[gerggerg]

The only real lesson in Moneyball is do what you love and don't let others tell you not to.

What I find most interesting about the story is the different effect it has on people. Business types see it as "Take a great risk and it'll pay off (literally)." Science types see it as "Math works".

The reality is, you just have to do what you want to do and not care if other people tell you you're crazy. Was a situation like Moneyball an exception to the rule? Hell yes. But with out those 1 in 1000 exceptions to the rule we'd have very little to show for 50 thousand years on the planet.

[andyakb]

There are many many many more time where "doing what you love" is incorrect than times where following math is incorrect. The more we focus on math and mathematical relationships between different variables, the more accurate we get.

Do not listen to detractors IF YOU HAVE EVIDENCE SUPPORTING YOUR CAUSE, but do not blindly pursue something because of an unsupportable "gut" feeling

[its_so_on]

(below may include spoiler)

I thought the real lesson was "massively outperform the limits of your shitty resources beyond anyone's expectations, by thinking outside the box and concentrating on algorithms and data modeling; and still not succeed. Then if someone is impressed and offers you more personal compensation than you can imagine, to do the same thing but for them, while actually being given enough resources to actually have a chance with it, then you go and fucking do it."

The startup analogy is easy: if you are solely responsible for running a free service with a million users on $300/month hosting budget, and you almost do it by inventing amazing algorithms, but the service still lags and sucks, but is almost there, then when Amazon makes you an offer to come and do the same thing for them you fucking take it.

[idoh]

At the end of the movie he was offered millions, but he turned it down to stay close to his family. The lesson from the movie (that deals with putting a price on everything) is that some things are priceless.

[brandnewlow]

That whole scene there at the end really killed me. It was not made clear to me why the protagonist made the choice he made. I wonder how he feels watching that scene in the film every time he attends a screening.

[dj_axl]

> It was not made clear to me why the protagonist made the choice he made.

He was rejecting the hoity-toity New Englanders and their fancy tea served in fancy porcelain teacups. However yes I'd agree that wasn't sufficient explanation. Maybe there are more details in the book?

[its_so_on]

doesn't matter. should have jumped ship. (whatever his motivations for not doing so, the movie makes the lesson clear: it says in the final frames, that he's still trying to win the last game of the season with the A's... Why would they say that? What response would that possible elicit other than "should have gone over to Boston"?) I think the lesson of the movie is clear enough for me :)

[jacques_chester]

Real life has a filthy habit of failing to produce neat, satisfying dramatic arcs.

[its_so_on]

real life also has a habit of letting people in similar choices make the right one after seeing someone make the wrong one. The lesson of the film is pretty clear, sorry. Not it's dramatic arc, just its lesson. At least to me. But hey, if you want to keep chasing that last season game on an impossible budget, go ahead bro.