Setting Sports Aside

MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

“We have much better data on how to position a left-fielder than we do on the efficacy on some massive government programs,” New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang told us at today’s opening of the virtual Sloan gathering. The former presidential candidate and ex-Knicks’ fan joined FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver in a far-ranging discussion that largely transcended sports.

On the future of the post-pandemic workplace, Yang stated the obvious indicating that “a lot of people have learned how to work from home.” He immediately and correctly countered those who claim vast numbers of people will continue to work from home in a post-pandemic world. “Over time, it’s almost impossible to build a competitive, world-class (organizational) culture without people being together.” He offered that, “Research shows people are more creative and productive when working together in person.” Besides, he added, “If you’re able to work over Zoom, you are one step closer to being automated” out of a job.

Yang is motivated to bring New York City back, of course, and that means bringing people back to the city to work and play. Right now, he told us that tourism is down 96 percent, commuting into the city is down 88 percent, and subway ridership is down 77 percent, underscoring that “we have a steep hill to climb back up.”

He strongly endorsed ranked choice voting. The New York mayoral contest is a ranked-choice election, and Yang said, “ranked choice voting is the better way to vote” and that “it’s the future of voting.”

He left us by saying that our “winner-take-all economy” has become "inhuman." Yes, indeed. What to do about it ranks among the greatest challenges of our time.