20220507
Not too much thoughts besides whats going on with what I wrote below.
I have been thinking a little bit about why Mercedes hasn’t been at the top again in Formula 1 so far this year. There a few reasons I think: 1) new regulations shake up a lot of the grid since some people will figure things out that work much better partially by chance since the search space is so large, 2) cost caps restrict their ability to put as much into R&D, 3) they have less wind tunnel time with the new regulations to test aerodynamic concepts since they won the constructors championship last year (teams get successively more wind tunnel time based on how low they are in the constructors championship as a means of helping to balance the competition), 4) They may just be in the decline of their organization. Sustaining a high level organization is difficult over time especially in organizations with high turnover since the culture is difficult to sustain.
I’ve liked to believe that the way they run their organization is above and beyond how the other teams do it and that should manifest itself in how they perform. I think the fact that they are still competing in the top group of teams indicates that they are doing things right and I think how well they can turn this season around will be their true test since they have to face some adversity now.
Daily Listening
Some new Bossa Nova
Daily Reading
Read a good bit of On The Move. It’s interesting to see how his thoughts/recollections are changing as he grows older in his retelling of his life story. He was someone who set the California squat record of 600 lbs when he was younger and then now had a hiking incident in Norway and needed some fairly extensive surgery to repair the damage to his leg. It’s weird seeing how someone who was so strong suffer from such an injury. He described how this was his first real face with his own mortality and he was in his fourties! Perhaps he was more reckless earlier in life because he had no events like this happen to him. My experience has been different as I’ve had both a nontrivial knee injury (torn PCL) and anaphylaxis already in my life which has led me to be far more cautious overall. I try to ease this caution a little as I think it has led me to restrict myself too much, but at the same time being too reckless is dangerous. Hard to find the balance.