The New York Times published a really interesting piece last Thursday. It may not be interesting—or news, I should say—to my Silicon Valley colleagues, but to me, a lifelong East Coaster, it is.
That news: Cycling is becoming the new business sport of choice, at least for techies.
Growing up, I was always under the impression that it was golf that mattered for business. Indeed, I had heard—still unconfirmed to me—of colleges in the south making golf a required course in their business programs.
The news that cycling is the new sport-of-choice doesn’t surprise me, however. First off, come on, it’s Silicon Valley: being unconventional is what they're good at.
But also, golf has been taking a hit lately. I say this as a fan of the sport: for some reason—whatever it may be, whether because there isn’t somebody like Tiger Woods to inspire, or millennials just “don’t have the attention span,” as someone once put it to me—golf seems to be in decline.
I think it’s too early to tell if cycling will supplant golf as the go-to business sport—can you imagine what an office "bike outing" would look like?—but I hope not. Not only is it difficult to close a deal cycling at 25mph, it’s rather difficult to enjoy an ice-cold beverage.
