tnecniv's recent activity
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Comment on Who is the all-time greatest utility player? in ~sports.baseball
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Comment on Who is the all-time greatest utility player? in ~sports.baseball
tnecniv LinkYeah it’s definitely an open ended question which is why it’s fun to talk about. Is a guy that can play 4 positions better than a guy that can play 3 even if he isn’t as good offensively? I’m not...Yeah it’s definitely an open ended question which is why it’s fun to talk about. Is a guy that can play 4 positions better than a guy that can play 3 even if he isn’t as good offensively? I’m not sure and that likely depends on the team around him.
Like after watching Mookie this season, I’m convinced his raw athleticism could make him a usable sub anywhere, but he’ll never play first because Freeman only plays first, is never hurt, is also dominant offensively, and refuses to take off days. If Freeman did get hurt, Muncy moves back over there well before Mookie plays 1B because it’s easier for us to fill 1B than the middle infield.
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Comment on Who's your favorite football team, and why? in ~sports.american_football
tnecniv LinkThe New York Football Giants. It’s hereditary. My dad hasn’t missed a game since the sixties, including while my mom was in labor with me (my dad is more an anxious person than my mom and didn’t...The New York Football Giants. It’s hereditary. My dad hasn’t missed a game since the sixties, including while my mom was in labor with me (my dad is more an anxious person than my mom and didn’t want him in the room stressing her out). My mom also knew a few 80s/90s players (most notably LT) because she headed the service department at a Jaguar dealership during that period, so they’d bring their cars in to have them fixed. As a family, we had seasons tickets until ‘09 when they built the new stadium, raised prices, and the markets crashed making them prohibitively expensive.
It’s a confusing existence because my baseball team is the Dodgers so I hate the other Giants team.
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Who is the all-time greatest utility player?
Mookie Betts has been having another awesome year and is on pace to smash the personal season home run record he set last year. While he had a few starts at second base last year, the Dodgers have...
Mookie Betts has been having another awesome year and is on pace to smash the personal season home run record he set last year.
While he had a few starts at second base last year, the Dodgers have also turned him into a utility player this year by regularly starting him at 2B and, to a lesser degree, short stop in addition to his usual RF (the choice every day comes down to a combination of who is healthy, who needs a day off, and how other line-up options are expected to fair against the opposing starter). Defensively, he’s been solid at those positions and ranks particularly well in OAA at 2B in addition to his usual Golden Glove outfield performance.
His season got me wondering about, who is the best utility player of all time? The Wikipedia article on utility players includes a number of notable ones, including guys that have played every position and guys who played multiple positions during at least one year they were all-stars, however most have average or below average offensive numbers.
Is there a widely considered greatest all-time utility player? If not, who would you nominate for the title?
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Comment on Strategies to manage ADHD in ~health.mental
tnecniv Link ParentIt has its pros and cons, many of which I feel like you outlined. When I learned I had it and started medication, the biggest benefit for me was how it helped with my anxiety. Even with...It has its pros and cons, many of which I feel like you outlined. When I learned I had it and started medication, the biggest benefit for me was how it helped with my anxiety. Even with medication, I still have attention issues. It does help me “hyper focus” more consistently on what I’m doing and for longer, but the biggest benefit is I am distracted less by future what-ifs and more and able to focus more on the present. Sometimes I focus on things I shouldn’t be focused on (I can end up hyper-procrastinating sometimes), but at least I’m not hyper-fixated on future possible (mostly unlikely) negative events.
I have, at times, felt similarly to you about your ADHD with regards to my anxiety. While I had some very stressful periods in my life related to, e.g., academic pressure in undergrad, it gave me the drive I needed to get the work done I needed to get done. Fear is a powerful motivator. These days, medication and therapy have helped me manage my anxiety much better and I probably enjoy life more on a daily basis. I have had times, though, where I wish I was more stressed so I could force myself to power through some tasks like I used to do. Instead, I get stuck in a middle ground where I’m anxious enough that I wish I was more on top of things but not anxious enough to be on top of things.
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Comment on Group updates for July 2023 in ~tildes.official
tnecniv Link ParentAh finally a place for civil conversations about all fields of engineering!Ah finally a place for civil conversations about all fields of engineering!
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Comment on Group updates for July 2023 in ~tildes.official
tnecniv Link ParentCounter point: Eggs are all shapes and sizes and many if not most do not resemble a footballCounter point: Eggs are all shapes and sizes and many if not most do not resemble a football
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Comment on Hello fellow baseball nerds in ~sports.baseball
tnecniv LinkHell yeah go bridegrooms (Dodgers)! It’s been a really fun season so far. Even for a year where we cut the budget and have a rotation of rookies (and that Kershaw guy he’s pretty good), we’ve...Hell yeah go bridegrooms (Dodgers)!
It’s been a really fun season so far. Even for a year where we cut the budget and have a rotation of rookies (and that Kershaw guy he’s pretty good), we’ve continued to play some high quality baseball. I love watching Mookie on the infield, he’s just an ESPN top ten plays factory.
My family has been rooting for the Dodgers since they were in Brooklyn and I’m a life long east coaster, so I only get to see our boys in blue a few times a year. I’m excited to see them when they play the Mets next weekend! Maybe I’ll get lucky and get a ball signed this time.
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Comment on Any tips for buying clothes that fit? in ~life.style
tnecniv LinkFor many items, tailoring is quite affordable when amortized over the life of the item. If you’re lazy like me and don’t want to go to the tailor every time you buy a button down, I found a brand...For many items, tailoring is quite affordable when amortized over the life of the item.
If you’re lazy like me and don’t want to go to the tailor every time you buy a button down, I found a brand whose style I like and whose clothes tend to fit me without alteration. My daily wardrobe is probably 50% or more items from that brand. Now, that said, it took quite a bit of trial and error to find said brand.
The other thing to keep in mind, especially with cheaper brands, is that they tend to have poor quality control. You can go buy 5 pairs of cheap jeans that are the same SKU, but they will have notable differences. So, if you are trying them on in person, you can hunt for the pair that fits you the best.
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Comment on Affirmative action and its role in your life in ~life
tnecniv Link ParentI agree with the challenge of defining fairness you outline but some 1 AM back of the napkin math suggests you are selling either the scale of the admissions process or the rate at which sampling...I agree with the challenge of defining fairness you outline but some 1 AM back of the napkin math suggests you are selling either the scale of the admissions process or the rate at which sampling converges to the large population limit a bit short in that first lottery.
The lottery is a simple case of sampling without replacement, and there is a positive covariance between any two drawings, however this decays like 1 / N where N is the number of lottery balls from which we are selecting. If you run the numbers for Harvard last year (roughly 52588 applicants, make the strong assumption assume as you did a target minority population of 12.1% for those applicants) using the sampling with replacement formula, you get a covariance of the order 1e-5. That’s quite small, and suggests the lottery result will capture the applicant pool’s make up well. In general, sampling without replacement is a well-studied problem suitable for analytic analysis, so I bet you can get some pretty sharp confidence intervals using the Chernoff bound here to come up with conservative estimates for the probability of the accepted pool having a similar composition to the applicant pool.
However, as you said, this is predicated on the applicant pool reflecting the general population (I haven’t checked but I find that unlikely), and doesn’t impact your argument. I just like to use an opportunity for pedantry as a way to procrastinate bed time.
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Comment on Near-death experiences in ~talk
tnecniv Link ParentThere’s two other factors that are more difficult to wrangle with than driving drunk. First, I really didn’t feel that bad when I got in the car, maybe just the slightest bit tired. It was also...There’s two other factors that are more difficult to wrangle with than driving drunk. First, I really didn’t feel that bad when I got in the car, maybe just the slightest bit tired. It was also 4PM, not midnight or anything. I had driven later at night feeling more tired at the moment of departure without issue. In comparison to a DUI, where you know you’ve been drinking, it was not obvious to me at the time that the situation was going to degrade like it did. Second, in Drivers Ed, they hammered home driving tired is as bad as DUI. They also hammered home that alcohol impairs decision-making. They did not hammer home that when you are that tired, your decision-making is just as impaired, so I wasn’t being as critical of my thought process as I should have been when I thought about pulling over.
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Comment on Near-death experiences in ~talk
tnecniv LinkI was on the opposite end of this story. I fell asleep kind of out of nowhere driving on a small highway. I didn’t feel more tired than normal getting into the car, it was just the warm weather...I was on the opposite end of this story. I fell asleep kind of out of nowhere driving on a small highway. I didn’t feel more tired than normal getting into the car, it was just the warm weather and podcast voices that got to me and I fell asleep before I noticed how bad it was getting (also, being that sleepy degrades decision-making…)
I was probably going about 70 when I rear ended a car at a stop light. All I can say is crumple zones are incredible. My airbags didn’t go off and I didn’t realize how bad the crash was until I got out and saw my car! The car I hit had minor damage and was able to drive off without issue but my car was totaled. It wasn’t until I got home that I fully processed what happened and realized how lucky I was to be alive. Even though I wasn’t driving in a way that was dangerous, besides driving tired, it turned me into a much more actively careful driver.
DON’T DRIVE TIRED
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Comment on Photography: Next lens after nifty fifty? in ~hobbies
tnecniv LinkSo I am also an amateur photographer with the one distinction that I prefer to shoot with film (I like the slow feedback loop more than digital but that’s a conversation for a different day). I...So I am also an amateur photographer with the one distinction that I prefer to shoot with film (I like the slow feedback loop more than digital but that’s a conversation for a different day).
I noticed that you complained about not being able to get the whole scene with sports-like events. This is also a favorite subject of mine! Specifically, I love shooting baseball games, ranging from my beer league softball team to the pros (albeit normally I’m shooting from much farther away, except when I have the chance to go to spring training where you can get seats very close to the field). Go Dodgers!
Besides recommending something with a smaller focal length, my advice is to not try to get everything, but try to anticipate the action and just grab pieces of what’s happening. Ideally you nab important pieces of the game but that can be very hard because the game moves fast! For example, look at the works of Robert Riger, one of the most famous sports photographer of all time. Most of his shots only feature a handful of players, and that allows him to really capture all the details and emotion of his subjects. You won’t get Sandy Koufax staring you down or Willie Mays losing his hat sliding into third if you try to get the other 9 (or more) guys on the field in the shot, too! Depending on how close you can get to the action, pick an appropriate focal length, then try to get a sufficiently fast lens depending on the lighting conditions of your sport. After that, it comes down to anticipating the action, trying to set up the photo ahead of time, and luck (maybe less luck depending on how fast your camera can shoot!)
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
tnecniv Link ParentMy god I can’t believe I found someone else who heard of the Cat Who … series! I hope one day I’ll have a salt and pepper mustache as glorious as his! For the Recluse series, you should not feel...My god I can’t believe I found someone else who heard of the Cat Who … series! I hope one day I’ll have a salt and pepper mustache as glorious as his!
For the Recluse series, you should not feel bound to reading them in the order of publication. In fact, the first book is towards the end of the chronology, and the more recent books have a bit more polished writing. Wikipedia has a table that lists each novel by approximate year in the chronology and who the protagonist is. It doesn’t much matter where you begin in the series as long as you read the books of a given protagonist in order. Some good jumping off points might be the books about Cyril, Nylin, or Lorn.
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Comment on Any shortwave listeners here? What are some good frequencies to listen on? in ~hobbies
tnecniv Link ParentSemi-recently number stations were used in a federal espionage case. It’s been a while since I looked but I’m pretty sure they introduce examples of cracked codes into evidence. May be worth...Semi-recently number stations were used in a federal espionage case. It’s been a while since I looked but I’m pretty sure they introduce examples of cracked codes into evidence. May be worth reading about if you think number stations are cool!
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Comment on Using in-ear monitors with active noise-cancelling on the street in ~tech
tnecniv Link ParentI walk every day with AirPod Pros that have pretty good ANC (or at least much better than I expected when I got them). I do put extra effort into observing traffic when I need to cross the street...I walk every day with AirPod Pros that have pretty good ANC (or at least much better than I expected when I got them). I do put extra effort into observing traffic when I need to cross the street without issue but the main situation where I will not use them is late at night in a city. Besides indicating I might have money to mug me for, I don’t want to be surprised by anybody sneaking up on me.
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Comment on Songs/albums that remind you of someone you lost in ~music
tnecniv (edited )Link ParentYeah I’m with you when it comes to the first point. My sense of humor normally doesn’t degrade during serious times, but I always feel pressure to self-censor it out of a worry of how it will be...Yeah I’m with you when it comes to the first point. My sense of humor normally doesn’t degrade during serious times, but I always feel pressure to self-censor it out of a worry of how it will be perceived. If it’s a period of shared grief, I don’t want to cross other folks boundaries.
Regarding the second part, yeah I agree. The short version of what happened was I was going through a very anxious period of my life, she didn’t know how to support me and broke things off with the hope that we’d get back together when I figured my stuff out. However, while I understood my anxiety was putting a big drag on the relationship and why she wouldn’t want to remain in that situation, the second part of her plan was not communicated to me, which led to a lot of drama down the line. We live in different states now and the few times I’ve seen her since we’ve been amicable. It just feels like, in hindsight and now that I know the full story, the whole thing seemed avoidable if I had more information.
For Get Lonely, I normally listen to albums in their entirety and things kind of blend together but the songs are largely pretty short. Wild Sage, New Monster Avenue, Half Dead, and Moon Over Goldsboro are some standout tracks for me I’d say. Another track off a different album I’d point to is Source Decay off All Hail West Texas, especially the set of lines (formatting on my phone is hard sorry):
I always get a late start
when the sun's going down
and the traffic's thinning out
and the glare is hard to take
I wish the West Texas highway
was a mobius strip
I could ride it out forever
when I feel my heart break
I almost swear I hear it happen
it's that clear and that hardReplace “West Texas Highway” with “New Jersey Turnpike” and that’s a very lived experience for me.
If you listen to any of those, let me know what you think!
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Comment on Songs/albums that remind you of someone you lost in ~music
tnecniv LinkBasically any Frank Sinatra song makes me think about my grandfather. He was a big fan. At the viewing and the wake when he passed, we just had a playlist of his songs going the whole time. A very...Basically any Frank Sinatra song makes me think about my grandfather. He was a big fan. At the viewing and the wake when he passed, we just had a playlist of his songs going the whole time.
A very unrelated song that makes me think about him is Street of Dreams by Whitesnake. I hadn’t seen my cousins in a long time before the funeral, and we were in the same car during the procession. I forget who but somebody turned on the radio and that song was playing. We all started head-banging instinctually and then immediately looked at each other like “is it okay that we’re doing this in a funeral processions?” Our grandfather probably would have approved (he had a long run, was well into his 90s when he passed after surviving two heart attacks, and would have been happy to see his grandkids having fun together like when we were children at his house). The whole moment just felt very surreal and sticks out in my memory.
Whenever I listen to Bright Eyes, I think about my ex (especially Cassadaga, her favorite). We saw a Conor Oberst concert shortly before we started dating as friends because we were both big fans. We had tickets to see Bright Eyes when they got back together, but the show got postponed indefinitely due to Covid breaking out, and our relationship didn’t last until it was rescheduled. Our breakup was complicated, and I bear no animosity towards her over it, but I ended up just giving her the tickets when the show did happen because it was too much of a messy situation for me at the time despite us discussing just going as friends. I still listen to Bright Eyes often, but when I do I normally end up thinking about why things had to go the way they did for at least a little while.
Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats as a whole just makes me review all the failed relationships I’ve had. Darnielle just has a way of articulating how impactful all small details about an event in life are. Given that it’s basically a concept album about breakups, this is kind of an obvious answer but very few songs about break ups trigger such reflection from me.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (July 2023) in ~health.mental
tnecniv Link ParentJust try to take it one day at a time. Every lawyer I have ever known agrees that the bar exam sucks. My dad has almost wrapped up his legal career and still remembers questions he got wrong on...Just try to take it one day at a time. Every lawyer I have ever known agrees that the bar exam sucks. My dad has almost wrapped up his legal career and still remembers questions he got wrong on his bar exam because it haunted him so much. Some anxiety can be useful with keeping you on task studying, but too much and you’ll prevent yourself from studying in a way that’s helpful. All you can do is give the exam your best shot, so try to give yourself the care you need to be at your best when exam day comes.
Whatever your bachelors is in probably doesn’t matter. The important part is teaching you to think critically. Moreover jobs often have requirements listed that aren’t strictly necessary, but are really more “nice to haves.” I wouldn’t let the years of experience stop you from applying. If there’s a subject or field you want to get into that you believe would really benefit from you having your masters, then by all means, go for it, but if you have a JD, that’s evidence you are quite capable when it comes to understanding and analyzing a complicated system.
An idea might be to contact the career center at the school you got your JD from. You are very likely not the first person to finish law school there and not become a practicing attorney. They might have suggestions on what kind of career options are available and can help you polish your resume and cover letter.
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Comment on Running and the science of mental toughness in ~health
tnecniv Link ParentYou certainly can get the yips in any sport and your mental state will certainly impact your performance. The randomness and semi-individual nature of baseball just amplifies the effect. Baseball...You certainly can get the yips in any sport and your mental state will certainly impact your performance. The randomness and semi-individual nature of baseball just amplifies the effect. Baseball is fundamentally very random. Hitting a fastball in the majors is very hard. Controlling where you hit it is almost impossible, even for high-performing players. There’s a reason why they play 162 games a year — you need that sample size to identify what teams are better than others. Last year the historically good Dodgers got swept by the not very good Pirates, for example. Due to the randomness, you can be doing everything right and still have an awful stretch of games as an individual. If you’re not mentally strong, you’ll start playing worse in ways I mention in the next paragraph, and the cycle is self-reinforcing.
There’s also not really an easy way to take the pressure off. If I am playing basketball, for example, and not shooting well that day, I can focus on getting the ball to a guy on my team who is running hot and still contribute offensively. In other team sports, you can similarly adjust the strategy mid-game to try and compensate for you not having it that day. In baseball, however, you have to bat or pitch — there is no way around it. Other than taking yourself out of the game, there’s not much you can do to let someone else carry some of that weight for you. The result is that guys get in a slump and the pressure to get back to producing like they want starts to get at them: they can’t throw a strike when they need to, or they swing at bad pitches with no patience, etc. Your options are basically to try and work through it in games or sit yourself, which feels like total defeat and risks losing your spot to a replacement.
Yeah it’s definitely an open ended question which is why it’s fun to talk about. Is a guy that can play 4 positions better than a guy that can play 3 even if he isn’t as good offensively? I’m not sure and that likely depends on the team around him.
Like after watching Mookie this season, I’m convinced his raw athleticism could make him a usable sub anywhere, but he’ll never play first because Freeman only plays first, is never hurt, is also dominant offensively, and refuses to take off days. If Freeman did get hurt, Muncy moves back over there well before Mookie plays 1B because it’s easier for us to fill 1B than the middle infield.