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Pete Fenzel and Matt Wrather convene cross-country, with snow piled in the East and sun set in the West, to clear their bottleneck of constrained podcast topics. In this storied two-hander, they dissect the perception and reality of bodies of work that strain our ability to perceive and accomplish.

The two share their subjective limits on the feet of snow that had just fallen, from the individual snow shoveler fighting a private war with the sky, to the kaleidoscopic social media snow spectator bombarded by accounts and moments from a hundred cold days while lounging in temperate comfort. These swarming pinholes alluding to some greater image beyond a veil, recall instagram stories about Taylor Swift concerts or the current state of public truth.

They further consider two masterpieces of slow and steady work done faster than seemed possible: Alex Honnold’s methodical ropeless climb of the skyscraper Taipei 101, and the Eliyahu Goldratt novel The Goal, an 80s classic about the Socratic method, narrative reinvention, communication in marriage, art’s relationship with truth, and very detailed, specific instructions on how to successfully implement lean manufacturing techniques in late 20th century bearing assembly manufacturing plants, which at this moment has a 50/50 shot of being on the waiting list at your public library.

The work continues, as we consider not how to optimize our own local maxima, but to maximize throughput – of mind, body, and soul. By which we mean duty calls on people especially in positions of authority to accept and enforce accountability for our duty to each other as humans, and also the New York Times rebooted Scrabble.

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Further Reading

• Three Hundred Sixty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty Eight, at the Time of This Writing, Stock Images of Snow Storms on Getty Images.
• Which Snow Removal Tool is Best? Here’s A Comparison Between Methods, by Catherine Messier, USA TODAY NETWORK – New England, from The Providence Journal
• How To Play ‘Crossplay,’ The New NYT Game That’s Officially Out Now: The 2-player Word Game Has Its Own App, and It’s Already Making Waves, by Kelsey Pelzer, Lifestyle Director, Parade Magazine
• So What Did We Think of ‘Skyscraper Live?’ by Frederick Deler, Outside Magazine, January 27, 2026
• The Goal (1984), by Eliyahu Goldratt, in The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books, TIME Magazine, August 09, 2011