04/26/24
March 22, 2009
Company Analyzes Prospects' Speech Patterns to Find Next Pacman Jones: The company AchievementMetrics believes it can analyze the speech patterns of NFL prospects in media interviews and determine which ones have a greater risk of developing off-field problems. "There are very subtle parts of speech that correlate with different outcome variables," said CEO Roger Hall. "There are people in our database where we're like, 'Hmm, when is it gonna happen?'"
I know Dr. Stein well. Cold hands. Warm heart.
As for AchievementMetrics, I'm working on software that analyzes the speech patterns of CEOs to determine when one is selling snake oil.
posted by rcade at 05:57 PM on March 22, 2009
For some reason, I'm sort of reminded of a Dilbert strip:
Dogbert: "I have a new invention that detects human stupidity. All I have to do is point it at people."
Dilbert: "Then what does it do?"
Dogbert: "Why would it need to do anything else?"
posted by TheQatarian at 08:02 PM on March 22, 2009
This is gonna sound racist, but I wonder how much this "subtle" software utilizes differences like those between "I am" and "I be"....
posted by outonleave at 08:54 PM on March 22, 2009
I'm all for bringing in Tim Roth and the gang from Lightman.
Seriously, I learn something new every episode.
posted by owlhouse at 09:16 PM on March 22, 2009
I'm working on software that analyzes the speech patterns of CEOs to determine when one is selling snake oil.
I'll save you some time. It's all of them.
posted by dfleming at 11:17 PM on March 22, 2009
owlhouse, have you seen the blog for the show? It's written by the guy whose work inspired the show.
You could analyze that comment for shitty writing, but let's not.
posted by yerfatma at 09:03 AM on March 23, 2009
And Corey Dillon for that matter
Don't break your arm patting your beloved Pats on the back over Dillon. He was never an issue in Cincinnati, played hard, and stayed out of trouble. The fact was, round about his last season in Cincy, he lost playing time due to an injury and never got it back because Rudy Johnson was playing too well. As the face of the franchise (and its only bright spot) for many years before that, he felt he deserved better, and he was right. The Bengals did him right by giving him the opportunity to go elsewhere and win the championship he deserved. But he was far from a reclamation project like Moss or Cox.
And as to the previous comment about the Bengals pulling in troublemakers, I think you're a few years behind on that one. They had a few bad years, judgment-wise. Their players showed poor judgment in driving drunk, smoking grass, drinking with minors, and other misdemeanors, but have been eclipsed by many others in frequency and severity in the past few years.
posted by tahoemoj at 02:06 PM on March 23, 2009
Please. Dillon may have been a choirboy at Cincy, but he had a history before he even got to the league. I'm not clear on when Brian Cox was ever a reclamation project. He had a habit of speaking his mind that the older guard of sports writers didn't care for, but was he really a problem?
posted by yerfatma at 04:05 PM on March 23, 2009
What was Dillon's history before he was in the league?
Dillon was trouble in Cincinnati. He ragged on his team losing all the time, and was pretty much a malcontent, a very talented malcontent.
Bryan Cox, the fighting, spitting guy, right?
posted by bperk at 06:20 PM on March 23, 2009
owlhouse, have you seen the blog for the show? It's written by the guy whose work inspired the show.
Thanks for the link, yerfatma. Unfortunately the videos on the site can't be watched outside the US. Oh well.
posted by owlhouse at 07:26 PM on March 23, 2009
What was Dillon's history before he was in the league?
If you search in Pros and Cons at Amazon for "Corey Dillon", you can see he had a colorful college career. Not that I have anything against the guy or how he carried himself while in the NFL, I'm just disagreeing with the idea he was a model citizen/ no risk to an NFL team.
posted by yerfatma at 08:31 AM on March 24, 2009
Thanks, yerfatma. I didn't know Dillon's history. The NFL reclamation projected seemed to work for him. I almost checked the book out of the library until I read the full Corey Dillon section. The authors seemed to be terribly sanctimonious - not about the domestic violence, but the whole arrest as evidence of crime recitations. Plus, the scary statistics of NFL players being charged with a crime shows they are all criminals. The less scary statistics of convictions shows the special treatment of star athletes rather than innocence, I suppose. Yuck.
posted by bperk at 01:08 PM on March 24, 2009
The issue I had was that the prior poster seemed to be giving the Pats and Belicheck an awful lot of credit for something they didn't do. He wasn't a reclamation project, he was an unhappy player (for good reason) who had suffered through lots of losing seasons on a team with no commitment to winning. When he questioned that commitment, most people in Cincy agreed with him. I think it's strong evidence in his favor that when he left, Bengals fans almost universally expressed gratitude to the man. Most of us felt he had earned the right to play for a championship.
He did have a troubled history at Washington, making him a steal in the draft (6th round?) If anyone deserves the credit for straightening up a questionable college player, it's the Cincinnati organization, no? The Pats brought in a proven commodity, nothing more.
posted by tahoemoj at 03:15 PM on March 24, 2009
I'll cop to being a Pats fan and still say I wasn't the least bit worried when the Pats signed Dillon because he, much like Randy Moss, seemed like a player getting a rough ride from the media for not smiling and loving "playing a kid's game" on a team that sucked. But if someone in Cincy "straighten[ed] up" Dillon, it was a long time ago and I doubt they were part of the current administration "with no commitment to winning".
I don't get what value it is to jump in and nitpick who it was put Corey Dillon on the Road to Damascus. Maybe Sam Wyche is Jesus, but the Bengals are still a mess.
posted by yerfatma at 04:32 PM on March 24, 2009
posted by yerfatma at 04:38 PM on March 24, 2009
Look what Belichick and the Pats did with Bryan Cox and Randy Moss. And Corey Dillon for that matter.
There are going to be people who would like to take the speech pattern results and run the other way with them. Bobby Bowden, Al Davis, Bengals, Trail Blazers, etc.
Because a previous poster took the prerogative to mount his high horse and make a snide comment about a team I cheer for while worshiping at the altar of all things Belicheck, I took the liberty of clarifying what I felt was an error. I never canonized anyone in the organization, just placed the credit where it belonged. It seems like you agree with me as far as the facts go, so why the indignant approach to it all?
posted by tahoemoj at 05:28 PM on March 24, 2009
I would have hoped the stained glass Sam Wyche made it clear I wasn't indignant.
posted by yerfatma at 08:46 PM on March 24, 2009
I do have one just like it in my picture window. It reminds me "You're not in Cleveland"
posted by tahoemoj at 08:50 PM on March 24, 2009
Interesting. But it can't predict who will be arrested. It may be able to predict the increased likelihood of commiting crimes, but that doesn't necessarily correlate to arrests. There are other factors at play there - race and place being chiefly among them, I'd wager.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 04:38 PM on March 27, 2009
Interestingly, when I went to the story page, there was a big banner ad for "no needle/ no scalpel" vasectomies available from a Dr. Stein, who has apparently performed over 19,000 of these procedures in the greater Jax area.
So, you could identify the wild men scientifically, and then treat them surgically, I suppose.
There are going to be people who would like to take the speech pattern results and run the other way with them.
Bobby Bowden, Al Davis, Bengals, Trail Blazers, etc.
No matter what, troublemakers are going to get rostered, test or no test.
My feeling is that good coaching and team culture can take care of troublesome individuals.
Look what Belichick and the Pats did with Bryan Cox and Randy Moss. And Corey Dillon for that matter. Those guys wore out lesser teams. If you have good team culture and leadership and solid, consistent guidelines for people, you can bring in a less than desirable individual and make good things happen.
Jerry Jones will never grasp this concept.
Coming from the Pats, it will be interesting to see how McDaniels does in Denver - after getting off to a bad start.