Moneyball
The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
by Michael Lewis · first published 2003
35% recommend65% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Engaging, well-researched story of a baseball team using statistics and market inefficiencies to build a strong roster cheaply; suits readers curious about sports, analytics, or contrarian thinking, even non-fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"This delightfully written, lesson-laden book deserves a place of its own in the Baseball Hall of Fame." ―Forbes Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-budget Oakland A's, visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball theorists. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge―insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money.
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…math says, no coach will do this (save for maybe Billichek, but even he's not that bold). Sports is one of those areas where the "gut" and conventions are more important than stats and probabilities. Moneyball is a great book for anybody whose interested in the intersection of sports conventions and math. http://www.amazon.com/Moneyball-Art-Winning-Unfair-Game/dp/0...
on “Statistical analysis of NFL 4th down strategy” ↗Have you ever read Moneyball by Michael Lewis? It's about how a baseball team in the early 2000's took a look at market inefficiencies and used it to put together a great team for real cheap. It's like, how is it possible that a…
on “How to Hire” ↗It's a very cool field, and it's been around for longer than most people would think. Follow @againstthespin on twitter if you want to get my (infrequent) thoughts on the subject. And read Moneyball by Michael Lewis if you want a brilliant writer's thoughts on the subject.
on “HN Show & Tell: the WordPress Console” ↗Speaking of Moneyball, everything written by Michael Lewis is great. He paints great pictures of interesting people, and the adventures that they have in the workplace.
on “Ask HN: Recommendations on books and documentaries on tech companies/people?” ↗- The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem - Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes - Moneyball by Michael Lewis - 1984 (re-read again!)
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗…stick 55.the magic of thinking 56.man's search for meaning 57.managing in the next society 58.managing oneself 59.managing transitions 60.the mariage you always wanted 61.the message 62.mindfulness 63.Moneyball: the art of winning an unfair game 64.the new psycho-cybernetics 65.the no asshole rule 66.outliers 67.the personnality code 68.planet google 69.pour your heart into it 70.the power of intention 71.the power of positive thinking 72.the…
on “Ask HN: Must Read Books” ↗…insightful account about the high-finance industry. MOLLY'S GAME BY MOLLY BLOOM -It was an entertaining, quick-paced read about the private, high-stakes poker industry with an assortment of participants. MONEYBALL, LIAR'S POKER & THE BIG SHORT BY MICHAEL LEWIS -I thought they were all entertaining reads, while also being insightful about their respective subjects. STEVE JOBS BY WALTER ISAACSON -It was an illuminating…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗…With views into how those referees are changing, and in some cases, outright disappearing. Fascinating stuff from an author who really knows how to tell an engaging story about a potentially dry topic. (Moneyball, The Big Short, Liar's Poker, etc.) [1] https://atrpodcast.com/ [2] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/776.Michael_Lewis
on “The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News” ↗…don't really care much for following sports teams either. I used to turn my nose at it, as if I am somehow a superior person for not giving two shits about who is winning. One day, I read Michael Lewis's Moneyball and flipped through Blindside and realized I had been an idiot. I still might not care about which team is winning, yet there are a lot of hidden depths to sports. How many other things have I missed…
on “Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom” ↗Fun article. I loved Moneyball, and enjoyed other stuff Michael Lewis has written. I'm glad he's looking at basketball, since that's really the only sport I actually follow a bit, mostly through a blog dedicated to sports stats that…
on “Basketball Stats: They all maximize what they think they’re being paid for” ↗I have liked Michael Lewis's writing since I read "Moneyball", which I highly recommend by the way. This article is pretty good, although not as math and statistics oriented as some of his good sports writing. I think the large scale destruction of trust in the…
on “Michael Lewis on A.I.G.” ↗Billy Beane was the central character in Michael Lewis' book Moneyball whose central theme was using detailed statistics and out of the box thinking to determine a player's true value, rather than gut feel or standard criteria. I post this because it is a great example of…
on “Game's shifting strategies leaves Beane, sage of Moneyball, behind” ↗It's a Michael Lewis piece—it's worth reading the whole thing. (And when you're done, then The Big Short, Moneyball, and Liar's Poker.)
on “Did Goldman Overstep in Criminally Charging Its Ex-Programmer?” ↗One of my favorite moments from Michael Lewis' Moneyball is how Billy Beane's introduces Lenny Dykstra: > Physically, Lenny didn’t belong in the same league with him. He was half Billy’s size, and had a fraction of Billy’s promise—which is why the Mets hadn’t…
on “What Can Hitters Actually See Out of a Pitcher’s Hand?” ↗If you enjoy Tracy Kidder's writing (and I very much do) I would also suggest just about anything by Michael Lewis - his "Liars Poker", "Moneyball", and "The Big Short", to name a few, are really exceptionally well researched and written.
on “Rereading: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder” ↗