There are a small number of NFL games I watch each season. Sunday’s Vikings vs. Packers game always makes the list. Sitting in the comfort of my own home – just a couple miles from where this down-to-the-wire game was played – my mind wondered how engaged I was in the game.
I sketched out this scale:
- Reading about the game
- Writing about the game
- Listening to commentary on the game
- Watching the game on television
- Commentating on the game
- Changing your clothes for the game
- Betting on the game
- Watching from the stands
- Watching from the bench
- Refereeing the game
- Coaching the game
- Playing the game
- Being the ball
(I’m a 4. Even my son’s a 6.)
Notice the further down the scale we go, the fewer the number of people participating and the greater their participation.
Seems consistent with the 1% power law behind Wikipedia.
Thanks to you just now, I’m a 1.
I’m a 6, too. Would not ever want to be the ball, tho!
I am the ball. Er…there is no spoon. Wait, now I’m confused.
When does Twins season start?
Power laws are fun (and everywhere). Your list corresponds to probability of an event happening which you can convert to the disorder (entropy) of the event happening and then the information content of the event.
So what does this mean? If you are the ball, you are very informative (unique) event (goes without saying). While if you just read about the game, that isn’t of much note (except in the upside down world of twitter).
Isn’t information theory fun 🙂
Enjoy the blog, fellow Minnesotian, just discovered it.
Shouldn’t Refereeing the game be number 12, below Coaching and Playing? They are quite involved with the game, and there are only 7 of them on the field, as compared with the 20+ players on the field at once. I’m probably over analyzing.