Dear Harvey:
I’ve drafted a series of letters called ‘Staying in the Game (Fractals)’. I want to share four fractals with you, beginning with summaries in this post. Later, I will send individual letters expanding on each of the fractals. When will I drop these in Royal Mail? I’m not quite sure, but please keep an eye out for them.
What is a fractal?
Paul Graham, in his essay How to Do Great Work, explains that knowledge grows fractally. From a distance, its edges seem smooth, but up close, they are full of gaps. Graham suggests that great work begins by choosing a field that excites you, pushing towards its frontier, noticing cracks that others overlook, and exploring those with potential for discovery. Therefore, a fractal serves as a metaphor for how knowledge expands. The more you investigate a subject you’re curious about, the more hidden edges and unanswered questions you will find, much like zooming into a mathematical fractal reveals endless new details.
Paul Graham is a programmer, writer, and co-founder of Y Combinator. He is widely known for shaping how a generation of founders, hackers, and makers think about building and creating. Drawing from decades of observing people who’ve made remarkable things, his work distills a simple throughline: choose something you care about deeply, work relentlessly on it, and trust that curiosity plus time will compound into greatness.
- Fractal I: Open Spaces
- Fractal II: The Contest of Years
- Fractal III: The Gift of Restless Striving
- Fractal IV: The Circles of Teaching
- Dear Harvey: What Remains?
Fractal I: Open Spaces
This autumn marks the beginning of our fifth year living abroad as expats in England. It has been an emotional time. We recently said farewell to our eldest daughter, her husband, and granddaughter, who have returned to Atlanta. We were very fortunate to spend the past four years so close to Sally, Taylor, and our first grandchild, Collins.
We are excited about their future in Atlanta, including being close to our youngest daughter, Lucy, and her husband, Trey, as well as Taylor’s family. Taylor’s career in corporate insurance motivated their move back. The move also benefits Sally’s thriving design firm – Sally Wilkinson Design – since her key clients are based in the United States.
In this first fractal, I write about Open Spaces—both the physical landscapes that invite new beginnings and the inner rooms of the heart that hold memory, loss, and renewal. Drawing on the rhythm of transitions in golf and life, I explore how endings create the very emptiness that makes fresh starts possible.
Fractal II: The Contest of Years
The Contest of Years examines what it means to stay competitive as we age. For example, I recently watched a new tennis friend, Graham Neale, prevail on the grass courts at The All England Club in the Great Britain Seniors. I also observed a younger golfer, Wehman Hopke redefine competition in midlife by competing in the US Mid-Am. And ofcourse, Cathy and my efforts in golf and tennis where “Taking dead aim” shifts with age—less about defeating others, more about persisting with clarity and purpose.
Fractal III: The Gift of Restless Striving
In this letter, I reflect on the paradox of striving—the gift of never being fully satisfied, whether in a golf swing or in life’s broader pursuits. I introduce two guiding phrases that embody the essence of this restlessness: to live cautiosly optimistic and blissfully dissatisfied, grateful for today yet always reaching for what could be.
Fractal IV: The Circles of Teaching
The final letter of the series will focus on the practice range (or practice courts) as symbols of teaching circles. I consider how lessons transfer from teacher to student and back again, how wisdom spreads outward like ripples on water, and how golf (and tennis), like life, can be maintained through the simple act of passing knowledge forward.
Conclusion
In the end, Harvey, you left us your Little Red Book—a lifetime of lessons condensed into something small enough to fit in a pocket, yet broad enough to guide generations. That act itself feels like a fractal. Decades of experience folded into patterns others can explore and expand. These letters are my attempt, in a much humbler way, to do the same—to gather what the game has taught me so far, and to keep discovering what lies at the edges.
Recently, after a coat-and-tie lunch following a day of competition in the Victory Shield matches, I shared some Harvey lore through a poem I wrote. What struck me most was what happened next. Several men told me they had picked up the Little Red Book again—or ordered it for the first time—and they were already captivated by its wisdom. It’s a reminder that your voice still travels, steady as ever.
Dear Harvey: The Rube and Victory Shield Matches
In the love of the game,
gPage
“Millions of people were charmed by the homespun golf advice dispensed in Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, a sports classic that became the best-selling sports book of all time. Yet, beyond the Texas golf courses where Penick happily toiled for the better part of eight decades, few people knew the self-made golf pro who coaxed the best out of countless greats — Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright — all champions who considered Penick their coach and lifelong friend.” – Kevin Robbins, author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf.
