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Mike C
Posted Tuesday, June 05, 2012 2:53 PM


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Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Cult of Mediocrity
Post #1311480
IceDread
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:11 AM
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Intelligence does not make you great. Some studies I read showed that if you had reached what you wanted or were content with what you had you stop to drive forward and you instead enjoy life as you have it. Then of course there are those who enjoys driving forward and with enough intelligence these people can reach very far.
Post #1317731
mtucker-732014
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:31 AM
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The implied rule is that the bigger the risk the bigger the potential pay off. This is not true in many situations - for example it is a big risk to run blind fold across the road for essentially no pay off - even when you dont get hit by a truck.

If your company is not flexible enough to offer rewards to encourage high pay off risk taking then there is no upside for an individual employee - if company gets the benefit and the employee gets at best a pat on the back why would any rational person stick their neck out?
Post #1317742
Phil Parkin
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:52 AM


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IceDread (6/19/2012)
Intelligence does not make you great. Some studies I read showed that if you had reached what you wanted or were content with what you had you stop to drive forward and you instead enjoy life as you have it. Then of course there are those who enjoys driving forward and with enough intelligence these people can reach very far.


How many people manage this, I wonder. If you spend the first 30 or 40 years of your life striving for education, knowledge, experience, achievement and advancement and then 'arrive', can you switch your outlook to one of peace, contentment, contemplation and enjoyment of your situation? If you are accustomed to progress, accepting stasis is tough.

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If you are asking for help and your post does not contain a question, you should expect responses which do not contain any answers. Put a question mark in there somewhere - it's not rocket science.
Post #1317747
yohannn
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:27 AM
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I guess if you want to be like everyone else, than you should strive for mediocrity. However if you have pride in you work then you will strive for more. You sell your time to the company; it is up to you to take personal ownership of the quality of your work. Just remember you can be replaced but ask yourself, will you be missed?
Post #1317774
julian.fletcher
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:29 AM


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"Or defeated the Nazis."

Wow - that's some achievement! Did you need any help doing that?
Post #1317775
Phil Parkin
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:36 AM


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julian.fletcher (6/19/2012)
"Or defeated the Nazis."

Wow - that's some achievement! Did you need any help doing that?


I think that some Canadians might have been involved too.

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Help us to help you. For better, quicker and more focused answers to your questions, consider following the advice in this link:

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If you are asking for help and your post does not contain a question, you should expect responses which do not contain any answers. Put a question mark in there somewhere - it's not rocket science.
Post #1317778
IceDread
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:57 AM
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Phil Parkin (6/19/2012)
IceDread (6/19/2012)
Intelligence does not make you great. Some studies I read showed that if you had reached what you wanted or were content with what you had you stop to drive forward and you instead enjoy life as you have it. Then of course there are those who enjoys driving forward and with enough intelligence these people can reach very far.


How many people manage this, I wonder. If you spend the first 30 or 40 years of your life striving for education, knowledge, experience, achievement and advancement and then 'arrive', can you switch your outlook to one of peace, contentment, contemplation and enjoyment of your situation? If you are accustomed to progress, accepting stasis is tough.


If you wanted to be the worlds greatest pianist you probably would be. If you are not, you probably did not want it enough since you didnt invest the time and effort into it. Just like that, if you are happy enough with a specific woman and have enough wealth to make you happy, why invest more time and effort into something when you have what actually makes you happy or content?
Post #1317791
Phil Parkin
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 3:20 AM


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IceDread (6/19/2012)
Phil Parkin (6/19/2012)
IceDread (6/19/2012)
Intelligence does not make you great. Some studies I read showed that if you had reached what you wanted or were content with what you had you stop to drive forward and you instead enjoy life as you have it. Then of course there are those who enjoys driving forward and with enough intelligence these people can reach very far.


How many people manage this, I wonder. If you spend the first 30 or 40 years of your life striving for education, knowledge, experience, achievement and advancement and then 'arrive', can you switch your outlook to one of peace, contentment, contemplation and enjoyment of your situation? If you are accustomed to progress, accepting stasis is tough.


If you wanted to be the worlds greatest pianist you probably would be. If you are not, you probably did not want it enough since you didnt invest the time and effort into it. Just like that, if you are happy enough with a specific woman and have enough wealth to make you happy, why invest more time and effort into something when you have what actually makes you happy or content?


Easy enough to say from a totally logical standpoint (though quite what happens when 1,000 extremely driven people all want to be the world's greatest pianist is unclear.)

But, in my opinion, not so easy in practice - we're not computers & there are other factors in play here. Even developers have emotions

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Help us to help you. For better, quicker and more focused answers to your questions, consider following the advice in this link:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/

If you are asking for help and your post does not contain a question, you should expect responses which do not contain any answers. Put a question mark in there somewhere - it's not rocket science.
Post #1317808
IceDread
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 3:39 AM
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Phil Parkin (6/19/2012)
IceDread (6/19/2012)
Phil Parkin (6/19/2012)
IceDread (6/19/2012)
Intelligence does not make you great. Some studies I read showed that if you had reached what you wanted or were content with what you had you stop to drive forward and you instead enjoy life as you have it. Then of course there are those who enjoys driving forward and with enough intelligence these people can reach very far.


How many people manage this, I wonder. If you spend the first 30 or 40 years of your life striving for education, knowledge, experience, achievement and advancement and then 'arrive', can you switch your outlook to one of peace, contentment, contemplation and enjoyment of your situation? If you are accustomed to progress, accepting stasis is tough.


If you wanted to be the worlds greatest pianist you probably would be. If you are not, you probably did not want it enough since you didnt invest the time and effort into it. Just like that, if you are happy enough with a specific woman and have enough wealth to make you happy, why invest more time and effort into something when you have what actually makes you happy or content?


Easy enough to say from a totally logical standpoint (though quite what happens when 1,000 extremely driven people all want to be the world's greatest pianist is unclear.)

But, in my opinion, not so easy in practice - we're not computers & there are other factors in play here. Even developers have emotions


That's the point, our emotions, our will, what we actually want without perhaps even thinking about it. That is what you do.

I want to be insanely rich, but I'm not. Obviously I'm happy enough as is and more slowly doing something about it than devoting all my time to it.
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