(2018-02-21) Pargin How Mediocrity Can Quietly Destroy Us All

Jason Pargin: How Mediocrity Can Quietly Destroy Us All. The evil in the world doesn't need you to join its side at all -- it needs only for you to succumb to a warm, dense fog that will descend upon you at some point in adulthood. That fog is called Mediocrity.

5: At First, It Just Feels Like Trying To Do Too Much

Disgusted at the world's ingratitude, you will give up.

That is my best description of what it's like to be an adult.

4: This Actually Answers Many Questions You Probably Have

"Why are blockbuster movies so boring?" "Why do grown-ups give up on making the world better?" This is why. The people behind all of that were like you, once.

you never thought the pure, joyous act of creation would feel like frantically tending to a series of crises

3: Every Retreat Makes Perfect Sense In The Moment

The compromises won't happen all at once. Oh, you'll feel the first one. There will be a sense of panic the first time you realize that you've been set up to fail.

2: It Wears Many Faces

I've spent the last 20 years in an industry that's on the cutting edge of innovation when it comes to rewarding shit over quality

If you're asking me which suit at which of my jobs was telling me this, the answer is that none of them did. They always said the opposite -- let's do great work, let's create things we can be proud of. But the bottom line made a mockery of all of us.

1: Being Great At Something Is Still Your Best Chance

A corner cut here, a phoned-in effort to meet a deadline there. They're not trying to turn you into a villain, they're trying to turn you into mush

Why be great at a job just to make your stupid boss rich?

Getting great at something, whatever it is, is not a means to an end; it is the end.
Because then you'll have something they can't take from you, that pride in knowing that you didn't sell yourself short or bow to the crushing gravity of Mediocrity. You can wake up every day, look at Your Thing, and know that it's slightly better than it was yesterday, because you made it so.