My entry in an MOOC - Diving in Football

It's been very busy busy over the past few weeks. Having nothing to do before other than read football articles on the web and stare at any update coming on facebook after office hours, I came upon this site on my College alum forum, and decided to take a plunge at a couple of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) (I do recommend Coursera to everyone, it's a great way to recap your past learnings and, if you pay a nominal amount, get verified certificates to prove you have done something!)

As part of one of the courses I was doing (A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behaviour by Dan Ariely), we were asked to identify an irrational behaviour and provide solutions to solve this behaviour. The following entry below was my entry to this assignment. I would love to hear opinions/feedback/ other possible solutions or anything else, for that matter, on this.

Diving in football

This is one of the issues that FIFA has been trying to solve for a long time now. Wikipedia defines diving as an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by diving to the ground and possibly feigning an injury, to appear as if a foul has been committed. Alexandra Pizzera and Markus Raab, in their paper “Does Motor or Visual Experience Enhance the Detection of Deceptive Movements in Football?” define Deceptive movements as movements that purposely mislead the observer or opponent as to the attacker’s true intention or direction of movement. Dives are often used to exaggerate the amount of contact present in a challenge. Deciding on whether a player has dived is often very subjective, and one of the most controversial aspects of football discussion.

Whilst this behaviour was not detectable in yester years of the game, this has become very rampant in the modern version of the game. Consider the following statistics on the EPL by Opta:

1. A QUARTER of English Premier League football players who fall down after being tackled are diving
2. In the season of 2009-2010 in the EPL, a total of 168 yellow cards were shown for diving, dissent or swearing. That’s 1 card every 2 games. And these are simulations detected by the referees; there is a possibility of many more not being caught by the referees.)

This clearly shows that this behaviour is rampant in football, and there is a need to eradicate the same from the game.

Why is this behaviour problematic?

Say you are in the 85^th minute of the game. The team in red is in the penalty area going for goal against the blue team. The striker has the ball with him, and is dribbling the ball against the blue defenders. All of a sudden, the striker, while trying to go past a defender, simulates a dive and goes down like a pack of pins. The referee blows the whistle and indicates a penalty to the red team, much to the dismay of the blue team. Even worse, as it was a clear run on goal, the blue defender gets a straight red card, and the blue team is now down to 10 men. The red team scores the penalty and the blue team just doesn’t have the time to get back in the game.

The situation above happens quite a lot in the game. Players look for the minutest of opportunities to simulate a dive and gain unfair advantage. You can clearly see why this behaviour is problematic, and needs to be removed from the game.

Research on this behaviour

1. Tackling Diving: The Perception of Deceptive Intentions in Association Football (Soccer) [Paul H. Morris and David Lewis]: This talks about how footballers attempt to deceptively exaggerate the effect of a tackle, and also provides a taxonomy of typical behaviours associated with deceptive actions.
2. The act of simulation in football appears to be within the fudge factor range of honesty (Week 3 Lecture 1). This also creates a conflict of interest in the player, with the reward of simulation (a penalty or free kick and possible card to opposing player) being much higher than the loss if he does get caught (yellow card to player).
3. Does Motor or Visual Experience Enhance the Detection of Deceptive Movements in Football? [Alexandra Pizzera and Markus Raab]: This talks about whether motor and visual experiences enhance the detection of deceptive and non-deceptive actions in football. This study shows that prior visual experience in football was shown to enhance deception detection.

Solutions

• A solution based on the research is to train the referees through motor and visual training so that detection of the same increases during the match days. Training through videos increases the chances of the referees to catch such simulations on the field. However, this does not put the onus on the player to reduce the behaviour, and chances are that the behaviour would still continue, if not increase.

I believe that in order to greatly reduce this problematic behaviour in the game, the following would need to be followed:

• When a player is caught simulating in a game, the team is penalized a goal. The goal is the most important statistic in any game. So, penalizing the team for the simulation would induce the factor of loss aversion and the player would look at not simulating from next time onwards, as now the team would directly get penalized by a goal, rather than by something that could lead to a goal. We would also be reducing the fudge factor, as now the player committing the dive could be blamed for the loss of the team.
• In addition to this, we would introduce a simulation tax in the salary structure of each of the players. If the player is caught simulating, the amount, decided by the FA, would be deducted from the particular players salary. This would create a loss aversion on the individual player.

The age old Konundrum

PREFACE: All of the below is meant in good taste. :)

The most important decade of your life is probably the decade between 15-30. This is the time when a lot of things happen that potentially define the rest of your life, like:

1. You graduate from your college with a degree, and enter the world out there.
2. After a couple of years coding, get irritated with the sheer amount of copy pasting and googling involved, and prepare for your post graduation, and a means to reach ultimate happiness! For most of us, that would mean giving the CAT and entering the RAT race to get into those prestigious B-schools.
3. Go from a slim, athletic person to a plump, stout guy in a matter of a year or two, as the amount of idleness involved while in our professional lives takes a toll on our bodies. (Sometimes waking us up from our slumber and actually trying out those gyms to reduce and impress them lady professionals! ;))
4. Fall in love with someone on the way, and develop your emotional side for possible breakups or, if you are really really lucky, carry it forward to marriage!
5. For those not so lucky in finding that special one, have constant pressure from your relatives, parents, neighbours, other friends who are already married, till one fine day you say "OK FINE I'LL DO IT!", and start on your way to projecting your former slim self on portals specifically designed to ensure that  the better slimmer (on photos!!!) get to see other people who would have put similar covered up photos.

It is simply amazing how parents tend to motivate their children to go ahead in their life, especially during these few years. They almost always use extrinsic motivational techniques, and their most used, abused tool is the carrot and stick.

1. When you are a kid, you are in the tenth standard. Your first board exams!!!! GASP!! TOO MUCH TO STUDY!!! What do your parents tell you?? "Beta/Kutti/DAI (a very affectionate way of calling your kid in Tamil) you only have to study now. Your life will be made after this for sure!!!". You say to yourself "OK just a few more days to eternal happiness!" and somehow pass your board exams with flying colours.
2. Two years later, and you find yourself giving ANOTHER board exam. This time your XII boards. What do your parents tell you? "Beta.. you only have to study now. Your life will be made after this for sure!!!" You are at that stage in your life, where you think you have heard this before, but still think it cool that you need not study so much from now on, and give it one final push to pass your second board exams with flying colours.
3. Graduation. Again the same old studying and the need to pass your exams. What do your parents tell you? "DAI! Study now! Once you get your job your life is settled". You see, parents would ave learnt from the first two times that saying the same thing may not work the third time, hence they add another extrinsic motivation in your mind, a JOB. You think "Meh. I've heard this before. However, getting a job does sound interesting." And thus you reduce to cramming for the exams the last day and getting your degree.
4. A couple of years into your job, you realize you're through coding (I'm sure most Indians would think that, you B.Techers!). What do your parents say? "DEI! Do post graduation in MBA. You will get extra salary. Once you get new job your life will be made for sure!!". You think to yourself "Where have I heard THIS before?!?!".... but then do a simple comparison between coding now for X salary and showing that others have coded for 3X salary and realize that the benefits hugely outweigh any costs. You take the plunge and do your MBA.
5. You are now showing that others have coded for 3X salary. Life, ideally should look good and made for sure. WRONG. Parents say now "DEI! You have gotten good job with good salary and everything. Now bring good girl to family, and your life will be made for sure!!". You would also get subtle references life "Hey did you know it is your friends wedding next month?". You think " Will this ever end??" and start forecasting projected scenarios of how this could continue in the near distant future (After all, you do have to make some use of the things you learnt in your MBA, right?) and finally realize that this is a vicious cycle that will never end, for after the girl comes to the family, kids would make your life made. And by the time you achieve everything, you would have been primed to take this cycle ahead with your children.

All of the above happens when you are in your prime, and it is upto us to solve this age old konundrum. All the best to those of us who have almost completed this cycle, and to those who are just beginning on theirs!

Maths and the Languages

Ever wonder why the Asians are inherently better in Maths than the Europeans and the Americans? Malcolm Gladwell gives a very interesting and thought provoking analysis of this phenomenon in his book "Outliers" (It's a MUST READ if you ask me, a lot of interesting stuff mentioned in this book!). The basic funda over here is that the way the language number naming system is structured makes it easier for an Asian to do 2 things :

1) Memorize more numbers than what an American or European could.

2) Easily do basic calculations (Additions, subtractions) on the top of your head, or quicker than the Europeans/Americans.

This got me thinking. Does this work in the Indian Context as well? Do the difference in the number naming systems in Hindi and in any of the South Indian Languages (Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada or Telugu) have an effect on our conception and understanding of Math? Can being good in Math also be rooted in the group's culture? Let's put it to the test.

I'm taking Malayalam as an example, but for all the south indian languages, the number systems are similar.

The Malayalam number naming system is logical in nature. 11, for example, is said as "ten-one", whilst the tens (other than 20) are said as "three-ten","four-ten" etc. (30 : Muppathu "Moonu-pathu")

Hindi, on the other hand, has a much more complicated logic in their numbering. Hindi cardinal numbers up to 100 have no specific standardization. Up to 20, the numbers are unique. After that each tenth number (such as 30, 40 etc) is unique. The rest of the numbers take the form of prefix of incremental digit and the base of preceding tenth number. However these prefixes and bases vary slightly and random manner.

Now, if we were to ask a South Indian youngster (a seven year old) to actually mentally calculate the sum of two numbers (say 17 + 42), it would actually be easier to do so in Malayalam, as he would automatically say "one-ten-seven" + "four-ten-two", thus getting "five-ten-nine". However, as a Hindi speaking youngster to add the numbers, and he would have to convert the words to numbers, and only then would be able to do the math. 

This would show that South Indians are able to learn the basics of Mathematics much quicker than the North Indians, and would thus, on a whole, be better off than the North Indians in Mathematics. And this has always been the general perception as well. (Well, please do correct me if I am wrong!).

On the other hand, the Chinese, Koreans etc. have an even more logical number naming system, and are thus able to grasp and learn mathematics even faster, which is why you see the Chinese always doing better than the Indians in exams like GMAT

Thus, it goes to show that what is perceived as an apparent attraction to a subject may have a more culturally rooted reason to the pattern. So don't worry if you are not good in Math, you can always blame your forefathers!!

Do comment on your views, would love to hear from you!

So what has changed???

There used to be a time when life used to be much simpler. All you had to worry about were those meddling assignments and exams. The rest of your life was all about playing badminton, drinking beer, having food, playing Counter-Strike, flirting with the opposite sex and partying through the night. The hardest you had to do was to try to stay awake in class and try to sleep at night. You had all the time in the world to do whatever you want.

And then came placements. The single biggest phenomenon that would change your life forever. It's the gateway to, what we see at that point in time, infinite prosperity and happiness! 

Two years hence, after getting into the harsh reality that is the corporate world, I ask myself this one question.

So what has changed???

Let us take each point from the first paragraph and scrutinize.

1. All you had to worry about were those meddling assignments and exams : Well... these ain't there no more! However, these have been very conveniently replaced by ratings and salary hikes. The difference? Getting lower marks in your assignments and exams never made you sad.



Y U NO GROW SALARY!!!

2. The rest of your life was all about..... : Life? Do we have something called that now?!!?!?!
• Playing Badminton : That's not there now. It has been replaced by Table Tennis. You just never lose those damn calories with this game, though.
• Drinking Beer : This neither. However, the pot belly has come!
• Having food : Oh yes. This is a basic necessity, after all. But, with your newly profound sedentary lifestyle, with you having to use your brain (Apparently!!) more, having this is going add to that belly!
• Playing Counter-Strike : ummmm..... what's that game, now?
• Flirting with the opposite sex : This is possibly the only thing keeping us sane while in the corporate world. Especially when you are single and very much ready to mingle. Or even for that matter if you are taken or married. The fact that your day becomes much brighter just by seeing that pretty face makes you believe that there is something to always look forward to in this chaotic konundrum called "life".



Wouldn't you just love it if you could see her everyday!! 

• Partying through the night : If partying means "spending long hours outside your home making that presentation for someone else to present", then yes, you would be partying through the night. Every night.
3. The hardest you had to do was to try to stay awake in class and try to sleep at night : Well, now its just the opposite. You just end up staying awake through all the meetings and by the time you reach home and just touch the bed you are fast asleep dreaming about that person in office. Ah! The one thing that make your dreams sweet!
4. You had all the time in the world to do anything you want : Well, how that has changed!!! Weekdays in office, and by the time its the weekend, you have time to only catch up on the sleep you lost during the week.... and *poof* its Monday and time to run off to work again! Or Sunday, if you are in the Gulf.

So yeah, quite a lot has changed. But then, I remember those wonderful words spoken by those souls who were "Waiting for the end" and were "Not Alone".

"But in the end, it doesn't even matter....". (Though, if you really look at it, it DID matter to these guys, because without that song, they wouldn't have gotten to where they were!!!! Ah, the irony of life!!!).

And with that, I take my leave to wake up to a new tomorrow. Cheers!

The return of the Konundrum

One year and one month. Since my last post. Talk about stagnation!

It's high time this place started "happening" again!

Where were you when the clock struck 12?

Many of you would have planned something big this New Years. A big party bash at the biggest partying places in your city, or a big house party, with the basic idea of getting bhajaofied (AKA drunk out of your brains) before entering the new decade, or even some quality time at home with your family. I am pretty sure, however, that not many of you would have spent any New Years about 15000 feet in the air.

5.30 PM

I had been staring at the clock ever since lunch, except for the couple of times I went to the coffee machine to take some of that delicious cappuccino, and also that once when I had to rush to the loo. I had to take printouts of the tickets I had booked at the spur of the moment, to go to Bengaluru.

Trying to take a printout in my office is an exercise in itself. Quite literally. You click the print button, and you will have to walk atleast 5 kms before you reach the printer. It's even worse when you find out that the printout hasn't come. By the time you take your round trips, I guarantee you would have lost a good 2-3 kgs of that "After joining work, sitting the whole day not moving that lazy body of yours" fat.

Anyways, after half an hour of jostling between my system and the printer, I finally (FINALLY!!!!!!) managed to get my hands on those printouts. It was then time to run out of the office, faster than the speed of light, because the flight was scheduled for 7.50 that evening. Given that all the other people in Mumbai (And, By Lord, that is one HUGE number. The number of people in Mumbai, that is.) would have been in the same frantic mood as I was at that time, I expected nothing short of pandemonium on the roads.

7.00 PM

I finally reach the airport. I had everything planned.

Flight leaves Mumbai - 7.50 PM

Flight reaches Bengaluru - 9.20 PM

I reach my place of stay - 10.40 PM

Well in time to celebrate the new years in style! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CAN GO WRONG NOW!

I reach the check-in counter, in the hope that I get a window seat. I overhear at the other counter, a flight being postponed to 9.10. Me thinks "Oh man. I just hope that doesn't happen to me!". And then it happens. Murphy's law always kicks in at the wrong time.

I get informed that the flight has been postponed to 9.10 PM. My spirits are still high. I can still reach my place by 11.50. TIJUSTME (Very very few of you who responded to a certain "Achromatica" puzzle set by me a couple of years back, while at MDI, will understand what I have just written here.) to celebrate the New Years. YIPPEEE!!

8.20 PM

I suddenly feel very hungry. I suddenly realize that I have been on Facebook for too long.(You have no idea how time flies when the only thing you do is sit and stare at the "Top Stories" section refresh itself every second with a new status message from another person who would be doing the absolute same thing.) I get up and go to the nearest food counter. All my hunger goes away after just seeing the prices of all the food items on display. (Rs. 100 for a friggin' sandwich!! YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!) After having that sandwich, I go back to doing what I do best when I have nothing else to do. Facebook.

9.05 PM

"Isn't the flight supposed to leave at 9.10?"

"Why am I still sitting here at the waiting area?"

"Have I been so engrossed at the changing statuses that I missed the flight??!?!?!"

"Why are so many people crowded at the Go Air counter and shouting their heads out?"

These were some of the thoughts going through my mind at that time. I stand up and check the departure timings on the screen, only to find out that the departure has been postponed to 9.50 PM!! Then I understood why all those people were shouting their heads out.

It's always the case, isn't it? There will always be those few hot headed people, who would blow their heads out even if some event is five minutes late. Always bodes well for us mild types. We just sit and watch the fun, and most gleefully consume all the freebies that come along.

And that's exactly what happened here. In their quest to appease those hot headed types, they gave free food to all passengers of the flight. I sighed. IF ONLY THEY HAD BEEN HOT HEADED A FEW MINUTES AGO, I WOULDN'T HAVE BOUGHT THAT EXTREMELY OVER THE TOP PRICED SANDWICH!

9.50 PM

The next hot headed session starts. Now the flight is supposed to reach at 10.15. I now secretly hoped and prayed that the flight would delay even further, for I would be one of those very few people in the whole wide world who would have spent their New Years 30000 feet in the air!!

The flight did finally leave, at 10.40 PM. It was about to land at Bengaluru, when the clock struck 12, and the new decade began. Unfortunately, this time around, there was no one to share this special moment with.

And that's how I spent my New Years. How did you guys fare??

PS : I just realized that there will be some people who, if they read this, will set out to kill me on the spot. I apologize profusely. I really REALLY REALLY couldn't make it!

PPS: TIJUSTME - Just In Time. (How many of you did get this right?? And DON'T LIE!!)

Office Office!

Ah yes. It shows. No posts of late. Work has officially started.

Gone are the days of sitting in front of your personal laptop, testing it to the core with the latest games. Gone are the days of sitting at home doing nothing, but telling the whole world that you are "working from home". Gone are the days of taking random trips outside while having to be "present" in "office". Gone are the days of drinking all through the night, every night.

The honeymoon period is now officially over!

BUT... not all is bad at the workplace. There are few good things to take away from where I currently work. For one, theres a cute woman who has recently joined. THAT'S REASON ENOUGH TO BE AT WORK ALL DAY! Amazingly, there happened to be that "jump" and "liveliness" in the area where I am seated, the day she joined. You know that feeling when you have suddenly won a million gazillion dollars? That was how excited my area was, that day.

Unfortunately, we are in two different teams. It is one of life's hardest challenges to introduce yourself to a cute woman who happens to be in a different team. You see, if she were in the same team, you have something to start off with. The "HEY! I'M IN YOUR TEAM" is a great conversation starter.

But, that advantage is lost when you are not in the same team. Even when you are sitting diagonally opposite her. You now have to resort to studying her movement patterns, and try to match yours with hers. The best way is to study her coffee drinking patterns. Learning whether she likes coffee or not. Like they say "A lot can happen over coffee"! A casual "bump" near the coffee machine is probably the best way to start off with the "HEY! I SIT DIAGONALLY OPPOSITE TO YOU!" conversation. At least I hold that card with me! I pity those people who do not even have that! (Actually, I laugh at them "HA HA!".)

The latest craze in town, at-least in the office, is now Microsoft Outlook. In a place where Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo!, and the like are banned, what better way to have a lively chat with your fellow friends from office (and outside) than through Outlook! The latest gossip, the hottest news, even heartfelt discussions about life, now spread across even faster than the speed of light! Lots of trips have been planned from here. Which never ever work out. Oh, and office work stuff happens too.

But one thing is true at the workplace (At-least to me it is!). Whether you are in your honeymoon period or not, you are DEAD tired by the time you reach home. It's amazing how as soon as you see the bed in your room after coming back from office, your first reaction is to dive into it and snuggle under the blanket. The "pretty cool" Mumbai weather makes it even easier for you to go to dreamland, and that much harder to get out of it.

Mornings during the winters are probably the worst time of the day! Especially in winters, when that blanket fills you up with so much warmth, that even thinking of getting out of it gives you the shivers. Corporate India should officially change office timings so that we, the common man, can get to snuggle under our "Rugs", "Rajais" and "Blankets" for as long in the morning as we want! IT SHOULD BE OUR BIRTHRIGHT! (At-least during the winters, IT SHOULD BE!)

Well, this is all I can write for now. My eyes are giving way, and I can already see the warm beaches of Dreamland... better get to sleep now! For tomorrow is a new day, with new things to look forward to! Ciao, for now.