Seth Isaac Leonard

I'm interested in things, but being interested in things doesn't make you interesting

[Sovey @SoveyX]

How did they recruit this guy for the Olympics?

Was there a Craigslist ad like, must moonwalk, loves the smell of brooms, must fear nothing.

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@grandslamcurl Have you seen the latest picture of my hemorrhoid?

[Chris @citehchris]

the concept of a dive bar where every 3 drinks you get a complementary cigarette and the bartenders are all ordained to marry customers legally

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@lady_valor_07 They say he’s got to go, oh oh Godzilla #godzilla #blueoystercult

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@chrisplys What kind of soup?

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@McJakes I’m in

[TeamKevinKoe @TeamKevinKoe]

Nobody:
Absolutely no one:
Not a single soul on this Earth:

Kevin Koe to force an extra:

[Josh Albrecht @OnAirJosh]

I’m not crying, you’re crying.

[John Cullen @cullenoncurling]

My thoughts on the 2024 Brier are here! 24 thoughts that cover nearly every team in the competition and run through what was one of the more memorable Briers in recent history. Grab a read.

https://t.co/vTDnFXfdqb

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@cull_17 @CurlingCanada @TeamHoman Ouch

[Devin Heroux @Devin_Heroux]

I asked TSN about their plans to broadcast the Scotties and Brier in the USA.

A spokesperson for TSN tells me they have "nothing to share" at this time.

I'll keep checking in on this. Approaching one week away from start of Scotties.

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest.

Nike was struggling. Their stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, & Reebok were all selling more shoes.

So in a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest.

The winner was

A corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield.

"Two days after the competition," he said, "I wasn't even asked—I was told that I was now a footwear designer for Nike."

As he got to work on his first official shoe design, he thought about a building he had studied in architecture school: The Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Centre Pompidou is an inside-out building, meaning that the structural, mechanical, and circulation systems are all exposed.

“That building,” Tinker said, “was describing what it was to the people of Paris. And I thought, ‘Well why not do that with a shoe? Let’s cut a hole in the side and show what’s in the shoe.’”

So Tinker designed an inside-out shoe:

The Air Max 1.

The Air Max 1 was a massive success, and it steered Nike's design direction from then on.

"To this day," Tinker says, "Phil Knight says I saved Nike."

Takeaway 1:

Had he not studied that building in Paris, Tinker says, he couldn’t have created the Air Max.

Creativity, he says, is a function of the “library in your head."

“When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.”

Takeaway 2:

Tinker Hatfield went to architecture school and then he was a corporate architect for 4.5 years. Then, literally overnight, he became one of the best shoe designers in the world.

This makes me think of a counter-intuitive discovery made by psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904.

Before Spearman, the natural assumption was that the more you specialize in one thing, the worse you’ll be at other things.

Instead, Spearman discovered "the positive manifold" phenomenon.

He found that different abilities tend to be positively correlated. That the expertise gained through specialization is transferrable. That the cognitive and creative abilities cultivated as an architect could positively correlate with being a shoe designer.

- - -

"Creativity is a function of the previous work you put in."  — Robert Greene

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Savannah Bananas @TheSavBananas]

Trick plays, costumes, and Banana Ball.

The Most Electric Tryout in Sports🍌

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@CHIMPSINSOCKS Jackass

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@imgur Cry

[Seth Isaac Leonard @phifth]

@McJakes Hahahaha

[Broomstacked @Broomstacked]

Wanna share a beer? Can't we just drink our own damn beer!?

[Broomstacked @Broomstacked]

"I'm so drunk, your shirt looks like it's in another language."

"I'm gonna get you so drunk that you can read that."