Surfin' USA

Imagining Dear Leader's Administration as a Wave

Feb 03, 2025

1 Minute Read

Happy Monday and I certainly understand starting a trade war with our largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada!

As I consider what’s ahead for us as a nation, I’ve looked to the written word for guidance. Like this - maybe someone in Dear Leader’s administration should pick it up?

For the longer term, here’s something different, and it’s a book I can easily recommend; it was published in 2015 and won The Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

The book is about surfing, and is aptly - for then and now - entitled Barbarian Days.

A couple of notes. First, if you have not read it, please do. There’s a reason it won a Pulitzer.

Secondly, I remembered the book offered a variety of life lessons, as learned by the author hitting the waves, all over the world. I thought they might make sense for now.

Because we’re surfing a giant and gnarly orange wave.

And how best to do that?

Full disclosure. I could not recall the book’s lessons precisely, so I turned to my colleagues Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT. My summary of what they generated in response to this prompt follows.

Summarize the book “Barbarian Days” by William Finnegan, specifically, what can be learned in life from surfing.

No AI hallucinations here and heck, these are good no matter who is President.

I alphabetized the final list, but I intentionally included duplicate/similar responses.

Because they’re all exactly correct.

Building Community

Community and Camaraderie

Connection with Nature

Embrace Risk and Passion

Embracing Risk and Fear

Embracing the Unpredictable

Finding Balance

Global Perspective

Introspection and Self-Discovery

Living in the Moment

Overcoming Fear

Persistence and Resilience

Personal Growth Through Challenge

The Pursuit of Passion

Respect for Nature

The Value of Patience

It’s a shame I’m not a tattoo kind of guy: A lot of those are worth permanence.

FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES

A special shout out to André Aurich, who will understand if he reads this.

Thank you for reading this newsletter.

KLUF

Here’s an additional one for the list: Develop a backbone.

This is new-ish (it came out last October), different, and also Killer.