A Design for Predictability and Hope for Anomaly
The NCAA tournament is an interesting annual event. The tourney is nicknamed “March Madness” because of its unpredictability and fans of basketball adore that aspect of the system. When a lesser team makes it far or wins, it is considered big news while the number one seeds winning is almost disappointing. Without a team back (Maryland did not make the tournament), I too have been rooting for the underdogs. It is a system designed to cause more anguish than joy statistically speaking. None-the-less I am compelled to do so.
It should be noted that the system is stacked against the poorer teams. The weak teams are given low seeds and are forced to play the better teams early. The system is “fair” since the superior teams won more games during the season and deserve an easier path to victory. The way the system is designed, the number ones are expected to win. Still, the fans seem to hope for a different outcome.
It is perplexing- people hope that a system that is designed to produce a predictable outcome somehow will produce a volatile one.
One is hard-pressed to find other systems like this in life. Security systems are meant to alert and weapons systems are meant to destroy. Living systems are meant to thrive and state systems are meant to govern. When they fail, people are angered, annoyed or distressed. Those that would take joy in these systems failing probably did not want those systems in place in the first place.
Yes, people like the self-made man who rises up against all odds and “beats the system”, but society did not really design that system (at least not consciously). In fact, society attempts to do the opposite. Charity organizations and government attempt to lessen the barriers for people to rise. Sure, some people exist that knowingly create barriers, but they are not the ones taking joy in the rise of poor either.
Sports may be unique in that its system for choosing a winner is generally accepted as appropriate, yet people love to see it fail anyway. People run the statistics, consult the experts, check the box scores and make bets on predictions. Then, like knocking down dominoes, they marvel and cheer at the futility of their labor. The inability of mankind to predict the future is seen as a wonderful ting. The universe is larger than we perceive it and that gives us hope.
It should be noted that the system is stacked against the poorer teams. The weak teams are given low seeds and are forced to play the better teams early. The system is “fair” since the superior teams won more games during the season and deserve an easier path to victory. The way the system is designed, the number ones are expected to win. Still, the fans seem to hope for a different outcome.
It is perplexing- people hope that a system that is designed to produce a predictable outcome somehow will produce a volatile one.
One is hard-pressed to find other systems like this in life. Security systems are meant to alert and weapons systems are meant to destroy. Living systems are meant to thrive and state systems are meant to govern. When they fail, people are angered, annoyed or distressed. Those that would take joy in these systems failing probably did not want those systems in place in the first place.
Yes, people like the self-made man who rises up against all odds and “beats the system”, but society did not really design that system (at least not consciously). In fact, society attempts to do the opposite. Charity organizations and government attempt to lessen the barriers for people to rise. Sure, some people exist that knowingly create barriers, but they are not the ones taking joy in the rise of poor either.
Sports may be unique in that its system for choosing a winner is generally accepted as appropriate, yet people love to see it fail anyway. People run the statistics, consult the experts, check the box scores and make bets on predictions. Then, like knocking down dominoes, they marvel and cheer at the futility of their labor. The inability of mankind to predict the future is seen as a wonderful ting. The universe is larger than we perceive it and that gives us hope.
posted by American Dilettante at
2:16 PM
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