I learned about feedback in prison.
It goes back to the earaches I had when I was a kid.
Because of those earaches, my doctor told my mom the swim team was a bad idea.
No swim team. Not even swim lessons.
YouTube taught to me freestyle.
That was a mistake.
A few years ago I swam a race from Alcatraz Island to the SF shore.
The guy with the best time could have swam to SF and back before I finished.
After that humiliation, I got a swim coach. Not a video of a swim coach. Or an AI one.
I got a dude named Chris.
At my first lesson, Coach Chris told me to swim to the other end of the pool. Freestyle.
When I looked back, he hollered, “Dude, you swim like you’re drowning.”
“You’re not smooth.”
I thought I was doing what the YouTubers said to do.
I thought I was swimming like a lifeguard.
Instead I looked like I needed one.
Because I needed someone else to look at me, and tell me how I look.
There’s no mirror in the pool.
There’s no mirror in much of life.
And there’s no substitute for good feedback.
From people who can see you from all sides.
