Former Google data scientist and bestselling author of Everybody Lies Seth Stephens-Davidowitz turns his analytic skills to the NBA.
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, a lecturer at The Wharton School, and a former Google data scientist. He received a BA from Stanford and a PhD from Harvard. He is the author of Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are and Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life.
Shermer and Stephens-Davidowitz discuss:
- how he used AI to help write this book
- players systematically undervalued in the draft
- Are clutch shooters born or made?
- the percent of 7-footers in the NBA
- why tall NBA players are worse athletes than short NBA players
- the greatest NBA players adjusted for height
- names as proxies for success (or not)
- why some countries produce so many more NBA players than others
- who would be the best NBA player of all time if every player were the same height
- What percent genetic is basketball talent? And how does this compare to other sports?
- What advantages do NBA player fathers pass on to their sons?
- How much do NBA coaches matter and what do they do?
- Will any time win 11 NBA titles like Bill Russell’s Celtics did?
- why no one hits .400 in baseball any more
- Six sigma in sports and life
- nature/nurture in sports and life
- In a population of 8 billion today compared to centuries past, where are all the Mozarts, Beethovens, Da Vincis, Newtons, Darwins, etc.?
- the Moneyball revolution in sports
- how to apply the moneyball system in life
- What makes people happy?
- How much do good looks matter?
- How much does height and competent faces influence elections?
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Topics: artificial intelligence, genetics, happiness, heredity, nature versus nurture, NBA, Science Salon, sports, The Michael Shermer Show
This episode was released on February 6, 2024.
