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Humans aren't money-optimizing machines. And we don't watch (or play) sport to watch ads. Companies can try to optimize for profit, but too much focus on the b

Humans aren't money-optimizing machines. And we don't watch (or play) sport to watch ads. Companies can try to optimize for profit, but too much focus on the bottom line corrodes just about anything else the company wants to do in the world. And ultimately, the most profitable companies are usually the ones who make a profit on the road of caring deeply about something else. (Eg, Steve Jobs' - who cared about making great products made Apple into a massively profitable company). > The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does A complex system will have a complex mix of goals. Some of those goals will be mutually contradictory. For example, some people in NBA obsessively want to maximise profit, while others are there because they love the game. If you take money out, the NBA dies. But the NBA will also die if nobody loves basketball enough to watch the games! A healthy complex system will navigate its multiplicity of objectives well. For example, as a human I need food. And I want to get work done today. Maybe I'll take a notebook to the cafe. Or maybe I'll relax at the cafe so I'm fresh when I get back home. I don't let either objective override the other. The criticism here is that the NBA is letting its objectives simplify. The needs of marketing are overriding the team's choice to have creme colored uniforms. Of course this is worrying to some people.

frogpelt 4y ago
You would only watch sport in person if it wasn't for ads. ESPN and TNT ain't paying the NBA billions for the TV deals so they can not sell ads.
PeterisP 4y ago
> "And we don't watch (or play) sport to watch ads." As long as we're talking about professional sports, players do definitely play them because of the ads. This is what pays pro athletes multimillion dollar salaries in the end - no matter what motivating lies they tell themselves (and get told by others), that is the practical purpose of the show they're putting on. Young athletes go through years of preparation, workouts, and practice with the expectation that some time afterward they'll get recruited to that sport's main league which will pay them enormous amounts of money in order to get out on a field and perform so that they'll attract millions of people to watch ads.
- mantas 4y ago
  Slash athletes salary 10x and you’ll still have same talented athletes putting in great effort. Most sportsmen are in it because they love competing and given activity. And lower salaries with less focus on advertising may make the activity itself better. E.g. cycling where many pro races are shaped to be advertising-friendly first. The rest be damned.
  - josephg 4y ago
    Yep. We do the things we do for lots of reasons. Do I write code for money? A bit, yeah. But I also love it. And I connect to a community through my work, and get esteem from people, and it helps me have an impact in the world. Money is important, but so are all those other things. And I’m sure athletes are just as complex as I am. A friend of mine is fond of saying that we have 10 reasons for doing everything we do. We know 5 of those reasons consciously and we’ll only admit 2 reasons out loud.

frogpelt 4y ago

You would only watch sport in person if it wasn't for ads. ESPN and TNT ain't paying the NBA billions for the TV deals so they can not sell ads.

PeterisP 4y ago

> "And we don't watch (or play) sport to watch ads." As long as we're talking about professional sports, players do definitely play them because of the ads. This is what pays pro athletes multimillion dollar salaries in the end - no matter what motivating lies they tell themselves (and get told by others), that is the practical purpose of the show they're putting on. Young athletes go through years of preparation, workouts, and practice with the expectation that some time afterward they'll get recruited to that sport's main league which will pay them enormous amounts of money in order to get out on a field and perform so that they'll attract millions of people to watch ads.

mantas 4y ago
Slash athletes salary 10x and you’ll still have same talented athletes putting in great effort. Most sportsmen are in it because they love competing and given activity. And lower salaries with less focus on advertising may make the activity itself better. E.g. cycling where many pro races are shaped to be advertising-friendly first. The rest be damned.
- josephg 4y ago
  Yep. We do the things we do for lots of reasons. Do I write code for money? A bit, yeah. But I also love it. And I connect to a community through my work, and get esteem from people, and it helps me have an impact in the world. Money is important, but so are all those other things. And I’m sure athletes are just as complex as I am. A friend of mine is fond of saying that we have 10 reasons for doing everything we do. We know 5 of those reasons consciously and we’ll only admit 2 reasons out loud.