The Instant Historian: Advice For Young Journalists and Strong Opinions About Analytics
By Ty Duffy
This is a column. It will appear on a semi-weekly basis. The opinions expressed clearly reflect the opinions of the person writing them.
On #AdviceForYoungJournalists … Felix Salmon wrote some frank advice for young journalists. His piece hit the Twitter-verse and got the echo chamber’s dander up. A hashtag, #AdviceForYoungJournalists, emerged. The pontification supernova out-trended even the mighty #NationalPizzaDay. Not even our national meal can outlast the journalism community in peak kvetch mode.
Absent, of course, were any #YoungJournalists seeking advice. The youth in question were metaphorical constructs facilitating the launch of thousand first-person chronicles.
Gone too was even a modicum of perspective. Nearly every profession – since the advent of the modern profession – has had much the same thought. The last generation had it easier. The present generation is slipping. The future generation is fucked. Grumble. Grumble. What am I doing with my life? Grumble.
Doctors advise you not to become a doctor. Lawyers advise you not to go to law school. Yoga instructors love everything about their job, but probably depend on someone grumbling.
The Instant Historian can offer a bit of its own unsolicited #AdviceForYoungJournalists. Don’t listen to old gasbags. You’ll never achieve anything. Work hard. Get your selfie on. Do irresponsible things while you still have the vitality. Attack life like a Harbaugh. Someday, that jaundiced asshole will return your gaze in the mirror.
On Analytics… Charles Barkley offered up a folksy, fatuous takedown of “analytics,” in response to Daryl Morey. Partisans, hearing the alarm, retreated to comfortable trenches on their respective sides of the dichotomy and commenced poop tossing. Ground was neither gained nor lost. A ceasefire proved unnecessary. The Internet, as always, moved on. Though, it will circle back again the next time a media member says something oafish about stats.
Why this perpetual combat? The sides are having separate arguments.
Analytics opponents are having a broad, philosophical debate. Are we agents acting with free will and intuition? Or, are our actions predetermined by natural laws and, thus, quantifiable and predictable? Do greatness, love and beauty exist or is it all just probability, algorithms and neural synapses.
Analytics proponents are having a narrow, mathematical debate. You have been using these stats to comprehend sports. These new stats provide a more accurate assessment of what is happening. Why do you keep using those old, outdated and distorted ones, you dummkopf?
Humanism’s erosion in the face of big data is a valid source of anxiety. That said, humans covering sports for a living should be willing to embrace knowledge. Civil discussion can be had. The Instant Historian will supply the adult beverages and appetizers.
On Peter King and Darren Sharper… Peter King is still on the soap box for Darren Sharper’s HOF candidacy. Katie Nolan and many, many others have taken a crack at him. Here is one thing the Instant Historian cannot compute.
"Maybe you would say: Don’t complicate things! It’s obvious that a very serious crime, such as murder or rape, should bar a candidate from the Hall. Obvious to whom? There are 46 voters for the Hall of Fame. Do you want to leave it up to the conscience of each individual voter as to what constitutes a crime serious enough to ban a person from the Hall? I don’t. The voters for the Hall of Fame should consider what a player did on the field, and the influences of a coach on the game and how many games he won, and the contributions that other figures have made to the sport. Beyond that, the slope is far too slippery."
We already trust the intellect of 46 voters to nominate candidates for this museum in absolute secrecy. We can’t trust these same luminaries to draw a moral distinction between personal drug use and drugging another person to facilitate violating them sexually?
Fans have spoken loud and clear, because there isn’t even a point to mount a credible debate.