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The Other Pong
theodp writes "Before there was Pong, there was Ping-Pong. Table tennis began in 19th-century Victorian England as a parlor game for the upper-middle class, with cigar box lids used as paddles. Today, as BusinessInsider half-joked, federal law requires all tech startups to have a functional ping pong table. Photographer Alec Soth discusses his love of the game in a NY Times interview and shares some vintage photos of the sport from his new limited-edition book Ping Pong. So, why do people — especially lots of computer programmers — get obsessed with Ping-Pong? Table tennis is 'a way to do a physical sport that has actual athletic qualities but is kind of contained,' explains Soth. 'There's a real mental element to it. It's not chess, but your brain is engaged. It's a break from neuroses.'" As workplace stress relief games go, a ping-pong table is also a lot easier to carry than an air hockey set-up or a bowling alley.
My psychiatric training, including playing ping-pong with patients, was invaluable at an early start-up. Being good enough to *lose*, at will, while making the other person feel as if they'd earned the win was as much of an art form as playing with patients overdosed on Thorazine. They can get "tardive diskinesea", where physical motions are profoundly delayed from when they're intended, and aiming the ball to where their paddle will wind up, so that the game can continue cheefully, was the kind of skill needed to realize you *have* to leave bugs in your code so the system architect will feel empowered by fixing them, and will stay the hell out of insisting that you rewrite everything to some made-up-on-the-spot new scheme that you've already tried and know damn well didn't work 20 years ago, either.
As a former HS and Division-I varsity college "normal" tennis player (albeit low on the ladder) I scoffed at "ping-pong" pretty much like everyone else. That is until one of my teammates dared me to not look like an idiot at one of the fraternities' (women's) intramural practice sessions. I lost that dare big-time. After that I actually was interested in it as an actual sport...the fact that there were also relatively hot chicks helping me out kind of gave me a bit of incentive, also. I actually play once in a while even now and that was almost 20 years ago. I even have a STIGA rosewood racquet that is worth almost 100 bucks and replacement rubbers (yeah that's right). Anyone who thinks volleyball, the cue sports, or even golf require mental focus and physical dexterity anywhere near table tennis are seriously misinformed. If any physical game could be compared to chess I think it would be table-tennis. Ok, now mock away...I can take it.