Coolest thing I’ve seen in 2023

This video also made me wonder if how much of my engineering background inspired my view on how innovation works.

The inventor of this new way method of drone delivery stresses the importance of failure and trial-and-error, which is something corporations say they embrace, but when it actually happens politics tends to cause the organization’s bureaucrats to want to hide and shun the failures while the seeming messiness and chaos of the trial-and-error process makes the tidy bureaucrat extremely uncomfortable.

BTW…the 2nd coolest thing I’ve seen in 2023 was this. It may have happened in the waning moments of 2022, but I’ll count it.

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“Why would someone invest $300 million in MLS with the threat of relegation?”

This is a common question posed by the strange opponents to promotion/relegation in the U.S.

I say ‘strange’ because I find it a bit strange at how concerned these folks are with billionaires’ investments, while nobody has asked the billionaires what they think. Many of these billionaires have invested in clubs that are in promotion/relegation systems. So, it seems by their own actions, the fear of being relegated isn’t a big concern.

But, also, the folks who don’t want to replicate the structure of soccer in other countries seem fine with copying other things, like their team name conventions (e.g. [City Name] FC or [City Name] United) and uniforms.

Why be against copying the structure of soccer and not be against copying these aspects?

‘Could be’ ‘Possibly’ Who can know?

Much of the news would evaporate if they didn’t report on what ‘could be’ or might ‘possibly’ happen if such-and-such yada yada.

The boy has cried wolf long ago.

How many ‘BOMBSHELLS’ turn to turds? ‘The walls are closing in’, you know it’s ‘just a matter of time,’ before nothing happens. “BREAKING:,” somebody reported something that will turn out to not be true, but we hope we got your attention.

‘This raises questions’ that our paid staff contributors who know nothing will sit around all day letting you know what they think, rather than just saying, ‘I don’t know, it’s stupid. Move on.’

When you hear or see such phrases, you will be fine tuning out, changing channels, scrolling past, dusting your end tables and you will find that you were much more productive.

Why do we talk about student loans instead of predatory pricing practices of college?

With as much attention graduates with high student loans are getting, I think there should be equal, if not more, attention to the root cause, which are the predatory pricing practices of college education.

First, high price increases that has been 2-3x inflation for decades. What other business could get away with that? And, why? The cost of every input going into providing a college education should have kept pace with inflation, so where is all the extra money going?

Second, through FAFSA, colleges gain a negotiating advantage that few businesses enjoy, allowing it to set the maximum price for each student. Think about walking into a car dealership and before you talk price, you had to disclose your full financial position to the dealer. That’s what FAFSA does for colleges, yet they disguise it as trying to make sure they are helping you the best they can. In the business world, this is called price discrimination.

Why are so many students choosing to take out debt they will have a hard time repaying on what is supposed to be one of the “best investments that can be made?”

Pro/rel is to find out who plays the best soccer

This point gets lost in debates over pro/rel.

The main goal of closed leagues, like the MLS and NFL is entertainment. When folks talk about the importance of parity in a league, they advocate for entertainment value. They think parity keeps more fans engaged longer because more feel like their team has a chance of winning each game and the big prize of the league championship.

The main goal of open leagues with promotion/relegation, like the pyramid league structure in English soccer, is to find out who plays the best soccer.

Advocates of parity dismiss that as boring because it’s easy to predict who will win the league: one of the the teams that spends the most on players.

They also are quick to dismiss that hundreds of millions, if not a billion or so, fans around the world disagree with them.

It may just be me, but when I find myself believing that what I think is better than what hundreds of millions people think I see that as sign that I might be missing something. Rather than assume that I know better than them, I ask what I might be missing.

Advocates of parity are sure they are right. They see NFL, MLB, as NBA as evidence to support their belief — because they have done pretty well based on the parity model — and write off support for the pro/rel soccer leagues as a result that those countries love soccer more than other sports (while ignoring that could be the same reason why the NFL, MLB and NBA have done well here).

But, still, I would find that explanation lacking. Do hundreds of millions of fans really just put up with super club dominance and don’t know what they’re missing with parity? I don’t think so.