I think you nailed it right here. We may not be able to be the best at everything, but we can try, and at the end any improvements are good to get.
The extreme that is probably very damaging is that “everybody wins no matter what” attitude you and iteracom mentioned. There is a pretty nice Simpsons episode where their playing that sitting on chairs game and there are like 10 chairs for six people, so everybody wins all the time - hilarious and yet it can often be true.
The “entitlement” feeling is so misguided and yet it seems to be true for so many people in so many countries (maybe all) - it’s an incredible social observation, to say the least.
I think we all need to think about the fact that everyone is unique, but that doesn’t automatically mean that everyone is special (as in deserving of special treatment).
instead of telling everyone that they are more special than everyone else, what we really need is to have a sense of “How to be happy even if you’re not special.” People need to feel that happiness is not permanently out of reach and know how to achieve it, and if they feel that non-special people can be happy, then it won’t be as necessary to convince kids that their B+ indicates how special they are.
Although, I agree with your celebrating mediocrity comment (i.e. a 6th place trophy), I think suggesting that earning an MBA from an 89th place university = mediocre isn’t an appropriate comparison.
However; if he was celebrating the fact that he graduated at the top of the class, then that’s something I’d chuckle at.
Plus remember, we need people to go to these lower ranked universities to make the degrees from the top10 univ look even better.
Good post though, some interesting points on how to live your life. I like you’s guy’s, even Blake and Iteracom, but especially my nephews that converse with a fluidity of ebonics unparalleled outside of the hood.
All this BS about rewarding mediocrity and 6th palce trophies is overblown and prepetuated as talking points by right wingers who insist the country is in decline. So what if a kid receives a 6th place trophy? It may make the parents feel better but the kid knows well that it doesn’t mean anything. Kids have a desire to win as strong as adults and some bs participation trophy isn’t fooling anyone.
As for the ridiculous comment about the subpar school. Keep in mind that about 25% of the population graduates from college, probably substantially lense for grad school, so it is an achievement.
I was having lunch yesterday with Bill Gates and Larry Ellison, and they told me that they consider the combined accomplishments of everyone on AF to be mediocre at best and that we really should stop celebrating. They find graduating from college to be particularly mediocre, especially “elite” graduate programs, as anyone who is actually special would have dropped out before finishing (they kid Warren about that all the time, btw). Incidentally, they both “forgot” their wallets and stuck me with the tab.
He’s probably celebrating more that he’s done than anything else. Part-time MBA even at a bad school plus work would leave little time for anything else.
Also, there are plenty of people out there with mediocre degrees who accomplish a lot. Thirty years from now if you’re running Citadel and he’s running a car wash, then I can understand the criticism. He’s got plenty of time to make something of himself.
@OP, So let me get this straight; you’re wasting your time trolling around facebook then you hop on AF and waste our time to complain about some guy you feel is wasting his time.
Lets all just chill. Iteracom’s a cool guy and adds a lot of value. Not to mention the inherent irony in your post there infinitybenzo. I think his point was much more benign than people are making it out to be from their soap boxes.