Jimmy Chim

Tag: Consistency

  • Secret Broth Ingredients

    There is a family-run Vietnamese restaurant not far from my house called Super Super Restaurant. I have been going there for years. The owner, his wife, and his kids work at the restaurant.

    Super Super’s menu has less than 20 items. Pho noodles, banh mi sandwiches, and rice plates are the classics. Their #1 noodle soup is my favorite. The pho broth is the best of all the Vietnamese restaurants in the area.

    When I went for lunch a few weeks ago, the owner took my orders with his usual big smile. As we chatted, I asked how long he had been in business.

    “Ohhhh…this location for over eight years. I started cooking in Vietnam in 1978, and I moved to America in 1982,” he said, “I have been cooking for over 40 years.”

    There it was—the secret to Super Super’s amazing broth: forty years of work and dedication.

  • Haruki Murakami’s Writing Habit

    ​​From The Paris Review, Summer 2004:

    When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm.

     I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. 

    But to hold to such repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. 

    In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.

    See also: “The Running Novelist,” The New Yorker, June 9, 2008

  • How Joel Embiid Became an NBA MVP

    1. The Process

    Joel Embiid landed in Florida in 2010, fresh from Cameroon. At the age of 16, he spoke little English and didn’t know anyone in America.

    Joel signed up for a summer basketball camp three months before his trip. That was his first time playing basketball. At seven feet, he dunked on another player on the first day.

    Luc Mbah, a Cameroonian NBA player, saw Joel’s potential at the camp. He made calls and got Joel an offer to play high school basketball at Mbah’s alma mater in the US.

    When he showed up for his first practice at his new high school, Joel was brutally bad. Beyond dunking, he had no fundamentals. The coach said he was terrible and asked him to leave the gym. His new teammates laughed at him. He tried to defend himself and ask them to trust the process.

    They said, “LOL NAH YOU SUCK.”

    Joel returned to the dorm, devastated. He looked up plane tickets back to Cameroon.

    “This is crazy. What am I even doing here?”

    2. Studying The Best Players

    In his dorm room, he turned on some Lil Wayne rap music. The pain from the humiliation faded a little. Slowly a strong sense of motivation emerged.

    He didn’t believe that was the end yet.

    He said, “I’m just going to work and work in the gym until I’m good. KOBE.”

    His coach in Cameroon sent him an hour-long tape of the best big men in the NBA. Joel put the video on repeat every day for three years.

    YouTube became his second coach. After endless hours, he noticed the best shooters all share a few things in common: tucked elbows, bent knees, and smooth follow-through. He started to imitate what he saw while practicing daily with a friend.

    He imagined himself to be a good basketball player.

    3. Consistency of the Work

    After Kobe Bryant retired, Joel had an opportunity to meet him.

    When Kobe walked into the room, Joel told him he started playing basketball seven years ago because of him and how he’d shoot the ball at the park and yell, “Kobe!”

    Kobe laughed. He then said to Joel:

    “O.K., young fella. Keep working, keep working.”

    Joel went to the gym after.

    Joel Embiid (1994–) is a professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers. In May 2023, he won his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award. He has averaged over 30 points per game in the last two seasons, including a career-high of 59 points against the Utah Jazz in November 2022.

    Reference: Wikipedia, It’s Story Time (Joel’s article)

  • What Makes a Great Restaurant?

    Is it the decor, the service, or the variety in the menu?

    Berkeley has a little takeout-only restaurant called Top Dog. It’s a hole-in-the-wall joint near the college campus. They sell hot dogs freshly made on a grill. You can choose a few varieties of sausages, like Frankfurter, Kielbasa. Service is not particularly friendly. You help yourself with sauerkraut and other condiments. There is no place to sit.

    This place is nothing fancy, but people–students and old-time residents–love it. There are lines at midnight on weekends. People savor the hot dogs, standing on the street, spilling ketchup and mustard on their shirts. Then they order seconds.

    Why do people go back? Consistency.

    When people know what to expect, and you meet that expectation, you create what people want. The quality has to be solid, but it doesn’t need to be fancy.

    But it has to be consistent.