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> If you're an artist or a musician or a developer or, well anything really, what does it mean to be able to go online and are hundreds, thousands, millions of

> If you're an artist or a musician or a developer or, well anything really, what does it mean to be able to go online and are hundreds, thousands, millions of people who are far better at a thing than you are? No different than when a child enters high school and finds that the Varsity baseball team (or soccer team or whatever) is on a league above-and-beyond their abilities. You either get better to join the level of the competition, or you drop out. It happens again in the highschool -> college transition. Learning your place in the world is part of growing up. Any kid growing up thinking they're hot stuff because of their performance in grade school gets a rude wakeup call in high school and/or college. -------------------- As a Kid, I thought I was pretty good at chess. Turns out my adult skill in chess is roughly class D and I peaked at 1500 Elo (and as an adult, I'm way better at chess than I used to be). As a kid, I also thought I was good at Starcraft: Brood War. I even played the Blizzard ladder pretty decently. But when I sought the competitive community, I barely made rank D- on Teamliquid. I always was reasonably humble about my abilities with regards to sports, but I have plenty of friends who got a rude awakening that their skills weren't varsity level. I fortunately was in less ego-driven sports, such as Track and Field, where the teams are always accepting of you regardless of your abilities. A runner who can do 5-minute miles would rather run with a teammate for good discussion / less boredom, even if those teammates are 1 to 2-minutes slower. And we all can have fun with discus or shot-put even if I'm much weaker than everyone else. Meanwhile, a lot of grade-school baseball pitchers or point-guards couldn't make the high school team. Going from "best in grade school" to "not even on the team" in high school really was quite a shock for them... Its better to learn your place in the world sooner, rather than later. Getting blasted with the right amount of humility is more important for proper psychological development than thinking you're the best at the world at (insert sport / activity / skill here) and just being completely delusional until adulthood. ------------ As we grow up and specialize into various subjects, the opposite happens. Lets say... GPU programming. I've probably spent more time searching for the community (be it online, or in person) to find people who can even discuss the subject with me because its so specialized. Its because the number of GPU-programmers is much smaller than say, the number of people who try to get good at running a mile, play baseball, or play chess. (And most people who do get into the subject just use Python Tensorflow, rather than discussing the lower level programming details). It is here where the internet shines. You really need a network that connects to the "entire world" just to find other people who can talk to you about this subject.

fragmede 4y ago
Yeah. There's a right amount of delusion to have, and while it's important for every burgeoning high school student to have their dreams of being the next Bobby Fischer shot down with an absolutely middling Elo, these days, I think it's just as important for that same high school student to realize how much there is out there these days, and that there's a record for solving a rubik's cube blindfolded. And for solving it one one-handed. And for making a lego robot to solve one. Don't settle for being a middling Chess player. You can be the best one-legged Steam Deck mGBA Pokemon Blue player there ever was, if only you put just find the right flavor of Pokemon where you're the best. Just don't forget about your middling Elo score.
kuu 4y ago
> No different than when a child enters high school The problem is that when you compete against the high school, you're competing against maybe ~100? people. With internet you're "competing" against thousands and sometimes millions of people, not just the best of your neighborhood but the whole world, with all the existing inequalities. Therefore, competition is superfluous, there is little chance for "you" to win.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  Going from "not the best" as a high schooler to "not the best" as an adult is... fine? Its no major difference. That's my point. I already accepted my middling skill level in Chess, Starcraft, Drama, Music (Trumpet/Piano), martial arts and sports. Even years of effort in these subjects puts you as simply mediocre, and the sooner you realize the amount of effort it takes to just be "fine" (let alone "good" or "the best") the better it is for your psyche. "Winning" isn't the point of... most of these hobbies? I wasn't really aiming to be a world-record holder in the 800-meter or 1600 meter by high school, I was already just aiming at something that satisfied myself (which was a ~6:30 mile time and a 2:20 800m time). Nothing crazy good, but something that made myself proud of my own efforts. Same same as an adult. My mile time isn't as good as when I was younger and healthier and more time to run. But other skills I got, like Tetris, 40L sprint in 1-minute, is acceptable to me. Sure, stronger players can so it in sub 20-seconds but I'm satisfied with 1-minute 40L sprint? ------- And you really don't have to work very hard to find an unexplored, useful profession. In particular, programming skills are a a fractal. You can probably become a "world expert" in Cobol in less time than I spent learning Tetris 40L sprints (and certainly less time to become a Cobol expert than to get a 6:30 mile run time). Assuming of course you're proficient in the base level / bachelor's level of Comp. Sci. There's only one subject you need to be world-class in, and that's your profession. Heck, arguably you don't even need to be world-class in your work. Plenty of money in just being a "fine" programmer.

fragmede 4y ago

Yeah. There's a right amount of delusion to have, and while it's important for every burgeoning high school student to have their dreams of being the next Bobby Fischer shot down with an absolutely middling Elo, these days, I think it's just as important for that same high school student to realize how much there is out there these days, and that there's a record for solving a rubik's cube blindfolded. And for solving it one one-handed. And for making a lego robot to solve one. Don't settle for being a middling Chess player. You can be the best one-legged Steam Deck mGBA Pokemon Blue player there ever was, if only you put just find the right flavor of Pokemon where you're the best. Just don't forget about your middling Elo score.

kuu 4y ago

> No different than when a child enters high school The problem is that when you compete against the high school, you're competing against maybe ~100? people. With internet you're "competing" against thousands and sometimes millions of people, not just the best of your neighborhood but the whole world, with all the existing inequalities. Therefore, competition is superfluous, there is little chance for "you" to win.

dragontamer 4y ago
Going from "not the best" as a high schooler to "not the best" as an adult is... fine? Its no major difference. That's my point. I already accepted my middling skill level in Chess, Starcraft, Drama, Music (Trumpet/Piano), martial arts and sports. Even years of effort in these subjects puts you as simply mediocre, and the sooner you realize the amount of effort it takes to just be "fine" (let alone "good" or "the best") the better it is for your psyche. "Winning" isn't the point of... most of these hobbies? I wasn't really aiming to be a world-record holder in the 800-meter or 1600 meter by high school, I was already just aiming at something that satisfied myself (which was a ~6:30 mile time and a 2:20 800m time). Nothing crazy good, but something that made myself proud of my own efforts. Same same as an adult. My mile time isn't as good as when I was younger and healthier and more time to run. But other skills I got, like Tetris, 40L sprint in 1-minute, is acceptable to me. Sure, stronger players can so it in sub 20-seconds but I'm satisfied with 1-minute 40L sprint? ------- And you really don't have to work very hard to find an unexplored, useful profession. In particular, programming skills are a a fractal. You can probably become a "world expert" in Cobol in less time than I spent learning Tetris 40L sprints (and certainly less time to become a Cobol expert than to get a 6:30 mile run time). Assuming of course you're proficient in the base level / bachelor's level of Comp. Sci. There's only one subject you need to be world-class in, and that's your profession. Heck, arguably you don't even need to be world-class in your work. Plenty of money in just being a "fine" programmer.