Celebrating mediocrity

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No, I just have sketchy memory sometimes

My name / occupation spreadsheet transposed Simone Biles and Serena Williams. I don't really follow sports in general, but the info still rattles around in there. Sometimes it comes out wrong. Too busy looking up seating capacities to double check that detail.

Somewhat related, there was a male backup dancer of Janet Jackson who was part of her rhythm nation tour in 1990 who stopped dancing almost 2 decades ago. He was invited back to a dance class in 2024 and was asked to lead a dance group in replicating Janet's iconic dance moves in front of a camera. Without practicing for 20 years he executed the moves almost perfectly and despite being older in his 50s and out of practice/fitness was fluid and rhythmic. It was a pleasure watching him.

Unfortunately it was not pleasurable watching Raygun's performance. And she's the best in the world at her craft. Something doesn't sit well for me about that whole thing and I'm by no means the only one.

Somewhat related, I haven't taken a Silat class in 20 years - but I still practice Silat regularly. I haven't worked as a marine mechanic in years - but I still work on boats regularly. Just cos he wasn't dancing professionally for 20 years, doesn't mean he wasn't dancing AT ALL, during that time. As for being in front of a camera, as you said, he was JANET JACKSON'S backup dancer. So he's probably already gotten used to very large crowds with very high expectations.

That's one thing about talent - most people only see the results, or at most a brief montage, of the time and effort and work that was truly put into their craft. The myth of "natural talent" further blurs the matter, with people now not only never seeing the practice, but also believing it didn't even happen, and wasn't even necessary.

Amateurs often think that the gap between the best amateur and the worst professional is pretty close, if not overlapping. The truth is, the talent gap between the noob that's never done something before ever, and the best amateur in the world, is far smaller than the gap between that best amateur, and the worst professional.

Which is partly why the opinions of amateurs, regarding professional matters, is largely meaningless. People are more than welcome to have opinions - that doesn't mean they carry any weight. They really just don't have a clue. But I do find it ever-so-entertaining when they think they do. Particularly when it's something the amateur has never even done before.

The list of people on your original post, and the very nature of your complaint, as posted in the title, tells me that some people are perfectly happy with her, and support her, whatever their reason. But oh no! Some people who'd never even heard of her before, are suddenly unimpressed with something that has zero impact on their lives. I wonder how Raygun will ever get over this!



And anyways, even if all you do is win, someone would still complain about it, claim you didn't deserve it, weren't good enough, etc etc.



Dunno - maybe some people are just jealous that someone else's worst is still better than their best. Who knows? "I went to the olympics and lost" still makes for a better story than "I was employee of the month at SuperCheap for 3 months in a row"...

Yeah so most of the stuff that happens around the world has zero impact on their lives but we still like to talk about it

So the Olympics has a lot of events that are questionable to be classified as "sport", breakdancing certainly raised a few eyebrows but we had it in Paris regardless. So Olympics as a whole have the perception they attract the best of the best. So people aren't surprised when you see the fastest swimmers on the planet, fastest runners, best basketballers etc etc. Imagine the surprise when raygun pulled out as the best B-girl in Australia. A country full of breakdancers. Many (from the look of things most) of whom were as puzzled as me.

As an Australian I wanted to get to the bottom of this. So while I understand your mild irritance that myself and a large chunk of the planet "dared" to ask this question. I am sure the world will not end that this took up a few bytes of virtual discussion space

As for raygun I have already said, she has weathered the storm, and is now cashing in,

Oh you silly silly boy... I never begrudged the question. But cool of you to frame it that way. If I had an issue with the question taking up a few bytes, it would be counter-productive of me to further add even more bytes to it, by engaging in the discussion.

If anything, I know exactly how ignorant the general population can be when it comes to high level talent, which is why I took the time to explain things. Not sure where you got the silly and irrational idea that I'm somehow irritated, by the fact that I've tried to answer questions, in fine detail. If I thought it was a stupid question, I'd have said that - but I answered it, and even explained where the confusion might come from. At no point did I say anything negative about the question itself. Nice try tho

ummm that looks like unrestrained begrudgement to me

Oh? How so? Break it down for me, homie. Be specific. Begrudge means to envy what someone else has, or to unwillingly give something. What exactly am I begrudging? And to whom do I begrudge it? Make it make sense.

Also, I love how it suddenly escalated and evolved from "throwing shade / sarcasm" to "mild irritance" to "unrestrained begrudgement" - like some kind of ad-hominem pokemon. This fish story just keep getting bigger and bigger...

Yes, I throw shade. Yes, I use sarcasm. I do this fairly often. People whine about it enough, I was certain most people knew this already. Still don't get how that translates to "grudge".

Have you already run out of ground to stand on, and are now resorting to characterizing me as having a grudge of some sort, as a means of poisoning my arguments on the matter? What was the accusation meant to accomplish?

Hell, even if I did have the unexplained mystery grudge you accuse me of, explain to me how that somehow deconstructs any of the points that I've made. At worst it makes me rude / sarcastic, but not wrong. If you would like to prove me wrong, please attack my logic and reasoning, rather than inventing imaginary grudges to vaguely gesture at.

Nice try tho

Did you have anything else on-topic you wanted to add? Cos I do in fact find the underlying principles behind the development of skill and talent to be quite fascinating. It's also a topic in which I happen to be at least slightly familiar and knowledgeable, both in theory and practice - which are the main reasons I chose to chime in in the first place.

Who is "attacking"? just an observation on my part UD

Meesa respect you Moi Moi bombad
translation from Gungin: I always respect your clever input

this is cute too...

Energy alone won't solve the world's problems, it might even make them worse (e.g., Global Warming).

Do any of those athletes have STEM degrees?  How about god-like powers -- are they Omnipotent and/or Omniscient?

Red Kelly knows not of what he speaks.

Good one Fnord.

Thank you.

Now, before anyone gets the idea that I'm bagging on those athletes, I'm not -- those athletes are better capable than I in their particular athletic skills.  What I am trying to point out is that it would likely take much more than a high-school diploma -- or a HASS degree -- to even begin to identify and define the world's problems and arrive at workable solutions.

Regarding Rachael "Raygun" Gunn:

Before the Olympics, I had never heard of her.  There was no "Sudden" realization; she has always had the same impact on my life as she had before the Olympics; which is to say, "Zero".  Thus, I have simply never been impressed.

If it is indeed not an attack, then that should make it even easier to explain your "observation". In what way was my statement indicative of begrudgement?

C'mon, big boy. You can do it. You normally LOVE sharing your thoughts. I'm even specifically asking you, like a proper Q&A. Why get so tight-lipped all of a sudden. One might even say, you're begrudging (definition 2, to give reluctantly or resentfully) me a response to something you yourself chose to bring up. Don't get all bashful now

If it's just a l'il ol' observation, surely there's no harm in elaborating.

Right?

Which is the typical reaction one might expect. If one didn't know or care before, about her personally, or even breakdancing in general, or even the olympics as a whole, her sudden and awkward appearance wouldn't typically make a person develop a deep and personal fascination with the matter - unless something else was driving the reaction.

Hence my use of the qualifier "some", rather than "most", or anything of an absolute nature.