Muhammad Ali the G.O.A.T Athlete

As I watched Micheal Jordan's "The Last Dance" where sports pundits gobbled the content and squeezed it for all its worth - mainly because there's no sports in this time of pandemic. The 'greatest of all time" conversation once and will always come into question. I personally believe the Jordan is the GOAT in basketball even if Lebron James eventually (big IF) surpasses all his accolades. Here's just some of my reasons why I think he is the GOAT:

- one team built around him to win all his championships
- he went through "the process" of getting those championships
- the competition and type of basketball during the era, I felt this was a more difficult era to play in. Analytics is there for a reason, to make basketball more efficient. In a time where analytics says the game wasn't efficient he was winning dominantly over all the competition

My gripe with Lebron is that he teamed up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to win his. While building a team of superstars is now accepted, I still put a lot of value in organically built championship teams just like version of of the Golden State Warriors (v1 didn't win multiple times though).

This is not about basketball though. It's about Muhammad Ali. I started with the GOAT argument because I think he is the GOAT athlete ever. I'll place links of the rankings of ESPN and Bleachers report as reference.

ESPN GOAT and Bleachers Report GOAT.

While it's going to be hard to cut across the type of sport played what the list highlights is how these athletes dominated their particular sport. It's also hard to compare because just like my comparison with Jordan and Lebron these people lived in different times and circumstances. I think this actually skewed my perception on why I think Ali was the greatest ever. He may also have influenced my thought because he always declared himself as the greatest ever.

As I watched the video about him I was surprised that during that during the decades of his popularity mainly the 70s and early 80s he was a worldwide phenomenon. Ali had boxing matches around the world and having one done here "The Thrilla in Manila" and he seemed to have a big crowd wherever he went. In this time of the internet and social media I was surprised how popular he was when TV was probably at it's 'teenage years' black and white broadcast and his fights probably wasn't broadcast live.

Another thing which is admirable is his character and conviction to stand up for what he believes in.  He sacrificed his boxing career because he didn't want to fight a war he did not believe in. This was also in a time racism was still (and still is sadly) a flashpoint in American society. He used his larger than life charisma to talk smack to his opponents and to stand strong when defending his convictions. Just like what Jordan did to basketball in the 90s he also seemed to bring boxing to the world stage in the 70s.

Sting like a bee dance like a butterfly is how I remember his actual quote "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee..." but I also remember him always saying saying that we was the greatest. I'll just pull this quote from an article from The Guardian on Ali's best quotes.

"I'm not the greatest. I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. I'm the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skillfullest fighter in the ring today"

His absolute confidence and belief in himself and his continuous bragging and reinforcing this belief of him made us remember him and made Muhammad Ali the greatest athlete ever ever in my eyes.

In times of difficulty it's sometimes good to look at how athletes have a this belief in themselves and backing it up to help them brush through their opponents. We should take inspiration from them that we to can take a look at ourselves a believe that we can pull through anything. 

My Quarantine Journey

At the beginning of every year as themes are always about new beginnings I always have a burst of energy to try to meet with some friends discuss some ideas to see what opportunities or businesses can be done. I actually realized this pattern as the year was ending. But this year for some reason I decided to take it slow. Ironically, on the very first day of 2020 I wrote about 'memento mori', 'amor fati' and 'carpe diem'. (You can read it here)

I decided to some personal growth techniques which I learned about when I went through a personal development seminar in around 2006. Since November though, I already started doing daily goals which I write on index cards. It's a good way to journal and create baby steps towards your bigger goals but it did seem I was just doing it for the sake of doing it. I stepped it up a bit at the start of the year by making more concrete goals. Not really grand what is your dream type of goals but small achievable but not quite easy goals because it does change your routine. I actually achieved my 1st goal which was to get myself an electric bike. Because of the traffic and the hassle of lugging around a car, I felt getting an electric folding bike help me expand my experience of the city. It will help me go around and wiz through traffic and give me a different perspective. My other little goals were to go a place I've always wanted to visit like museums and travel to visit some friends. I believed achieving these little goals would help me create the bigger goals.

Sadly 2020 had other plans. Not just for me, but for the whole world. The world was forced to stop due to the pandemic. As I was absorbing the situation I looked for things to do and fortunately a lot webinars were being offered and I decided to join those that interested me. I came across a post by a Facebook friend about a personal coaching session. Here is where I met William Hitzke.

I just saw coaching session on the post but I didn't read through it because he was a offering a 12 session free coaching program. I call this my 'happy accident'. I've been doing coaching techniques on myself the past few months and was actually considering looking for a coach and boom! A gift.

When I first entered the room and realized it was a small group, my first instinct was to get out quick but fortunately I didn't. When I stayed I just committed myself for the full 12 sessions. William was starting his personal coaching journey and just like any long trip it starts with the first step. This group was his first step. Having gone through personal development seminars before I knew what I was getting into but unsure of what I would get out of it.

Coincidentally, this is not the first time I was in a "test" group. A friend of mine who is now a successful personal and corporate coach offered to coach me as well. That was the better deal though since it was one one one coaching. Sadly, the better deal wasn't that good. I found myself comparing this experience against that. The meditation process and the teachings William shared were very helpful and can easily be done even after the coaching sessions are long over. His openness and acceptance to everyone was also felt even though we were a group separated by oceans and only connected via the internet. I felt the strength of his coaching was most tangible as the session were closing because the strangers that started sharing in the beginning were opening the hearts as the sessions were ending. It became harder to leave the sessions because we wanted to hangout a bit longer.

As we were stuck in this quarantine, William us an opportunity to journey within ourselves, our past, our present and the future we are about to create. It taught us to live in the present and use it to propel ourselves one step at a time to a future that we envision. I do not wish to go much into the process since it's best that a person goes through it with an open mind and and coach like William Hitzke would be your best guide through it.

Be still, be kind, be patient, be grateful. Love and be loved. Take it one day at a time. We will all come out of this together. Just believe and have FAITH.

KITT 2000 (Knight Rider) vs Tesla Model X

This is essentially an expectation vs. reality post. In September 1992 a TV show premiered which starred KITT - the most technology advance car imagined at that time. Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT) was essentially a weaponized talking car equipped with the most modern technology at that time. You can view KITTs full features in this website but for this purpose we will only focus on feature relevant to everyday consumers, because we don't really need missiles and smoke screens for our everyday commute.

Maybe it would be good to start with basic features relevant to consumers today:
- 2 door 4 seater sports car
- 0 to 60 mph in 2 seconds
- 12 ft breaking distance, 60 - 0 mph
- full and autonomous self driving capability
- it has artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that can make the car carry actual conversations with the driver
- powered by hydrogen gas with almost unlimited range
- self tinting windows
- auto doors
- video display monitors
- surveillance capability
- printer (good as a mobile office)
- GPS

If compared to to the Tesla Model X:
- 4 door SUV
- 0 to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds
- semi-autonomous driving
- electric powered with a range of about 300 miles
- auto doors, gull wing rear doors
- digital display
- sentry mode
- GPS

Aside from the cars being different as on is a sport car and the other an SUV the specs seem to be very par with each other. Obviously one is imagined and the other has come 30 years in the future. While a fully autonomous car will be a long time coming even with all the breakthroughs in technology, a car that can actually drive like a human in all types of road conditions and no roads at all is still in the early developments. While fully autonomous vehicles such as the martian rover has been developed and autonomous vehicle that can guarantee human safety has a long way to go.

It does seem that technological advancements on the automotive industry moved more rapidly in the past two decades compared to the previous years due in part on the growth of faster internet, faster computing and the swift development on smaller technologies such as smartphones and cameras. I drive a 17 year old car and it seems like ancient technology. KITT is now 38 and the imagined features are almost all a reality.