Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports • Hacker News Board

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#151

Post by Goronmon » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:23 PM UTC

toolz wrote: post #117

timr wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills." That's nice. What other corporate products must I consume in order to be a validated member of your social caste? How about this: "when you show overt contempt for fast food, you are showing contempt for most everybody, and that is a problem with your social skills." If I don't eat at McD…

Exactly. Sports aren't a healthy part of society. They are games mean to occupy the less curious people of our culture so they don't get bored and dissatisfied with their existence. There is nothing healthy about sports culture. The socialization is entirely tribal and the impact on humanities future is non-existent. Imagine if we game all our attention and praise to teachers and all of our money to successful charit…

Sports aren't a healthy part of society. They are games mean to occupy the less curious people of our culture so they don't get bored and dissatisfied with their existence.

You could say the same thing of any form of entertainment that humans have ever engaged in.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#152

Post by gdulli » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:25 PM UTC

Sports will always fill a niche in that it's the one type of entertainment that's truly live and not predictable.

Drama is predictable in a way that sports aren't. Seeing it live doesn't change that. Live theater has benefits and may be enjoyable, but it doesn't address predictability. Even if the viewer doesn't know the outcome, the outcome is fixed. And it falls within a predictable range of acceptable usually-happy endings. (Not strictly, but very commonly.)

Drama is great, of course, I love it. But sports does offer something different to complement it.

Sports has some outcomes that are narrow (win vs. lose) and others that are open-ended (the arc of a player's career, a unique play that's never been seen, off-the-field drama.) They couldn't be predictable or else betting on sports wouldn't be sustainable.

You have to get yourself to care about an outcome in order for its unpredictability to be interesting, and I can see how it seems contrived that anyone would care, but the point isn't to take it seriously.

(I guess you could call improv also live and not predictable, or find other more obscure examples.)

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#153

Post by toolz » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:25 PM UTC

rinon wrote: post #135

toolz wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Sports aren't a healthy part of society. They are games mean to occupy the less curious people of our culture so they don't get bored and dissatisfied with their existence. There is nothing healthy about sports culture. The socialization is entirely tribal and the impact on humanities future is non-existent. Imagine if we game all our attention and praise to teachers and all of our money to successful charit…

Why are sports unhealthy? They are in fact extremely healthy, in the physical sense. Professional sports are simply an outgrowth of more "natural" sporting activities. Sports, even the professional variety, are not carefully engineered social prisons, but an evolution of natural human activities: physical activity and training combined with competition and the desire to observe others who are better than one's self.…

Professional sports are anything but healthy, as soon as competition is even remotely recognized and praised illicit drugs come onto the scene.

As for a more idealistic world and my choice, I never even hinted at trying to legislate your ability to do what you want, but if you want me to clap and jump up and down and pick a favorite team because a bunch of grown people make ridiculous sums of money doing absolutely nothing for our future, well, count me out.

I get it, it's comfortable to be in a vocal majority. I understand that in many conversations I'm not welcome if I don't have a favorite team. Humans are tribal creatures. Being in a majority doesn't give you some right to an unopposed position. Just because most everyone around you will agree with you doesn't make what you're doing right.

If you would like to define some criteria and have a discussion about whether sports makes this world a better place I will gladly show you the fault in sports.

Also to the person commenting that you could say the same for any type of entertainment (regarding it being useless). That couldn't be farther from the truth. I love aquaponics, for one. Finding new interesting ways to feed people is entertainment for me. It's not uncommon for people to enjoy creating and learning. That type of entertainment becoming more prevalent could have a significant impact on our future as a species.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#154

Post by kevincrane » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:25 PM UTC

toolz wrote: post #108

lotharbot wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he is saying in effect "What you love is obtuse and low brow" More than that, he is in effect saying "there is no depth to this thing" (which he hasn't studied in depth enough to know). Which is both rude and arrogant. It's one thing to say you don't understand a thing and aren't interested in it, and then politely discuss things you are (mutually) interested in. It's quite another to distill something you don't un…

Depth can have a real defined meaning, though. If you're in the context of discovering a process that will make electricity cheaper and cleaner, that is useful to everyone around the world in some way and then to have someone overshadow that achievement or ignore it entirely because 'the game' is on, is ridiculous. I live in the south east where when a college football coach has a problem with the university presiden…

> There is a reason a lot (most?) NFL players go bankrupt shortly after their career of being paid far more than will reflect their contribution to the future of mankind.

Is the reason because a very large number of them grew up in poverty or with rough family lives and therefore never had the chance to be trained into proper financial management as you were? Because that's a reason for a pretty solid proportion of athletes in the NFL at least.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#155

Post by andmarios » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:26 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…

There is a difference between playing sports and watching sports. I would never think negatively of anyone doing sports. I think it is a very healthy attitude.

On the other hand there are people who watch or read/talk about sports for many hours per day ignoring other aspects of personal growth.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#156

Post by metellus » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:27 PM UTC

civilian wrote: post #138

rinon wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a valid reason why some activity is intrinsically bad (e.g. fast food) is very different from disliking such activities because they are "beneath" you. Sports are widely loved and not intrinsically bad. (I'd even argue that fast food itself is not intrinsically bad, but that's a different discussion) However, even expressing contempt for intrinsically bad activities can be interpreted as offensive and hostile.…

The amount of commercials required to watch a game of football is intrinsically bad. The tax exempt status of the NFL is intrinsically bad.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/nflexempt.asp

Specifically, "Claims that the NFL is using a tax exemption to avoid paying the tax due on these revenues are simply misinformed. The confusion arises from the fact that there is one small part of the NFL, unrelated to all this business activity, that is tax-exempt: the NFL League Office. The league office is the administrative and organizational arm of the NFL and does things like write the rules of the game, hire referees, run the college draft, negotiate the collective bargaining agreement with the players, conduct player safety research, and run youth football programs."

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#157

Post by tuelz » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:35 PM UTC

kevincrane wrote: post #154

toolz wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depth can have a real defined meaning, though. If you're in the context of discovering a process that will make electricity cheaper and cleaner, that is useful to everyone around the world in some way and then to have someone overshadow that achievement or ignore it entirely because 'the game' is on, is ridiculous. I live in the south east where when a college football coach has a problem with the university presiden…

> There is a reason a lot (most?) NFL players go bankrupt shortly after their career of being paid far more than will reflect their contribution to the future of mankind. Is the reason because a very large number of them grew up in poverty or with rough family lives and therefore never had the chance to be trained into proper financial management as you were? Because that's a reason for a pretty solid proportion of a…

>Is the reason because a very large number of them grew up in poverty or with rough family lives and therefore never had the chance to be trained into proper financial management as you were? Because that's a reason for a pretty solid proportion of athletes in the NFL at least.

I would be curious to see the numbers, as I suspect that's not anywhere near the majority, because money buys training and the convenience of focusing on sports instead of income while you're younger.

Either way being poor and having no resources to educate yourself becomes a moot point once you become one of the richest people in the world. The reason some professional athletes are stuck in an irresponsible mindset is precisely because they are celebrated for being irresponsible.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#158

Post by delecti » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:36 PM UTC

I assure you, I did not need to cultivate my disinterest in professional sports.

Also, any disdain I have for the subject is entirely centered around the fans. Sports fans have a tendency to assume that everyone is a sports fan, and act accordingly. I don't shame anyone for not liking board games, don't shame me for not caring about whatever latest playoff is going on.

Also, when delays in my commute can be directly attributable to a specific event, you can bet I'm going to develop negative feelings towards it.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#159

Post by josephjrobison » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:36 PM UTC

I played (American) football from 2nd grade to 12th grade and although I wasn't the best, I loved it. I was also an AP/IB student so the two circles didn't really overlap. But now I only follow a bit of college football and the playoffs for the NFL. I still love playing the sport, but I feel it's very unproductive to sit and watch for 3-10 hours every weekend, that's the main reason I don't get into it enough and can't keep up with the stats and news that coworkers and friends rattle off during the day.

I do agree with the premise of this article, that to communicate with more people, we should put 1% of the effort into following sports as we do into building businesses or progressing career wise.

Something I've always thought about, refreshing piece.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#160

Post by al2o3cr » Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 9:36 PM UTC

"But they provide an easy — and enjoyable — way to build common ground with our neighbors and fellow citizens that transcend social boundaries."

They also provide hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to a tiny group of people while permanently injuring players both physically and mentally. Then there's the massive transfers of taxpayer money to build stadia that sometimes NEVER turn a profit, the domestic abuse, the culture of covering up sexual assault, the homophobia, the long and troubled racial history...

Seriously, fuck sportzball. As a new way to "build common ground", try actually being a human.