As the Red Sox continue to do what they seem to do each year, I’ve
been thinking about the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. I am not a big baseball fan; as sports go,
cycling is about it for me. Regardless, I
read Moneyball when it was first
published; my brother read it, he told me about some of the interesting ideas,
and it sounded like it might be worthwhile to me, too. It was; I love statistics, underdogs, and
counterintuitive logic—and Moneyball
has all that.
To me, Moneyball is essentially about ruthlessly employing statistics—in baseball the method is called sabermetrics—to get the best possible results. I am oversimplifying but the manager of the Oakland A’s—Billy Beane—has seen very impressive and unlikely results, particularly in the early part of this decade, before most other baseball teams began applying these types of statistics. Anyway, here are the most interesting quotes in the book, as relate to Seven Cycles. Enjoy.
“The day you say you have to do something, you’re screwed. Because you are going to make a bad deal. You can always recover from the player you didn’t sign. You may never recover from the player you signed at the wrong price.” Well, I can speak from recent experience that this statement is true. Hold out for the right players.
“No matter how successful you are, change is always good. There can never be a status quo.” Anyone that works with me is painfully aware that this is true, for me.
“Whom the gods wish to destroy, the first call promising.” -- Cyril Connolly. They used to say I had promise.
“Every form of strength covers one weakness and creates another, and therefore every form of strength is also a form of weakness and every weakness a strength.”
“The balance of strategies always favors the team which is behind.”
“[We’re] looking at process rather than outcomes. Too many people make decisions based on outcomes rather than process.” Most people I know understandably think that the outcome is what matters. Well, the process determines the inevitability of the outcome. Focus on process; the outcome follows the process. consistent outcomes arise from consistent and controlled processes.
That's it for my baseball connection. Now back to work.
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