31–40 of 511 posts
In summary, you should try liking things that a lot of other people like because you might like them yourself and it will help you make conversation with those that also like them.
I don't like nor have an interest in sports, I never have. I'm not going to waste my free time doing something I don't like trying to fit in.
I think professional sports are the closest we have to real-life dramas, tragedies, or even comedies, and they have profound life lessons. I am a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. I grew up when they were a dynasty in the 90s, and at the time it seemed like going to the Super Bowl is something they were supposed to do every year. I cried after some tough losses. Sometimes I get into other local teams when they are doing w…
I follow a lot of people in tech on social media (mainly twitter) and while 90% its interesting and insightful when a big sporting event comes around I want to delete a lot of those people.
It seems as if they get on a podium and decided that everyone watching said sport is an idiot. It makes them seem condescending. This isn't everyone I follow in tech but enough to get annoying.
Terms I definitely know I will see Sunday on Twitter are "hand egg", "sports ball" followed by mocking of people watching the Super Bowl.
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.
At the end of the day, people will like what they want. They will dislike what they want, too. Whether that is because of a valid reason, or whatever silly notion of not wanting to fit in, or anything else is irrelevant.
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…
I don't have statistics, so this is all anecdotal, but most Professors I have gotten to know well have a favorite team or sport etc. The reality you present sounds more like movies than real life. For example, I can see Dr. Epps from Numb3rs being snoody about sports in a way I have never seen a real Professor be.
Is it possible that it was the popular culture image portrayed of academic attitudes is what stopped you, rather than actual academic attitudes?
> but I am also an academic and an intellectual. Many highly educated people have told me so, I just don't have the paper to prove it.
Do you have problems getting published without "the paper to prove it"? Anyone can be an intellectual if they are intellectual, but at least in my mind, being an academic implies peer-reviewed novel research.
We also have sports such as cricket which are probably a topic of conversation for the middle classes more than the working classes, but then class division is something that we've had centuries to refine!
Is that a thing? I've certainly never noticed it from the outside looking in on American intellectualism, or from my more direct experience with educated acquaintances.
My own take is that I enjoy athletic excellence, but disdain the laughably irrational fandom that almost always overwhelms any gathering or discussion involving major televised sports. When there is a controversial judgement made by referees, why is there such a strong correlation because the team you support and the way you think the call should have gone? Why is it always the team you support that the announcers and referees are biased against? It's just so inane and boring that I have zero interest participating in it.
Sports are so prevalent that if you're not interested, it must be an affect :) I can watch some sports for a while (basketball and football), but after a couple hours it gets pretty boring, plus I've probably had some beers so the combination tends to make me sleepy. It was exciting when I was in college and rooting for my team at the stadium and all that, but how people connect with teams outside of such a setting h…
I think professional sports are the closest we have to real-life dramas, tragedies, or even comedies, and they have profound life lessons. I am a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. I grew up when they were a dynasty in the 90s, and at the time it seemed like going to the Super Bowl is something they were supposed to do every year. I cried after some tough losses. Sometimes I get into other local teams when they are doing w…
I think anyone who thinks this is spending too much attention on professional sports and not enough on real life: because there is plenty of actual real-life drama, tragedy, and comedy; professional sports are not the "closest we have" to those things (though there is some of all three in professional sports.)
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.
In this light, there's no need to single out nerds/intellectuals/whatevers. We can just say that cultivating an active disinterest to isolate yourself from others is generally a bad thing.