Michael Jordan's College Basketball Court, Math Professor's Favorite Chalk, And Kobe Bryant's Tap Dancing Lessons: What The Illusory Correlation Can Teach Us About Success

The 3-Word Quote: “Luck Is Made”

1.

In a late 1980s Nike commercial, director Spike Lee looks at Michael Jordan and says, "It's gotta be the shoes."

Of course, Lee is crediting the Air Jordan shoes for Jordan's basketball skills.

Lee gives credit to the shoes on-screen, but Jordan's shorts might deserve more credit.

The shorts were his college practice shorts.

Jordan, considered by many to be the best player ever to grace a basketball court, played 15 years in the National Basketball Association.

His career is littered with countless awards for his NBA play.

Before playing professionally, he attended and played for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

In college, he played for legendary coach Dean Smith. Jordan treasured his relationship with Smith and referred to him as a second father.

So when Jordan left his beloved Tar Heel home to go to the NBA, he took a small part of his UNC experience with him - his college practice shorts.

And it was the shorts that became legendary.

Jordan wore his college practice shorts in every NBA game he ever played.

He had success in college with these shorts, and Jordan wanted to ensure he succeeded in the pros, too.

So the shorts came with him.

He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, so to wear his UNC shorts, he obviously had to wear the UNC shorts under his Bulls shorts.

And since he was now wearing two pairs of shorts in every game, his outer Bulls shorts had to be a little larger, a little baggier to accommodate the UNC shorts.

The fashion in the NBA in the mid-1980s, when Jordan first started playing, was for players to wear tighter-fitting shorts.

But when Jordan started wearing baggier, looser fitting shorts and when he began dominating the NBA, baggier shorts started to dominate the NBA too.

NBA style was changed forever.

2.

"It's pretty much six-year-old children and mathematicians."

So says Stanford Mathematics Professor Brian Conrad when asked about mathematicians' most closely guarded secret.

He says the secret is something that only these two groups do.

If you're wondering what mathematicians and six-year-olds have in common, both groups use chalk.

But for math professors, it is not just any type of chalk.

They swear by a brand called Hagoromo chalk.

Many math professors worship Hagoromo chalk; it truly has a cult-like following.

You might first wonder who uses a chalkboard anymore that would require any kind of chalk.

However, as it turns out, many math professors prefer chalkboards to whiteboards.

Brian Conrad, the director of undergraduate studies for Stanford's Math Department, guesses that chalk and chalkboards are used by nearly all math faculty members at Stanford.

And they all prefer Hagoromo chalk.

One Barnard professor, Dave Bayer, compares using any other chalk the equivalent to "Picasso using Sharpies on a piece of waxed paper instead of using canvas and oil paints."

The Hagoromo chalk does not break as easily.

Still, professors have a better explanation for why they prefer this Japanese brand of chalk.

"I assume the special ingredient in Hagoromo is angel tears," says Max Lieblich, a University of Wesleyan professor.

Angel tears, he says.

"It's impossible to write a false theorem using the chalk…" says UC Berkeley Professor David Eisenbud.

No false theorems, he says.

To say that some math professors obsess over this chalk might not be an exaggeration.

And so it threw the math world into a tizzy when the company that produces Hagoromo chalk said they were going out of business several years ago.

Lieblich said, "I calculated how many boxes I would need to last 10-15 years, and I bought that many boxes."

An amazing CNN explainer video about the chalk describes Dave Bayer as "...buying the rest of the Amazon supply in the middle of the night."

In the CNN video, Eisenbud claims he has a ten-year supply of the chalk.

However, a Korean teacher loved the chalk so much that he convinced the company's owner, who created Hagoromo chalk, to allow him to continue making the chalk.

So, for now, the Hagoromo chalk brand is still being made.

And math professors can now rest easy.

3.

In 2000, basketball legend Kobe Bryant stepped into a tap dancing class.

Kobe commented:

"My first class I walked into the studio and there were all these six-year-old, seven-year-old kids. These kids were looking at me like what in the world? What is this grown-ass man doing in here learning to tap dance?"

Bryant was known during his career to seek out every competitive advantage to be the best.

And when he suffered a sprained ankle during the 2000 NBA finals, he landed on tap dancing as a way to improve his footwork and remain healthy by strengthening his ankles.

Bryant could have hired any trainer in the world; he could have used any method in the world to improve.

But he chose tap dancing.

When 25-year-old Jason Berkowitz got a call about a client wishing to learn to tap dance, his boss told him:

"We can't tell you who it is, but we have an incredible gig for you to teach somebody who wants to learn tap."

And when Berkowitz learned it was Kobe Bryant, he had to keep his client and teaching job top secret.

And, more importantly, Berkowitz had to learn how to tap dance.

In a Hollywood Reporter article, Berkowitz said, "I was just a young Jewish kid with dreadlocks and rhythm, but I had never tap danced a day in my life."

But his boss knew Berkowitz and Bryant would hit it off.

And they did.

Berkowitz first took tap lessons to learn the moves and quickly passed his knowledge on to his eager student.

Bryant was known to search and use methods from various disciplines in search of any way to improve his basketball skills.

So when Bryant heard his idol Michael Jordan had taken ballet to improve his grace, he decided tap dancing might help him.

Berkowitz said Bryant was "...really into it and never acted 'a superstar' - just a student who wanted to improve his craft."

Bryant improved his craft, practicing in his custom-made size 14 tap shoes.

And he credited his stronger ankles for basketball to his new found dance moves.

The Takeaway

So what do Jordan's practice shorts, the fabled Hagoromo chalk, and Kobe's tap dancing lessons have to do with each other?

They are all examples of illusory correlations.

An Illusory correlation is when people see a connection or association between two events or actions when there is no connection.

An example is when a Cubs fan wears a 'lucky' jersey to watch all the games.

The fan believes that when the jersey is worn, the Cubs seem to play better.

This mistaken belief is that wearing the jersey actually helps propel the team to play better, even though there is no connection.

This is a simple example of the illusory correlation.

So when Jordan wears the treasured UNC practice shorts, he might faintly believe they bring him some type of luck or assistance.

Did Jordan become one of the greatest basketball players because he wore his college practice shorts under his Bulls shorts?

Definitely not.

His unparalleled work ethic and skill led him to greatness, not his college practice shorts.

But Jordan probably did connect the two in his mind. His established routine gets credit for some of his success, but it likely brought none.

Besides honoring the University of North Carolina, he probably could not toss the shorts aside after some early basketball success.

So he continued to wear them for years.

***

Did the math professors deliver more profound lectures while using Hagoromo chalk?

Most likely not, although it sure seems they think so.

Mathematicians, obviously, do not become the head of a math department at a university by using mythical chalk.

However, once someone starts using an object and success follows, those two events become connected in one's mind.

So the mathematicians connect to use chalkboards - and their 'magical' chalk.

Math professors could likely devise a mathematical solution that proves the chalk has no impact on their teaching. But sometimes, a tradition is established, and the story is strong - so the chalk continues to live nationwide in many math college classrooms.

***

And did Kobe actually improve his basketball skills from tap dancing?

Maybe.

He did believe his movement and strength improved from these lessons.

However, Kobe's tap dancing lessons lasted briefly, so any benefit would eventually erode if there was a genuine connection.

However, perhaps what is important is that Bryant believed it worked.

The illusory correlation can have adverse effects if one relies on unrelated things for success or makes decisions based on unrelated events - especially if the practice and work are not done.

But if you take every test with your lucky pen because it makes you feel more confident, or if you wear your lucky socks to essential meetings, those superstitions might not just be such a bad thing…

….provided you studied for the test and prepared for the meeting first.

3 things before you go:

1. watch: great clip (and sort of the topic of next newsletter)

2. listen: good advice in a good song

3. watch: this band always creates unique and amazing videos for their song; here’s their latest

Thanks for reading to the end. See you in 10 days.

-Jeff