Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports • Hacker News Board

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#21

Post by martythemaniak » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:40 PM UTC

I don't like the message of this post. I do understand (and see) the cultivated disinterest he's talking about, but I would never suggest you try and make yourself like something for the sole purpose of fitting in, ie cultivating disinterest is bad, but so is cultivating this interest.

If you keep and open mind and follow your passions, you'll eventually stumble on something you share enough with others. My disinterest in football is quite genuine, but I enjoy the World Cup and Euro Cup. I also find it hilarious that intellectuals apparently don't go for Heavy Metal, because I'd fall in his "intellectual" category, but spent several years deeply engrossed in Metal and I enjoy the Nordic and Prog subtypes.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#22

Post by chrischen » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:42 PM UTC

I have friends who aren't into sports, but follow e-sports as if it were a physical sport.

I can't get into either though. I think it has more to do than intellectuals not liking spectating sports.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#23

Post by bitwize » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:42 PM UTC

tl;dr everybody likes sports, and if you don't like sports than you're weird and might not really be human. Been hearing that since high school. Am sick of it.

I literally can't be arsed to give a shit about sports. I know about football and baseball and can understand most sports-related metaphors, but I really don't have the energy to invest in knowing what the Patriots are doing. (Although I followed the Deflategate scandal with some amusement; where I live the Patriots are gods among men and I confess it's a bit nice to see their reputation, er, deflated.)

So when I need to talk to "ordinary people", I fall back on other pop-culture referents, usually music and movies. Even trashy, mass market music and movies I can get into. Discussing Pokémon was once even a useful ice breaker -- in Japan.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#24

Post by mod » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

Avshalom wrote: post #15

mod wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how this works. "Hey, who's your pick in the superbowl?" "I like to golf!"

In a world of pedants it wouldn't but the same way short genre fiction and multi volume biographies get lumped together in "reading" any sport is enough to give you a couple of sports related conversational gambits.

I worked in a bar for a long time. I love playing basketball, and I'm the best pool player in my area (and the bar was full of pool players).

That never sufficed for knowing about football. People want to talk football.

They like talking pool with me too, and it's not like I was cast out of the social circle over it--but most sports conversations, in my experience, start out very specifically.

"Who you like in the SEC this year?"

"You been watching this cheating stuff with Belichick?"

Don't know who Belichick is? You're not going to fudge a conversation, most likely.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#25

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

nlawalker wrote: post #12

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people" - Eleanor Roosevelt Sports, in the context of the article, is 100% people and events. I don't necessarily agree with the quote, I just wanted to point out that the idea expressed here is the same. I don't think that intellectuals (to use the author's term) are necessarily disinterested in sports in general. However, it makes sense t…

[deleted]

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#26

Post by TillE » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

steve-howard wrote: post #18

dl8 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it the opposite, and I played in high school too, but since I know the mechanics of everything it makes it a lot more interesting. For instance most people only get the gist of the game, whereas for me actually seeing what formations the offense is running and what coverage scheme the defense is using on a particular play makes it 100x more interesting than if I didn't know any of that stuff like the average v…

I've never played the sport beyond a limited-contact flag football league, but I agree with your sentiment. It takes a lot of time to really get to know the game, and if you really like the sport for what it is it's suddenly not so bad to root for a terrible team. It is kind of a bummer that you rarely get to see all 22 on a broadcast, because the camera stays fixed on the ball carrier. It can be hard to tell if a qu…

> It is kind of a bummer that you rarely get to see all 22 on a broadcast, because the camera stays fixed on the ball carrier.

There's precisely the same problem with soccer. Unless you're already a true expert, you'll glean almost nothing of the tactics by watching a match on TV. Go to the stadium and you can finally see things like the positioning of defenders while their team has possession.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#27

Post by viewer5 » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

mod wrote: post #8

serve_yay wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father has been a sales guy for a long time, and he got into playing golf for this reason. He never liked watching sports, which if you're in sales is a bit of a handicap. He doesn't even know the rules of a football game. So the golf gave him something in that space to talk with others about, without having to keep on top of sports news. Plus it's OK if you suck at golf, everyone you're playing with sucks too. An…

I'm not sure how this works. "Hey, who's your pick in the superbowl?" "I like to golf!"

"Hey, who's your pick in the superbowl?"

"I'm actually more of a golf guy, myself."

"Oh really? What's your favorite club?"

"I love my MegaPutt 20x6 Owninator"

"Oh yeah that's a classic! The 20x6 line has really turned MegaPutt around in recent years. Myself, I can't get enough of anything SportStick comes up with, I got walls of their clubs at home."

The idea's that a conversation gets redirected, not just stopped outright like it would with a reply of "I don't watch sports."

DISCLAIMER: I don't know how golf works beyond what Wii Golf taught me, and that was years ago.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#28

Post by scott_s » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #21

I don't like the message of this post. I do understand (and see) the cultivated disinterest he's talking about, but I would never suggest you try and make yourself like something for the sole purpose of fitting in, ie cultivating disinterest is bad, but so is cultivating this interest. If you keep and open mind and follow your passions, you'll eventually stumble on something you share enough with others. My disintere…

It's not so much saying you should like something to fit in. It's asking you if you dislike it to not fit in. And if that's the case, then that's elitist.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#29

Post by theoh » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:47 PM UTC

solson wrote: post #20

When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills. It's called being a snob. The disdain for working class culture among academics was part of the reason I choose not to pursue a formal higher education. I suspect this overt snootiness keeps many gifted working class kids from participating in higher education. I grew up working class and w…

A lot of academia is bullshit, and it isn't always driven by snobbery, just naïveté. But in the light of massive and increasing financial inequality, nerds and academics are NOT the problem. The corporate CEO or jock lawyer who is sucking up all the money is very likely to be a sports fan like everyone else.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#30

Post by wutbrodo » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 7:47 PM UTC

angersock wrote: post #5

Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring. Especially when you see what a comically capitalized affair the whole thing is. Also, this part from the article is kind of silly: The machoness and absence of women in the highest levels of most professional sports bothers me deepl…

> Part of the reason I don't like watching, say, American football is that I used to play it in highschool. Once you've actually played the game, watching other people play is kinda boring.

I've tried so hard to explain this to people my entire life, and gotten nothing but blank looks in response. I LOVE playing almost any sport, and when I watch other people running around on the field having fun my only response is "shit why the hell aren't we going to the park and doing that right now?"