CrossFit instructor and participant Josh Everett has landed his dream job. He provides strength and conditioning training to U.S. soldiers in the Naval Special Warfare Group.
Few if any jobs place more, or more unpredictable, demands on the human body. Being physically prepared to be a special forces soldier is a tall order.
CrossFit founder Greg Glassman's formula: constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement is just about a perfect recipe for a special forces soldier. And Josh Everett is just about the perfect coach. He's right when he says that the training he provides has a "real world analog," and that the exercises his troops do "carry over very greatly" to the demands of their jobs. When you don't have any idea just what your job will require of you, it's good to be broadly, generally prepared.
A 'real world analog' to the physical demands placed on special forces soldiers is your job. Few if any jobs in today's economy (at least any that anyone would want) draw on neatly-defined, unchanging mental skills and capacities. Even the best training by the greatest teachers and leaders in any field will inevitably come up short.
I've taken a look at what Warren Buffett called the life-changing moment when he encountered Benjamin Graham's book. Buffett went on to study with Graham. But, as great as the education Buffett got from Graham was (Charlie Munger said that what Buffett learned from Graham was enough to make anyone rich), that if his partner hadn't learned anything else Berkshire Hathaway would be a pale shadow of its present self.
CrossFit recently re-tweeted CrossFit Games runner-up Julie Foucher who wrote, "Two hour AMRAP of practice questions, 100 flash cards for time, then time for the gym!" with the analysis: Cognitive fitness.
Charlie Munger's ideas on building a latticework of mental models prepares people for general intellectual fitness even better than the advice from this Harvard Business Review piece on 'cognitive fitness' (some examples from HBR: manage by walking, read funny books, play games, learn a new language or instrument, exercise). Not surprisingly, the HBR piece cites Charlie Munger's partner Warren Buffett as someone who defies "the widespread belief that our mental capacity inevitably deteriorates as we get older.
Now all we need are a few Josh Everetts to teach Munger's mental models and some educational institutions with the will and wherewithal to do it.
Few if any jobs place more, or more unpredictable, demands on the human body. Being physically prepared to be a special forces soldier is a tall order.
CrossFit founder Greg Glassman's formula: constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement is just about a perfect recipe for a special forces soldier. And Josh Everett is just about the perfect coach. He's right when he says that the training he provides has a "real world analog," and that the exercises his troops do "carry over very greatly" to the demands of their jobs. When you don't have any idea just what your job will require of you, it's good to be broadly, generally prepared.
A 'real world analog' to the physical demands placed on special forces soldiers is your job. Few if any jobs in today's economy (at least any that anyone would want) draw on neatly-defined, unchanging mental skills and capacities. Even the best training by the greatest teachers and leaders in any field will inevitably come up short.
I've taken a look at what Warren Buffett called the life-changing moment when he encountered Benjamin Graham's book. Buffett went on to study with Graham. But, as great as the education Buffett got from Graham was (Charlie Munger said that what Buffett learned from Graham was enough to make anyone rich), that if his partner hadn't learned anything else Berkshire Hathaway would be a pale shadow of its present self.
CrossFit recently re-tweeted CrossFit Games runner-up Julie Foucher who wrote, "Two hour AMRAP of practice questions, 100 flash cards for time, then time for the gym!" with the analysis: Cognitive fitness.
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| Med Student Julie Foucher is Physically & Cognitively Fit. |
Now all we need are a few Josh Everetts to teach Munger's mental models and some educational institutions with the will and wherewithal to do it.
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