Actually doing this on time for once, with just one week’s worth of content… The most notable thing of this week that I can talk about was not actually online, but the fact that I started playing pick-up basketball again after a six-month hiatus during which I only played HORSE with my ten-year-old. Felt good to be back on the court, and I was less rusty than I feared.
Me on Substack:
— College Basketball vs. the NBA: Latest attempt to explain why college basketball isn’t just the NBA with worse players.
— Imminent Death of the Academy Predicted: A look at three arguments about why the modern university system is on the verge of collapse, and why I don’t quite buy them.
— Institutional Paralysis Is the System Working: A lot of what’s cast as a systemic failure of liberal democracy is not a lack of capability to do stuff, but a lack of agreement about what should be done.
—Recent Light Reading: Three relatively light novels, one of which I bought twice because I’m a dumbass.
Me Elsewhere:
Nothing this week, actually. I feel like such a slacker.
Links Dump:
— The ‘hot hand’ is a real basketball phenomenon – but only some players have the ability to go on these basket-making streaks, by Konstantinos Pelechrinis and Wayne Winston: The latest on one of the sport’s longest running debates.
— Pity the Zoomer Athlete by Ethan Strauss: I think this is too harsh in a lot of respects, but correct in noting the weird way that bad outcomes get spun as heroic triumphs.
— Why I Scream When I Watch Sports by Jay Caspian Kang: Another take on heckling of athletes by fans.
— The key question raised by Lia Thomas’s swimming success: What is the purpose of women’s sports? by Megan McArdle: Works through the current controversy in a calmer and deeper way than most of what’s out there.
— American poverty is too high for all kinds of people by Matt Yglesias: A pitch for broadly universal anti-poverty programs.
— Liberal Principles Exist for a Reason by Jeff Maurer: I mostly share his skepticism that you can sensibly carve out rules that restrict the speech of only the Bad People.
— Walking the World: Lima (part 1) and Walking the World: Lima (part 2) by Chris Arnade: Photos and stories and restaurant recommendations from Peru.
Pseudo-Random Photo of the Week:
In honor of my return to the regular faculty/staff/student lunchtime pick-up game. It’s not actually an action shot— the net is too small, so most shots tend to get hung up like this.
Pseudo-Random Song of the Week:
New Craig Finn solo album coming in May, hooray!
As always, that’s a bunch of stuff, and here are some buttons:
Comments will be open if you also want to celebrate new Craig Finn music.