“If 20 year old me could see me now at 30, I’m not sure what he’d think. He’d probably be let down in a lot of ways, expecting me to have accomplished more than I have. But that may be giving 20 year old me too much credit: he had more expectations than actual plans, and he had very few expectations. He was also, objectively, kind of an idiot…”
“Aged wisdom and youthful confidence have always been at odds with each other. It’s a reasonably understood, inversely proportional relationship; when the body is more adaptable and broadly capable, thoughtfulness is less necessary to success than it is when the body starts to deteriorate. You see this dynamic play out — in sports and in life — with such variability that it’s not certain which side of the spectrum is winning. Sure, experience is something you don’t know you never had until you finally get it, but at the same time, experience is something you’ll never get if you don’t tell your mind to shut up and get out of the body’s way. No amount of physical ability can substitute intelligence, and yet you can’t compile any number of sage aphorisms to land a standing backflip…”
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