4 Things I think I think

1. One of the more interesting articles I read this week was this piece on espn.com about the sale of the Lakers and the breakdown in communications - and, well, everything else - between the members of the Buss family. Patriarch Jerry's efforts to buy the team in 1979, hang onto it facing rising debts, and turn it into an iconic global brand were well chronicled in the entertaining series "Showtime," based on the book of the same title. All Jerry wanted was to keep the franchise in his his family for generations to come, but they couldn't make it work. The Buss family, unable to come to agreement 13 years of Jerry's passing on how they wanted to run the franchise their Dad had spent a lifetime building, sold it to Dodgers owner Mark Walter for $10B. And as these things go, that was hardly the end of the drama and infighting, it was only the beginning. It's a fascinating story about the end of a family dynasty. The other reality? More often than not, families are going to find a way to squabble, and those disputes will range from trivial to explosive, in some cases severing the bloodlines. It seems the potential for these divisions are as inevitable as water finding its level, and a family's economic status does not offer immunity.

2. I'm a big fan of Ryan Holiday's books and general outlooks on life, so this headline of "books that will make you better in 2026" caught my attention. You'll find the list here and the topics are varied, ranging from life longevity, tapping into your creativity and parenting tips. Perfect opportunity to stock your '26 reading bench!

3. Have you thought about starting a meditation habit but suffer from inertia? If so, you might find this helpful. If you follow my weekly emails regularly you know I'm a fan of the Tim Ferriss podcast; this year he's begun releasing a 10-minute meditation every Monday, led by the great Henry Shukman. If you really want to dive into meditation, Shukman's app The Way is a great place to start, but in the meantime, these weekly offerings from Ferriss may be the perfect introduction.

4. In case you've been living in a cave the last two years, the Dodgers are the two-time defending World Series champs. It wasn't always this way - they had a 32 year drought from the Fall Classic before winning the title in 2000. But this is a new era of Dodgers baseball; they have the best player, the best big game pitcher, several hall of famers on the roster, and they've only just begun. A roster that seemingly needed nothing to have a shot at winning it all again this fall retooled just in case - adding the best free agent closer in Edwin Diaz, and last week, stunning the baseball community, signed the best free agent hitter on the market, Kyle Tucker. Did they need him? Nope. But the Dodgers are gunning for history, armed with deep pockets and a desire to maximize the peak years of Shohei Ohtani. Let's enjoy the ride; they charge us a ton for tickets, but reward us with the most fun and dominant product in the sport.