7 ms·

Your casual dismissal of half the central core of human intellectual enterprise over the last 4000 years raised my eyebrows, but when I got to your comment abou

by wfo 12y ago

Your casual dismissal of half the central core of human intellectual enterprise over the last 4000 years raised my eyebrows, but when I got to your comment about topology it became clear you have no idea what you're talking about or are simply trolling. Either way, stop.

Retric 12y ago
It's not that I think they have low or zero value. Or even personally care about the sport. It's simply a numbers game and I rate Football rather highly as it's actively enjoyed by a large number of people. For comparison more people in the US watched an football game than read a book for fun last year. Semi conductor design by comparison is something few people directly care about but it directly impacts their lives increasing it's value immensely. PS: History for example is important, but the study of history has fairly limited impact outside of entertainment for most people.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > It's simply a numbers game and I rate Football rather highly as it's actively enjoyed by a large number of people. The question wasn't whether it was actively enjoyed by a large number of people, but whether it was "an academic activity". The idea that was is an "academic activity" is defined by how widely enjoyed the activity is probably only defensible with a very unusual definition of "academic".
  - Retric 12y ago
    My point is not to defend it as an academic activity, but to measure the impact. "Game theory" is clearly an academic activity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory The study of football at a deeper level is a subset of that, but it covers a fairly wide area. From which plays to call in offence vs defense. Cost benefit of risking a player injury in a low win percentage game. Which players to sign etc. (Or even just the math around fantasy football.) I mean just because your covering a specific WWI battle does not mean your doing something else and not studding history.
- jdminhbg 12y ago
  > For comparison more people in the US watched an football game than read a book for fun last year. Not sure this is the case. Pew pegs the percentage of Americans who read a book last year at 77% [http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-decline-of-the-american-book-lover/283222/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-decl...], and the Super Bowl drew 111 million viewers [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-ratings-set-new-record/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-ratings-set-new-...]. I'd guess the number of people who watched a football game but not the Super Bowl last year isn't totally insignificant, but probably not huge (and I'm skeptical that the ratings aren't maybe a little inflated).
  - Retric 12y ago
    Your assuming everyone who read a book did so for fun. Scroll down on your first link and the percentage is 55% of adults and 52% 18-24 year olds. Compared to 64% of americans watching an NFL game. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/10/14/no-surprise-64-americans-watch-nfl-football-73-of-men-55-of-women/107308/ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/10/14/no-surprise-64-a... Further, football goes beyond the supper bowl and beyond the NFL. Including collage, high school etc, and an estimated 200+ million people watched at least one football game last year.

by wfo 12y ago

Retric 12y ago

It's not that I think they have low or zero value. Or even personally care about the sport. It's simply a numbers game and I rate Football rather highly as it's actively enjoyed by a large number of people. For comparison more people in the US watched an football game than read a book for fun last year. Semi conductor design by comparison is something few people directly care about but it directly impacts their lives increasing it's value immensely. PS: History for example is important, but the study of history has fairly limited impact outside of entertainment for most people.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> It's simply a numbers game and I rate Football rather highly as it's actively enjoyed by a large number of people. The question wasn't whether it was actively enjoyed by a large number of people, but whether it was "an academic activity". The idea that was is an "academic activity" is defined by how widely enjoyed the activity is probably only defensible with a very unusual definition of "academic".
- Retric 12y ago
  My point is not to defend it as an academic activity, but to measure the impact. "Game theory" is clearly an academic activity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory The study of football at a deeper level is a subset of that, but it covers a fairly wide area. From which plays to call in offence vs defense. Cost benefit of risking a player injury in a low win percentage game. Which players to sign etc. (Or even just the math around fantasy football.) I mean just because your covering a specific WWI battle does not mean your doing something else and not studding history.
jdminhbg 12y ago
> For comparison more people in the US watched an football game than read a book for fun last year. Not sure this is the case. Pew pegs the percentage of Americans who read a book last year at 77% [http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-decline-of-the-american-book-lover/283222/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-decl...], and the Super Bowl drew 111 million viewers [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-ratings-set-new-record/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-ratings-set-new-...]. I'd guess the number of people who watched a football game but not the Super Bowl last year isn't totally insignificant, but probably not huge (and I'm skeptical that the ratings aren't maybe a little inflated).
- Retric 12y ago
  Your assuming everyone who read a book did so for fun. Scroll down on your first link and the percentage is 55% of adults and 52% 18-24 year olds. Compared to 64% of americans watching an NFL game. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/10/14/no-surprise-64-americans-watch-nfl-football-73-of-men-55-of-women/107308/ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/10/14/no-surprise-64-a... Further, football goes beyond the supper bowl and beyond the NFL. Including collage, high school etc, and an estimated 200+ million people watched at least one football game last year.