June 2024

One Book

Read Chip War by Chris Miller.

One Podcast

Listen to Wind of Change.

One Quote

The late Bill Walton on the similarities between the music of the Grateful Dead and the game of basketball:

“During the game, during the song, everybody goes off, each in their own direction, playing their own tune. But then with the greatness of a team, the greatness of a leader, and the willingness to play to a higher calling, they’re all able to come back and finish the job together — to win the game and send the people out into the night ecstatic, clamoring for more.”

One Bonus

“It looks pretty rotten to me,” Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead, said about success. When he was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, he declined to attend.

Nearly 60 years after the original band’s founding, the Dead & Company grossed $115 million in revenue during their 2023 tour, making it the 5th most lucrative rock tour of the year.

In May, the Dead & Company began their summer residence at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Critics have universally praised the band’s performances, some calling it the greatest show in America.

What has occurred and what was intended by Garcia and the Dead are paradoxical.

Bill Walton, who passed away in May, credited John Wooden and the Grateful Dead with teaching him how to be a champion, specifically how to improvise, work in concert with teammates, and stay in the moment. Walton won two national championships at UCLA and two NBA championships. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

Garcia and Walton were sui generis.