I loved your appearance on House of Strauss. Didn't realize you were a Bulls fan! I live in Baltimore, MD but I have a ton of family in or from Chicago. So I latched on to those teams early in life.
Count me among those who really hate these Nike ads as well as the uber-PC mentality coming from a lot of sports media in general. And those Social Justice jerseys from the NBA bubble playoffs last year? My goodness, those were cringe.
My family moved to Chicago in the late 90s. Heady times for the Bulls. I still remember this weird commercial where a random old dude holds up his hand and says “one two three four FIVE championships!”
I’ve grown weary of Drew Magary over the years; look forward to listening to the podcast.
Seahawks don’t have a big star rushing the passer but they do have depth: Dunlap, Mayowa, Hyder, Robinson & Poona are all solid, while Darrell Taylor is finally healthy after a terrific college career.
I’m participating in my brothers fantasy league which is weird because I’ve lost interest in football for some reason. Almost nothing either of you said means anything to me 😂
However the league is called dead celebrities so I got to name my team Barbara Bush League.
Love the "NFL Pick of the Week." I am also of the opinion that Carson Wentz is much better than people realize, and I'm no Eagles or Colts fan. He was an MVP candidate not too long ago before he was injured; he's also a very effective dual threat QB a la Josh Allen, even though most people seem to overlook this. And he was given far too much of the blame for last season, especially considering how terrible his offensive line was (I think he was both hit and sacked more than any QB). I'm hoping his new offensive line, which is considered one of the best in the league (when healthy), will help.
Also agree about Seattle. I'll never understand their perverse, obstinate refusal to 1) not draft or trade for better protection for Wilson and 2) "let Russ cook."
Let me preface this with, I'm really, REALLY not trying to be mean or insulting or anything, but, this comment is everything I hate about current NFL conversation and why I cannot stand it and try to avoid it as much as possible.
Carson Wentz was a MVP candidate
also
Carson Wentz can't be blamed for how fucking atrocious he was last year, his offensive line was terrible.
Let's leave aside that the assumption that his offensive line was terrible is, most likely, wrong. It seems to be based on sacks, which are just as much a function of a brain dead QB holding the ball way too long as they are of the offensive line. This was pretty apparent if you watched every single snap Wentz took last year and also if you look at the metrics that judge how much time an offensive line is giving a QB, which during the entire time Wentz was starting the Eagles still ranked high in it.
But the bigger issue is that you choose to give him credit for his MVP season but then remove his blame for his LVP season based on his line. He played behind the best offensive line in football in 2017. Four of those guys were Pro Bowlers and three were All Pro linemen. This also ignores the multiple Pro Bowlers he was surrounded with on offense, and the fact that even without him his team went 5-1 without him (and that one loss was in a game they didn't play starters).
Sometime in the middle part of the 2000s we collectively decided that offenses were QBs, and the ten other guys were only noteworthy if they let the QB down (except for situations like Ryan Tannehill where we just decide we don't like the guy so it must be everyone else).
QB determinism has completely destroyed NFL discussion and commentary. It's bizarre, based off no evidence (when there's ample examples that QB talent is a bell curve with most being pretty interchangeable outside of the extremes), and completely devalues the other players. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate it so much and if I could change anything about modern society I would chose to destroy this, even if it means we returned to a 1990s level of football discussion.
Fair enough. I feel like that's kind of contradictory, but I understand what you're saying. And I definitely don't think QBs are the entire offense, or team for that matter. As someone who played offensive line, I think offensive lines very rarely get enough credit or recognition (i.e. - Quenton Nelson is considered one of the most valuable players in the league, but most people have never heard of him).
I'd be a bit more cautious about Hsu's Genomic Prediction outfit. He had a preprint making claims about genetic predictions out at the upper tail of a distribution. There were so few data points out there that he relied heavily on assuming Gaussian distributions. He tested the Gaussian hypothesis and got incredibly low p-values. So he said that the assumption was good, cuz, you know, low p-value is good!
(For non stats people, those extremely low p-values in fact meant that the hypothesis he was using was extremely incompatible with his data.)
One of my sons noticed it and called it a "reverse Costanza", after the time George began wailing "Negative! Why me?" when told his biopsy had come back negative.
Yeah I have little confidence in what's been done thus far. But for IVF embryo selection, as opposed to direct manipulation, there's not much that needs to be done in terms of great leaps forward - enough years of gradual iterative improvement would go a long way. But such things have been said before, so we'll see.
I guess _Flowers for Algernon_ always was a fantasy at heart. But based on this summary, I need to re-read _Brave New World_ instead. And where was that article about cloning a million copies of John von Neumann?
The rainbow oligarchy reminds me of an old episode of South Park where there is outrage over the town flag, which depicts four white people hanging a Black person. In the end, they change it to a multiracial group hanging the person, and everyone is satisfied.
I find it difficult to read arguments (whether pro or con) on genes v. environment when people don't at least attempt to consider the information and arguments of Thomas Sowell on this subject.
The article you linked about Nike is far, FAR more interesting than I would've thought an article about sports equipment marketing had any right to be. Cracking read.
Does anyone know of any research of what makes late bloomers happen? Reading the article about genes it seems everyone knows that some subset of the population will be this. A lot of individuals confound the idea that our ability bands are set in early elementary--especially consistently among neurodiverse people more limited in early elementary by social skills and conscientiousness than intelligence. There are probably a lot of other confounding variables but I've seen so little work on this.
I loved your appearance on House of Strauss. Didn't realize you were a Bulls fan! I live in Baltimore, MD but I have a ton of family in or from Chicago. So I latched on to those teams early in life.
Count me among those who really hate these Nike ads as well as the uber-PC mentality coming from a lot of sports media in general. And those Social Justice jerseys from the NBA bubble playoffs last year? My goodness, those were cringe.
My family moved to Chicago in the late 90s. Heady times for the Bulls. I still remember this weird commercial where a random old dude holds up his hand and says “one two three four FIVE championships!”
I’ve grown weary of Drew Magary over the years; look forward to listening to the podcast.
Seahawks don’t have a big star rushing the passer but they do have depth: Dunlap, Mayowa, Hyder, Robinson & Poona are all solid, while Darrell Taylor is finally healthy after a terrific college career.
I’m participating in my brothers fantasy league which is weird because I’ve lost interest in football for some reason. Almost nothing either of you said means anything to me 😂
However the league is called dead celebrities so I got to name my team Barbara Bush League.
Love the "NFL Pick of the Week." I am also of the opinion that Carson Wentz is much better than people realize, and I'm no Eagles or Colts fan. He was an MVP candidate not too long ago before he was injured; he's also a very effective dual threat QB a la Josh Allen, even though most people seem to overlook this. And he was given far too much of the blame for last season, especially considering how terrible his offensive line was (I think he was both hit and sacked more than any QB). I'm hoping his new offensive line, which is considered one of the best in the league (when healthy), will help.
Also agree about Seattle. I'll never understand their perverse, obstinate refusal to 1) not draft or trade for better protection for Wilson and 2) "let Russ cook."
Let me preface this with, I'm really, REALLY not trying to be mean or insulting or anything, but, this comment is everything I hate about current NFL conversation and why I cannot stand it and try to avoid it as much as possible.
Carson Wentz was a MVP candidate
also
Carson Wentz can't be blamed for how fucking atrocious he was last year, his offensive line was terrible.
Let's leave aside that the assumption that his offensive line was terrible is, most likely, wrong. It seems to be based on sacks, which are just as much a function of a brain dead QB holding the ball way too long as they are of the offensive line. This was pretty apparent if you watched every single snap Wentz took last year and also if you look at the metrics that judge how much time an offensive line is giving a QB, which during the entire time Wentz was starting the Eagles still ranked high in it.
But the bigger issue is that you choose to give him credit for his MVP season but then remove his blame for his LVP season based on his line. He played behind the best offensive line in football in 2017. Four of those guys were Pro Bowlers and three were All Pro linemen. This also ignores the multiple Pro Bowlers he was surrounded with on offense, and the fact that even without him his team went 5-1 without him (and that one loss was in a game they didn't play starters).
Sometime in the middle part of the 2000s we collectively decided that offenses were QBs, and the ten other guys were only noteworthy if they let the QB down (except for situations like Ryan Tannehill where we just decide we don't like the guy so it must be everyone else).
QB determinism has completely destroyed NFL discussion and commentary. It's bizarre, based off no evidence (when there's ample examples that QB talent is a bell curve with most being pretty interchangeable outside of the extremes), and completely devalues the other players. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate it so much and if I could change anything about modern society I would chose to destroy this, even if it means we returned to a 1990s level of football discussion.
Conversely I agree 100% on Russell Wilson.
Fair enough. I feel like that's kind of contradictory, but I understand what you're saying. And I definitely don't think QBs are the entire offense, or team for that matter. As someone who played offensive line, I think offensive lines very rarely get enough credit or recognition (i.e. - Quenton Nelson is considered one of the most valuable players in the league, but most people have never heard of him).
People committed to racial and social justice like the NFL? That's a real head scratcher.
https://qz.com/1287915/the-nfls-racial-makeup-explains-much-of-its-national-anthem-problems/
https://www.bu.edu/cte/category/nfl/
I love that Freddie is including a NFL pick of the week. I also love that Freddie apparently hasn't watched a Carson Wentz appearance since 2017.
I'd be a bit more cautious about Hsu's Genomic Prediction outfit. He had a preprint making claims about genetic predictions out at the upper tail of a distribution. There were so few data points out there that he relied heavily on assuming Gaussian distributions. He tested the Gaussian hypothesis and got incredibly low p-values. So he said that the assumption was good, cuz, you know, low p-value is good!
(For non stats people, those extremely low p-values in fact meant that the hypothesis he was using was extremely incompatible with his data.)
One of my sons noticed it and called it a "reverse Costanza", after the time George began wailing "Negative! Why me?" when told his biopsy had come back negative.
Yeah I have little confidence in what's been done thus far. But for IVF embryo selection, as opposed to direct manipulation, there's not much that needs to be done in terms of great leaps forward - enough years of gradual iterative improvement would go a long way. But such things have been said before, so we'll see.
I guess _Flowers for Algernon_ always was a fantasy at heart. But based on this summary, I need to re-read _Brave New World_ instead. And where was that article about cloning a million copies of John von Neumann?
Am reading, but it's late and I have turned into a pedantic jerk: "I think it touches on a lot of important points for both Dr. Harden and I...."
Shouldn't that second "I" be "me"? (English is my second language and people like me take note of that stuff......)
Yes, it should. 5 points
The rainbow oligarchy reminds me of an old episode of South Park where there is outrage over the town flag, which depicts four white people hanging a Black person. In the end, they change it to a multiracial group hanging the person, and everyone is satisfied.
I find it difficult to read arguments (whether pro or con) on genes v. environment when people don't at least attempt to consider the information and arguments of Thomas Sowell on this subject.
The article you linked about Nike is far, FAR more interesting than I would've thought an article about sports equipment marketing had any right to be. Cracking read.
Does anyone know of any research of what makes late bloomers happen? Reading the article about genes it seems everyone knows that some subset of the population will be this. A lot of individuals confound the idea that our ability bands are set in early elementary--especially consistently among neurodiverse people more limited in early elementary by social skills and conscientiousness than intelligence. There are probably a lot of other confounding variables but I've seen so little work on this.