My wife doesn’t understand why I want to watch a couple of hours of Super Bowl pre-game shows today.

“But you don’t follow football.”

“Exactly.”

She’s right – I don’t follow football. I enjoy it, though, when I do watch it, and I enjoy it more when I watch it “in context”.

It’s yet another example of one of my favorite sayings: “Context creates meaning.”

Knowing 10 things to keep an eye on in Super Bowl XLIV will make the game more interesting to me. I want to know how the Saints are planning to go after Manning. What impact will the Colts’ big-game experience have, compared to the Saints, who have never been to the Super Bowl?

I will have a deeper appreciation of the game if I have that context. But I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to follow football all season.

It’s also an application of a principle I learned from Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (by the way, an expanded and updated version came out in December): low-information diet.

The idea of a low-information diet is simple: you don’t have to follow a constant stream of information on a topic in order to make informed decisions. Just find sources that you trust to provide you just enough information when you need it. That may be a friend who has similar views to yours, a favorite blogger, or a traditional media source.

Point is, we can’t all keep up with everything. You can’t be an expert on every single thing that interests you, and you certainly can’t try to keep up with the constant stream of information that may, ultimately some day, impact a decision you have to make.

You don’t have to know everything – you just have to know where and how to find out everything when you need it. In short, it’s perhaps more important these days to have a diverse network and good research and information management skills than it is to try to be smart in a lot of different areas.

Knowledge on demand, when you need it…definitely the wave of the future.

I just saw this tweet…

…and it reminded me of a story I’ve retold under the right circumstances for years, but never written down.

So a few years ago, I was a Lead Developer at Harte-Hanks Response Management, working on the IBM account. We were in the final stages of a huge project with a Monday morning deadline (well, internal deadline of Monday morning to show it to our IBM account team, Monday afternoon showing to the client).

I had worked 16 hours on Friday, 16 on Saturday, and was planning on an all-nighter Sunday. Other members of the team were pulling long hours, too, as their schedules and families would allow.

Sunday evening about 5:30, our manager, Mike Ortegon (one of the best managers I’ve ever had, and still at Harte-Hanks, by the way), showed up with Pizza Hut pizza for the whole team – everyone of course knows that geeks will work for pizza in a pinch.

Mike: “I figured y’all were hungry, so I got Meat Lover’s. I hope no one here’s a vegetarian.”

Scott Bellware (@bellware): “Actually I am…”

Mike: “Oh damn…”

Scott B.: “…except when I’m really hungry.”

Image credit: Matt McGee

I love serendipity. “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” has been a favorite quote of mine since I read it in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, but I had forgotten the original source (if I ever knew it).

Serendipity #1: My wife gave me a birthday card (day before yesterday) with this quote on it, not knowing it was one of my favorite quotes.

Serendipity #2: The new movie Invictus is coming out, about Nelson Mandela’s campaign to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup as an opportunity to unite the country. Seeing the ad on TV a couple of times tonight, I kept thinking the word “invictus” was familiar. But my Latin is rusty, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, where I learned that it means “unconquered” in Latin, and that it’s also the title of an 1875 poem by William Ernest Henley:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

What is your locus of control? Are you a victim of circumstances? The whims and desires of other people? Or are you in charge of your life? Guess what? On average, those who have an internal locus of control are physically and mentally healthier, happier, and more successful. If you want those things (and who doesn’t), step up and take charge – don’t wait for it to happen to you. You are the master of your fate; you are the captain of your soul.

My son and his best friend have launched their new blog, MLG Bound, which chronicles their journey towards becoming professional Halo 3 players. We had fun this weekend plugging my laptop into the big screen in the living room and watching the Halo 3 matches from MLG Anaheim. I have to say that even though I stink at Halo myself (I’m happy if I get one kill in a game), I found watching the matches much more exciting than I expected.

I think pro video gaming is a huge growth area. Consider that on any given night, there are over 200,000 people playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live simultaneously. Over 5,000 of those are on the MLG lists. Think there’s a market there? And it’s only getting bigger.

Now to just figure out how to tap into it… any ideas?

I had a very nice compliment from a new friend on Twitter today:

Friday night I attended a screening of The Shadow Effect (which I highly recommend –- more on that later). In it, Debbie Ford quotes a poem by 13-century poet and mystic Rumi. I was deeply moved by its call for us to all embrace the diversity of the human experience. All too often in our incessant pursuit of happiness we miss the greater fulfillment of experiencing a variety of emotions and knowing that they are all part of the beautiful bigger picture of our lies.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Jelaluddin Rumi,
   translation by Coleman Barks

Image by by Poorfish via flickr