Sean Carroll

So I don't ever think I give up after one half of basketball because by definition, if your team is losing by N points after only a half, in principle, you could be winning by N plus one points in the next half.

Like giving up after three quarters is a lot more defensible, I think, than giving up after a half.

I will, however, sort of half give up.

Like I will sit in front of the TV, but really be working on writing my book with the volume turned off, right?

And just in case they happen to do a miraculous turnaround.

And so I guess all I'm saying here is it's a weird relationship.

between the fan of a sports team and the players.

There's a lot of emotional investment all flowing in more or less one direction, and it's very unpredictable and out of your hands.

And how you should manage the emotional roller coaster that is being a sports fan of almost every team is an individual choice.

There's no moral mistake you're making by giving up

because you don't owe them anything, that's for sure.

But there's a lot of benefit to being around when they make the miraculous comeback.

So maybe you want to give them the chance to do that.

Maybe there's a broader lesson here and we should all give each other the chance to make a miraculous comeback in our lives.

So that's a good place to wrap up this month's AMA.

Thanks as always for everyone for listening and supporting the Mindscape podcast.

I'll talk to you next time.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Mindscape Podcast.

I'm your host, Sean Carroll.

You might remember about a year ago, we had a podcast episode with Niesh Afshordi and Phil Halper.