Sweet spot?

Reader question:

Please explain “sweet spot” in this sentence: Brad Pitt aims for his sweet spot again, a heist comedy.

My comments:

It means Brad Pitt, the Hollywood star, will be playing his favorite role again – a take-the-money-and-run man in a new comedy.

“Sweet spot” is American slang for the position one thrives in, or the situation where you are most comfortable with. Originally a baseball term, the “sweet spot” refers to the part of the bat where the player is supposed to hit the ball with – in order to be most effective. In other words, if he hits the sweet spot, he’s hit it right. It means his timing is perfect, and he’s hit the ball spot on and with full strength, too, sending the ball high and long – preferably into the stands for a home run!

Hence, figuratively, the sweet spot refers to any situation you’re most happy, comfortable and successful with, be it your current good job or joblessness (which latter is even more enviable because it gives you loads of free time).

In the example from the top, Pitt aiming “for his sweet spot again” suggests that Pitt has so far performed best in hit-and-run movies (no argument there) and will be trying to land another similar role in his next movie, a heist comedy. In short, prepare for another palm-sweating thriller by Pitt and hopefully get a few good laughs too. Personally, though, I’m not convinced of Pitt in a comedy role – not yet at least.

Anyways, here are recent media examples of people in their sweet spots:

1. The Elliotts want to take the term “home office” to the next level.

The husband and wife team of Loren and Teresa Elliott are the owners of F1 Information Solutions, a new home-based operation designed to aid small business owners by improving their websites, optimizing their web traffic, transcribing dictation and aiding in other logistical office tasks.

Basically, if it can be done on a computer by an employee, the Elliotts can fill that gap for the entrepreneur.

“We help independent businesses or entrepreneurs get more customers using the Internet,” Loren Elliott said. “Our target clients are businesses who need help, but who are small enough where they don't want to hire an employee to do the job.”

Loren, who has been in the technology field since the 1980s, is in charge of the technology and Internet part of the business. His sub-section of F1, called Web Ranking Solutions, is primarily focused in increasing hits to existing websites. Through a process called website search optimization, Elliott said he is able to make sure the business owner’s site will show up on page one for related searches on popular search sites such as Google.

“When somebody gets on Google, how often do they go past page one? It’s important for that business owner to be there,” Loren said. “You need to find that sweet spot where people are finding what you’re offering.”

- Elliotts team to offer web solutions for small businesses, Salon.com, March 29, 2011.

2. There was a time when Dirk Nowitzki was a young, rising star, a guy whose expanding skills were making his team more of a championship contender every spring.

Now Nowitzki is at the point in his career where teammates talk about wanting to help him finally win a ring. Having been to the NBA Finals and won an MVP award, it’s the only thing that still drives him.

His Dallas Mavericks will give it another try starting tonight with the opener of a first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers and LaMarcus Aldridge — a young, rising star whose expanding skills are making his team more of a championship contender.

While skeptics say the Mavs are too old and too flawed to win it all, Nowitzki’s rebuttal is simply, “I don’t talk to skeptics.”

“We’re playing for a championship,” Nowitzki said Friday. “That’s really the only goal. I don’t know if we have something to prove. If we don’t win a championship, it’s another disappointing season.”

Nowitzki knows all about those. Since blowing a 2-0 lead in the 2006 NBA Finals, Dallas has won only a single playoff series. The Mavs have been dumped in the first round three of the past four postseasons, fueling much of that skepticism. Portland is the chic pick as the bottom seed most likely to pull off an upset this round.

Although the Trail Blazers are a sixth seed, they’ve been on the rise the past few seasons. The addition of Gerald Wallace at the trade deadline has really sped things up.

Portland is 11-5 since mid-March, with a pair of wins over both San Antonio and Dallas, plus single wins over the Lakers and Oklahoma City.

“I think we do a great job with the guys we have in versatility, you know, guys being able to guard different positions,” Wallace said. “So instead of up trying to match up with other teams, we put pressure on them to try to match up with us.”

Aldridge is the toughest matchup.

The 6-foot-11 power forward averaged 21.8 points and 8.8 rebounds this season, both career bests.

“When he gets to the middle and he gets to his sweet spot, he’s almost unstoppable,” said Mavs center Tyson Chandler, who will have to cover Aldridge. “We’ve got to make it tough for him, keep him away from easy baskets, force him to roll out, get him to some uncomfortable spots and get him missing some baskets so we can fast break.”

Nowitzki, aging Mavs take on rising Blazers, AP, April 16, 2011.

3. The government has tried to create winners as well as support them. Germany’s growing green-energy industries are largely creations of the state. Generous subsidies have made the country the world’s biggest market for solar-power installations. It may have sucked up half of global production in 2010. Almost a quarter of patents awarded in 2007 for renewable-energy technologies went to German firms.

The results of this have been mixed. On the German bank of the river Oder stand factories that the government had hoped would be world-beaters in making photovoltaic cells. But they have been undercut by Asian competitors which now supply most of the gleaming modules sprouting in Bavarian fields. Germans have, though, become top dogs at making the machines that make the cells: Manz Automation is one of the biggest producers of equipment used to make thin-film solar cells. Three-quarters of its machines are sold to Asia.

Germany’s success in emerging markets is a source of both pride and vulnerability, for it would be hard hit were growth there to slow. The extent to which exports to a single market—China—have flattered the income statements of German firms is worrying. Growth in many of Germany’s other markets, in the euro area and beyond, is already sluggish. This year looks as if it will be harder than last.

Moreover, Germany still has hard work ahead of it. The services sector, despite some liberalisation (for instance, in retailing) is still underdeveloped. A system of schooling that has proved reliable in turning out industrial workers needs an overhaul (see article). For all of the success of German firms in exporting goods, some German banks made the mistake of buying American mortgage debts. The banking system, especially the publicly owned bit, is yet to recover fully.

None of these problems is insurmountable and Germany, unlike many countries, has the time and budget to deal with them. The risk, however, is that Germany may choose to bask in its triumph and to slip back into old habits, suppressing domestic demand and focusing all its efforts on exporting more. “We are living a bit on borrowed time in a sweet spot where the deficit countries haven’t yet adjusted,” says Deutsche Bank’s Mr Mayer. “One of the big risks is complacency.”

- German business: A machine running smoothly, The Economist, February 3, 2011.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.