Uncommon Sense - Latest Comments

Re: No Logo

Chris C. — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:08:44 -0000

I'd be interested, Jerry, in hearing your thoughts about corporatism since in many ways the UC system could benefit from the right kind of corporate changes. But let's talk about brands.

In this example, the idea of a "brand" is designed to present the university in a positive light because the university is a PR and political entity; it relies on private individuals for donations and tuition and the state for funding. It is wholly natural then for the administrators at the UC, as absurd and wasteful as it may seem, to focus on branding as a way to more $$ in general.

The ideal kind of "brand," especially for a public institute of higher learning, doesn't need a fancy logo or advertising--it has quality that basically speaks for itself (see Costco, for instance). Unfortunately, since it's extremely hard for us to measure what kind of quality a university has, we resort to crap like US News rankings and more subtle measures of prestige and utility. These end up mattering in who goes to college, who pays for college, and who contributes to college. But it's hard to differentiate between universities these days since all universities apparently have gotten some memo that they must all be like each other. Go check out every university website or go on any university tour--it's all the same crap about nice gym! and sports! and clubs! and a library! and a generic tradition! and study abroad! etc. etc. etc.

This brings me back to the important of branding: A university is like bottled water--nobody's really sure what it does (though everyone says it's good for you) and all the different kinds of it seem to have the same unclear effect, so it comes down to branding to sell it. And the more prestigious the brand, for whatever reason, the "better" it's perceived (which is why Perrier can sell for $1.50 more than non-Perrier water). Again, this makes the branding part so much more important than it ought to be, but unless UC can show otherwise that it's a quality investment, it's going to keep selling its soul to the PR/branding idiots.

Frankly, I'd prefer a strong defense of a liberal education like this by Thaddeus Stevens, but I doubt people would read it, much less be convinced by it, today: http://ia600402.us.archive....

Re: No Logo

Jerry Vinokurov — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:03:13 -0000

Thanks for the compliment!

Re: No Logo

Steven King — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:38:41 -0000

brilliant piece. you've peeled back numerous layers of the onion, and found the rot within.

Re: No Logo

Jerry Vinokurov — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:54:49 -0000

Yeah, that's certainly true. In this particular case I'm willing to give them a pass on it to some extent if only because the whole goal of this campaign is basically to convince people to spend more money on public education. Unfortunately the means by which this is being done goes a long way toward undermining the ostensible goal.

Re: No Logo

Juliana — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:48:53 -0000

You forgot to talk about how this helps to justify 100+% tuition increases.

Re: Slavery is Freedom

Jerry Vinokurov — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:39:56 -0000

Interesting that you mention Jamal Crawford. It made me think of how hard it is to properly evaluate guys like that with just box score info. Like, we know that Crawford, or J.R. Smith, are guys who can win a game for you with pure shooting, but they can also kill you because they don't know when to stop. I think the real value of players like that is captured not so much in that they're the only scorers on the floor (they're usually not) but rather in the fact that they demand coverage. How many closeouts does Crawford pull that free up room for others to operate? It's basically the concept of "spacing" which everyone recognizes is important but which remains largely unquantified from information that is publicly available.

Re: Slavery is Freedom

Andrew Hart19 — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:29:42 -0000

Good insight. Looking at, for example, the Wins Produced model in light of your comments, it's easy to see how constraints can help advance understanding of potential shortfalls. The only constraint that that particular model incorporates is position; it weights by position because you can't have five seven-footers on the court an any one time.

But one particular constraint that I think that model fails to capture is that you also can't have five non-scorers on the court at one time: someone out there has to be able to put the ball in the hoop. It's hard to see why someone like Jamal Crawford is valuable unless you understand this fact. A lineup of a bunch of Thabo Sefolosha, Dennis Rodman, and Marcus Camby types might be insanely good at getting you extra possessions via steals, rebounds, not turning it over, etc., but it won't be able to do anything with those extra possessions. A lineup of four of those guys and Allen Iverson might be able to make an NBA finals, even if Iverson is an inefficient player.

Re: First Impressions

MikeCheyne — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:54:00 -0000

Oddly enough, almost every coach who has won the NBA Finals since 1990 is a Hall of Famer or likely Hall of Famer (the fringe candidates now would be Doc and Rick, who have good credentials and a way to go, and Spoestra, who is very young). If I recall, the "Basketball Hall of Fame" weighs college equally as much, so that explains why Larry Brown got in (before he even won his NBA championship!).

Re: First Impressions

Jerry Vinokurov — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:26:13 -0000

I think Rick is going to be in the HOF eventually. He's so good that as long as he sticks around, decent teams will be employing him. How many title-winning coaches are there in the NBA right now? Him, Spoelstra, Doc, and Pop. And Rick is relatively young as well, so he's got a lot of distance to go. If Larry Brown can get in, any of these other guys can too (of course Pop will be an automatic first-ballot selection).

I'm actually more optimistic about the Mavs than it seems, but if you look at their roster, it looks like shit. Literally players who were not good enough to make it on other teams (except for Marion). Who knows, maybe Darren Collison is actually awesome and Roddy is going to play well, and Curry won't be a complete sieve on defense. And I understand the Mavs played the long game and lost (but on the other hand they could be back in the FA market as early as next year...) but no one is voluntarily picking a roster like this.

Re: First Impressions

MikeCheyne — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:16:09 -0000

You're pretty pessimistic about the Mavericks. Obviously this isn't a top 4 in the West type team, but I think it's perfectly capable of sniping into a lowish payoff seed, and well, generally speaking, once you get in the playoffs, who knows what can happen.

What do you think about Rick Carlisle's Hall of Fame chances?

Re: Useful Information for New Parents

Shefali — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:27:44 -0000

Ha. You're a funny guy. Glad I discovered your blog via your devastatingly witty comments on Crooked Timber. Haven't really read past this post yet, but I will. Salut.

Re: testing facebook integration

Gordon Arsenoff — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:28:14 -0000

This third thing works as well

Re: testing facebook integration

Chuck Norris — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:00:19 -0000

I did most of these things. Vinokurov is a liar and Wolf is no better - Chuck Norris

Re: testing facebook integration

Jerry Vinokurov — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:59:19 -0000

what happens now

Re: testing facebook integration

Jerry Vinokurov — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:23:17 -0000

buttttttttts

Re: Fuck your numbers, hippie

Andrew — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:42:00 -0000

Jerry: http://jugarelbaloncesto.bl...

Re: A meditation upon buses

Steve — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:41:52 -0000

Then the best part is when the rationale behind cutting public transit is because no one uses it. Why do you think no one uses it?

Re: A meditation upon buses

Jerry Vinokurov — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:25:15 -0000

I don't see any evidence in Pittsburgh that unions are particularly harming the bus infrastructure. Anyway that's kind of an orthogonal discussion, because I think that unions have value in providing their members with a living wage. Nothing prevents us from paying bus drivers decently and having a decent system as well; we can more than afford it if we so choose. The tragedy is that we never make that choice.

Re: A meditation upon buses

Bruce — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:51:04 -0000

I would be remiss if I did not point out the pernicious effects of unions on public transit systems. Workers taking long breaks with impunity, being difficult to fire, and charging high hourly costs does not make the system any more efficient. And how much more maintenance and construction could be done - and at more hours of the day - if not for inflated union wages?

Re: Once more unto the breach, dear friends

Jerry Vinokurov — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:24:14 -0000

True. I'm just a really lazy person, unfortunately, and I need external signifiers to come along and kick my ass once in a while.

Re: Once more unto the breach, dear friends

Juliana — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:09:01 -0000

Those first two paragraphs could have been pulled from my head!

If you make resolutions year-round, the ones on (note: not *for*) New Year's needn't have that unnecessary, usually undermining significance.

Re: Reading Rorty

Bernadette — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:51:11 -0000

I am quite excited by this.

Re: Reading Rorty

Jerry Vinokurov — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:56:42 -0000

Andrew, I'm sure I'm going to make all sorts of mistakes in my interpretation so if you want to chime in from time to time I would definitely appreciate that.

Re: Reading Rorty

Andrew — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 05:24:35 -0000

I remember when he had a stack of these in hardback outside his office; to this day, I regret not picking up a bunch.

Re: Inglorious Basterds

Jerry Vinokurov — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:53:24 -0000

That doesn't make much sense to me. I suppose it's possible, and I wouldn't put it past Tarantino to at least be partially motivated by that, but I don't think that accounts for the whole of the movie.