Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports • Hacker News Board

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#301

Post by bglazer » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:05 PM UTC

wcummings wrote: post #255

bglazer wrote: post #84

I'm not sure how I feel about this article. On the one hand, it had a weird highbrow tone. It reads a bit like an ivory tower academic discovering what "the poors" are up to. Some choice quotes: "Albert suggested that sports reflect the go-to topic for small talk and building rapport across class and context" "Sports are popular because people, in general, find them fun to watch". No shit! Lots of people like sports.…

An impressive robot is just so much more novel and interesting than a feat of human strength. Not to say sports aren't impressive, or that professional athletes aren't incredibly dedicated and talented, but someone hitting a baseball isn't very interesting .

A biological computer estimates the position of an object that's moving much faster than the refresh rate of its visual system using years of training data. Simultaneously it triggers a cascade of actuators, twisting its body so that its hands reach maximum velocity at the same time the object reaches the bat it's holding. It loses sight of the ball, which is following a curved trajectory, while doing this.

It then takes off running at 20mph.

That's fantastically mysterious and incredible to me.

I'm not trying to minimize robotics or Boston Dynamics. It's an amazing field. I just think people under appreciate the movement of the human body.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#302

Post by tomjakubowski » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:05 PM UTC

benihana wrote: post #130

ska wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, disinterest and contempt are very different things. Saying "I'm not interested in X" has very different connotations from "I can't see why anybody is interested in X".

This article isn't talking about disinterest. It's talking about the contempt self proclaimed intellectuals have - not the "oh I don't really follow NFL" attitude, the "oh, you like sports? Here let me post the tim and eric sports video to show how disdainful I am of sports." You know the type, they think they're so clever calling sports terms by the wrong name. Really sticking it to society by saying things like, "y…

> I've had a couple girlfriends who made fun of me enjoying hockey and college football, but after explaining the depth of the strategy, and how the football game is much less about the guys running into each other, and much more about the chess game the coaches are playing against each other

That part interests you more, maybe. One of the reasons sports have such wide appeal is that they can be appreciated in a number of different ways. Coaching and long term strategy is interesting for sure, but there's a lot to see just between players too.

Watching a professional basketball game, for example, I'm astounded by the pure, freak strength and athleticism of these six-and-a-half-foot-tall giants as they dunk, struggle for position for rebounds and leap across the court to block shots. I'm in awe of the mental discipline and social coordination the players need to successfully execute a defensive scheme or offensive play: split-second reads of their opponents' schemes, precise spatial awareness of their teammates and opposing players, and the ability to communicate effectively with teammates amid the roar of an NBA arena at full capacity.

Football isn't the same as basketball but the players are doing a lot more than just "running into each other." As one example, wide receivers are often engaged in tactical mind-games with defensive backs, fighting for the millisecond-grained advantage off the line of scrimmage that makes the difference between a touchdown and an intercepted pass. They have to execute cuts down the field on their routes with incredibly precise timing matching the quarterback's or risk causing an incompletion or worse. All players spend hundreds of hours a season in the film room studying their opponents, looking for tendencies and tells to exploit in the coming game.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#303

Post by pkulak » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:05 PM UTC

kulak wrote: post #243

To my ears, this "cultivated disinterest" label comes off as something of a cheap stereotype. Simply put, not everyone who lacks interest in professional sports nurtures a "cultivated distinterest" in the subject, nor are we driven by some need to display this disinterest as some kind of marker of class rank or intellectual superiority. We simply lack interest in the subject, period. And when pressed on the subject,…

I had a good reply lined up, but then I noticed there's a decent chance we're related. If only there were some shared cultural event happening this weekend that we could talk about as an introduction...

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#304

Post by abalone » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:06 PM UTC

Really cool to see Michael Albert mentioned on HN. He runs a great site called ZNet, a portal to really good political analysis from what you might call the "left libertarian" perspective. For example Noam Chomsky is a regular contributor, just to give you an idea.

The design's a little dated and they're always looking for technical help.

https://zcomm.org/

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#305

Post by Ar-Curunir » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:06 PM UTC

mundizzle wrote: post #129

i always found Chomsky's take on sports to be quite interesting... "Take, say, sports -- that's another crucial example of the indoctrination system, in my view. For one thing because it -- you know, it offers people something to pay attention to that's of no importance. [audience laughs] That keeps them from worrying about -- [applause] keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might…

And he conveniently ignores the uniting factor that supporting a club or team provides. It united a community and gives people a feeling of belonging.

It doesn't have to be one (rational and critical thinking) or the other (supporting a team). I don't understand why so many people on this thread can't see that.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#306

Post by rational-future » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:07 PM UTC

JoshMilo wrote: post #267

rational-future wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Professional sports are for the dumb - a modern version of the Roman circus to keep the unwashed masses occupied and away from the important things in life - politics, finance, economics.

You must have forgotten that Niels Bohr was an olympic athlete as well as a nobel prize winner in physics.

Yeah, never mind the 99.99% of Nobel winners that aren't/weren't athletes.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#307

Post by pstuart » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:09 PM UTC

Implicated wrote: post #268

Glyptodon wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love playing sports and always have. But I have major issues with categorizing everyone who has issues with them as elitist. Some of us dislike them because they're destructive to society. I'm sure I'm not the only one who went to a high school where athletics were more important than academics, and not going to the football game was worth a couple nitpicked points off on your chemistry quiz or some teacher who bec…

> I feel like sports culture deprives lots of regular public high school students of an education, and I don't think it's elitist at all to dislike professional sports for their contribution to this mess. While I respect your position I feel that you really don't understand the perspective of sports from the athletes side. You're completely glossing over the positives that sports bring to the lives of people involved…

  > You're completely glossing over the positives
  ...
  > Calling sports destructive to society seems so completely asinine

You're completely glossing over the negative elements of professional sports (which includes college sports).

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#308

Post by rational-future » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:09 PM UTC

aaron-lebo wrote: post #261

rational-future wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Professional sports are for the dumb - a modern version of the Roman circus to keep the unwashed masses occupied and away from the important things in life - politics, finance, economics.

You say that as though modern politics isn't a bunch of people mindlessly rooting for their favorite team.

No, it's not. What you describe is the political theater - another form of circus. All decisions are made behind closed doors by very smart people.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#309

Post by justin66 » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:09 PM UTC

ggreer wrote: post #103

I don't follow sports, but I also don't go around professing my ignorance. If someone changes the topic to sports, I still engage with them. I ask questions, and they're usually happy to answer. A couple days ago, someone delighted in telling me the story of Marshawn Lynch. (I had to look up the name, but I did remember his antics with the press.) Having common ground with more people is not a bad argument for learni…

> American football is an odious sport. Players regularly suffer concussions, traumatic brain injuries, and joint trauma. Permanent and debilitating injuries are common.

In Europe, spectators suffer those while watching football.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#310

Post by remarkEon » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 11:09 PM UTC

rational-future wrote: post #218

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…

Professional sports are for the dumb - a modern version of the Roman circus to keep the unwashed masses occupied and away from the important things in life - politics, finance, economics.

You've clearly never been to Yankee Stadium.