SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA—In an effort to eschew the tendency for modern AI tools such as ChatGPT to appear neutral while still housing the fundamental biases of their creators within their core, San Jose-based startup Half Full, Inc. announced on Monday the launch of an AI whose goal is optimism, plain and simple. ...
We create and accumulate huge quantities information these days. I don’t think that makes us fundamentally different than our ancestors in terms of organization. What separates us is that it’s now possible to have our data completely disorganized in a way that is invisible to others. This requires an increase in awareness and intentionality to reap the inherent benefits of organization.1 ...
Did I act today in a way that tomorrow’s retrospective would find acceptable, even helpful? Have I established routines and approaches to my life that I can reap next year? These kinds of questions are both common and important. I plan to keep these front of mind for my theme, Year of the Future. ...
As I’ve stated in the past, my annual goal is to read 24 books each year. While that’s a slippery goal as not all books are made the same — it’s certainly true that I’m hesitant to take on large books because of this goal — it still keeps me reading, and that’s the intention behind it. This year, I also tracked what genre I’d consider each book to be in, and what medium (digital or physical) I used to read the book. I don’t really use audiobooks, so those aren’t a consideration. Note that genres are not exclusive; sometimes I would assign multiple genres to the same book if it felt right. In all, I read 25 books by 15 different authors. Among those, 4 were physical books, while all the others I read digitally. My most popular genres were: Science Fiction (8 books) Fantasy (7 books) Literary Fiction (6 books) And finally, the list itself! ...
That’s right, I’ll be the first to put down my foot and say The Lord of the Rings is actually really good. ...
This Blogmas experience proved to be a fun, engaging, and informative project. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I’m glad I dove in and made it happen.1 ...
Hot on the heels of Ultimate Zone Rating is another tool with the same goal: measure a player’s defensive contributions in terms of runs saved. This other statistic, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), doesn’t just have a better name, but in my experience is favored over UZR in most situations. ...
Thanks to the wonderful book The Last Nine Innings by Charles Euchner1 I had an early introduction to some advanced statistics, at least those that were popular a few years into the 21st century. Among these was Ultimate Zone Rating, a first crack at trying to measure how well a player defends their position. ...
Leading into the home stretch, let’s discuss some defensive statistics. As a category, these represent recent innovations in baseball, as defense is the most dynamic aspect of the game. Players can change where they are positioned, which affects their ability to get to a ball. As we gather more data — ball speed off the bat and launch angle — we can better analyze defensive ability. But it’s still messy. ...
We’ve already addressed the concept behind WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in the abstract and for offensive players in particular. Today, we’ll consider how we quantify runs for pitchers and overview calculating their WAR. ...