Today's daily blog post from Seth Godin was about the benefits of keeping our expectations low, and thus avoiding lots of unnecessary disappointment and creating space for possible joy.
That was the philosophy espoused by my father, particularly when it came to sports. As my dad would say from time to time, "Keep your expectations low and you'll never be disappointed."
That was comforting through much of my life as an Iowa sports fan, certainly, but I find myself trying to adopt that somewhat stoic philosophy in many areas of life. For instance, I never expected to have much money... certainly no EXTRA money. But here I am with more income in my "retirement" than I ever had working full time. Each month, I find myself marveling over this unexpected situation.
Last night, we were watching the Nuggets' playoff game and Jokic had a miserable game, though the score remained tight throughout. My expectation was that all those misses from our star would doom us to defeat. So the team's overwhelming the Oklahoma City squad thoroughly in overtime produced a thrill that I had not anticipated.
Same with seeing Caitlin Clark in last Sunday's WNBA exhibition game, knowing she had some minor leg issue and expecting her to take it easy and not do further damage prior to the regular season. Then she goes out and hits her signature long jumpers along with some dextrous passes.
I said to Kathleen, "That Caitlin seems to always rise to the occasion." But deep down I suspected that THIS would be game she would crumble to the court and have trouble rising.
I saw a video of WNBA great Sue Bird mentioning that she had an ACL tear early in her career (she clearly recovered quite well). I have seen Caitlin get blasted on many occasions, usually due to defenders being out of position but sometimes purposefully, and she always gets up.
Maybe I should just enjoy her good fortune and her unique talents, but for a guy who has thoroughly adopted the "keep your expectations low" philosophy, I find myself holding my breath after each collision.
On the other hand, I have enough experience in things like creating curriculum or grading or teaching (in general) that I don't think in terms of keeping expectations low... or high. I don't think much about what I do day in and day out. I just assume everything will work out.
The other day I noted that one of my online writing classes was increasingly demonstrating the use of AI to compose simple essays. Well, I am guessing about that, but I've read a lot of student writing and it rarely changes quickly to a sophisticated level... and I never would think my remarks on earlier work would actually lead to more logic, higher levels of diction, etc.
I made a mental note to rethink many of my writing assignments and even tactics for this fall's classes. I have started browsing the internet for advice and strategies to (somehow) both embrace AI and still get students to produce personalized and even creative work.
A skeptic might say that my quest is likely doomed and that AI's continuing growth and sophistication will likely lead to courses like mine phasing out.
My dad would probably counsel me to rein in my hopes that I can create some AI-resistant assignments in just a couple months. But I am not coaching Iowa football or basketball, enterprises I absolutely know will disappoint me in ways both large and small.
I plan to come up with something that works.
I defy the Fates.
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