I hate to sound machiavelian here, but i think an important criterion for a good sport missing from this discussion is “gain friends, respect, and a conversational topic with people who don’t identify as rationalists”.
A lot of us are going to be short on opportunities to achieve these goals. So the most instrumentally rational sport may be the one which happens to be popular in your immediate social environment.
I hate to sound machiavelian here, but i think an important criterion for a good sport missing from this discussion is “gain friends, respect, and a conversational topic with people who don’t identify as rationalists”.
A lot of us are going to be short on opportunities to achieve these goals. So the most instrumentally rational sport may be the one which happens to be popular in your immediate social environment.
I think the skill of holding a conversation is much more important than having conversational topics.
If I wanted to optimize for that goal I would do Improv Comedy as a hobby.
A lot of sports give you a new social environment when you practice them. You don’t have to optimize for your existing social environment.