For those of you looking for hedge fund industry commentary this week, I am sorry to report that I have nothing to say on that front. It is true we did have a HEDGEAnswers call this week and it went well. If you would like a link to the podcast, please email and I will send it to you.
With that however, I need to write about something unrelated to hedge funds: kids in sports. I have been spending a lot of time on the basketball court and in the stands lately at my son’s baseball games. On the court, I was assistant coach and helped out best I could during the season; in the stands I am just a keen observer of both the game and the parents. I have to say that I find the parents in the stands hysterical to observe. While on the court I was so tuned in to the game that I didn’t hear much from the parents, but in the stands I hear and see it all.
My observation is that baseball parents have lost their minds. After every pitch, every swing, every hit, every strikeout, every error; heck after every play — a parent yells, “Good job!” The kid swings at a bad pitch, you hear, “Good swing!” The kid drops a ball, you hear, “Nice try!” The kid makes a bad throw, you hear, “Nice throw!” Now I am all for positive reinforcement but this is just wrong.
It is sickening, nobody is critical anymore. All they do is say, “Good job, Johnny!” It seems that everybody is so focused on saying “Good job!” that they have forgotten that not everything their son or daughter does is good. In fact, often it is bad, and telling them that they did a good job, in my opinion, encourages continued bad behavior.
Now before all these helicopter parents come after me, I want to make it clear that I believe it is important to encourage my son and daughter to do their best. Still, there needs to be some balance. When my son swings at a bad pitch, he hears it from me; when he drops the ball because he didn’t use two hands, he hears it from me; when he makes a fielding or base- running error because he wasn’t paying attention, he hears it from me. It’s OK to tell your kids they did something wrong. It helps them become better players, better teammates and, most importantly, better people. Being honest about what is going on on the field is better than being dishonest. Parents today are too dishonest for me. This is a real problem.
THINGS THAT DRIVE ME CRAZY
Why is it that when I order an iced coffee from Starbucks it comes complete and when I order a hot coffee from Starbucks it is incomplete? I don’t get it. Coffee is coffee, whether iced or hot. Yet as a hot coffee buyer I am forced to add my own sugar, milk, or what have you. C’mon, iced coffee comes complete with milk and sugar. I asked my local barista why, and the answer I got was, “Well that is just the way it is. It is our policy to serve just coffee to hot coffee buyers and completed drinks to iced coffee buyers.This, my dear friends, is a bad policy. It needs to change.