Book Review-The Playmaker's Advantage

I was made aware of this book from a mention on one of Vern Gambetta’s Facebook postings. It piqued my interest as I am a coach for a youth sports team and I had been thinking about how to use the neuro scientific results that has been seemingly flying out academia. I bought the book at the beginning of August and decided to give it a crack, an unusual thing for me as I usually have a tall To Be Read stack balancing precariously on my end table. I had just finished reading Grit, the book by Angela Duckworth and I was excited but also puzzled by the unfulfilled promise of that book. I was disturbed by the lack of any discussion as to How to train Grit. I was definitely looking for something more all-encompassing of the neuropsychology area. As it turned out, this book explained many of my puzzles.

The book is split into three clear sections; the reason for the split is well explained in the introduction. The three sections are:  Playmaker’s Foundation, Playmaker’s Cognition, and finally Playmaker’s Commitment. The first section describes the research that has been done on defining what the authors mean by the Playmaker’s qualities and how they researched the playmaker qualities. Unlike most of the summaries of the literature on the subjects, the account of the research is fascinating and the synopsis of the results and conclusions were concise and explicit without shortchanging the nuances of this research.

Playmaker’s Cognition is the revelatory section of the book, in my opinion, as this is where the authors deconstructs the mythology around the decision making process that Playmakers go through as well as the cognitive processes that explains some of the why’s and how’s. This was particularly interesting because the authors were able to delineate the specific steps for decision making and the motivation for the steps, which implicitly gives us an idea as to how to train the athlete to work towards attaining the state of being of a playmaker. There are three chapters in this section: Search, Decide, and Execute, each chapter addressing the progressive steps of good decision making. This was a revelation to me, even though in hindsight the steps and sequence made perfect sense. It was one of those: why didn’t I think of that moment.

Finally, the last section on Playmaker Commitment section is the section where the authors address a number of topics appearing in the popular press that seemed dodgy. Topics like Grit, Growth Mindset, and the ten thousand hour rule; topics that had captured the imagination of many who are seeking a formula or a recipe for success in whatever endeavor they have an interest in. Since this book follows the others by a few years, the authors were able to address the ambiguities inadvertently left exposed in the other books, ambiguities that pulled the mass audience zealously into popular, yet misguided and false conclusions. I had read the tomes regarding all of these ideas, and they left me puzzled since the books did not address how to attain these qualities, but this book boldly states that no one really knows how to train grit, or inculcate a growth mindset, or truly believe that ten thousand hours is sufficient for mastery. In fact, ten thousand hours idea is not even applicable to the sporting world that this book is addressing. The authors did a real service for the other authors and debunked the populist myth that had taken over the popular press.

In fact, there will be many who will find dissatisfaction with the lack of a formula with this book, because in the end the authors are scientists and careful practitioners, it is their professional responsibility to be accurate and precise, even if doing so means not giving sound bitesques conclusions. They do however give us enough information for us to experiment ourselves and try to apply the concepts that they were able to uncover and summarize.

I am planning the season for a youth team that I coach, and I am now rethinking my usual coaching plans and integrating the ideas from this book as a part of the major revamp of my philosophy and the way the various parts of my coaching fit together. This will be an adventure of a grand scale. I am happy to have this guide which does not give me a recipe but will guide me through my thinking and philosophizing.

Book Review-The Lady Tasting Tea By David Salzburg

This was not a book I had envisioned as being something that I would read, let alone grow to love. My experience with statistics had been limited to some courses I took in graduate school and then exposed to when I was on my first job, we were all exposed to statistical process control (SPC) and six sigma. My background in statistics only went so far as knowing some of the SPC tools. As I grew more mature I began to appreciate the usefulness of statistics but I had a hard time connecting the SPC tools I was exposed to with the mathematic heavy statistics that are taught in the textbooks. As I tried to parse through the dense formal statistical curriculum I grew frustrated with my own inability to get through to the kernel of the topic. As I struggled I kept seeing this particular book being recommended by a number of people, so I bought it and prepared for the worst, yet another dense explanation of rudimentary statistics that had very little to do with what I wanted.

To my surprise and amazement, this book was so different, different from any other book that I had ever read. It was a love paean to the study of statistics, it was a gossipy and information laden history of the evolution of the art of probability and statistics, it was a summary of the important developments in statistics, it was an invaluable primer in the methods used in the practical application of statistic, and finally, it was a hefty philosophical discussion of the problems and issues that are still plaguing the researchers in statistics. I think you get the idea that I kind of liked reading this book.

David Salzburg is a practitioner of the art of statistics, he has the ability to explain the very dense concepts in statistics, both the applied tools and the mathematical conundrums with adept ease. Most importantly he did this without employing any mathematics. Which in some ways is very impressive and in other times it was frustrating because it would have been more enlightening to resort to the bare bones mathematics, but no matter.

Prof. Salzburg clearly has a great love for the story as well as for the subject, he has a great sense of history as well as a deft touch for the internecine nastiness that occurred with the giants of statistics. His descriptions of the relationship, or lack thereof between Pearson and Fisher kept me riveted to the narrative. His description of some of the great mathematicians who were caught in the destructive totalitarian regimes during and after World War II added the human dimension to these stories. I don’t know which aspect of the book I appreciated more, the historical perspective or the unraveling the mystery of the functional relationship between statistical tools and ideas.

There is a clear devotion in his writing that reflects his devotion to giving credit where credit is due, even though he apologized for his inability to give credit to all that had contributed, the breadth and depth of the book was astounding and gratifying to someone who appreciates a truly “Big Picture” look at the statistical landscape from the 10,000 feet view. I particularly enjoyed the discussions regarding the contributions of Deming and Shewart to the SPC branch of the vast tree of statistical evolution. I was able to make the connections from those chapters to untie the knot that was in my mind.

The piece de resistance was the final chapter where he discusses his own views on the unexplained philosophical contradictions still existing in statistics. It felt like I was in the midst of the discussion even though I am a dilettante in the art of statistics.

This is a book that comprised of some very dense concepts and it was difficult to focus at times but it was well worth the effort in my mind.