Welcome to the Monday Morning Edge newsletter!

Greetings from Charlotte, NC!

Before we get started, I just want to take a moment to celebrate a milestone with you…

Yesterday, we surpassed 500 subscribers! 🎉

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to every single one of you for reading, supporting, and sharing my work.

It means so much to have you reading along each week. Thank you.

And at the risk of sounding like an ungrateful millennial, if you know someone who would love this newsletter, would you consider sharing it with them?

Your recommendation goes a long way towards getting these important ideas into the minds of more coaches all across the world.

Thank you again for your support. I’m so grateful you’re here.

And with that awesome news out of the way, let’s dive into this week’s newsletter…

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New on Tanners.Blog

The most recent articles from my website.

1. What’s the worst thing about being a coach? (7 minute read)

Even though coaching is a “dream job” for many, there are some things that really suck about being a coach.

Time away from family, annoying administrative tasks, unsolicited advice from people without any skin in the game, and more…

But there’s one thing that’s worse than all of those: the inability to scale one’s time.

In this article, I explored the worst part about coaching and offered some suggestions to help you overcome this pervasive issue.

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Around the Web

The best of what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to.

1. Strategies for Tacit Knowledge Transfer by Connie Malamed (Article, 6 minute read)

“Tacit knowledge is intangible knowledge acquired from experience and insight. You will recognize it in people with competence and expertise. Decades ago, Polanyi (1966) explained that people “can know more than they are able to tell…The opposite of tacit knowledge is explicit knowledge, or that which is codified and transferable through written or oral language. Unfortunately, the majority of formal learning experiences focus on the transfer of explicit knowledge alone, failing to pass on tacit knowledge.”

In an age where so much information is available for free, we still haven’t cracked the code on how to best teach people the things that can’t be explicitly taught. Tacit knowledge is the kind of stuff that is acquired on one’s own, relies on an individual’s experience, and is more “practical” in nature.

Coaches encounter this problem daily. How do you convey to an athlete a feeling you had during your own career that would help them? Because everything in communication is based on how the other person perceives the message, tacit knowledge transfer (such as: how to snap off a filthy slider) is extremely difficult. The best coaches I know are able to pick the lock on the tacit knowledge transfer problem and pass on what they know to all kinds of athletes.

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2. A Rare Conversation with Former Philadelphia 76ers GM Sam Hinkie (Podcast, Length: 1:46:01)

When Sam Hinkie talks, I listen. 

If you want to preview the interview before diving in, start with this clip where Sam talks about the compounding nature of work standards.

And oh, by the way, if you haven’t yet, you NEED to read his resignation letter to the 76ers.

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3. Beware the Casual Polymath (Article, 10 minute read)

“In economic terms, content disaggregation enabled by digital platforms ought to create efficiencies through intellectual hyper-specialization.
Instead, we have the endless hellscape of the casual polymath. A newsletter about venture capital will find time to opine on herd immunity. The tech blog you visit to learn about data science is also your source of financial strategies for early retirement. The Twitter account you followed to understand politics now seems more focused on their mindfulness practice. We have maxed out variety of interests within people, at the cost of diversity across them.”

Spearheaded by ​David Epstein’s Range​, there’s a growing movement of people supporting generalism — delaying specialization in any field and going broad, not deep (in other words, a polymath). 

I generally agree with the points, but fear we might be going too far. I worry that we’re becoming the proverbial jack-of-all-trades, master of none. That we’re losing the diversity ​across people​ that makes people unique and fun to be around. 

This article does a great job of reminding readers of the downside of going an inch deep and a mile wide. Check it out.

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Barbelled Coaching: How Living on the Extremes Can Make You a Better Coach (6 minute read)

In The Bubble by Ben Falk (7 minute read)

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Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, would you consider sharing it on Twitter? Your recommendation helps get this newsletter out to more coaches.

Have a great week,

Tanner

P.S. – What an opening

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