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I'm reading D'Alembert's Dream by Diderot at the moment, which puts some very controversial words (at the time) into the mouths of real and well-known people. Apparently they got upset and demanded he destroy the manuscript, which he did, but someone kept a copy and persuaded him to publish...

I found this great, so it gets my strong recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/Style-Lessons-Clarity-Grace-12th/dp/0134080416/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=style+ten+lessons+in+clarity+and+grace&qid=1634041944&sr=8-1 For a very short version of most of the principles (written thinking about...

This reminds me of a teaching style Tim Gallwey (the Inner Game guy) uses - having the player pay attention to particular parts of their actions and letting their body figure out how best to perform them. I'm skeptical about whether that would work for snooker (and to a lesser extent pool)...

You know, you don't see that many small-venue snooker/pool exhibitions now. Snooker clearly 'outgrew' them, and I wonder if now it can't quite bring itself to shrink back into doing them again - even though they might make sense again. I suppose in snooker, the prize money is such that the top...

I think forums of that type are a legitimate concern though. On the internet in general, the worst of that type of content has been very successful at misleading people, or needling people into taking extreme and intolerant stands. Not just making society more toxic, but in the covid era...

From Dyer's book The Hustler and the Champ (Fats and Mosconi), I came away thinking he almost certainly was the father. It seemed fairly certain he socialized with Etta's mother at the right kind of time. But I don't know much about it. There's a great quote from Fats in Fast Company along the...

Do you think the pros who say they stay on the vertical axis just don't realize what they're actually doing? And does that apply to most pros - that they think they're on the vertical axis for most shots, but really aren't?

They say one bad general is better than two good generals...

What an interesting idea! I really like it. I'm not saying I agree with the implications for pool, but I love the philosophy.

Fairness, avoiding arguments. Maybe doing (similar to) what Matchroom do with snooker. I liked your argument about amateur players wanting to feel like they could do justice to themselves. On the other hand, someone else suggested the lack of practice could have been responsible for a lot of...

I like the idea of making it slightly harder for the players, if all are affected equally. Very hard to enforce equal non-practice for all, all the time, though. More mistakes (maybe) make for better viewing.

It sank, didn't it?

I think a starting point is whether the competition attracts most of the top players. That alone can't be enough, or a lot of pro events could all be world championships (for players to hold the title for about a week!) When John Roberts Junior used to bypass the billiards championship, I guess...

I don't know whether to blame pool politics, wikipedia, or my own ignorance...

Hang on, it looks like there was a (non-BCA) World 9-Ball Championship, and Allen Hopkins won that too.

Did 'Parcia' ever get inducted into the hall of fame? I remember watching a video where he was griping about other players with similar records getting recognized... (Okay, realizing how lazy it would have been to just ask without googling, I've checked and he was inducted in 2014.) I know the...

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I feel I'm a little bit wiser for having read it! I guess that's an aspect of the pro's journey you don't ever really see.

Objectively, I think pro pool would be a better entertainment spectacle if the players were less good, so that run-outs were a bit rarer and more special, and there was more back-and-forth, more drama. Of course, it would be madness to imagine a world where the pro game was deliberately...

Let's not get carried away, I'm managing! Coming at greater meaning from a philosophical perspective, I'm with Camus - there's none, at least none that we can know right now, and the best we can do is make meaning for ourselves. But I think the people who get existentially morbid about it are...

When I used to play poker, I once had the opportunity to buy a t-shirt that said "CAN I POKE YOU?" I declined, and have regretted it ever since. If you remember the Greg Raymer 'Fossilman' glasses story, that's pretty much how I envisioned using the shirt, unzipping a top to show the text while...