Descartes and Golf

Nothing to do with Nietzsche directly, so I hope that all of my many readers will forgive me...but my mom was excited to tell me that the Devil Rays manager reads philosophy and puts inspirational quotes from Camus up in the lockerroom. Strangely, this really pissed me off. I think it probably has something to do with my guess that the quotes are used to show off intellect and use the authority of some famous intellectual to push a point, and I'm just taking a wild stab in the dark, but i bet that the point made by the Mr. Sports is not how the quote is intended or the point the philosopher was trying to make.

I have my own humorous example of this. I played college golf and my coach was a big believer in the "mental game" and "positive thinking." In support of his positive thinking he would say "it is just like Descartes said, 'I think, therefore I am.'" As if Descartes meant anything remotely close to the "power" of positive thinking. Its an amusing interpretation though. After dismantling all his beliefs he came to a first principle which was: if you want to hit a good golf shot the key is to think and believe that you can hit a good golf shot.

If you are sincerely trying to find some intellectual backing for this Golf strategy there are plenty of other more accurate sources you can pull from, like "The Secret" and "What the Bleep Do We Know" which we all know are substantial, respectable, first-rate philosophies....