Jeff Holmes: belief

Transcript context

…Almost anything, it can work. It’s been done plenty for basketball. There’s my take on economics. I think the fundamental innovation is not GOAT per se, but writing from the perspective of a fan. It’s what a lot of people actually want. If you read, say, theringer.com, it’s written from the perspective of a fan, which is great. To have many more things written from the perspectives of fans, to me, is more important than whether or not they do GOAT. GOAT may not apply to a lot of fields. Political science — it’s much more heterogeneous and varied than, say, economics. So, maybe there is no GOAT of political science even, possibly. That’s fine, but you could write a book about your favorite political scientists, again, with this perspective of enthusiasm and why they got me excited about things. That’s what I want. Academic incentives are precisely to do the opposite of that. Like, here’s why it’s not really very exciting at all. That’s not how it’s described, but that’s the way it turns out. That’s very much the Bill Simmons brand. I think the success of The Ringer has shown that that thing is really enticing, when you hear people come to it from deep appreciation and enthusiasm. The goal is to teach people how to appreciate. How can you do that if they can’t even see you appreciating? It’s insane. The key thing — there’s plenty of information, but how do you motivate people to want to study? Teaching them the art of appreciation is what CWT has been about from the beginning. Like, here’s how I’ve learned to appreciate these people. You hope your listeners either appreciate them or just learn the general art of learning how to appreciate. That’s the whole mission.…

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