Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff • Hacker News Board

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#21

Post by jbooth » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

markbao wrote: post #15

I think it's a waste of Nate Silver's intelligence to work on something like sports , when there are many other bigger problems to potentially be solved with the help of statistics and prediction. Why might ESPN be a good option for him? Can someone help me see the other side of this? It's totally his decision to make, and I'm sure he's looked at his options rationally, and life circumstances and past experience and…

Yeah, he should build a social mobile webapp to help find your car keys instead.

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#22

Post by lbrandy » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:42 AM UTC

markbao wrote: post #15

I think it's a waste of Nate Silver's intelligence to work on something like sports , when there are many other bigger problems to potentially be solved with the help of statistics and prediction. Why might ESPN be a good option for him? Can someone help me see the other side of this? It's totally his decision to make, and I'm sure he's looked at his options rationally, and life circumstances and past experience and…

> Can someone help me see the other side of this?

Your profile says you dropped out of college and are currently backpacking the world. Is that a waste of your intelligence? Why or why not?

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#23

Post by sardonicbryan » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:43 AM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #13

chimeracoder wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Funny you say that, as Reddit had majorly sided with Nate Silver way before election day. Be that as it may, Nate Silver is actually thoughtful, articulate, and well-reasoned - three words which do not describe /r/politics, etc. It's not just a matter of which opinions one holds; it's a matter of how intelligently one expresses them and defends them with data and evidence. (The irony with Reddit's love of FiveThirt…

I agree Silver is relatively moderate, but FiveThirtyEight did more or less grow out of DailyKos [1], so it's not a huge stretch to suggest he personally has a clear preference for one or the other side of the American political spectrum. It's not like he also had a blog on the right-wing equivalents of DailyKos, like FreeRepublic or RedState. [1] For a year or so before he launched fivethirtyeight.com as an independ…

It could also be because the Daily Kos' founder also cofounded SB Nation, one of the larger networks of sports blogs that are well regarded in the baseball analytics community, so it's likely that Silver had some connection/comfort with DailyKos.

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#24

Post by reaganing » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:45 AM UTC

markbao wrote: post #15

I think it's a waste of Nate Silver's intelligence to work on something like sports , when there are many other bigger problems to potentially be solved with the help of statistics and prediction. Why might ESPN be a good option for him? Can someone help me see the other side of this? It's totally his decision to make, and I'm sure he's looked at his options rationally, and life circumstances and past experience and…

He'll certainly continue his elections work for ESPN's sister network, ABC.

There might be more worthwhile things he could work on, but sports and politics are what interests him.

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#25

Post by jfb » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:48 AM UTC

markbao wrote: post #15

I think it's a waste of Nate Silver's intelligence to work on something like sports , when there are many other bigger problems to potentially be solved with the help of statistics and prediction. Why might ESPN be a good option for him? Can someone help me see the other side of this? It's totally his decision to make, and I'm sure he's looked at his options rationally, and life circumstances and past experience and…

Nate Silver isn't some weird Neo like figure who strides alone dispensing Truth via a college-level understanding of statistics -- his brand of analysis is not unique or even particularly remarkable save that it is rare in the mainstream media.

Too, it's a bit rich to be badmouthing sports on Hacker News, home of perhaps the most solipsistic conversations on the internet. Sports is a very important part of many people's lives; surely that alone lends it sufficient heft to be a defensible use of Silver's talent?

As for why, Silver got started in sabermetrics, and going back to working on sports stats is almost certainly because he likes it. And I imagine ESPN backed up the proverbial dump truck, too.

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#26

Post by jak88 » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:49 AM UTC

I think that the folks questioning the reasoning/wisdom of Nate's move to ESPN are missing something ...

Think of this not as a deal with ESPN but a deal with Disney, the parent company.

It's not just Nate able to do more sports. Disney enables 538 to get its content onto multiple "channels" - sports (ESPN), news (ABC), A&E - on cable, radio, books with much greater international exposure.

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#27

Post by the_economist » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:51 AM UTC

I find it a bit surprising that he chose the role of working in media over working for a sports organization. The Memphis Grizzlies recently hired John Hollinger, who was ESPN's resident statistician the past few years, as their VP of basketball operations. Nate Silver likely could have a found an even better job. Perhaps not with the ability to dedicate large swaths of time to analyzing politics, though.

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#28

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:53 AM UTC

the_economist wrote: post #27

I find it a bit surprising that he chose the role of working in media over working for a sports organization. The Memphis Grizzlies recently hired John Hollinger, who was ESPN's resident statistician the past few years, as their VP of basketball operations. Nate Silver likely could have a found an even better job. Perhaps not with the ability to dedicate large swaths of time to analyzing politics, though.

[deleted]

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#29

Post by sengstrom » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 2:59 AM UTC

markbao wrote: post #15

I think it's a waste of Nate Silver's intelligence to work on something like sports , when there are many other bigger problems to potentially be solved with the help of statistics and prediction. Why might ESPN be a good option for him? Can someone help me see the other side of this? It's totally his decision to make, and I'm sure he's looked at his options rationally, and life circumstances and past experience and…

Because he is also a sports nut?

Re: Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight Blog Is to Join ESPN Staff

#30

Post by markbao » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 3:05 AM UTC

lbrandy wrote: post #22

markbao wrote: post #15

I think it's a waste of Nate Silver's intelligence to work on something like sports , when there are many other bigger problems to potentially be solved with the help of statistics and prediction. Why might ESPN be a good option for him? Can someone help me see the other side of this? It's totally his decision to make, and I'm sure he's looked at his options rationally, and life circumstances and past experience and…

> Can someone help me see the other side of this? Your profile says you dropped out of college and are currently backpacking the world. Is that a waste of your intelligence? Why or why not?

In the same way that I only see Nate Silver's decision from my own perspective, I'm interested in why he might have picked to go to ESPN, because I'm sure that he has his own internal reason for doing so, like I do for traveling. So I'm interested in what that is and why he might have chosen it.

From my perspective, I don't think so. Gaining experience about how the world works and learning about other perspectives and cultures is (and has been) useful for expanding my world view.

Perhaps my question could have been more carefully worded.