4 ms·

The difference is the rather important fact that sports teams, unlike most technology companies, accomplish absolutely nothing useful or productive other than t

The difference is the rather important fact that sports teams, unlike most technology companies, accomplish absolutely nothing useful or productive other than to provide entertainment.

mdonahoe 15y ago
Entertainment has value
- gvb 15y ago
  ...est ist das Opium des Volkes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people
  - mkr-hn 15y ago
    http://www.wku.edu/teaching/db/quotes/byqaboutq.php http://www.wku.edu/teaching/db/quotes/byqaboutq.php
tpatke 15y ago
By that measure the movie, television and music industries also accomplish abosolutely nothing. ...oh, and also facebook and video games. I wish I could accomplish so little. :-)
- code_duck 15y ago
  It's a bizarre stretch to compare sports to those important communication media. Facebook connects people. Television can inform. Movies can inform. Yes, video games are almost as useless, but at least the consumer is actively involved... I love sports when people play them. When they watch overpaid idiots play them and obsess about it? Not so much.
loso 15y ago
I can agree with you that in the overall scheme of things tech may be more important than sports. But I disagree when you say that it accomplishes nothing useful or productive. As you said yourself it provides entertainment. Different forms of entertainment can inspire you while you work. Or entertainment can help you relax by taking your mind off of work. This is what sports do for some people. Others instead might watch a movie or listen to music. Inspiration, motivation and relaxation are very useful in the workflow process.
mkr-hn 15y ago
Businesses in cities with stadiums will be devastated to learn the soaring revenues on game day are imaginary. Athens (the one here in GA) will collapse once the illusion is uncovered. We also have the start of a thriving production industry, so they'll be hurt too. And I was looking forward to the next season of The Walking Dead...
- code_duck 15y ago
  Yes, millions of people direct their money towards sports... that doesn't prove they're useful. If only those 'soaring revenues' were directed towards something useful, like improving the lives of people who are lacking materially.
kahawe 15y ago
> The difference is the rather important fact that sports teams, unlike most technology companies, accomplish absolutely nothing useful or productive other than to provide entertainment. I am not a sports guy or fan by any means but that is a very harsh judgment. Look at all the industries directly and indirectly connected to those sports teams, players and events and add to that all the news stations and news papers etc. and they all provide jobs and eventually pro-sports might even contribute to new medical treatments and therapies. And in the worst case, huge sports events like the superbowl or olympics usually bring tourism and infrastructure projects to wherever they are being held. On top of that, "watching the game", especially in the stadium, actually does serve social and therapeutic means and needs - do not underestimate how much of an outlet it can be for some people. By and large, any sort of entertainment is big, big, big business and in our IT world, what is facebook but entertainment? And most technology companies nowadays are mostly providing means to get access to some sort of entertainment. On the same account, you could question art, music and fiction literature. So, do not look down on "entertainment" because as they say, "all work and no play...."
- code_duck 15y ago
  Entertainment is fine. However, sports are vastly overemphasized at almost all levels of our society, to the detriment of more important goals.
jeffem 15y ago
The fact that companies (some of which you're probably a happy customer of) spend millions of dollars on sports advertising and sponsorships is evidence that they find value in them
- code_duck 15y ago
  They've found a way to reach mindless sports consumers... so what?
gvb 15y ago
The similarity is that a sports fan buys a t-shirt and vicariously "wins" with "his" team / an $company fan buys a $product and vicariously "wins" with "his" $company. There are lots of examples of $company:$product pairings, e.g. Apple/iDevice, Google/Android, Microsoft/Windows. Also, before you cast the "provide entertainment" stone, you should look around you at how people are using tech company products. I would venture to guess that, outside of the workplace (and inside the workplace when workers can get away with it), entertainment is the #1 use of computer-based devices. Apps in the App Store, game consoles, computer games, YouTube, emailing LoLcats, browser-based games (Farmville - 100% wasted time) etc.
- code_duck 15y ago
  I'm not a fan of the vast amount of time people waste on anything.

The difference is the rather important fact that sports teams, unlike most technology companies, accomplish absolutely nothing useful or productive other than to provide entertainment.

mdonahoe 15y ago

Entertainment has value

gvb 15y ago
...est ist das Opium des Volkes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people
- mkr-hn 15y ago
  http://www.wku.edu/teaching/db/quotes/byqaboutq.php http://www.wku.edu/teaching/db/quotes/byqaboutq.php

tpatke 15y ago

By that measure the movie, television and music industries also accomplish abosolutely nothing. ...oh, and also facebook and video games. I wish I could accomplish so little. :-)

code_duck 15y ago
It's a bizarre stretch to compare sports to those important communication media. Facebook connects people. Television can inform. Movies can inform. Yes, video games are almost as useless, but at least the consumer is actively involved... I love sports when people play them. When they watch overpaid idiots play them and obsess about it? Not so much.

loso 15y ago

I can agree with you that in the overall scheme of things tech may be more important than sports. But I disagree when you say that it accomplishes nothing useful or productive. As you said yourself it provides entertainment. Different forms of entertainment can inspire you while you work. Or entertainment can help you relax by taking your mind off of work. This is what sports do for some people. Others instead might watch a movie or listen to music. Inspiration, motivation and relaxation are very useful in the workflow process.

mkr-hn 15y ago

Businesses in cities with stadiums will be devastated to learn the soaring revenues on game day are imaginary. Athens (the one here in GA) will collapse once the illusion is uncovered. We also have the start of a thriving production industry, so they'll be hurt too. And I was looking forward to the next season of The Walking Dead...

code_duck 15y ago
Yes, millions of people direct their money towards sports... that doesn't prove they're useful. If only those 'soaring revenues' were directed towards something useful, like improving the lives of people who are lacking materially.

kahawe 15y ago

> The difference is the rather important fact that sports teams, unlike most technology companies, accomplish absolutely nothing useful or productive other than to provide entertainment. I am not a sports guy or fan by any means but that is a very harsh judgment. Look at all the industries directly and indirectly connected to those sports teams, players and events and add to that all the news stations and news papers etc. and they all provide jobs and eventually pro-sports might even contribute to new medical treatments and therapies. And in the worst case, huge sports events like the superbowl or olympics usually bring tourism and infrastructure projects to wherever they are being held. On top of that, "watching the game", especially in the stadium, actually does serve social and therapeutic means and needs - do not underestimate how much of an outlet it can be for some people. By and large, any sort of entertainment is big, big, big business and in our IT world, what is facebook but entertainment? And most technology companies nowadays are mostly providing means to get access to some sort of entertainment. On the same account, you could question art, music and fiction literature. So, do not look down on "entertainment" because as they say, "all work and no play...."

code_duck 15y ago
Entertainment is fine. However, sports are vastly overemphasized at almost all levels of our society, to the detriment of more important goals.

jeffem 15y ago

The fact that companies (some of which you're probably a happy customer of) spend millions of dollars on sports advertising and sponsorships is evidence that they find value in them

code_duck 15y ago
They've found a way to reach mindless sports consumers... so what?

gvb 15y ago

The similarity is that a sports fan buys a t-shirt and vicariously "wins" with "his" team / an $company fan buys a $product and vicariously "wins" with "his" $company. There are lots of examples of $company:$product pairings, e.g. Apple/iDevice, Google/Android, Microsoft/Windows. Also, before you cast the "provide entertainment" stone, you should look around you at how people are using tech company products. I would venture to guess that, outside of the workplace (and inside the workplace when workers can get away with it), entertainment is the #1 use of computer-based devices. Apps in the App Store, game consoles, computer games, YouTube, emailing LoLcats, browser-based games (Farmville - 100% wasted time) etc.

code_duck 15y ago
I'm not a fan of the vast amount of time people waste on anything.