I'll take little kids over pro athletes every time
Pros are overrated. The young ones are the real treasures.
(3 min read)
As an undergrad student at Princeton, I had to write a senior thesis.
My favorite topics in school involved the intersection of moral philosophy and science.
My major was basically “bioethics”.
I liked tough conversations about doctor-assisted suicide, markets for transplantable organs, cloning, etc.
Possible policy consequences of human genetic engineering was the topic of my 95-page thesis.
(By the way, I’m surprised more hasn’t happened in that field since 2005.)
Anyway, to prepare students for the daunting task of writing a thesis, Princeton also requires students to write 2 “junior papers”, which aren’t as hefty as a full thesis but were probably the biggest papers I’d written at the time.
For one of my junior papers, I wrote about sports and how tricky and controversial they can be due to doping (and any other ways that cause the playing field not to be level).
I realized:
I actually far prefer watching youth sports.
Sure, when I was little, I remember enjoying cheering for the Houston Astros and Houston Rockets (who won the championship twice), then moving to Atlanta and rooting for the Atlanta Braves (who were also amazing) and Atlanta Hawks.
I even found this t-shirt I got in 1996 (and for some reason stored as a memento):
But the older I got, the more I caught myself measuring pro athletes against perfection.
(baseball) Why didn’t they turn the triple play?
(baseball) How did he miss that catch at the wall?
(basketball) Why would they give up a foul in that situation?
(basketball) How does he miss so many free throws? I could make more with my eyes closed.
In other words, I evaluated them in ways that often left me disappointed, even though I was watching the world’s top performers.
Watching kids, though, the opposite happens.
When watching little kids attempt sports, you can witness miracle after miracle.
🤩 She caught the ball?!?! Whoa!!
🤩 His bat made contact!!!
🤩 She knew the right place to throw it! And her teammate caught it!
🤩 Did you hear how well they were communicating and coordinating out there?! They’re in sync!
🤩 Look at her awareness of where to be in that situation! How did she know that?
🤩 Check out how supportive they are of each other!
I don’t know if my amazement relates in some way to me being a computer programmer.
Software consist of logical structures that reliably convert certain inputs to outputs.
In contrast, humans have mushy, mysterious brains.
When I see really young humans, I always wonder how they learn anything.
The younger they are, the more impressed I am that they can:
walk
talk
plan
have opinions
be creative and inventive
learn
For me, that’s the coolest part about being around little kids.
My jaw drops, and I’m awestruck by their ability to do something that I wouldn’t have guessed could happen until later (if ever).
Fans take pro sports way too seriously.
I hear such angsty, heated conversations.
Especially nowadays.
For example, so many people get riled up about people playing sports after going through gender-affirming surgery.
They’re upset that hormone therapy and other changes would give someone an unfair advantage.
That’s ridiculous.
Nobody would think that someone would go through those procedures (and the social trauma, since our society still isn’t very supportive) in order to outperform others in sports.
If there is any athletic advantage, it’s an accident.
Just like people getting born with any physical attributes at all is something they can’t take credit for.
In other words, that advantage is no different than if they had been born with different genes (taller, stronger, faster, more perceptive, or whatever).
We are all different from each other anyway.
There is just no way for there to be a truly level playing field (what would that even mean?).
So if you don’t enjoy the fact that the genetic lottery is an enormous factor in sports, abstain from sports.
Plus, pro sports these days are full of capitalism and corruption.
There are such weird incentives.
FIFA refs are essentially useless (probably behaving reasonably, given incentives from their bosses), which then cause pro soccer players to “flop” (fake that they got fouled) and writhe around on the ground in a dramatic performance.
Do you blame the players for disgracing the sport?
Or the refs, since it’s reasonable for the players to base their behavior on what the refs are looking for?
Or the executives who employ the refs, since the refs want to keep their jobs too?
Or the fans that the executives are aiming to please?
Whatever the case, pro soccer (football) barely resembles what soccer actually is in its spirit and rules.
Same with every pro sport.
Youth games much more closely match the untainted version of the sport.
fun
teamwork
fitness
strategy
effort
respect for safety, the rules, the officiating, etc.
I’m not trying to bash pro sports too hard.
There are benefits to fans’ camaraderie (which can approximate a spiritual experience) and maybe even to local economies.
But definitely take an opportunity to marvel at kids at least as much as you idolize the pros!
😉
🕙 Recent posts:
🟢 Why my therapist’s smile surprised me
🟢 if ___, you’re wasting your time
🟢 how to convince anyone of anything
👀 Caught my eye this week:
Katie and I have been impressed by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Arrested Development).
We were excited to see that we have free access on Roku via the Nat Geo app to their latest season of Genius.
Season 4 is about MLK Jr and Malcolm X.
Enjoying it!
(2m32s trailer)
