Process Over Outcome, Social Media Bans & Brain Rot

1. Congress and youth sports (good Insta recap):

Congress is now officially looking into youth sports. This week, the House heard testimony about private equity, pay to play exposure platforms, safety oversight, and the shrinking access to rec and school sports. This guy (Healthy Sports Parents) does a nice recap.

2. Article on Australia’s social media ban

Australia just became the first country to ban social media access for under-16s. Should the US follow suit? This article tries to dispel a few myths in route to convincing you to parent like the Aussies.

3. “Brain-rot” and short-form video consumption

File this under the category, “duh!” New research suggests heavy consumption of short-form videos can impair attention, memory, and impulse control. This is one of the things I’m most concerned about for my own kids, and a strong reason to have app limits and screen-time controls.

“Success is a byproduct of daily habits, not a single defining moment.”
— James Clear

“You can’t control the scoreboard, but you can control your effort, attitude, and preparation.”
— Bill Belichick

My oldest just got accepted into a few of his top college choices. It’s exciting. It’s validating. And it also came with a strange realization for him:

“I worked my butt off to get here… and in the fall, I’m basically starting at zero again.”

It’s a very first-world problem, but it’s a real feeling. High achievers are always chasing the next rung. And when they finally reach it, there can be a surprising emptiness. It’s normal to think, now what?

To me, it only reinforces something our kids need to hear over and over again: the process matters more than the outcome.

When kids focus on the process, especially in academics, they don’t just earn grades or acceptance letters. They build habits of scholarship like discipline, consistency, resilience, curiosity. Those habits travel with you and they pay dividends long after the applause fades.

As Nick Saban put it:

“Outcomes are a distraction. Focusing on the process of what you have to do to get the outcome is the most important thing.”

That’s the lesson worth teaching again and again, after good games and bad games, great tests and bombed tests, wins, losses, and acceptance letters alike.