Mike Lombardi is among my favorite podcasters. He's a former NFL front office executive who has shared his take on various topics over the years in guest appearances on Bill Simmons's shows. Earlier this year, he left the NFL and joined Simmons's website, The Ringer, as a full-time contributor.
One of my favorite 'Lombardi theories' is how NFL teams must defend wide receivers in the same way a basketball team defends their opponent. If the offense has a tall receiver, the defense must play a tall cornerback; if the receiver is quick, the cornerback must be quick. The overall point demonstrates the importance of preparation for a defense's success. Since situations can change quickly, the best defense is one ready to respond with very little warning.
I think this thinking applies to many things outside of sports. The better able I am to anticipate situations, the better able I am to prepare my responses.
For me, a regular application is in how I borrow library books. For situations where I have a lot of time to sit and focus (like when I go sit by the water) I need a denser book. When I suspect I will stop reading without much advance warning (like on a subway trip) I bring a book with less emphasis on connecting long chains of ideas. At times when I do not expect to take very many notes (like right before going to bed) I read something light.
This means I need to think ahead a bit and request books to ensure I always have an option ready in each category. That's a change from the past when I used to make my requests based on total books alone. But since I've adjusted my strategy, I've found the whole library request process moving much more smoothly.
Applying Lombardi's idea also helped me answer one of my nagging questions: how many books should I be reading at any one time? Three, it seems. Occasionally, two works fine because the categories overlap. But for the most part, since I first heard Lombardi's idea and applied it to my reading, I've read three books at the same time.
In the past couple of newsletters, I've highlighted the books I'm looking forward to reading in the coming month. Starting tomorrow, I'll organize these picks into each category I use: dense, stop-and-go, light.
This isn't the most important explanation I've ever made. The idea would probably have been obvious to readers, I suspect, without this post. But I think there is more to the idea than just third down defense or logging onto the library website. A 'one-size-fits-all' mentality often hurts productivity in a given area, especially if it is initially applied because of its intuitive qualities.
Thanks for reading. Back tomorrow with the September newsletter.
Tim
