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0 pointstonymet5y ago0 comments

I think it's unfair that "mediocre" is seen as a bad word. We have so many things to do, I think it's perfectly good to be mediocre in many ways. We're competing on a global scale, it's impossible to be exceptional on many dimensions.

I'd like to encourage more people to be happy being mediocre.

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JohnBooty5y ago

It's also true that even a "mediocre" engineer is elite in many ways - they are "mediocre" compared to all the other folks who managed to carve out a sustained engineering career. However, even somebody in the middle of that group has elite engineering skill relative to the population at large.

This is true of many careers, of course!

I always feel bad for the professional athletes who "suck." It's kind of hilarious -- even the "worst" professional athlete in a given professional sports league is actually an extremely elite specimen, with only a tiny fraction of all athletes even being able to make it into such a league.

tonymetOP5y ago

When i first joined my cycling club, i was dead last every ride. Even then i used to say "i'm faster than all the blokes who were too lazy to get out of bed". Slowly i got a bit better. Reminding my self of that was a great motivator.

JohnBooty5y ago

Hah! I do the same with tennis. I'm not very good, but you know... I can do some decent things out there sometimes, and I'm proud I took up the game in my 40s after so many of my peers have totally given up on such things.

I'm also blind in one eye. Probably not a lot of people out there playing tennis with just one good eye. Perhaps I actually am "elite" in terms of half-blind, middle-aged, overweight, novice tennis players.

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JohnBooty5y ago

This is true of many careers, of course!

tonymetOP5y ago

JohnBooty5y ago

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