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> If you are not cheating, you are not trying hard enough to win. I wonder if we're using different definitions of "win" here. To my way of thinking, if a pers

> If you are not cheating, you are not trying hard enough to win. I wonder if we're using different definitions of "win" here. To my way of thinking, if a person has cheated, they didn't win, regardless of what the official judges conclude. (Apologies if I'm misunderstanding the point you're trying to make.)

gowld 6y ago
OK, but then almost no professional or Olympic athlete has won anything in the past 30 years.
- DoofusOfDeath 6y ago
  > OK, but then almost no professional or Olympic athlete has won anything in the past 30 years. I don't know what fraction of those athletes cheated. But I consider my definition of "win" to be reasonable regardless of how many competitors cheat. This reminds me of a famous quote[0]: > When Abraham Lincoln was asked by a prosecuting attorney, “How many legs does a sheep have?” He replied, “Four.” The attorney then asked, “If you called a sheep’s tail a leg, how many legs would he have?” Lincoln replied, “Four. Merely because you call a sheep’s tail a leg does not make it one.” [0] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/11/15/legs/#:~:text=When%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20was%20asked,does%20not%20make%20it%20one.%E2%80%9D https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/11/15/legs/#:~:text=When%...
  - medium_burrito 6y ago
    quoth the late philosopher Mitch Hedburg: "I just bought a 2-bedroom house, but I think I get to decide how many bedrooms there are, don't you? "Fuck you, real estate lady! This bedroom has an oven in it! This bedroom's got a lot of people sitting around watching TV. This bedroom's over in that guy's house! Sir, you have one of my bedrooms, are you aware? Don't decorate it!"
medium_burrito 6y ago
To paraphrase the only real rule in another famous sport: "The winning player shall be the first player that wins." If you are the top of any sport, there's money, fame, groupies, etc. There's a real incentive to do it. Moreover, the audience wants to see superhumans and world records broken. To paraphrase Futurama about women's basketball "good fundamentals, but can't dunk". The governing bodies of all pro sports look the other way.

gowld 6y ago

OK, but then almost no professional or Olympic athlete has won anything in the past 30 years.

DoofusOfDeath 6y ago
> OK, but then almost no professional or Olympic athlete has won anything in the past 30 years. I don't know what fraction of those athletes cheated. But I consider my definition of "win" to be reasonable regardless of how many competitors cheat. This reminds me of a famous quote[0]: > When Abraham Lincoln was asked by a prosecuting attorney, “How many legs does a sheep have?” He replied, “Four.” The attorney then asked, “If you called a sheep’s tail a leg, how many legs would he have?” Lincoln replied, “Four. Merely because you call a sheep’s tail a leg does not make it one.” [0] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/11/15/legs/#:~:text=When%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20was%20asked,does%20not%20make%20it%20one.%E2%80%9D https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/11/15/legs/#:~:text=When%...
- medium_burrito 6y ago
  quoth the late philosopher Mitch Hedburg: "I just bought a 2-bedroom house, but I think I get to decide how many bedrooms there are, don't you? "Fuck you, real estate lady! This bedroom has an oven in it! This bedroom's got a lot of people sitting around watching TV. This bedroom's over in that guy's house! Sir, you have one of my bedrooms, are you aware? Don't decorate it!"

medium_burrito 6y ago

To paraphrase the only real rule in another famous sport: "The winning player shall be the first player that wins." If you are the top of any sport, there's money, fame, groupies, etc. There's a real incentive to do it. Moreover, the audience wants to see superhumans and world records broken. To paraphrase Futurama about women's basketball "good fundamentals, but can't dunk". The governing bodies of all pro sports look the other way.