their way through (i.e., peppering in a few off-topic statements or anecdotes when you hear something you're remotely familiar with)! On many occasions, I've been outright shocked like the character "Neo" (Keanu Reeves) from "The Matrix" movie in the days after he was unplugged...

How can this be? Not exactly sure. What I can say is that speaking in public is a lot like basketball. The moment you walk onto the court, everyone starts sizing you up and establishes a pecking order in their minds -- mentally ranking who they think are the best players and outright dismissing those who they deem lesser-skilled players. However, all kinds of problems arise when a "lesser" player outperforms his pre-game ranking (like watching a reverse, two-handed dunk against the consensus "best" player). Much of the same happens when an unsuspecting meeting attendee speaks in such a way that everyone else must quickly recalibrate their respective pecking orders and accept the fact that this "new guy" is a legitimate contender for "smartest guy in the room"!

The irony here is that almost everyone in the room has something to boast about. CEOs of this, and Program Directors of that... The last thing you'd expect is for a bunch of seasoned, senior professionals to actually be intimidated by an intelligent, well thought-out question or comment from someone they don't already know or haven't already figured out. With such credentials, one would think that they'd happily take on any and all newcomers, confident in their abilities to shrug off any intellectual overthrow attempts from younger, less-experienced whipper-snappers.

So what's my point? Simply put, "knowledge is power". Watching the facial expressions change when New Guy puts his knowledge on display makes the burden of preparation all the more worthwhile. One trip to the whiteboard to explain how simple your suggested solution really is -- well, at least it's simple to you -- makes you appreciate the nights of studying and refining your core communication skills. When it's all said and done, there's no better feeling than to dine heartily on the fruits of your own labors!

The Eagle Blog

I figured that I should get this blog written up and posted while it's still fresh in my head...

For a good chunk of my life, my dad doubled as my pastor. And for reasons I can't clearly recall, he always gravitated to biblical and societal references to eagles. He recited Isaiah 40:28-31 as his prologue before every sermon and he often told the story about "The Eagle and the Chicken". Well, I couldn't help but recall this popular anecdotal story while talking/preaching to the eldest kid this past week. Humble apologies -- I added some personal touches to the original story:

Some time ago, an eaglet fell from his nest and was rescued by a chicken farmer. The farmer placed the baby eagle in his chicken coop and raised it alongside his many chickens. The eagle grew up as a chicken, doing what chickens do, believing he was a chicken.

One day, a stranger was passing by and stopped when he saw a grown eagle living in a chicken coop, pecking seeds from the ground with the other chickens. The farmer explained to the man that the eagle was no longer an eagle since it had been raised as a chicken. The man lifted the eagle onto the fence and urged the great bird to fly and take its rightful place in the clouds. The bird first looked up but then hopped back down to the ground to be with the other chickens.

The man asked the farmer if he could take the bird on a short trip. He placed the bird in a cage and placed the cage on the back of his truck. He proceeded to drive up to one of the highest points in the mountains. He took the eagle out of the truck and held it high for the bird to see the great sights. After a few moments, the man released the bird over a cliff and still thinking as a chicken, the bird flailed its wings and began to fall. Almost by instinct, the bird extended its wings, felt the lift from the air and began to soar. While flying high in the clouds, the eagle realized that he had great vision and looked over a great distance to see the chicken coop he used to call home. He knew that he was in a place now where few birds could fly and from that point on, he would never be able to return to living life on the ground.

Needless to say, this story speaks for itself. Time will surely tell if my teenager really understood the message in this great story.

Starting out

In case you were wondering about my inspiration and plans for this blog...

My daughter -- a fine blogger in her own right -- and I were having a little discussion about the word "irony". I thought the phrase "common anomaly" would be a good example to hopefully bolster her understanding of this new word. I mentioned that the phrase simply plays on the irony of the two words -- in my case, using "Common Anomaly" as a blog title is really a way to wink to all of you intellectuals out there surfing the Web.

Now that Common Anomaly is a reality, what do I write about? I have so many things that I could write about -- work, family, sports, religion/faith, current events, politics -- but the last thing I want is to be psycho-analyzed via a bunch of quirky, all-over-the-map posts which could easily diagnose me as intellectual (a good thing) yet unstable (much less so)!

So...after giving it some thought, I'm leaning towards talking "family" with some occasional excursions into the worlds of "sports" and "current events". So with that said, keep your eyes out for future posts and pictures!