My March Madness Bracket, the Perils of Trying to Be Clever, and the Perils of Not Actually Being That Clever (But Still Trying to Save Face and Probably Doing a Fine Job at That, All Things Considered)

I did something I don’t love doing: I reread something I wrote hastily and unenthusiastically a year ago. 11 months ago, actually. Two days after the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Game.

I woke up that day with the idea and burped it out in about 20 minutes. If I think about something for too long I tend to either talk myself out of it or get bored of it so often the only way to actually do something is to, as I say, burp it out.

Ok, to be fair I didn’t read all of it — I read the first few paragraphs and got sick of it because sometimes I’m not in the mood for myself. I often am — those are the good days — but on the days when I’m not it’s best if I read some of my actually good prose, which this piece is not. But whatever, I read some of it.

The premise, way back in April of 2022, was that I was creating the world’s first bracket for the 2023 Men’s NCAA basketball tournament (which I believe to be true). In doing so I was protecting myself from all judgment and all shame; I could remove any pressure to pretend to know more than I do…in fact I could remove any pressure at all, checking this task off my list 11 months early and getting the opportunity to be smarmy and smug about it.