Purdue BS Thoughts On Bobinski and GT

Skeptic

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,372
YJMD said:
Well, the point about our systemic issues may be valid. I don't know much about the AD office, but at a minimum there is a discrepancy in alignment between athletics and academics, some of which may be difficult to rectify. But it will take someone who is capable of challenging the status quo to change things. I know from experience in convoluted institutional politics that many people capable of positive contribution are inhibited by nothing more than the group perception that the contribution will go nowhere.

A useful allegory:
  • A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on top.
  • Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water.
  • After a while, every time a monkey would start up the ladder, the others would pull it down and beat it up.
  • After a time, no monkey would dare try climbing the ladder, no matter how great the temptation.
  • The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys. The first thing this new monkey did was start to climb the ladder. Immediately, the others pulled him down and beat him up.
  • After several beatings, the new monkey learned never to go up the ladder, even though there was no evident reason not to, aside from the beatings.
  • The second monkey was substituted and the same occurred. The first monkey participated in the beating of the second monkey. A third monkey was changed and the same was repeated. The fourth monkey was changed, resulting in the same, before the fifth was finally replaced as well.
  • What was left was a group of five monkeys that – without ever having received a cold shower – continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.
  • If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they beat up on all those who attempted to climb the ladder, their most likely answer would be “I don’t know. It’s just how things are done around here.”
Click to expand...
You technical people have the sexiest stories.
 

Skeptic

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,372
Other than being a longtime sidewalk fan who loves Johnson's offense and despite his tendency toward silly brittleness, I like Johnson. So I didn't attend, don't send money, catch a couple of games a year, and have nothing vested in the school or its hirings. That being said, and not knowing much about Bobinski except he had no football background. I thought it was an odd hire at a school that relies on big time football so much (start at the top, it's too crowded at the bottom?) his handling of the Johnson contract negotiations was to me insulting. He needlessly strung it out and as one poster noted, foolishly dismissed concerns about effects on recruiting, and seemed to me to have Johnson on a short leash despite his record. All of which said that if Johnson has animus toward him he has reason, and Tech is a lot better off with Bobinski at Purdue. (I kinda doubt he is the guy to lift Purdue from its very long-term football irrelevance, no matter who he hired. They are far, far behind a surging Big Ten football curve.)

Then again maybe I am biased because the new guy all but canonized Johnson. And he actually knows something about football.
 

Skeptic

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,372
YJMD said:
Lol. I'm a psychiatrist. In a lot of ways I'm the least technical person. :)

But I did get out from Tech with a CompE degree, so I guess I'm just a paradox?
Click to expand...
Ah, that's all in your head. But who better to understand a Tech fan?
 

Oldgoldandwhite

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,774
The one thing I wished he had done is messed with the beesball program. GT BB should be in the hunt every year. We have the closest to a sure thing of any team out there. I would compare us not going to the CWS on a regular basis, as an absolute mockery and disgrace.
 
COJacket

COJacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
794
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
Oldgoldandwhite said:
The one thing I wished he had done is messed with the beesball program. GT BB should be in the hunt every year. We have the closest to a sure thing of any team out there. I would compare us not going to the CWS on a regular basis, as an absolute mockery and disgrace.
Click to expand...
Going to the CWS on a regular basis is "just how things are down around here"(y)
 
AE 87

AE 87

Helluva Engineer
Messages
13,027
YJMD said:
Well, the point about our systemic issues may be valid. I don't know much about the AD office, but at a minimum there is a discrepancy in alignment between athletics and academics, some of which may be difficult to rectify. But it will take someone who is capable of challenging the status quo to change things. I know from experience in convoluted institutional politics that many people capable of positive contribution are inhibited by nothing more than the group perception that the contribution will go nowhere.

A useful allegory:
  • A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on top.
  • Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water.
  • After a while, every time a monkey would start up the ladder, the others would pull it down and beat it up.
  • After a time, no monkey would dare try climbing the ladder, no matter how great the temptation.
  • The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys. The first thing this new monkey did was start to climb the ladder. Immediately, the others pulled him down and beat him up.
  • After several beatings, the new monkey learned never to go up the ladder, even though there was no evident reason not to, aside from the beatings.
  • The second monkey was substituted and the same occurred. The first monkey participated in the beating of the second monkey. A third monkey was changed and the same was repeated. The fourth monkey was changed, resulting in the same, before the fifth was finally replaced as well.
  • What was left was a group of five monkeys that – without ever having received a cold shower – continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.
  • If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they beat up on all those who attempted to climb the ladder, their most likely answer would be “I don’t know. It’s just how things are done around here.”
Click to expand...

Wait, ... are you the monkey?
 
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