Optimized Baseball-Viewing

This past World Series, I perfected my baseball-viewing approach. Time is limited, baseball games just drag on too long. The obvious first, non-negotiable step to improved viewing, for all televised sports, is to watch on DVR. Skipping commercials, etc, cuts time drastically.

But modern baseball, more than the other big American sports, has long, boring stretches. Yes, if you are a really serious fan, maybe you want to watch each pitch of the prolonged, multi-pitcher duel. That's not me.

So what I do is leverage the YouTube TV "key plays" feature. I jump to the next key play. From there, I watch all the action. So if the key play is a double, then the next 3 batters are retired, that's what I see. So I do get plenty of the pitching drama, while saving a ton of time.

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The one thing I don't like is that the software tells you how many total key plays there are--especially as you progress toward the end of the game, that can be a spoiler. The world continues to be insufficiently attuned to spoiler-avoidance.

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I have no solution for futbol. If you took this approach, you would cut out 97% of the game. Futbol needs more scoring.

De Minimis Class Action - Make the Checks Worth Cashing

 I recently received this $3 check for my share of a class-action suit against Equifax. It is hardly worth the trouble it takes to cash it. Which I suspect is part of the whole, rotten, class-action game.

Here's a pro-consumer idea. Instead of sending 10 people a check for $3, have an internal lottery, and send 1 person a check for $30.

In other regulatory areas, there is the concept of a de minimis distribution amount. If the amount is so low that it is economically inefficient to distribute it to individuals, it goes instead to some alternative non-profit or regulatory recipient, with the idea that it will be put to good use, in alignment with remediation of the offense. I suppose, for all I know, that is what happens with un-cashed checks.