Y’all really should watch the video if you havent! I think even if you have no interest in Minecraft, or football (as others have mentioned Tomlin was a long tenured NFL coach until this year). There’s something so refreshingly earnest, and joyful about watching someone share something they’ve poured so much time and themselves into.
This is the best part of it; kids are also why he started in the first place. And his son is present during the recording. He may have built this alone but sharing it is a family project.
I think so too, but also in the way of like, he chose it as a creative outlet that was for him and maybe a few other people in his life. no desire for material gain, just the relaxation of creation. he didn’t care if anyone saw it or not.
He's one of the longest consecutively tenured by a single team. There are some coaches who have coached longer, but not consecutively, or not for the same team, but Tomlin was the head coach for the Steelers for 19 years. And in those 19 years, he never had a losing season.
He had one more year on his current contract when he decided to retire.
He was mostly known for being able to wrangle the more "unique" personalities of the NFL and for his answers during press conferences. Giving us such gems as "The standard is the standard", "and things of that nature", "We're still squirreling those nuts", "We do not live in our fears", etc.
I used to religiously, watch his press, conferences and other media appearances. His unique and widely recognized leadership skills are an inspiration to me.
“The strength of the team is the team” discussions about meaningful expectations and divisions of labor are all particularly useful at various times. “Remaining singularly focused” is often the only way you can accomplish some specific task, and “wanting volunteers, not hostages” is important for many relationships, professional and personal.
My favorite quotes have to be about uncertainty and fear. If you blink, cut your eyelids off.” and “taking the calculated risks associated with secure victory” are great. “Living in our hopes not in our fears” go through my head a lot.
This is the way the Rooney family manages the Steelers. They stick with coaches for a long time. They've only had four coaches in the last 57 years!
I was kinda shocked when he was let go, to be honest.
I love how it's a city with almost solarpunk theming—present day, but with buildings nestled in greenery in an almost idyllic setting. Then he moves into one of the apartment blocks and WHAM—there's disturbing imagery on the television screens. This is the kind of creativity that comes from sitting with a piece as you make it and thinking it through bit by bit.
I have to admit the merging of worlds here is wild. I never expected to read Mike Tomlin, long time coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on HackerNews yet here we are. It was not on my Bingo card. Refreshing, indeed.
I (stereotypical nerd) was briefly friends with a large Samoan man that was built like a tank and did amateur MMA fighting. One night we were going out drinking with a group of us and he let slip that he was super into Starcraft. Me and all of my geeky friends lost it, couldn't believe it etc etc. I learned later he muttered to the one other athletic guy in the group, "I guess these guys don't really hang out around athletes very often." He wasn't being a jerk, he was right, we totally let our prejudices get the better of us. It's not at all uncommon for athletic people to be into nerd stuff.
There's a video of San Antonio Spurs players, including Tim Duncan and David Robinson, playing Starcraft 2v2 on the road during the 1999 NBA Finals.
I think it's just that people miss there's a major intellectual side to all sports, but it often gets masked by the fact that those who excel in sports often forsake or ignore their education education early on, so they sound ineloquent, and people, especially those outside of sports, assume that means they're stupid.
Mike Tyson is an extreme example. He dropped out of high school and probably never paid much of any attention for the schooling he did have. But listen to an interview with him, like on Rogan, and the man has a mind when you actually listen to what he's thinking/saying [1], as opposed to how he says it. And that's after decades of drugs and plenty of blows to the head.
Gymnasium was historically a place where you go not only for your physical but also your intellectual education, and I think the Greeks had it right. A strong mind needs a strong body, and vice versa.
In my country we call the general middle school (the one that results in no specific professional qualification, i.e. a prep for university) a gymnasium. Physical education is only a small part of it, so it's interesting that we continue to name it thus and has the same origin as a gym.
(I had no idea who this guy was, as I am not from USA.)
As autistic person, I am not surprised. People hyperfocus on interests which scratch their itch (people with autism tend to be better at hyperfocus). A hyperfocus on gaming (specifically physical sports) fits in an autism profile, as does a hyperfocus on building a large (virtual) world. Keeping the build to yourself is akin to writing a book, not publishing it. In this case, the book is published.
If you will, he is manager/coach and player at the same time in Minecraft. Or, from a different PoV: IRL he is the coach, IVL he is the player (gamer).
Notice how his son did setup the A/V aspect of the recording, and how he is terrible with controller. PC gamer! I'm 40+ and would be terrible with either as well, CBA with it either.
Btw, I watched the video with my kids. They're aspiring Minecraft players, and enjoyed watching it -in awe- with me.
This is shocking to me. My brother is a retired college football head coach. Two of his sons are acclaimed college football players. I've spent time with the head coaches of two teams currently ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA. I've been around the sport for decades and know how coaches' lives can be monopolized by the job. To see an NFL head coach doing something requiring this level of time commitment blows my mind. I guess it's a reminder that to reach the very top level of a sought after profession, you have to be a remarkable individual.
The only additional note I'd have to add is Tomlin was one of the NFL's rare "CEO" coaches - he doesn't call plays for either side of the ball, so he probably is ever so slightly less busy than a head coach who happens to do so.
I remember a clip of him from a few years ago where he talked about watching some 7v7 football league on YouTube in his free time.
Dude is 100% a football junkie regardless of his time in Minecraft; I bet he's one of those people who only needs like 5 hours of sleep a night and just is obsessive about anything he touches
I have a totally different read on this. I also play a bit of minecraft many days, and for maybe 15-30 minutes at a time. Mike Tomlin here was playing on creative -- no risk, no survival, just infinite blocks to curate his zen garden. This is the perfect way to wind down for 15-20 minutes after a tough day in a hotel room. Or where ever. What percentage of NFL coaches or players do the exact same thing except with a phone instead of a controller, do some doomscrolling for 15-30 minutes and move on? This feels like just a different flavor of the same type of retreat that many people do.
FWIW, college coaching is generally seen as a more time consuming job because of the recruiting aspect. Every hour they aren't in the office or on the field is spent on the phone with a recruit or visiting one.
Thanks for the link... I didn't watch the whole thing as I resonated when he said 'entertainment is for detaching from life'. After hearing that I got it. That really is the problem with a lot of the "AAA" "Art" being produced today.
It's really nice that this was also something he did with his kids. The fact that his kids are grown and stopped but when they came back for the holidays they wanted to see how the city is doing is iirc the way this got out. He was mostly doing it as a way he could connect with his kids.
It also says a lot about Minecraft which of course has been said before but it makes sense this would be the game you would play to connect with all of your kids as they grow up in a supportive way.
Minecraft is really an amazing example of emergence from simple primitives and the virtue of engineering that gets out of way and lets users do the building.
alargemoose · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=_h_pQ1-5iQg" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/watch?v=_h_pQ1-5iQg
JohnMakin · · focus · HN ↗
thih9 · · focus · HN ↗
JohnMakin · · focus · HN ↗
koolba · · focus · HN ↗
Interesting choice for his favorite rooftop 12m in!
ricardonunez · · focus · HN ↗
bena · · focus · HN ↗
He had one more year on his current contract when he decided to retire.
He was mostly known for being able to wrangle the more "unique" personalities of the NFL and for his answers during press conferences. Giving us such gems as "The standard is the standard", "and things of that nature", "We're still squirreling those nuts", "We do not live in our fears", etc.
LPisGood · · focus · HN ↗
“The strength of the team is the team” discussions about meaningful expectations and divisions of labor are all particularly useful at various times. “Remaining singularly focused” is often the only way you can accomplish some specific task, and “wanting volunteers, not hostages” is important for many relationships, professional and personal.
My favorite quotes have to be about uncertainty and fear. If you blink, cut your eyelids off.” and “taking the calculated risks associated with secure victory” are great. “Living in our hopes not in our fears” go through my head a lot.
steveklabnik · · focus · HN ↗
I was kinda shocked when he was let go, to be honest.
zugi · · focus · HN ↗
Uh, Mike Tomlin resigned / reitired from the Steelers after 18 seasons without ever having a losing season. He wasn't let go.
ls612 · · focus · HN ↗
bitwize · · focus · HN ↗
kilroy123 · · focus · HN ↗
jona777than · · focus · HN ↗
thisoneisreal · · focus · HN ↗
tomjakubowski · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7WEJQfwniQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7WEJQfwniQ
keeganpoppen · · focus · HN ↗
hugey010 · · focus · HN ↗
somenameforme · · focus · HN ↗
Mike Tyson is an extreme example. He dropped out of high school and probably never paid much of any attention for the schooling he did have. But listen to an interview with him, like on Rogan, and the man has a mind when you actually listen to what he's thinking/saying [1], as opposed to how he says it. And that's after decades of drugs and plenty of blows to the head.
Gymnasium was historically a place where you go not only for your physical but also your intellectual education, and I think the Greeks had it right. A strong mind needs a strong body, and vice versa.
[1] - <a href="https://youtu.be/hcPUoxTvw5g?t=1849" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/hcPUoxTvw5g?t=1849
prerok · · focus · HN ↗
mohamedkoubaa · · focus · HN ↗
jimbokun · · focus · HN ↗
steveklabnik · · focus · HN ↗
Fnoord · · focus · HN ↗
As autistic person, I am not surprised. People hyperfocus on interests which scratch their itch (people with autism tend to be better at hyperfocus). A hyperfocus on gaming (specifically physical sports) fits in an autism profile, as does a hyperfocus on building a large (virtual) world. Keeping the build to yourself is akin to writing a book, not publishing it. In this case, the book is published.
If you will, he is manager/coach and player at the same time in Minecraft. Or, from a different PoV: IRL he is the coach, IVL he is the player (gamer).
Notice how his son did setup the A/V aspect of the recording, and how he is terrible with controller. PC gamer! I'm 40+ and would be terrible with either as well, CBA with it either.
Btw, I watched the video with my kids. They're aspiring Minecraft players, and enjoyed watching it -in awe- with me.
suzzer99 · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMDb1CWD6Y" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMDb1CWD6Y
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XjRNNkAKRM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XjRNNkAKRM
bananaboy · · focus · HN ↗
dhosek · · focus · HN ↗
rented_mule · · focus · HN ↗
winstonp · · focus · HN ↗
Brendinooo · · focus · HN ↗
Dude is 100% a football junkie regardless of his time in Minecraft; I bet he's one of those people who only needs like 5 hours of sleep a night and just is obsessive about anything he touches
criley2 · · focus · HN ↗
DragonStrength · · focus · HN ↗
jimbokun · · focus · HN ↗
throw7 · · focus · HN ↗
godwinson__4-8 · · focus · HN ↗
It also says a lot about Minecraft which of course has been said before but it makes sense this would be the game you would play to connect with all of your kids as they grow up in a supportive way.
Minecraft is really an amazing example of emergence from simple primitives and the virtue of engineering that gets out of way and lets users do the building.