The Big Questions

The other morning, after an admittedly late night of work, I was especially enjoying my morning coffee. The thought crossed my mind: Would I rather live forever with coffee and no beer, or with beer but not coffee? Of course, wine was the perfect loophole, so I made this little mind game about coffee or alcohol. Forever. Hmmm, tough one, right?
I became a scientist because of the questions. One question, answered well and true, leads to many more that are just as interesting and important. When you study the nervous system, there are far more questions than answers. The answers I do get in my research are small in light of the mysteries of developmental disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and everyday behavior that interest me. Some questions even seem unanswerable given the current state of technology and understanding of the brain.
Some of you know that I don't exactly ooze patience. When I first started grad school, figuring out that I wouldn't always be able to find meaningful answers to my scientific questions was frustrating. (For a funny take on some of the other torturous aspects of grad school see this). Over time, I've redefined my definition of success at the laboratory bench and come to appreciate the incremental progress that is scientific research. I've reached some level of acceptance of what I don't know and btw, this makes me a rare specimen, a girl that doesn't know everything, haha. But the truth is, some things in science are unknown. Some are just unknown by me, but for other phenomena, there is no answer or explanation.
As fantasy analysts and avid players, we have access to massive amounts of data with which to answer our questions about this guy or that guy any given week. The stats, the numbers, and their interpretations are all out there for your consumption (check out the weekly Efficiency Scores here). The GLSP and Sim Score apps help you use that information to guide your lineup decisions using the most innovative approaches out there. The guys here at rotoviz answer most of the questions you think to ask, and then some.
Yet I am repeatedly made aware that there are questions in fantasy football that we can't answer. What explains Ray Rice's stunning decline this season? Why was pre-injury Doug Martin so bad when every other back in TB given a shot now tears it up? Last year, we wondered for weeks why Philip Rivers wasn't any good. Of course, we know now that he was hurting all year, but back then we had no answer. Being from Western NY, the one I hear the most is this: If CJ Spiller is 100% healthy, why is he not getting productive touches in the Buffalo offense? These questions frustrate the hell out of fantasy owners. It's not just scientists (or women) that want answers, that's for sure.
I approach these tough questions the way I approach a research problem. You have certain facts, things like touches, yards per carry, defensive rank, offensive line play, etc. from the current season and historically. You try to put the facts together to understand how the system works but sometimes they don't fit, like a puzzle with a missing piece. Many of us tend to obsess over the problem, trying to make it sensible over and over again, when it just isn't happening. At some point you have to say, maybe we don't have all the pieces, maybe all the stats and information coming from the team is still incomplete. There must be more to it that we simply can't know right now. I've had the CJ Spiller conversation a bunch of times, and the Bills Fan/Spiller owner response is neither gentle nor accepting. Everything we as fans know screams for a different answer than the reality. So everything we know can't be everything there is to know about the situation.
I think my neuroscience research has taught me to accept these kinds of inexplicable seasons from real life football players as just that: inexplicable. Once you accept that there may be no answer, you can stop wasting energy trying to find it and figure out what to do. It's a fine line. You can't give up too easily in your quest for the truth, as without due diligence you might miss an answer that is knowable. But if you spin your wheels for too long, you could have resources tied up in a no-win proposition.
I think we're getting to that time in this 2013 season. It was evident during the Week 11 TNF game when the fantasy community overwhelmingly agreed that Trent Richardson just isn't who we thought he was. Why doesn't really matter at this point, he just isn't. Not all Big Questions have answers, at least answers that are accessible to us in this time and place. We can hope the reality starts to align with our well researched and logical expectations I suppose. I'm a big optimist, but hope is a poor answer in a fantasy season entering do or die territory. Albert Einstein said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".
Thankfully, not all questions need answers, and I can go on happily enjoying my coffee and alcohol whenever I want. They both have their benefits. What would you choose?