Should we aspire to mediocrity as a virtue?

That being only part of the equation. Life experience is the other half.

Well those leading this country now and not doing so well so why not give someone that lives everyday as most of us do a chance?

Better that guy than another damned lawyer.

Nah, reach for the sky. It’s not as far off as it looks!

It might be. Look where the Harvard and Yale crowd have led us.

I do not aspire to mediocrity at anything that I do.

@marinelife if you could have seen me sailing on Sunday, then you’d realize that mediocrity can be a good thing, a laudable goal. I’d include most of our government in that analogy, too: if only they could be mediocre.

@CyanoticWasp The fact that it may be an achievement to reach mediocrity is different.

@marinelife I think it’s related to hubris. So many Ivy Leaguers think that they are already at excellence, and can’t possibly do wrong. (I thought I was a good sailor until this past weekend. I have a lot more to learn, and now that my bubble has been burst and I’ve been thoroughly disabused of that notion, perhaps I can learn.)

Well my definition of being humble is the ability to be taught. And I mean taught by anyone or anything. I think this is called mediocrity as well.

Dear me, @CyanoticWasp, what happened?

Honestly, I don’t know what aspiring to mediocrity means. It sounds like it means that if you happen to be good at anything, you should try to dumb yourself down. I don’t see the point of that. Sure, if you’re bad at something, it would be good to aspire to do better and perhaps pull yourself up to mediocre.

I’m not sure if mediocrity is being valorized or made a laughingstock here. I’m not sure what yardstick is being used to measure mediocrity.

Perhaps the point is as @CyanoticWasp said: people claim to be above average and then they make a mistake that makes them look stupid. Such people seem to be falsely claiming they are above average.

Well, I automatically mistrust anyone who makes such a claim without providing evidence to support it. It’s not your job to tell me you are smart. That’s for me to say. That’s for your reputation to say. That’s for your work to say. But those things speak for themselves. They speak about you from an independent point of view. Your view is subjective and as such, is automatically suspect. It is hubris. Or in danger of becoming hubris.

I think most of us try to do the best we can given the circumstances and our goals. Some of us even try to do the best we can even when it doesn’t affect any of the goals we have. It’s just an ethos. If we aspire to something, that’s fine, in my book. If we say, before the fact, that we will certainly do something this well, that’s disingenuous. It is in danger of becoming hubris. It is completely different from aspirations to mediocrity or anything else.

We should all aspire to do well, I think. We should be humble about our work. Let it speak for itself.

Good Lord, no. I so don’t understand the whole “anti-elitist” stance that the right seems to take. I don’t want an “average Joe” running the country! I want a brilliant strategist, a cunning statesman, someone capable of understanding “cause and effect” in economics. The “dumb-ing” of America is terrifying.

A sailing friend once said to my husband:

“Haven’t you ever heard of “good enough’?”

While good enough or settlling is occasionally necessary, I don’t see it as a goal to aspire to in government or most anything else.

We had 8 years of the guy you’d like to have a beer with and look where that got us!

Then you wind up with idiots like this in office.

@syz Isn’t funny how strict interpreters of the Constitution can bend it when it suits them?

America is in very serious trouble and there is no one that is going to bring it out of it. The new administration is worse than the last at least in my opinion. So as I stated maybe some average joe is what we need at this point.

@JustmeAman Why? Things are bad, so let’s get someone not so bright in place? How does that help?

I’m not saying it is going to help but those that have been there have not helped either so what I said was maybe we should try a average type person there. Those we have elected sure have let us down.

@wundayatta to answer your question (and then get back to the topic) I learned on Sunday that I’m not as good a sailor as I thought I was. And that knowledge will help me to be a better sailor than I am.

I arrived on time for the skippers’ meeting prior to the race. I understood the Sailing Instructions and the rules for the race. I launched my boat on time (I assumed) with other members of the fleet. And it all went downhill from there.

I missed the start of the first race (with the others who launched when I did), so got a DNS (Did Not Start) for that one. I mistimed the start of the second race so badly that I was trailing most of the way, but finally managed to pass one competitor before the first mark. I gave up that slight advantage when I fouled the second mark so badly that I was hung up on it for a couple of minutes, putting me hopelessly behind the fleet. So rather than delay the start of the next race by finishing so late, I withdrew and got a DNF (Did Not Finish).

I got a better start in the third race (although I fouled one other at the start, who didn’t protest as he could have) and was in the middle of the fleet at the first mark rounding. But I misjudged the best course to the second mark (I followed the wrong crowd) and fell behind most competitors (still leading a couple, though), until I capsized and lost all advantage at the leeward mark. I did manage to finish the race in last place, but I was soaked because I hadn’t adjusted my dry suit properly. At least the water wasn’t too cold.

As we waited to start the next race I got hit by an unexpected gust of wind and capsized again, and this time the suit started to take on water, and I was pretty exhausted from the two capsize recoveries, plus the time spent racing and jockeying for position, and knew that I still had to sail in to the launch point to recover the boat and drive home. So I withdrew for the day… and managed to beat the only other sailor to the launch who withdrew at the same time.

So it was horrible, awful sailing, but continuous improvement! So I’ll be back out on Sunday next to continue the process. I will be aiming at mediocrity as a waypoint on my journey to improvement.

I told the story partly to illustrate one point that I’m trying to make: You can’t aim for excellence if you think that you’re already there and can’t recognize that you’re not. As one who has been sailing for nearly a half-century, I thought I was a pretty darn good dinghy sailor. Obviously, there’s lots of room for improvement. (And I am pretty good in a lake and with other boats, but the tidal and river currents in the Connecticut River were brand new to me, as is the boat.)

However, unrelated to the story, there is another point to be made in all of this: The President does not “run the country”. He doesn’t even “run the government”. The President is elected to head the Executive Branch of the US government. For us as citizens to think that he’s more than a CEO of a branch of the government is abdicating our own responsibility as “his (collective) boss”. We make our own mediocrity by ascribing to the President far more capability and power than he actually has—he makes it (they all make it) by assuming that he has those capabilities and powers.

When you capsize, @CyanoticWasp, do you have to right yourself on your own, or are you allowed to get help? I think it’s quite dedicated of you to sail when it isn’t summer.

Yes to the question. Accepting help from the crash boat or a spectator is an automatic DSQ.

You might also be interested on this discussion on Why does society reward mediocrity

No, not at all. Mediocrity is not a progressive attitude. In my opinion there’s not much to gain from being mediocre. One must strive to do the best they can when it matters. Mediocrity is not a good thing IMO, because it’s complacent and it desires nothing better for itself or anyone else, and it expects nothing but mediocrity in return – this will lead nowhere but to a poorer (figuratively speaking, and probably literally too) society.