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Small thoughts on Optimal Altered State as a KPI:

1. Can OAS be considered a measure of internal/process/quality/effectiveness indicator, whilst ROI as a measure of external/outcome/quantity/efficiency indicator? https://www.performancemagazine.org/kpis-how-many-types-are-there/ https://swellandcut.com/2017/09/04/the-five-types-of-paired-indicators/

2. These two could be paired off, but then it runs into overfitting vs double descent problems, where in most cases increasing ROI means means increasingly stagnant or declining OAS, but in certain situations a "hack" allow oneself to do this to an absurd degree and still have OAS to reach new heights. Are there ways of doing this, and what are the side effects? https://archive.ph/HJfKT https://medium.com/mlearning-ai/double-descent-8f92dfdc442f

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The way you wrapped this up was so incredibly interesting to me regarding the connection between snooker and people with mental illness - can totally se how this would be effective. I worked in an office with a pool table years ago and having meetings over a game of pool with engineers and developers was always way more productive and way less contentious than around-the-table meetings.

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People mock the whole Silicon Valley giant headquarter culture with on sight juice bars and all the rest of it- and rightly so, perhaps- but the fact that they always seem to have pool tables and ping pong etc demonstrates to me that at least in this regard our tech overlords know what they are doing.

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Ill no doubt get rinsed in the comments for saying this, but there’s another way to classify sport and ‘everything else’ too:

If you can be excellent at it for 10 minutes, then absolutely dogshit for the next 2 hours, it’s not a sport.

Pool, snooker, darts, golf, bowling. They all fall under this category. You can be a world champion contender for a short while, then be the angriest bastard in the world for the rest.

I will flat out refuse to play 10 pin bowling these days for this reason. Butlins made this arise, and this is only from a few years ago.

My mate had booked Butlins--who knows why--and his girlfriend had dropped out. He asked me if I wanted to go. I said yes but probably meant no. Aside from the eye watering price of a pint of average beer and the HOW MUCH price of fish and chips, it was OK.

One night, we decide to play a round of bowling with his mum, me, his sister, and him. Obviously we’d gone to Butlins, so his mum had to come.

We begin the bowling. I’m smashing out strikes and spares for about 10 minutes. It’s a piece of piss this, I think to myself. His mum and sister are literally throwing and dropping the bowling ball onto the alley. Everyone is looking at us.

My next turn turn comes up. I’m feeling confident. Probably too cocky. I line up a perfect shot (bowl? Ball? Whatever you call it), and let rip. The ball goes down the centre, then veers sharply to the right and knocks over one pin.

My demise begins. But it gets worse.

As I begin to get angrier and angrier and miss more and more, his mum is shot putting the ball down the alley and getting strikes and spares. I am looking at the worst bowling form of my life from a 56 year old woman and I’m losing.

The game continues much the same way until the end, where I come dead last to a semi retired postal worker with bad knees.

Thus concludes the reason why it’s not a sport.

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Aug 7, 2022Liked by Thomas J Bevan

I agree. Except you are wrong about golf. Going to nitpick that one

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Aug 8, 2022·edited Aug 8, 2022Author

Hey, I quite like a bit of televised golf but the *perception* is that it’s boring. There’s a famous David Foster Wallace quote re: televised golf and boredom that I would have cited if I were the kind of person to do that.

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Thank you for having the courage to share this traumatic experience with us Craig. I hope the retelling of your struggle can act as a source of inspiration to those who end up stumbling upon this comment section.

Sadly I don’t have the contact details of a sports psychologist or performance coach who can help you with your ten pin bowling related trauma but if I hear of one I’ll be sure to let you know.

Again thank you for your bravery in sharing this testimony with us. Acknowledging an issue is the first step to recovery.

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If it happens again, I’m worried I’ll go spare.

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Booooooo

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As Bevan as one expects - you made the shot.

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Chalk the cue, nominate the pocket, pot the black.

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Really interesting about the pool table making such a difference to the residents where you worked.

Our best Christmas as kids was when we were given a snooker table - we'd play for HOURS for years after that.

Remember that wonderful TV snooker commentary gaffe by Ted Lowe?

'...and for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green.' Classic!

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Hahaha.

And yes, I’m convinced a snooker/pool table in the home pays for itself in no time. If only I had the room for one…

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Full-sized ones are massive, aren’t they? Ours was tiny - but we were only kids, so plenty big enough back then!

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Brings to mind the Kramer vs Frank Constanza scene in Seinfeld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex_BuaxZ3v0

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LOL!

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