First of all, cool project. Looks very nice. And kudos to nba.com for making their data so easily accessible via JSON (and perhaps other methods, didn't look too closely). Personally, I have little interest in sports in general. And I find that the interest ratio is much lower with those interested in technical fields than others. However, obviously proven by this project and life experience, there are definitely tho…
> Why is most of the geek population uninterested
I wonder if this is more antidotal than factual. I know a lot of STEM professionals who enjoy participating and watching sports. I know a lot who don't, too... just saying, I wouldn't be too quick to assume it's a fact, or causal. (I'm a bit biased... I was reading up on long short-term networks last night while watching the Lions take apart the Packers).
Personally, I love sports and exercise. I grew up playing basketball, football, baseball, soccer, etc. If I don't exercise (and maintain a good diet), it dramatically negatively affects my work. My mind is clearer, I'm able to focus longer, etc. Plus, a mid-day trip to the gym makes my afternoons much more productive. In terms of sports, I like the competition, I like the strategy, overcoming the odds, and the idea o…
This is off-topic but you seem like a good person to ask: I've been thinking a lot recently about college football recruiting and machine learning. Do you know of any universities or companies working on this problem? Specifically, I'm interested in the possibility for lower-ranked schools to use ML to identify and recruit diamond-in-the-rough players who won't get attention from the top programs.
If you make it, I know a D1 Engineering school who might buy it
First of all, cool project. Looks very nice. And kudos to nba.com for making their data so easily accessible via JSON (and perhaps other methods, didn't look too closely). Personally, I have little interest in sports in general. And I find that the interest ratio is much lower with those interested in technical fields than others. However, obviously proven by this project and life experience, there are definitely tho…
IMHO, but as a (rather) sports-loving geek, I think a lot of it is the fact that the aspects of sports that (stereotypically) won't interest geeks get emphasized a lot in news/media/sports coverage - a lot of the coverage focuses on the in-the-moment athletic achievements of players, whereas there is a lot of strategy below the surface. It's actually totally reasonable, then, to basically look at every sport as a real time strategy game. Some sports are really good at this (IMHO, this is why I like soccer more than many Americans), but even the NFL can enjoyably watched through this lens if you'd really like to view it that way.
The problem is that this type of thing isn't often really covered in sports broadcasts, which makes it hard for a viewer to connect with.
Fun project idea: implementation of the stats.nba.com API which provides simulated, or fantasy games. Two use cases: 1. Why wait for the actual NBA games? Instead, follow a simulated league that “plays” as many games as you want to consume (but the games are played at real world speed). 2. You, and your friends, are the managers! Follow along as the results of your management decisions are played out.
This is a neat idea. You could have a video game like NBA 2k act as the frontend for the data coming out of stats.nba.com backend, and simulate - in realtime - the actual games as they progress. If the latency between the frontend and the backend is reduced enough, you'll effectively have a "live" game played by simulated players that is more or less a replacement for the real thing. You could then charge people to watch your simulated games.
First of all, cool project. Looks very nice. And kudos to nba.com for making their data so easily accessible via JSON (and perhaps other methods, didn't look too closely). Personally, I have little interest in sports in general. And I find that the interest ratio is much lower with those interested in technical fields than others. However, obviously proven by this project and life experience, there are definitely tho…
Viewing sports and partaking in sports are two different things. I doubt many people in software are natural athletes (I'm generalizing here), but I don't see any particular deterrence from them being a fan of sports as a passive viewer - other than maybe their time will already be consumed with other intellectual pursuits. I find the NBA to be full of things that draw my interest: it's all about stats, strategy, and…
Yep. I especially love how offenses counteract defenses, and vice versa.
I do, actually. I simply don't have time to watch all the games I'd like, which is fine, but if I'm going to be on the computer anyway a scrolling terminal play-by-play is ideal: it's minimal and easy to read, it doesn't slow down the computer with some ad-ridden live-updating website, and it's subtle in case I need to hide it. Same reason I use pianobar over the website or phone (plus no ads). Moreover, the only thi…
First of all, cool project. Looks very nice. And kudos to nba.com for making their data so easily accessible via JSON (and perhaps other methods, didn't look too closely). Personally, I have little interest in sports in general. And I find that the interest ratio is much lower with those interested in technical fields than others. However, obviously proven by this project and life experience, there are definitely tho…
I have always been interested in STEM, even growing up, but I was definitely more interested in just having fun and being cool all the way through college. I played sports my whole life at a pretty high level and basically did the bare minimum in school to get into an OK college for a degree. After I basically stopped playing competitive sports I started focusing all my efforts into programming and have completely switched. Still, I pride myself on my hand-eye coordination (I think those who are coordinated are more pre-disposed to like sports; wonder what the breakdown is there, like how many programmers are also coordinated?) and the fact that I'm still pretty good at sports and enjoy playing them. Maybe I (or people) just like to be good at things.
I think it's too bad that more coordinated nerds don't try sports. I was able to play at a much higher level than my physical abilities by simply out-thinking a lot of guys. I'd know the last 3 times I faced a certain defender, the things he tried to stop me with, and what he'd likely be expecting me to try the next time. I always had felt like this gave me a bit of an edge, even with freak athletes that should have crushed me.
If you can just learn the game and be reliable (don't make stupid mistakes) you can be an asset. You also get to feel the camaraderie that comes with winning and losing as a group, and why teamwork isn't just a buzzword that get's thrown around by recruiters.
First of all, cool project. Looks very nice. And kudos to nba.com for making their data so easily accessible via JSON (and perhaps other methods, didn't look too closely). Personally, I have little interest in sports in general. And I find that the interest ratio is much lower with those interested in technical fields than others. However, obviously proven by this project and life experience, there are definitely tho…
My experience is a sports fan first, playing sports as a child/teen, watching sports, bantering with other men in my family about players/teams etc. The "normal" US male cultural experiences that sports provide. Then I became a techie/geek in late teen years, teaching myself to code, coding as hobby, etc. What I found is it all has to do with time and where you want to spend it. To keep up to date on sports, it's a huge time investment. To learn to code and continue building stuff, it's typically a large time investment too. I couldn't do both. Really, I didn't want to do both. I felt more productive building things and while sports are entertaining, it's a large unproductive time sink. I have since tuned back into sports and balance the two a bit. I still think it's overly unproductive but I just try to watch the big games, or I tune in at post season, or just the games of the teams I support. I usually follow this pattern; MLB & NBA post season, NFL all games for my team & other post season sometimes. I also usually DVR them and avoid spoilers. Watching games in play by play format is a huge time savings.