In a couple of hours, I will be leaving for my two week project trip to Amritsar, Punjab for two weeks. I'll be doing the survey and civil work for a girl's school/home there. Hopefully, I'll have something to say when I get back.
Also as an addition to my last post -
Today Tim Duncan became the longest tenured player on any single team in the NBA. Just another piece of evidence to support the consistent output of greatness.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Channeling Tim Duncan
For me the first week of work, similar to the first day of classes, is the day when my expectations for myself are at an unrealistic level. I expect that every second of every minute of every hour of everyday I'm at work, I'm giving 100% of my mind and body. Even writing that sentence is a little exhausting, the reality of it is completely ridiculous. Usually I can last a day, maybe two before I just start lagging behind. I'll check my gmail, become tempted to read about pirates on wikipedia, take extended bathroom breaks. While this is happening, I'm slowly beating myself up because I can't maintain this immaculate work ethic. Having undergone this process the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking about what a great work ethic looks like. Or more generally, what greatness look like?
Which brings me to Tim Duncan. For all of you unfamiliar with before mentioned Timothy Duncan - he's a 6-11 Power Forward that plays for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs (also pictured left). He's played 12 NBA Seasons, won 4 NBA Championships, 3 NBA Finals MVPs, the Rookie of the Year Award, 2 MVP awards, been voted to 12 All-Star teams, 12 All-NBA teams, and 12 All-Defensive Teams. It's an incredibly impressive resume. Although he's still in this 12th season, he's commonly heralded as one of the greatest, if not the single greatest power forward in NBA History. Yet more than these raw numbers, there is a mysticism that envelopes Tim Duncan. In certain circles he's commonly referred to as 'The Big Fundamental' - an homage to the mechanical mystery of Tim Duncan, himself. For years the world has been debating whether Tim Duncan is an adult homo-sapien that has committed himself to the game of basketball so ardently that it has cost him all the emotions, flaws, and unpredictability of humanity or whether Tim Duncan is indeed a Virgin Island engineered basketball playing android of sorts learning what it means to be human with every year that passes. His track record would argue for the second.
Tim Duncan has a reputation for being the most consistently great player in the NBA today. But I wondered how he stacked up against the greatest big men in the history of the NBA. Using an excel spreadsheet and a couple of extremely nerdy basketball statistical websites I compared Tim Duncan's career to that of Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Yao Ming, and Dwight Howard. I looked at 4 categories - points per game, rebounds per game, blocks per game, and Player Efficiency Rating (PER). PER isn't an easy thing to measure or understand but it's probably the most accurate way we currently have to measure a player's effect (but not perfect). Since most big men tend to trail off at the end of their careers, posting up some seriously horrendous numbers, I cleaned up everyone's stats to make them comparable to Duncan's relatively young and healthy career. Here is what came out - in PPG Duncan's career average of 21.4 landed right in the middle but his standard deviation of 2.03 is far better than anyone else's (6.21 on the high end and 2.86 on the low end). In RPG, Duncan is only behind Dwight Howard (who frankly has barely played) but again his SD is a staggering 0.8 over his career, compared to Howard's 1.51. In BPG, Duncan is right in the middle but again with a staggering SD of 0.34 over his career. BPG leader, Hakeem Olaujuwon has a SD of almost twice as much at 0.78. Finally with PER - Duncan ranks second (25.25) on the list only behind his former teammate and mentor, David Robinson (26.05), but posts a SD of 1.78. The only person under that, after cleaning up some bad seasons is Olaujuwon with a 1.73, whose career PER is almost 2 points lower.
Although these numbers don't prove anything outright, since these isolated categories (even PER) can't fully measure the effectiveness of a single player, they tell us two things about Tim Duncan when comparing him to the other legends of the game. He is both one of the greatest and one of the most consistent players to play his position in the history of the NBA. It's that combination, not the addition of those two things, that makes Tim Duncan 'The Big Fundamental'. Almost everyone on this list has had better single seasons than Tim Duncan, maybe even better clumps of seasons, but no one has done it as consistently as Tim Duncan. That can be seen not only in the raw numbers but in the fact that in (nearly) every year of Duncan's year he has been on both the All-Star Team, All-NBA team, and All-Defensive Team. You couple that with 4 NBA championships and an entire career spent with exactly one team (a rare feat these days. Look at Shaq). Duncan truly is the epitome of greatness.
As Tim Duncan has shown me. You don't need to lead the NBA in points. You don't need to lead the NBA in Rebounds. You don't even need to lead the NBA in assists. You don't need to lead in anything. You just need to perform at a high level every single day. It's not about being that 100% level one hour then 30% the next then 80% the next. It's about being at 85% (or something equivalent) all the time instead. That has changed the way my work days have gone. No longer am I eating lunch as fast as I can or working through breaks only to crash later but I'm taking my time, not being afraid to go outside, or browse the internet every once a while. It has not only made me more productive and eased my stress levels, but has altogether made me much more pleasant. Who would have thought we could learn so much from an Android?
Tim Duncan has a reputation for being the most consistently great player in the NBA today. But I wondered how he stacked up against the greatest big men in the history of the NBA. Using an excel spreadsheet and a couple of extremely nerdy basketball statistical websites I compared Tim Duncan's career to that of Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Yao Ming, and Dwight Howard. I looked at 4 categories - points per game, rebounds per game, blocks per game, and Player Efficiency Rating (PER). PER isn't an easy thing to measure or understand but it's probably the most accurate way we currently have to measure a player's effect (but not perfect). Since most big men tend to trail off at the end of their careers, posting up some seriously horrendous numbers, I cleaned up everyone's stats to make them comparable to Duncan's relatively young and healthy career. Here is what came out - in PPG Duncan's career average of 21.4 landed right in the middle but his standard deviation of 2.03 is far better than anyone else's (6.21 on the high end and 2.86 on the low end). In RPG, Duncan is only behind Dwight Howard (who frankly has barely played) but again his SD is a staggering 0.8 over his career, compared to Howard's 1.51. In BPG, Duncan is right in the middle but again with a staggering SD of 0.34 over his career. BPG leader, Hakeem Olaujuwon has a SD of almost twice as much at 0.78. Finally with PER - Duncan ranks second (25.25) on the list only behind his former teammate and mentor, David Robinson (26.05), but posts a SD of 1.78. The only person under that, after cleaning up some bad seasons is Olaujuwon with a 1.73, whose career PER is almost 2 points lower.
Although these numbers don't prove anything outright, since these isolated categories (even PER) can't fully measure the effectiveness of a single player, they tell us two things about Tim Duncan when comparing him to the other legends of the game. He is both one of the greatest and one of the most consistent players to play his position in the history of the NBA. It's that combination, not the addition of those two things, that makes Tim Duncan 'The Big Fundamental'. Almost everyone on this list has had better single seasons than Tim Duncan, maybe even better clumps of seasons, but no one has done it as consistently as Tim Duncan. That can be seen not only in the raw numbers but in the fact that in (nearly) every year of Duncan's year he has been on both the All-Star Team, All-NBA team, and All-Defensive Team. You couple that with 4 NBA championships and an entire career spent with exactly one team (a rare feat these days. Look at Shaq). Duncan truly is the epitome of greatness.
As Tim Duncan has shown me. You don't need to lead the NBA in points. You don't need to lead the NBA in Rebounds. You don't even need to lead the NBA in assists. You don't need to lead in anything. You just need to perform at a high level every single day. It's not about being that 100% level one hour then 30% the next then 80% the next. It's about being at 85% (or something equivalent) all the time instead. That has changed the way my work days have gone. No longer am I eating lunch as fast as I can or working through breaks only to crash later but I'm taking my time, not being afraid to go outside, or browse the internet every once a while. It has not only made me more productive and eased my stress levels, but has altogether made me much more pleasant. Who would have thought we could learn so much from an Android?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A New Year's Resolution
Some of you may have seen this before...
I've never been one for new year's resolutions. In fact, I've never made one before. Being the cynic that I am, all I can do is scoff whenever someone tells me their "new year's resolution". The problem for me is that it has always seemed like betterment for betterment sakes. If you really wanted to change your life, you would just do it. The coming or going of a year shouldn't have to control that. I realize it's a good time to start, but the people that have the motivation and willpower to change their lives won't wait for a date of convenience. That being said, I've decided to make a change this new year. I've decided to become a vegetarian. Muffle your groans, I have real reasons.
As some of you may or may not realize, I'm somewhat of a hipster. I wouldn't say I'm a true convert, soaking in the pools of blind faith, and fervent worship - but I'm definitely interested enough to stop by a couple Sundays a month and hang out with the crowd. I even have the cloth shoes, black trimmed glasses, and Animal Collective discography to ward off anyone that would question my loyalty to the movement. As of late, vegetarianism has a popular topic in these circles. In an environment such as the United States, it's a very effective way to be counter cultural and draw attention to yourself. That is very annoying. I knew a good number of people that when I'd ask them, "Why are you vegetarian?", they could produce nothing more than vague ramblings. That is not to say everyone was like this. There are several, prominent examples in my life of people that have wholeheartedly made the life-choice for great, logical, Godly reasons. Each of them taught me that's its a personal decision that one needs to make for personal reasons. Ever since then, I've known the mounds of statistics and all the formal arguments against meat consumption (primarily in the United States). But for all the facts, there was never a reason that emotionally resonated with me.
Eating is one of the most social things we do as a society. That means that becoming a vegetarian is not only about you. You're bound to run into countless, awkward situations that start with you gingerly saying, "I'm actually a vegetarian." and then ending with an awkward silence. For me, statistics, no matter how convincing, couldn't motivate me to make the leap. [They are pretty good statistics though.] For the past couple of years it has remained in the back of my mind. Even this past term in India it had come up several times. I'm a obsessive Google Reader user and these were two of the more memorable articles I read - one an interview for a book from the author of Everything is Illuminated and then a crazy response by Natalie Portman to the book. Yet even these weren't enough. But alas, last term I found my personal reason.
One of the churches here in Mussoorie (the town I live in) has a reputation for particularly dance-happy youth. My roommate and I decided to throw a dance party at our house before he went back to the states. We approached their proverbial leader and proposed the idea. He was ecstatic. We made plans for everyone to come over next weekend on a Sunday afternoon. We could all make momos (a labor intensive tibetan dumpling) together, eat, and then dance into the night. We said, "Bring 15 to 20 people. We'll provide the food." Not too surprising, by the time the next Sunday rolled around, there weren't 15 to 20 people in our house, there were upwards of 60 to 70. Word spread all around the church community in Mussoorie. So pretty much anyone under the age of 25 that attended a church in Mussoorie was in our house. We clearly weren't prepared for this, so we had to leave and get more food. We had buff (which is buffalo meat, since you can't get beef 'cause it's India) from a town down the mountain. Buff is actually unofficially illegal in Mussoorie itself. I was going to go get more chicken but then someone said they knew where to get buff in Mussoorie. I said ok, knowing it would probably be good knowledge to have. Anyways, we went down to the market on his scooter and parked it. There was a small stairwell between two store fronts that we descended down. The sun was setting, making the whole scene even more sinister. We were in tight residential area, smashed behind the market. The paths were so narrow and the buildings so narrow, that the only light came from haphazardly strung up lanterns every 100 feet. We were walking around and around in places that seemed almost completely indistinguishable when suddenly he stopped and knocked on a door. It was just a house. A man opened the door. They both exchanged Hindi greetings and we walked in. It was just a man's living room. We asked for 2 kg of buff. The man went behind a curtain and brought out a gigantic piece of meet that was easily as tall as he was. He threw it on the floor and started cutting it. You might think this is the moment I wanted to become a vegetarian. It wasn't. I actually thought it was really cool to see the physical meat and to see him physically cutting it. Anyways, we took our meat, paid the man and returned to the party heroes.
The party was a lot of fun. There were squads of people tackling different parts of the momo making process. Everyone was engaged and having fun. Eventually, after many hours, the momos were officially done cooking. We had made over 400 momos. There were two large buckets full of momos to show for it. The sheer amount of momos was absolutely overwhelming. Yet during the delicious gorging of momos that commenced, I noticed a small pot on our stove pot. I thought, "What is this? We have enough momos to feed a small village." I stepped out of line and walked over to see a pot of Maggi noodles (the equivalent of Ramen noodles here) boiling. I looked around trying to find the owner. Suddenly several individuals that had been invisible before stood out. They were standing in the corner talking amongst each other. They weren't hiding. They weren't sad. They had smiles on their faces. They were just the only people in the room that weren't eating momos. I knew some of them so I walked over and asked them what was going on. One of the simply responded, "We're all vegetarians." I was shocked. Then immediately, I was shocked that I was shocked. You may think it not very odd for an Indian to be a vegetarian. You'd be right most of the time. But it's very odd for an Indian Christian to be a vegarantian. I had never made that connection before I came here, but in 5 short months I associated Christian with meat eating. They each went around and told how they had come from Hindu families (that still remained largely Hindu) and how important diet was to their families. It may not have meant much to anyone else in the room, but to their families it meant a lot. Their families, like me, associated Christianity with eating meat, to the point where many people around India think that people convert to Christianity so that they can eat meat. All of a sudden, my chicken and buff momos weren't so appetizing.
It just dawned on me that diet is such an important issue all around India. People's lives revolve around it. People's lives are judged by the choices they make in this circle. I can understand how this can be important, but it's not. Diet is not something of eternal significance, at least not anymore. That's something that Christianity teaches us. Yet not everyone else feels this way. For me it all suddenly became clear. The best way to fight this notion isn't to do whatever I want, because it means nothing to me, but to respect other people's beliefs since I know it will mean something to them. That's why I decided to become a vegetarian, because I'm venturing to show people that Christianity isn't about meat but about Christ.
The statistics are also helpful.
I've never been one for new year's resolutions. In fact, I've never made one before. Being the cynic that I am, all I can do is scoff whenever someone tells me their "new year's resolution". The problem for me is that it has always seemed like betterment for betterment sakes. If you really wanted to change your life, you would just do it. The coming or going of a year shouldn't have to control that. I realize it's a good time to start, but the people that have the motivation and willpower to change their lives won't wait for a date of convenience. That being said, I've decided to make a change this new year. I've decided to become a vegetarian. Muffle your groans, I have real reasons.
As some of you may or may not realize, I'm somewhat of a hipster. I wouldn't say I'm a true convert, soaking in the pools of blind faith, and fervent worship - but I'm definitely interested enough to stop by a couple Sundays a month and hang out with the crowd. I even have the cloth shoes, black trimmed glasses, and Animal Collective discography to ward off anyone that would question my loyalty to the movement. As of late, vegetarianism has a popular topic in these circles. In an environment such as the United States, it's a very effective way to be counter cultural and draw attention to yourself. That is very annoying. I knew a good number of people that when I'd ask them, "Why are you vegetarian?", they could produce nothing more than vague ramblings. That is not to say everyone was like this. There are several, prominent examples in my life of people that have wholeheartedly made the life-choice for great, logical, Godly reasons. Each of them taught me that's its a personal decision that one needs to make for personal reasons. Ever since then, I've known the mounds of statistics and all the formal arguments against meat consumption (primarily in the United States). But for all the facts, there was never a reason that emotionally resonated with me.
Eating is one of the most social things we do as a society. That means that becoming a vegetarian is not only about you. You're bound to run into countless, awkward situations that start with you gingerly saying, "I'm actually a vegetarian." and then ending with an awkward silence. For me, statistics, no matter how convincing, couldn't motivate me to make the leap. [They are pretty good statistics though.] For the past couple of years it has remained in the back of my mind. Even this past term in India it had come up several times. I'm a obsessive Google Reader user and these were two of the more memorable articles I read - one an interview for a book from the author of Everything is Illuminated and then a crazy response by Natalie Portman to the book. Yet even these weren't enough. But alas, last term I found my personal reason.
One of the churches here in Mussoorie (the town I live in) has a reputation for particularly dance-happy youth. My roommate and I decided to throw a dance party at our house before he went back to the states. We approached their proverbial leader and proposed the idea. He was ecstatic. We made plans for everyone to come over next weekend on a Sunday afternoon. We could all make momos (a labor intensive tibetan dumpling) together, eat, and then dance into the night. We said, "Bring 15 to 20 people. We'll provide the food." Not too surprising, by the time the next Sunday rolled around, there weren't 15 to 20 people in our house, there were upwards of 60 to 70. Word spread all around the church community in Mussoorie. So pretty much anyone under the age of 25 that attended a church in Mussoorie was in our house. We clearly weren't prepared for this, so we had to leave and get more food. We had buff (which is buffalo meat, since you can't get beef 'cause it's India) from a town down the mountain. Buff is actually unofficially illegal in Mussoorie itself. I was going to go get more chicken but then someone said they knew where to get buff in Mussoorie. I said ok, knowing it would probably be good knowledge to have. Anyways, we went down to the market on his scooter and parked it. There was a small stairwell between two store fronts that we descended down. The sun was setting, making the whole scene even more sinister. We were in tight residential area, smashed behind the market. The paths were so narrow and the buildings so narrow, that the only light came from haphazardly strung up lanterns every 100 feet. We were walking around and around in places that seemed almost completely indistinguishable when suddenly he stopped and knocked on a door. It was just a house. A man opened the door. They both exchanged Hindi greetings and we walked in. It was just a man's living room. We asked for 2 kg of buff. The man went behind a curtain and brought out a gigantic piece of meet that was easily as tall as he was. He threw it on the floor and started cutting it. You might think this is the moment I wanted to become a vegetarian. It wasn't. I actually thought it was really cool to see the physical meat and to see him physically cutting it. Anyways, we took our meat, paid the man and returned to the party heroes.
The party was a lot of fun. There were squads of people tackling different parts of the momo making process. Everyone was engaged and having fun. Eventually, after many hours, the momos were officially done cooking. We had made over 400 momos. There were two large buckets full of momos to show for it. The sheer amount of momos was absolutely overwhelming. Yet during the delicious gorging of momos that commenced, I noticed a small pot on our stove pot. I thought, "What is this? We have enough momos to feed a small village." I stepped out of line and walked over to see a pot of Maggi noodles (the equivalent of Ramen noodles here) boiling. I looked around trying to find the owner. Suddenly several individuals that had been invisible before stood out. They were standing in the corner talking amongst each other. They weren't hiding. They weren't sad. They had smiles on their faces. They were just the only people in the room that weren't eating momos. I knew some of them so I walked over and asked them what was going on. One of the simply responded, "We're all vegetarians." I was shocked. Then immediately, I was shocked that I was shocked. You may think it not very odd for an Indian to be a vegetarian. You'd be right most of the time. But it's very odd for an Indian Christian to be a vegarantian. I had never made that connection before I came here, but in 5 short months I associated Christian with meat eating. They each went around and told how they had come from Hindu families (that still remained largely Hindu) and how important diet was to their families. It may not have meant much to anyone else in the room, but to their families it meant a lot. Their families, like me, associated Christianity with eating meat, to the point where many people around India think that people convert to Christianity so that they can eat meat. All of a sudden, my chicken and buff momos weren't so appetizing.
It just dawned on me that diet is such an important issue all around India. People's lives revolve around it. People's lives are judged by the choices they make in this circle. I can understand how this can be important, but it's not. Diet is not something of eternal significance, at least not anymore. That's something that Christianity teaches us. Yet not everyone else feels this way. For me it all suddenly became clear. The best way to fight this notion isn't to do whatever I want, because it means nothing to me, but to respect other people's beliefs since I know it will mean something to them. That's why I decided to become a vegetarian, because I'm venturing to show people that Christianity isn't about meat but about Christ.
The statistics are also helpful.
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