Moneyball

I should've been spending my off-time weekend preping my reels for future gigs, but I ended up reading Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

The baseball is a quinssential American past time, an institution with long history. But I thought, Hollywood is also a quinssential American past time, an institution with long history. The baseball players are much like Hollywood stars, paid in millions. (The baseball scouts in the book insist the future MLB stars must have the look and the body. Sound familiar?) Studio execs are like MLB General Managers. What if a Hollywood studio was to operate like Oakland A's with more analytical and scientifical approach? What if the studios made more movies at modest budgets with promising stars, instead of swing-for-the-fences blockbusters with bank-breaking stars? Wouldn't that be something? (Yeah, I know Disney tried that in mid-90s, but that didn't pan out under rising influence of indie scenes.)

The book proved me one thing, and one thing only: people hate to think, hate to change, hate to innovate, if they can coast by it without too much difficulty. The great opportuntities await for people challenging the conventions, milking their creative juice to find the opening where none dare to look. I strive to be one of those people.

This book proved itself by explaing the reason why American dream team lost in the first World Baseball Classic, and small ball Japanese team came out on top. (After losing two straight games to Korean team, by the way.)