@emsenn @natecull it ain't all black and white. There is fractal complexity of disciplines and sub disciplines to the point where if you want to you can be the best at something. There's room enough for 100 billion, much less 7.5
The key is even when you're the best at something, it won't fill that void.
You've gotta fill that with something else. External measures won't do. Internal fixes are required. Good luck my friend.
That's fair, though not my experience.
My experience is much more with filling the void.
I agree.
In my experience, there are things we can do to make life more fulfilling. They might not always lead to what's externally considered 'success' or 'excelling', but things like small kindnesses make us more human and happier.
I guess that's where the interpretation of 'mediocrity == stalled self-development' makes a lot of sense.
We can be choose to be better even if it doesn't necessarily mean 'winning everything'
But if you have the drive to create and you're stymied, "being kind" is still a good act, and may still be the right thing, and might even be better than the pain of continuing through the frustration.
Also, per the old saying that giving someone a fish feeds them a day, and teaching them to fish feeds them forever -- the obvious next step, teaching them to TEACH OTHERS how to fish, or creating a MANUAL on fishing, etc., can feed MANY more, eventually.
Even if 'winning everything' is a literally absurd goal -- nobody can do that, most people never try, Genghis Khan arguably came really close and look at how all that shit went down, right? -- 'creating generative good' is still a goal people can reach for.
Even something as simple as going past the trite 'pay it forward' and explaining you feel you owe a debt to the unlucky that you try to pay back can make other people consider their actions and words, sometimes.
@sydneyfalk @natecull @emsenn sometimes the best way to fill that hole is to serve others.
Be excellent to each other.
If all you have is five words, that's a decent take on it.
I'm looking for more nuance in general, though. No offense -- excellence to each other is a good goal.
The problems come from when excellence is pipeline-abused into being a weapon for someone else, and, well.
I'm cautious about who I am "excellent" with these days, and I think it's kinda justified.
Only looking at positives leaves us unprepared and open to the non-excellent, so to speak.
<3
Crowbahr
Sydney Falk, An Oversensitive SJW Type
Nate Cull (.social)