Typically I watch a game once, and if it’s a team I’m really interested in, I’ll go back the next day and watch it again. Many of my friends are amazed that I’m willing to watch a basketball game when I already know the score. I value process so much that knowing the result doesn’t diminish the experience. This time I’m trying to figure out the science of how the game was played—to see what was skill and what was luck. Were both teams performing at a high caliber, or was one team better prepared or better coached than the other? That’s what I’m looking for. I want to learn from the experience, just like the players and coaches do.

This is a lot like what I’ve done over the course of my career in investment management. When we talk about empirical research in the science of finance, we mean studying the way stocks have performed over the course of the past 100 years to understand more about how the market works. We watch the game over and over and over again.

Because I’m getting so much more from a game than its outcome, I’m not devastated when my team loses—though I’m thrilled when my team wins. I understand that individual games and tournaments are just steps along a team’s journey. Most long-term fans feel the same way I do. Team allegiance gets passed down through generations, and fans don’t abandon their teams after a loss. They stick with them. Kind of like how long-term investors understand that the market will deliver short-term ups and downs, but provide a worthwhile reward in the long run, to those who stick around.