Something I’ve been thinking about is how pre-programmed an action can feel. How long does the sequence take and is it consistently the same one?

This came to me as I watched a friend play basketball. Every drive to the hoop felt predictable almost. If he was 1v1 at a given point on the court, there was a high likelihood he would drive with two dribbles and attempt a tough running two-handed floater.

The observation isn’t that he wasn’t necessarily lacking talent or not effective with this move…or rather, sequence. It just felt like a rigid sequence.

It felt like a line ——————————————— that couldn’t be broken up. If he started to drive, you knew what movement and action were going to play out for the next 3 seconds.

If he was less programmed and more dynamic…that long continuous line could be a series of dashes —— ——- —————— —— ———— where after making the same first move he could then decide to do something differently. It didn’t necessarily mean that despite being 1v1 with a defender at this point he’d absolutely end up shooting a two-handed floater. After the first dash —— he could’ve passed…continued dribbling and pulled it out…pulled up for a deeper jump shot, etc.

I think turning lines into dashes is an apt metaphor for several other life contexts.

public speaking: can you respond in real-time to an unplanned disturbance…can you feel a pulse of the room or do you just zoom ahead with horse blinders on?

demo: do you word vomit for 5 minutes straight and then ask “how does that sound?”

social: can you weave a joke or story with real-time non-verbal and verbal reactions or is this 3 minute bit a solid ass line that can’t be delivered “uninterrupted”?

dating: when someone asks you a question (looking for a —)….do you respond with a ———————— ?

To extend this metaphor to a sales context I think of back-and-forth dialogue as dribbling and passing. It’s almost hot potato of sorts. If dribbling is talking, you don’t want to be a ball-hog. And if asking a question or pausing is passing the ball, you want to do so at the right times.

It’s always a delicate balance without a perfect answer but when perfect strangers are doing the bounce-bounce-pass back and forth in a good cadence, it feels magical.

Dribble (answer), dribble (introduce context), pass (re-frame with a q) should be your —— —— —— sequence.