In 4 minutes, Alysa Liu captured the pinnacle of athletic achievement.

More importantly - she embodied the irreplaceable power of the human spirit.

We love sport because it’s such a visceral, physical metaphor for the drama of life that unfolds before us.

From the unseen hours of practice and preparation to the intense pressure of center court that unfolds vividly and unpredictably…these moments weave a story of defeat, triumph, and redemption.

The thing is - we can’t know which of those outcomes and emotions we will endure or enjoy. And we certainly can’t hope to know when.

What we can hope to know through this process, regardless of the arena, is who we are.

At just 20 years old, Alysa showed the world who she is.

She is joy.

In a society that glorifies the grind and pours on the pressure, it’s far too easy to grip too tight and lose joy in the process.

Over the past few weeks I’ve begun applying for new jobs. Recently, I landed an interview with the CMO of a hot new AI lab. It was an incredible opportunity, and one that I felt - frankly - I was unqualified for. This, of course, is silly. The recruiter wouldn’t have contacted me to set up a call if she didn’t think I was qualified…but I was in my head.

In the days leading up to my interview I spent hours obsessing over everything I had done at previous businesses I had either built or worked for. I asked Claude to drill me on every possible thing I could think of when it came to the company, the role, and how I could position myself to impress my future boss.

I studied myself so hard that I forgot who I was in the process. I was doing too much. I was on edge. I had so much content and context in my brain that I couldn’t even begin to organize it all. In my attempt to land a job at an AI lab, I had inadvertently turned myself into an algorithm—trying to pattern-match the "perfect candidate" instead of just showing up as a person.

As soon as the interview was over, I paced around the house for over an hour. Replaying every question and every answer. I didn’t feel good, and the next morning, my intuition was confirmed. There would be no next round. I had optimized for the role, but I had failed the test.

Then I watched this 20 year old girl from Oakland skate into Milan with her epic hair, cheshire smile, and completely relaxed demeanor…totally comfortable in her own skin.

This, on the same ice where just days before, Ilia Malinin, the heavy favorite to win the Men’s competition, fell multiple times on his final routine and didn’t even podium. In his own words, he “blew it.” You could tell by watching him that the hype, the pressure, the expectations, the eyeballs…it all got into his head.

But Alysa had already struggled through her darkest moments and retired from the sport for 2 years. She wasn’t having fun anymore. Skating went from something she loved to something she didn’t even recognize. She lost her identity trying to be an elite athlete.

When she came back, she told her coaches there’d be no strict diet and no insane practice schedule…she was there to rediscover her life’s passion, be authentically herself and put on a show.

Well - you can’t put on your show if you’re not yourself. You can’t truly win if you aren’t having fun.

The prospect of “having fun” may seem frivolous or trivial in the pursuit of excellence. In reality you can only achieve and - more importantly - sustain excellence in your craft if you truly find joy in it.

After watching Alysa win gold, I realized I had removed the joy from my life by squeezing too tight. My authentic self wasn’t coming through in that interview.

I was strained.

I was anxious.

I was absent.

I was Ilia in this metaphor.

I had all the technical skill, the “content and context,” but no soul in the delivery. I operated out of pressure instead of joy, and, in the process, tried to be “impressive”…which is exactly what an algorithm is designed to do. I ended up simulating a version of myself that I thought someone wanted to see.

It’s ironic I interviewed at an AI company in the first place given the context of my writing. I’ve talked about taste, craft, authenticity…all these buzzwords I’ve used to explain “human-proof” experiences and products that have now become impossibly cringey and debated ad nauseam online.

With taste in particular, I’ve argued that it sets us apart from ai, automation, and algorithms.

What I’ve only just realized is that joy is upstream of taste.

If taste is your unique expression of what you enjoy and choose to share in the world (through creation, curation, or otherwise), then it truly can’t materialize in its most authentic form unless it springs from joy.

Joy gives you the guts to make a choice that isn't the "safe" or "optimized" one. An algorithm chooses the most probable word; a human chooses the one that feels right.

In the context of AI, while I'm increasingly convinced it will be able to replicate some form of 'taste' through learning, pattern matching and predicting, I still think our ability to find joy is what sets us apart.

BTW…here’s the song she skated to.

Perfection:

RP WEEKLY!!!!!