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Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

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Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#31

Post by Closi »

renewiltord wrote: post #15
idiotsecant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is probably the case that both rich and poor people possess the required discipline for endurance sports but poor people have much less opportunity to participate. Training, equipment, travel, etc are luxuries that the rich can afford to pay for. The same is not true of everyone else. If you think that rich people and poor people have similar access to time and resources for these sorts of activities I suspect it…

How would you test this hypothesis? If, for instance, endurance sports were more prevalent in poorer countries what would that mean for your prior on the hypothesis.

To be honest I think all these posts are looking for a single causation, where it is more likely a combination of all the factors listed.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#32

Post by lmm »

Can we separate being endurance sports from being sports that can be practiced individually? E.g. I'd say climbing is not really an endurance sport but attracts a lot of the same kind of people (money-rich but time-poor, frequent travellers, ...).

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#33

Post by machiaweliczny »

version_five wrote: post #3

Self-discipline and endurance are big characteristics of many successful people. I agree with the article, but I'm not sure about the causality. I've observed that the same characteristics that make people good (not elite) at endurance sports are those that make them able to get ahead at work. Basically discipline and goal setting. It's not surprising that people who can stick to an exercise program like marathon tra…

My thesis is that it just takes certain optimism, perservence and luck to suceed massively. The most succesful polish startup founder (Booksy) is guy who after 6 months of training ran 5x maraton in desert (he thought it would be just single one but continued anyway).

I also know some milioneres and they either don't care much and drop work on others or care and also do sports to unload. Those who don't are usually fat (eating from stess). This is my anecdotal experience.

IMO first strat is best as luck is dominating factor anyway.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#34

Post by helsinkiandrew »

Many of the comments on this page indicate why endurance sports are popular: "I GREW UP PLAYING [hockey, basketball, taekwondo another contact/competitive sport]"

Once you get into your forties and fifties you can't compete or even play in many sports against people in their twenties due to fitness/energy and it may be hard to commit to a specific evening for a club night every week.

Running, Cycling, Swimming can be done at anytime, can get you outside, can be easy on ageing joints, and you can compete against/compare your performance against yourself (how much did I run last week?, how fast did I do my morning circuit compared with last month?). They are also pretty good aerobic exercises that let you live longer.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#35

Post by SiVal »

version_five wrote: post #3

Self-discipline and endurance are big characteristics of many successful people. I agree with the article, but I'm not sure about the causality. I've observed that the same characteristics that make people good (not elite) at endurance sports are those that make them able to get ahead at work. Basically discipline and goal setting. It's not surprising that people who can stick to an exercise program like marathon tra…

Before you try to explain a phenomenon, you should define it and prove that it exists. Possibilities for "Why do rich people love endurance sports" include

1) They don't. 94% of rich people surveyed say they hate endurance sports. Or, 2) Because they love all sports. Rich people have time and money for sports. Poor people don't. And endurance sports are sports. Or, 3) They don't. We asked rich people to rank their favorite sports. Endurance sports were scattered randomly in the ranking. Or, 4) They don't. We define how much rich people like each sport by the average income of its participants and found that sailboat racing was most liked by rich people and playing tag on a playground was least liked. Or, 4) We define what rich people like this way: we surveyed one rich group and one poor group and ranked each sport by the percentage difference in participation by rich and poor. We find that the sports rich people like most (surprisingly, more than tennis or golf) are polo, yachting, and big game hunting.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#36

Post by mint2 »

bmitc wrote: post #14

I've played sports my whole life, and there's nothing I dislike more than endurance sports. Doing anything repetitive for a long length of time is just incredibly boring to me, and I highly prefer learning and mastering a set of skills that can then be combined in various ways, usually in real-time, like one sees in basketball, taekwondo, racket sports, etc. I have a running theory that many become interested in endu…

>” I have a running theory that many become interested in endurance sports as adults because they actually don't know how to play other sports. So in a way, these endurance sports are the so-called "easy" way in because they don't require the skill refinement that more skill-based sports require like basketball, martial arts, etc”

that’s the only theory notable enough for mention and just so happens it paints endurance athletes in a negative light…

How about this theory, those who don’t take up endurance sports don’t have the mental strength and dislike the meditative quality of them and instead favor short term gratification and rewards.

Of course that’s accurate for a subset just like the first theory was but a very gross generalization

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#37

Post by swader999 »

Endurance sports are more individualIstic. If you suck, you only let yourself down. You can make mistakes and learn at your pace. Team sports, you let yourself and the team down. Team sports are less flexible and require a lot more organization to engage in.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#38

Post by Scarblac »

bmitc wrote: post #14

I've played sports my whole life, and there's nothing I dislike more than endurance sports. Doing anything repetitive for a long length of time is just incredibly boring to me, and I highly prefer learning and mastering a set of skills that can then be combined in various ways, usually in real-time, like one sees in basketball, taekwondo, racket sports, etc. I have a running theory that many become interested in endu…

As an adult those sports you mention sound fun, but they require other people. Other people at roughly similar skill levels, who are available at the same time and place. That's not trivial to arrange.

Whereas with running I just put on shoes and leave the house.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#39

Post by Scarblac »

randycupertino wrote: post #28
nradov wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair. I lack the coordination to ever be good at ball sports. But I can be decent at triathlon just by grinding away. I actually enjoy most of the training and don't get bored, except for pool swimming. There's usually something interesting to look at and if you're following a structured workout you're changing targets every few minutes.

Have you tried waterproof ipod while you're swimming? I have one from underwater audio and I love it. Total gamechanger for pool workouts.

Or just embrace the fact that some activities are boring, and zone out. Your brain needs some downtime too.

Re: Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports?

#40

Post by [deleted] »

bmitc wrote: post #14

I've played sports my whole life, and there's nothing I dislike more than endurance sports. Doing anything repetitive for a long length of time is just incredibly boring to me, and I highly prefer learning and mastering a set of skills that can then be combined in various ways, usually in real-time, like one sees in basketball, taekwondo, racket sports, etc. I have a running theory that many become interested in endu…

[deleted]
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