Hello, Adversity Weekly Roundup #09 - April 1, 2023

The launch of a new well-being course for teens. A powerful film about a basketball coach with ALS. Also aggressive emails, lasagna, and teddy bear restoration.

Photo credit: Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the ninth edition of the Hello, Adversity Weekly Roundup.

Happy April Fools’ Day to all who celebrate. I must admit that I am not a huge fan of the day, mostly because I lack the creativity to think up a good prank. I also feel like I am always the one on the receiving end of pranks, such as the time when I came into the office and found that a mischievous someone had moved all my stuff onto another desk across the room. I thought I had been fired! (Yet another reason why I don’t like surprises.)

Without further ado, here are this week’s links:

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1. The Science of Well-Being for Teens, now on YouTube

This is a follow-up to an item in my newsletter three weeks ago. Yale professor Laurie Santos, whose “The Science of Well-Being” course is one of the most popular classes taught at the university, has launched a class on Coursera geared towards teens. It looks like it began yesterday. In addition, Santos has started putting short videos on YouTube that cover several of the themes taught in the class.

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2. If You Do This, Your Emails Might Be Rude

This post by Adam Grant touches on one of my biggest pet peeves: the aggressive unsolicited email.

Says Grant:

“When we walk up to introduce ourselves to strangers, we follow basic cultural norms of politeness….Online, though, it’s still the Wild West. It’s easy to contact almost anyone: even many influential people are just a click away. And they’re often shocked by the everyday rudeness in cold emails and DMs.”

It’s not that I don’t like the idea of sending someone an unsolicited email. There is a time and place for it, and if you do it right, it can yield life-changing results. For example, if you want to ask someone for advice, have an informational discussion with a professional in a field that interests you, or need a role model to help you through a difficult time, sending a cold email can change your life. I did this when I needed to connect with others who lived with my disease, and it made a world of difference for me.

But sending someone an email asking to schedule 30 minutes with them tomorrow at 2pm? Not cool. Then emailing two days later saying, “Oh you must not have gotten to my email yet. I understand. Let me resurface this at the top of your inbox.” Pure rage. (I get these emails all the time and I want to rip out my hair. If you learn nothing else from my website, don’t be this person.)

Before you click send, just ask yourself, “Would I want to receive this email?” If the answer is no, you might want to give it a little more thought.

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3. Nothing Else Matters: How coaching became a form of medicine for Patrick Behan

This short film by ESPN is about St. John’s College High School basketball coach Patrick Behan. Behan was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 2022 at age 34. Now 35, Behan continues to coach his team, despite the rapid onset of the condition. This film follows Behan as he coaches his team during their recent postseason run. Although his voice is getting weaker and he has lost most of the function in his arms, he is singularly focused on leading his team to a championship.

This was an incredibly powerful film. It doesn’t pull any punches - ALS is a brutal, unforgiving disease. But it also doesn’t portray Behan’s story in a way that is “inspirational” or that elicits pity, which I appreciate. It is simply a story of a man who wants to do what he loves for long as he can.

Although I have a muscle disease that is different from ALS, anytime someone my age is diagnosed with a life-changing condition, it hits close to home. I can understand on a deep level what it’s like to have your life turned upside down. The hand you’re dealt can be difficult to accept. Finding purpose in spite of life’s heartbreaks is essential.

A short life lived with purpose can still be a full life. For Patrick, his purpose is coaching basketball.

Watch all the way to the end. It will be worth it. Trust me.

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4. The Museum of Failure Celebrates Some of the World’s Biggest Flops

Crystal Pepsi (Yuck.)

Limeade-flavored Oreos. (Questionable, but possibly decent.)

Colgate Lasagna. (Why? Just why?)

If you felt these items needed to be immortalized for posterity, you are in luck. The Museum of Failure traveling exhibition recently opened in Brooklyn, New York, and will be there through mid-May.

“The exhibition is curated by Samuel West, a clinical psychologist who specializes in organizational science. He hopes it will help normalize and demystify the concept of failure, which he sees as a critical learning opportunity.”

This is an excellent idea. As I touched on briefly in my last post, we struggle with failure because we often feel like we’re the only ones who ever fail in life. This museum is a testament to the fact that not only does everyone fail, but some of the most spectacular failures in history have come from well-resourced corporations with enormous marketing budgets.

Next time you fail, just remember that a marketing team working at a toothpaste company once thought, “We have the perfect idea for a brand extension. Lasagna.”

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5. Restoring a relationship

This is an amusing and heartfelt post by Rebecca Holden, author of the Dear Reader, I’m Lost Substack newsletter. Rebecca discusses finding her childhood teddy bear, Teddy Edward, in a closet, and how a repair workshop at a local church helped give him a new lease on life.

Rebecca’s post is a nice reminder about the power of community and the value of keeping mementos from our past that bring back memories of a simpler, happier time.

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If you have a story you’d like me to include in a future newsletter, please email me at HelloAdversity@substack.com or drop a comment below.

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