sport

Apparently some football team did something or other

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I think it was football. Is Chelsea a football team or a goldfish? I’m sure it’s one or the other and I’m certain that what it or they do is massively important to them. But I was just watching Community on my iPad when TuneIn Radio popped up a notification telling me this breaking news that, frankly, I’ve already forgotten.

As notifications go, this was stylish enough and more importantly as notifications go, this one went. But in what algorithm did TuneIn Radio see I’d tuned in to the Today programme on Radio 4, heard that it was in the middle of its Thought for the Day, sigh and say aloud “at least it isn’t the sport” before switching it off, and conclude that I must want sport and/or goldfish news.

It’s bugging me now. Hang on.

No, I can’t get the notification back to check what it was about.

Maybe I’m just narked at being so interrupted by something so trivial – to me, anyway. I could blame TuneIn Radio for notifiying me when I hadn’t said I wanted to but, let’s be fair, maybe I allowed notifications back when I installed it a few years ago. That this is the first-ever is a little suspicious but it could be my fault, it could be finger trouble.

But I don’t think an app with such a broad use as TuneIn Radio should do this. It’s not like I’ve elected to install a Wimbledon Cricket app, then I would think it reasonable that it send notifications, especially if I’ve said okay. TuneIn Radio is a quick way of tuning in to pretty much any radio station anywhere in the world. It’s nicer on the iPad than BBC’s own iPlayer Radio, I use a fair bit.

I could’ve got the answer wrong if it asked me to allow notifications. But if it had ever asked whether I wanted sport or goldfish news, there is no question but that I would’ve said no.

So I’m narked that TuneIn does this.

Token football thing

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I’d like to say that I want to at least get in the spirit of the World Cup football excitement but frankly the only way I could possibly register that it’s happening is every single bleedin’ news programme keeps telling me so. Apparently the England team has arrived in wherever it is. Apparently this is news.

But while the existence of the World Cup has been bludgeoned into my head and before I manage to shake it out again with the very greatest of ease, I did come across this. Fantasy Football costs America billions of dollars in lost productivity.

I know what you’re thinking. They have fantasies about football?

In a recent study, it was found that fantasy football players are costing employers more than $1.1 billion in productivity every week, during the National Football League season. This statistic was brought out by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The attraction towards fantasy football is immense because of the lucrative payout that it offers. This is a billion dollar business, which involves 24.3 million players according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

However, with so much interest in fantasy football, how much of time is being devoted to real work? According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc about 22.3 million employed people spend half an hour of work time every week on managing their rosters and other fantasy football related activities.

The Impact of Fantasy Football Teams on Productivity – Careerealism

That article is dated 2013 and it sits in a website more replete with ads that I am generally comfortable directing you to. Maybe my infectious enthusiasm for football is enough to persuade you to go read the whole tedious piece, I don’t know.

Practice like an expert, not an amateur

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Creativity Post has an article about the methods successful people use for practicing whatever it is they do. The article is chiefly about sports success and what I don’t know about sport would fill every sports book, channel, magazine, blog and stadium. But the idea of having an aim, a purpose that requires practice to attain and to sustain, that applies to us all.

What do the fittest people do that I’m not? How are their workouts different? Are there key things they do while they’re working out that provide a bigger payoff than the things I do? In other words, are they extracting disproportionately greater results from their time in the weight room than I am?

The same can be said for our practice time. What do top performers do when practicing a skill? What do the less effective practicers do? Are there any differences?
Indeed, it appears that there are.

Two Things Experts Do Differently Than Non-Experts When Practicing – The Creativity Post (8 May 2014)

You’re wondering what the two expert things are. I feel if I told you both, it’d be stealing from them. Let me tell you the one that chimed with me: have specific goals. Now take a look at both the other thing and at more of the reasoning behind why they work.