In Search Of Competence

http://bit.ly/fHzG2

ESPN's Bill Simmons wrote a great column about the NBA and the problem it is having (and won't admit to) about officiating and the quality therein. On his podcast, he had a long, fascinating talk with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban about, more or less, the same thing.

It has become an incredibly frustrating part of my middle agehood to see so many bright people (Jimmy Pardo, Dan Carlin, Adam Carolla, Bill Simmons, Jason Calacanis, Mark Cuban, Adam Curry) who are approximately my age and have really intelligent, interesting, funny takes on the world-ideas and theories and ways to change things and make things better and cheaper and safer and more entertaining-and invariably, these people get slighted or ignored or mocked or shut out in favor of people who are manifestly less smart but are tied in to the Powers That Be and telling them what they want to hear instead of what really is.