Brett Ballington Podcast

KD - Draymond III The narrative of legacy that creates the circular reason for great players and teams to make free agency and trade decisions. How workplace relationships matter, even at the highest levels. And how the compromises that are made for success can wear thin. How in this rare instance a player brought up a teammate's contract in a basketball dispute. I accidentally call the Brooklyn Nets the New Jersey Nets. What other people's pay relative to your own tells you. How this all relates to Metallica and the documentary Some Kind of Monster. How individuals can be casualties along the way of organisational success. That rich and famous people make decisions for the same reasons that we do. Largely human and personal.

KD - Draymond II Playing games. Games as a microcosm for life. Parameters econonic and otherwise. Physical advantages in games, and economic impacts of various interventions. The unintended consequences on decision-making of various economic levers. Don't mention that Oklahoma shouldn't have an NBA team (sorry Lee!). I list the jerseys I have rocked as an adult. The perils of having a very good but not great player. Why we shouldn't all start reducing spending at once.

KD - Draymond Where I start by discussing NBA basketball. Where I finish by discussing NBA basketball. Professional sports as a microcosm for life. Firstly: legacy. Egregious overuse of the word behoove (i.e. more than zero times). Perception of legacy in respect to LeBron James and Kevin Durant. A consideration of Bill Simmons' pyramid of basketball.

Story's of Privilege. Fridges and the management of risk. Wealth enables security. The notion that simply having the opportunity to tell one's story is an indicator of privilege. Therefore, to infer that almost every story we have received from history must be a story from a perspective of privilege. Oh.... and penicillin, scourge of death, is AWESOME.

The Mumble 014: Minds That Expand. Story-telling, minds that expand, and silos we build. Bad analogies. All bad analogies are my own.

Why we're really bad at assessing long-term probability. Why Batman vs. Superman was an affront to math and why Bruce Wayne should have been far more concerned with climate change than with Clark Kent. Would you oppose action on climate change, if you would have to be the first to feel its effects? Black Panther and my attitude to a specific type of loss. Another Lord of the Rings mention. The neccessary mechanics of everyday life driving us to short-term over and against long-term thinking. The bargain we are being asked to make, in order to participate in a prior generation's version of society. And why we are making the economically rational decision to opt out. Also, why entertainment is a need, not a luxury. And.... hills!

The Mumble 012: Accumulate Mindset. And why you shouldn't be afraid to buy a newer car.

General advice for life. Money, debt, turn up, stay til the jobs done. You know, the basics.

Thoughts concerning art, including my own. Acknowledgement of the suspension of Pretzel and Cashew number, the introduction of whimsy, and a pivot to poetry.

A short, impassioned declaration of the way in which our tendency to superficial, shallow judgement of others, opens us to giving into our fears, and being manipulated by our basest emotions. A call to recognise those who would seek to manipulate us, and to rise above our lowest instincts.

Where I discuss the power of Top 3 lists, over against Top 5 and Top 10's. I give my own Top 3 for songs, and for movies (but somehow, someway, manage to not mention No Country for Old Men: my list is bunk!)

A consideration of our lack of consideration, of our lack of awareness of the facts and formation of our collective history, and how this lack of awareness informs our fears, collectively.

How our partisan politics and the human condition of 'othering' (rhe necessity of having an 'in' and an 'out' group) has lead to a collective polarisation that blinds us to the biggest lies we are being sold. Also, the art of selling capital deployment and today's counter-intuitive (again) thought could raising taxes increase employment?

Wherein I make an attempt to appropriately explain Pretzel and Cashew number. But.... beware. Motorcyclists are everywhere.

Where we consider the interplay of the promises of globalism undelivered, and thus the rational rationale that populism is seemingly ascendant. We contemplate the perhaps inevitability that this is the way things would be and how The Godfather movies - at least parts One and Two - relate to these.

Wherein we consider mental health and various aspects of regaining and maintaining a healthy mental state.

Where I make another attempt to articulate what it is I am actually attempting to do here.

An introduction to this whole extemporaneous, stream-of-consciousness thing.