Tag: basketball

Now Do Cricket!

As you might know, Tyler Cowen wrote a book about the Greatest of All Time in economics. It is a free to read book, and can be read “through” ChatGPT. Here’s the book, if you haven’t read it yet.

The book was written mostly during the pandemic, and the idea for writing the book in the way that it has been written came via Bill Simmons. Who is Bill Simmons is an entirely fair question to ask if you are not a fan of basketball:

In July 2008, Simmons announced that he would be taking 10 weeks off from writing columns for ESPN.com’s Page 2 to concentrate on finishing his second book, The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy, which was released on October 27, 2009. The book tries to find out who really are the best players and teams of all time and the answers to some of the greatest “What ifs?” in NBA history. It debuted at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list for non-fiction books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Simmons

Long story short, Tyler Cowen wrote a book explaining who his favorite economist was by writing it the way a basketball fan would have written the definitive book about who his favorite basketball player was.

Such a good idea, no?

But wait, it gets better.

Cardiff Garcia interviewed Tyler recently, about just this book. But with a twist: the second half of the interview is about asking who the basketball equivalent of a truly great economist would be.

So, for example:

So if Adam Smith could be compared to one great basketball player, who would it be for you?

https://www.bazaaraudio.com/the-new-bazaar/if-econs-could-hoop

Tyler’s answer, and Cardiff Garcia agrees, is Bill Russell. Now, I know next to nothing about basketball, so I have no clue how to evaluate this answer. He and his team won 11 out of the 13 (!) seasons that he played in the NBA, though, so I’m happy to go along with their pick.

But I have the obvious question, as a fan of cricket: who is the cricketing equivalent of Adam Smith?

To my mind, there are only two possible answers: WG Grace, and The Don. But based on what little I know of both of them, and this little nugget from Tyler and Cardiff’s conversation, I’d probably go with Sir Donald Bradman:

CARDIFF: With all that as a windup, I’m gonna first start by asking you about the three GOATS that you listed in your book. So these again would be Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Milton Friedman, and ask if there are any analogs from the history of basketball. So if Adam Smith could be compared to one great basketball player, who would it be for you?

TYLER: There are analogs for all three. Adam Smith, to me, is the Bill Russell of economics. Or Bill Russell is the Adam Smith of basketball. The first player to get it right, do very well, play the game seriously, bring to it quality, intelligence, work ethic, win a lot of championships, build a great team.

https://www.bazaaraudio.com/the-new-bazaar/if-econs-could-hoop

Perhaps you agree, perhaps you don’t. Perhaps you have another contender, which is awesome, for we can then have a passionate argument about economics and cricket, and what could possibly be better?

(But, uh, you’d be wrong. The only correct answer is Don Bradman.)

But ah, Cardiff’s next question is an even bigger lightning rod for controversy. Which basketball player, Tyler is asked, is the right analog for John Stuart Mill. The reason this matters is because John Stuart Mill is Tyler’s pick for Econ Goat. So who, Tyler is being asked, is the basketball Goat?

Tyler’s pick is LeBron James.

Who, then, is the cricketing equivalent?

I’m forty-two years old, and an Indian. Do you even need to ask?

Read the rest of their conversation to learn more about Goat economists, Goat basketball players, and in order to frame (hopefully) endless debates about Goat cricket players.

But also read the rest of the conversation for some truly delightful nuggets about economics. Of which, this is by far my favorite:

TYLER: The one time I spent time with Robert Solow was the retirement event for Thomas Schelling at Harvard. Solow was so rude to Tom. On the date of his retirement. Tom didn’t want to retire, there was mandatory retirement at 70. They got everyone together to pay tribute to Tom. Everyone else was warm and glowing.

Bob Solow totally cut the legs out from underneath Tom, insulted him, told him he didn’t know enough math, didn’t use enough technique.

CARDIFF: On the day of his retirement?

TYLER: On the day of his retirement, in front of a lot of other people! I couldn’t believe it.

CARDIFF: That’s a little strange. I’ve never heard that story, by the way.

TYLER: Not many people were there. It was organized by Dick Zeckhauser. And Tom even afterwards kind of shrugged and looked at me like, well, I guess this is how it’s going to be, and he took it in good enough humor. But I was appalled.

https://www.bazaaraudio.com/the-new-bazaar/if-econs-could-hoop

Huh.

And finally, wouldn’t it be fun if Indian economists replicated the entire exercise for cricket, and made a podcast or YouTube video out of it?

And I know just the person too…!

Basketball’s 3 Point Line

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve rewatched parts of The Last Dance, the documentary on Michael Jordan, and now, in the 40th year of my life, I’ve slowly started to develop more than a passing interest in basketball.

This video, about the 3 point line in basketball, might not resonate much if you haven’t seen a single game of basketball, but I would argue it is worth thinking about how your sport has changed over time, and how players are responding to these changed (non-monetary) incentives.

Etc: Links for 14th June, 2019

  1. “But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.”
    Ezekiel J. Emmanuel on how long he wants to live. Worth reading to ponder questions of mortality and what it means to each of us. Also worth reading up on: memento mori.
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  2. “Indeed, the German hyperinflation was not even the worst of the twentieth century; its Hungarian equivalent, dating to 1945-46, was so much more severe that prices in Budapest began to double every 15 hours. (At the peak of this crisis, the Hungarian government was forced to announce the latest inflation rate via radio each morning, so workers could negotiate a new pay scale with their bosses, and issue the largest denomination banknote ever to be legal tender: the 100 quintillion (1020) pengo note. When the debased currency was finally withdrawn, the total value of all the cash then in circulation in the country was reckoned at 1/10th of a cent. [Bomberger & Makinen pp.801-24; Judt p.87])”
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    I wasn’t aware of what the topic of this essay is about – which is not contained in the excerpt above. Somewhat shamefully, I wasn’t even aware of the Hungarian episode quoted above! Read more, sir, read more!
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  3. “Consider the first time a right-handed player tries to dribble with the left hand. It’s awkward, clumsy. Initially, the nerves that fire off signals to complete that task are controlled in the front cortex of the brain. Over time, with countless repetitions, those nerve firings become more insulated. The myelin sheath builds up. Eventually, less effort is required to use that left hand, and the brain processes it as second nature.The same is possible with pressure, according to neurologists. With repetition, stress can be transformed into fortitude.”
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    Put yourself in pressure situations, and repeatedly. That’s the only way, this article says, to handle pressure. Lovely read!
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  4. “The project in Colombia, a partnership with the nonprofit Conservation International, involves protecting mangrove forests, which can store 10 times as much carbon as terrestrial forests. In its first two years, the program is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 17,000 metric tons, roughly equal to the next decade of emissions from the lidar-equipped survey vehicles that update Apple Maps. “This is rare for Apple to say, but we are telling other companies to copy us on this,” Jackson says.”
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    I have only glanced through this article, and haven’t come close to reading all the entires (a true rabbit hole), but there’s lots of small interesting snippets here about creativity. Not so much, based on what I’ve seen of the “how to be creative”, but rather descriptions of folks who are creative.
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  5. “The (c)rapture I felt was likely a case of “poophoria,” explains Anish Sheth, the gastroenterologist and coauthor of toilet-side staple What’s Your Poo Telling You? “Some have compared it to a religious experience, others an orgasm,” he says. The exact science is unknown, but Sheth thinks the sensation may result from “a slightly prolonged buildup, an overdistension of the rectum, and immediate collapse by passing a sizable stool, which fires the vagus nerve and releases endorphins.” Lights-out pooping, Sheth adds, may “help with a proper rate of exit.””
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    Truly etc., this. The Wired magazine on, well, pooping in the dark.