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YB
@yb
AMA with @vgr starts now! Venkatesh Rao has been writing ribbonfarm.com since 2007. He's also the author of Tempo, a book on timing & decision-making. Vgr consults executives to help stress-test their thinking and build systems for their organizations. Most recently, he ran summerofprotocols.com Ask away 🎤
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John Palmer 💡
@john
What do you love about tennis?
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I played a bit one summer and twisted my ankle and haven't gotten back into it yet. Used to be a serious and decent table tennis player through high school, so I found much of the fun was similar, except more energetic, somewhat slower, and with more satisfying "sweet spot" feel. The pro sport is illegible to me.
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John Palmer 💡
@john
I think you’d actually love how pro tennis works compared to normal sports leagues. Look up the ATP scoring system. It’s great. Basically a federated model, diff tournaments worth diff amounts of points. 52-week rolling basis.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I don't think I've ever enjoyed nerding out about that level of any sport tbf. When I enjoy sporting spectacles, it's usually for the actual action, not scoring mechanics. I really liked DFW's essay on Federer though I could tell I was missing most of the subtlety. Haven't really watched tennis since Becker era.
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moreReese
@morereese
tbh I think much of that subtlety is context-dependent on knowing top-tier competitive tennis, which DFW was familiar with given his experience playing. So much so that a huge story line in Infinite Jest is based on competitive tennis. Part of his skill is taking the specifics and abstracting then applying to narrative
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