Ben Cohen, Wall Street Journal Sports Reporter: The Hot Hand in Sports & Life

Coaching Coaches

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My guest today is Ben Cohen, the sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal and author of The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks.

The book is a fantastic read on humans’ ability to get in the “zone” and our ability, or lack of ability, to decipher patterns from data. He also explains how the hot hand applies to areas of life besides sports, including artists, scientists, and directors, and how even Shakespeare experienced a hot streak when he was living during the plague, very similar to the situation we are living in now. This is a wide-ranging conversation around cognitive biases, streaks, and our limitations to see patterns and I couldn’t recommend the book more.

Show Notes

(1:15) —Ben explains what the hot hand is

(3:22) — Why humans are evolutionarily made to be bad at deciphering patterns

(4:40) — What led to the hot hand being proven true after 40 years of studies showing otherwise

(14:45) — Why Spotify and Apple were forced to handle customers not believing in their “shuffle mode” since we are so bad at deciphering patterns

(19:15) — The difference between the hot hand and the gambler’s fallacy

(24:10) — How Shakespeare experienced the hot hand when living through the plague

(26:33) — There’s no way to determine when you’ll experience the hot hand

(32:15) — End of episode questions

End of Episode Questions:

1.What’s 1 book every coach should read?

• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

2. Who is one person you’d want to hear as a guest on this podcast?

• Jason Gay

3. What advice do you have for young coaches who are listening to this?

• Take advantage of your own perspective

4. What’s the darkest moment you experienced professionally and how did you overcome it?

• After there was an issue with how an article he wrote was shared, Twitter was relentlessly harassing him about it.