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Jack comments on Is Less Wrong discouraging less nerdy people from participating? - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: JoshuaZ 24 January 2011 02:24AM

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Comment author: Jack 25 January 2011 07:46:10AM *  5 points [-]

So I have, for a while now, had ideas for a couple posts about rationality that use sports as the source for most of the examples. Spectator sports are actually a rich field for rationalist analysis because they are rife with irrationality and there have been a number of recent developments in fixing that. I think sports fans, athletes, coaches and analysts could learn a lot from us and we could learn a lot from them.

Maybe I'll write one and see how it goes.

Incidentally, the way I got into sports (basketball in particular) was by discovering it as this big mystery- where I wasn't quite sure what factors at what degrees were involved in winning. Part of the reason I haven't gotten into baseball is that it's almost a solved problem at this point and I haven't gotten involved in football as it appears to complex for the low-hanging statistical fruit to be of much interest.

I have found being a big sports fan excellent practice for noticing and avoiding tribalism and motivated cognition. I highly recommend it.