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Had he chosen football instead of art he might be looking back thankfully that the decision lead him down the path to becoming an NFL star, or sports announcer,

Had he chosen football instead of art he might be looking back thankfully that the decision lead him down the path to becoming an NFL star, or sports announcer, or whatever. The likelihood of football leading directly to a career path (rather than through connections obtained while playing) is far lower than the similar probability for art, though - there are hundreds of thousands of jobs that directly use art skills, whereas the number of football jobs is far lower (even if we include high school coaching in the equation). In that sense, doing art is really the "safe" option, at least compared to playing football. It only feels less safe because in high school playing football is a lot more respected than doing art.

techiferous 17y ago
One reason that hindsight makes us feel good about our past decisions is that we change the rules of the game when we look back. Sure, the likelihood of football leading directly to a career path is far lower than art, but if the football choice was made, he may look back and say, "I'm so glad I chose not to get into the career rat race and follow my football dreams instead..."
Retric 17y ago
If he had played football in high school he could have met a life long friend. Or gotten a free ride to an OK collage. Or simply had a lot of fun at the time. Looking only at the positive outcomes it's easy to look back on arbitrary choices and think you made the correct one because there are many outcomes that could be considered positive. Heck he could have become injured and still think it was a good choice, because he learned he was not invincible at a young age and focused on living a healthy life.
jonnycoder 17y ago
I chose to work out and play h.s. football. I'm a developer at Intel, so maybe I learned a lot of discipline playing football? Or maybe I'm more inclined to do corporate work... "It's easy to retroactively give a positive interpretation to any life choice"
- lessallan 17y ago
  Johnny I'd say you followed the head sheep. Now you're in a cubical wearing khaki pants to work spending your day on ycombinator news, dreaming about what could have been.
  - jonnycoder 17y ago
    Maybe, if I stop learning and creating new things. And I wear jeans and flip flops.

techiferous 17y ago

One reason that hindsight makes us feel good about our past decisions is that we change the rules of the game when we look back. Sure, the likelihood of football leading directly to a career path is far lower than art, but if the football choice was made, he may look back and say, "I'm so glad I chose not to get into the career rat race and follow my football dreams instead..."

Retric 17y ago

If he had played football in high school he could have met a life long friend. Or gotten a free ride to an OK collage. Or simply had a lot of fun at the time. Looking only at the positive outcomes it's easy to look back on arbitrary choices and think you made the correct one because there are many outcomes that could be considered positive. Heck he could have become injured and still think it was a good choice, because he learned he was not invincible at a young age and focused on living a healthy life.

jonnycoder 17y ago

I chose to work out and play h.s. football. I'm a developer at Intel, so maybe I learned a lot of discipline playing football? Or maybe I'm more inclined to do corporate work... "It's easy to retroactively give a positive interpretation to any life choice"

lessallan 17y ago
Johnny I'd say you followed the head sheep. Now you're in a cubical wearing khaki pants to work spending your day on ycombinator news, dreaming about what could have been.
- jonnycoder 17y ago
  Maybe, if I stop learning and creating new things. And I wear jeans and flip flops.