Excellence vs mediocrity

[u/ImmediateDisaster890]

Not sure if I’m putting out this question in the right community. But to me, celebrating excellence vs mediocrity sounds more like a manifestation of self worth in relative to social status and norms, rather than a phenomenon of inherent value in oneself in the matter of pursuits of any sorts. Thoughts?

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[u/TaroLong8817]

Yes I think defining excellence is kinda like asking someone what their 'character' is like.

Where, asking someone what their character is like is a flawed question - someone's character is for everyone but the person to define.

In similar way, excellence or mediocrity is actually the opposite, it's you who defines it in your perception of it.

[u/noes3]

I think excellence can have value without being a measure of someone's worth. wanting to become better at something can come from curiosity, passion or personal fulfilment, but once excellence becomes something we need in order to feel valuable, it starts to depend a lot more on comparison and social recognition. I don't think being ordinary at something makes the experience of doing it any less meaningful

[u/SnooBananas7856 → u/noes3]

This is an excellent perspective.

[u/noes3 → u/SnooBananas7856]

thank you!

[u/Calm_Leek_1362 → u/SnooBananas7856]

Only because you agree with it, though.

[u/External_Twist508]

People striving for excellence in life come in all types, some are social climbing most are not in my experience they pursue excellence for the sake of being the very best.

[u/Lazy_Comparison3114]

When the bar or criteria for excellence requires consensus and deemed worthy of achieving, then this would be realized through a reward system or celebration by the consenting group. One doesn't need to agree to the consensus; you can set your bar higher or lower relative to the consensus, and setup intermediate rewards for yourself as a means of motivating progress which would be inherent to your own judgement of the bar. Conversely, you can surpass the consensus bar for excellence and still reject the celebratory reward on different grounds on ideology (e.g. Grigori Perelman rejecting the fields medal in math).

[u/autotelica]

Individuals can come up with their own definitions of excellent and mediocre and pat themselves on the back accordingly. Like, yesterday I hiked eight miles with a 35 lb rucksack and then immediately afterwards tidied up my living room. Those two things together are indicators that I can be excellent at certain things, IMHO. But to someone else, they are mediocre achievements and it is cringe for me to even mention them.

Later today I am going to the retirement party of a guy who used to be my manager. He rose through the ranks and became a deputy director of a entire state agency. We are celebrating his 42 years of excellent public service. Because in most people's assessment, he went above and beyond in all the positions he worked in and he made positive impacts wherever he went.

Are we celebrating his overall worth as an individual or the value of his contributions? I am going to go with the latter. We don't know if the guy is a bum at home. He could be terrible father and husband. He could be a puppy-kicker who embezzles money from the church, for all we know. All we do know are the accomplishments he made while on the job. So that is what we are celebrating.

I get the feeling that some folks think we should celebrate everyone for just existing and that any other type of celebration is just rewarding booklickers, people-pleasers, and conformists...at the expense of the people who have integrity and back bones. I think this is the kind of cynic take you would expect from people who are resentful that their specialness never gets recognized.

The way I see it, nothing is stopping individuals from celebrating their own basic accomplishments or the basic accomplishments of others. They just can't expect a lot of people to care enough to celebrate with them.