Under the leadership of CEO Toto Wolff, and with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel, Mercedes won eight consecutive F1 constructors' titles between 2014 and 2021.
It was a period of extraordinary dominance that came to an end in controversial circumstances when Max Verstappen, and Red Bull, won the 2021 title on the last lap of the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi. As the controversy unfolded, Wolff could be heard yelling at the (now fired) race director: “No Michael no, that is so not right.”
Mercedes followed that final lap loss in 2021 with a relatively disastrous 2022 season, plagued by issues they couldn’t solve quickly enough.
F1 Legend Toto Wolff on Winning, Losing, and Leading Through Both
Fascinatingly, Wolff and his team have leant in to the pain and been very public in their dissection of the failure.
All of which made this New Yorker profile even more fascinating: Toto Wolff, the Compulsive Perfectionist Behind Mercedes’s Formula 1 Team.
U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Official Music Video)
I used the lazy afternoons of the Christmas → New Year break to catch up on every edition of the New Yorker in 2022. Some favourite finds:
The Haves and the Have-Yachts: Luxury ships attract outrage and political scrutiny. The ultra-rich are buying them in record numbers.
Solomun, the D.J. Who Keeps Ibiza Dancing: He leads a manic, exhausting life—but when he’s guiding clubbers through one of his marathon sets it feels like time has been suspended.
The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge: A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues?
The Beautiful, Brutal World of Bonsai: An American undergoes a gruelling apprenticeship to a Japanese master.
My Dad and Kurt Cobain: When my father moved to Taiwan, a fax machine and a shared love of music bridged an ocean.
Recommended Reading:
A Simple Way to Introduce Yourself
Look for me in the trees. I will be there in the trees.
Why we long for the most difficult days of parenting.
Richard Hammond explains what he experienced during his coma | 310mph Crash
It’s time to talk about Fred Again, again (for his fascinating backstory, jump to: I can't wait to see your face again). Talk about an artist in a moment of absolute ascendancy.
The genius of Fred Again is perfectly captured in this three minute sliver of his live show. He drops Frank Ocean’s ‘Chanel’, morphs it seamlessly into Moderat’s ‘A New Error’, then excerpts a spoken word piece from YouTube - Sabrina Benaim’s ‘Explaining My Depression to My Mother’ - that becomes the foundation for ‘Sabrina (I am a party)’.
Even recorded from a phone, his current live show is a sight and sound to behold. And if that’s not enough, you can dip back into the Boiler Room set that sent him stratospheric, listen in full to Actual Life 3, sample Studio Live 3 (London, 9 November 2022), and wind down to Actual Life 3 Piano Live (22 December 2022).
Phil Collins - Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End (1998)
Today is January 5. The day that most people decide it’s time for their New Year’s Resolutions to begin (I was a Product Manager at MyFitnessPal, I have seen the data).
Related: The Happiness Activity Chart - Activities sorted by gain in happiness relative to not doing the activity.
In 2021, I did something I haven’t done since my first son was born - I set health goals, and I hit them. Specifically, I ran 5kms in under 21:00 (20:46), and I got my weight under 95kg from a triple-figure high of 105kg at the beginning of the year (I’m 6’5, don’t worry too much about me).
Related: The performance and psychological effects of goal setting in sport: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Tldr; “Process goals had the largest effect on performance (d = 1.36) compared to performance goals (d = 0.44) and outcome goals (d = 0.09).”
Statistically, most people will have a weight loss goal somewhere in their minds for the new year… so here’s how I did the weight loss part: I went full keto. I will spare you the boring details (lots of eggs, blueberries, and steak), but give you this - don’t do a keto diet without a Keyto to tell you if you’re actually in ketosis. You’d be surprised by how quickly that glaze on the ribs will drop you out.
Ironically, after founding a company on the principle of sustainable behaviour change, I did the opposite and took a high fat/high protein bazooka to losing weight in an 8 week sprint.
Related: The benefits of tracking what you eat | Peter Attia with Layne Norton
You can see my running volumes increase gradually throughout the year (I got COVID in June which also shows up pretty clearly). If I have one piece of advice on running, it’s this: don’t get injured. And if there’s one surefire way to heed that advice, it’s to get a coach.
Running is high impact, so running regularly is a recipe for injury, unless you build it up gradually, which is what a coach will ensure you do. Add on to that the accountability (you’ll get out there more often, and you’ll recover quicker from your slip-ups), and the time-saving of not having to program your running, and getting coaching is a no-brainer.
Related: One of the magical technology experiences is having your coach program your run to your Garmin, and having the watch coach you as if your real coach was there beside you. I have the Garmin 945 if that sounds at all interesting to you.
A Sky Full Of Stars Coldplay Paris 16.07.2022 live - wow
As a friend recently pointed out - hitting running goals comes with a certain kind of satisfaction.
It was all you.
You did the work. You ran the race. You didn’t let up when your body said stop. The power and the glory is yours, even fleetingly, as you walk to your car having just finished 21st in a suburban Parkrun.
Recommended Reading / Watching / Listening:
Day In The Life of The #1 BBQ In Texas
Every Spotify song with over 1B streams.
La Vida No Loca: Coldplay’s expanding gas.
dance tracks we hugged our friends to in 2022
Advice for young people: Understand the assumption stack of your mentors
The Longest Run: An old band whose new songs always get the most applause.
The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH
Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life
The Fair Play Deck: A Couple's Conversation Deck for Prioritizing What's Important
When the enjoyment Venn diagram of movies you can watch with your kids overlaps meaningfully, that’s a special thing. For me, Sing, and Sing 2 hit the mark (alongside everything in the Pixar canon). But I want to call out specifically the song curation in the Sing movies - whoever was responsible deserves an Oscar. The ability to pick songs that are timeless, and appealing to kids is not to be underestimated. Case in point: my three year old’s favourite song is now Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’.
Elton John - ‘I’m Still Standing’
Cover songs, when done right, can really illuminate what’s remarkable about the original.
I loved this from Charlie Puth on Howard Stern, discussing Bonnie Rait’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’:
Stern: What is it about this Bonnie Rait song? Why are you doing this cover out of all the covers you … could possibly do?
Puth: I think I just wanted to play the grandaddy song of them all. The most beautiful, tormented but still … you don’t know what you want your heart to feel when you hear this because it’s so beautiful musically but it’s such a painful message to hear that you can’t make somebody love you. And I just don’t know if there will ever be a song that’s written like this. I think this song took the slot. And it’s, it’s just, it’s just a song that I wish that I wrote.
Bon Iver - ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’
'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
You can't make your heart feel something it won't
Here in the dark, in these final hours
I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power
But you won't, no you won't
'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't
“Process goals had the largest effect on performance (d = 1.36) compared to performance goals (d = 0.44) and outcome goals (d = 0.09).” - turns out Joel Embiid was right
One to add to your recommended list - the untethered soul. Gives you a birds eye view on how you interact with the world (at least that’s how I read it)