The Stoic Wisdom of Moneyball

I have referenced Moneyball in team pep talks for more times than I care to remember.? I happened to rewatch the film a few days ago driven by a desperate need for inspiration and a desire for stimulation that no new film or series can seem to pique at the moment.? I don’t recall how many times I’ve seen the film before but, similar to re-reading a book, literature or any other great work of art can resonate differently every time, its relevance transforming to one’s changing personal circumstances.

On this rewatching, I started noticing Moneyball’s parallelisms to stoic philosophies.? I am not yet certain what that realization reflects exactly in terms of my current mindset or mood but I still felt it was interesting to examine and perhaps useful to share. ? This essay, thus, is an exploration of those similarities as presented through dialogue and context.

For those unfamiliar, Moneyball is a film based on a true story about the Oakland A’s and their general manager, Billy Beane.? After losing their best players and faced with a challenge to rebuild a team with a small budget, Beane turns to statistics.? Despite intense criticism and resistance from his own staff and the baseball community at large, their team of “misfit toys” achieved the improbable and posted the longest winning streak in baseball history.

Adapt or die.? In the film, Beane is confronted by his senior scout in fiery revolt against the new approach to baseball and the line of dialogue discussed here was Beane’s laconic retort.? There will always be limitations to how goals can be achieved and it should be precisely those limitations that push us to delve into different perspectives and imagine bold, new solutions. ? ? ? ? ?

Let the game come to you.? In corporate environments, I think there is a disproportionate value assigned to being proactive versus being reactive not unlike how favor and opportunity gravitate more towards extroverts versus introverts.? To be clear, I acknowledge the value of being proactive but in our modern, fast-paced, entropic world where it’s almost impossible to predict outcomes and results, I feel it’s vastly more crucial now to sharpen abilities for reaction. ? Understanding that you won’t be able to control situations but you can control how you react to them means constantly expanding one’s toolkit.? The more skills you develop the more resilient you become to constantly shifting environments, the more confident you become and just “let the game come to you.”

It’s a process.? It is human nature to be swayed by moments, to be swept by emotions, and to act irrationally in those situations. But I find it helpful to quell instincts to overreact and divert my attention and focus to the process instead.? I feel people are easily overcome by anxiety, drum up unnecessary drama in its aftermath, and then fail to see the big picture and the “connectedness” of most things.? If you are able to master your emotions, you learn to be curious and not judgmental, you see reason and not blame, and you learn to trust the process and find solace in honest work and true effort.

I know you’re taking it in the teeth out there but the first guy through the wall, it always gets bloody.? It takes a lot of courage to try new things but while it gets “bloody,” I think pain and suffering become irrelevant in the grand adventure of pursuing a vision and an ideal.

I know these guys.? I know the way they think and they will erase us.? And everything we’ve done here, none of it will matter.? And yet, if your meaning is independent from the people around you, what others think, matter little.