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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- From "elite" pickles to "premium" baby diapers, marketers are constantly telling us to seek superiority - but "by the simple law of averages, most of us have to live a life more ordinary," says sociolinguist Crispin Thurlow. He invites us to embrace mediocrity for a change, offering a different path to contentedness without comparison.
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I grew up poor. I love my boring ordinary life, even if it's not "exciting." I got my home, garden, dog & sometimes get to do fun things. I increase my salary & pay off debts, increase retirement contributions & savings.
By fighting mediocrity we can never be great
But by accepting mediocirty we open the possibility of greatness
Facts!
It was a very large and bitter pill to accept my life wasn't going to be what I had hoped, eventually I did though and I am WAY happier being mediocre, I only do what I want now and have completely cut out all the guilt and sense of obligation as well.....The less you want the more you have really is true.
I teach at an "elite" prep school where students are pounded with messages of superiority; every kid says they are a Perfectionist. I explain that, if you are a perfectionist, then you are doomed to fail at your goal. Have you ever met a person who does everything perfectly? I have AP math students who are getting a C in Studio Art; they literally can not do it and do not understand it, yet they all believe they are superior perfectionists. How does that work? To circumvent the cognitive dissonance they denigrate what they are mediocre at.
Great point!
Love this. It's hard to find a sane balance between wanting more for yourself and enjoying the lack of strain that comes with relaxing into mediocrity.
Excellent talk.
Be happy not being number 1.
Less stress for sure.
wonderful life-changing words. I loved it. just aspiring to be better is enough, not everyone has to be the best.
After all, only one can be the best by definition, i choose to be mediocre 😅
All we need to strive for is never to be mediocre in our gratitude, efforts, and hardwork and desire to learn and brave enough to try
Well, the situation we are in is like we are facing a horrendous wind against us. This wind symbolizes the difficulty of being a spectacular (not mediocre) person. If you give up totally and become depressed, the wind pushes you backwards to a death trap (complete depression), if you try harder to push forward, you probably can't since most people can't, and the only thing you get is extreme exhaustion and after some time you go back to the previous option. The only option is to try to keep your position without exhausting yourself. Not back, not forward. But this is also very hard, because of the constant extreme wind. This is like accepting mediocrity and living a decent life is being constantly vulnerable to inputs from the pop culture around you that anathematizes you for being "just mediocre" because every input we get from outside is about making ourselves super human, better than others, unique, better/best version of ourselves, etc. Since this is an inevitable consequence of the economic system which is all about persuading people and selling products, this problem will stay.
I like your analogy & assessment.
Use mediocrity as a tool to live within your means. Take the money you save and invest it or even just save it. Now you lead a life with less stress.
100% spot on
What does that have to do with mediocrity?
I think the best message here is less of an its okay to just be par at everything and perhaps more of an accept yourself where your at. Far to many people are expecting themselves to be good or even great at everything. Only by accepting where you are at here and now can you really begin any journey in life and even more so importantly stop living in an expectation set as a standard by anyone else outside of yourself. The root of much suffering exisits in ones self and the interprtation of expectations of others onto ones self.
01:02 🧠 Two important lessons from everyday language: Words are influential but meaning can be slippery, and language of superiority can lead to disappointment.
01:50 🤔 Philosopher Alain de Botton's concept of "status anxiety": Constant worry about not being good enough or needing to be better.
02:37 🔄 Reclaiming mediocrity: Understanding its Indo-European roots meaning "middle," acknowledging life in the middle is statistically inevitable, and recognizing it as a privileged place.
04:17 📈 Relentless language of superiority and comparison: Examining the use of the word "elite" in various contexts, highlighting its ubiquity and potential impact on perceptions.
07:09 🌟 Language of "premium" and comparison: Exploring the concept of premium as having a little bit extra compared with others, its profitability for businesses, and its prevalence in various products and services.
09:07 💬 Symbolic violence: Discussing how words manipulate individuals against their best interests, with social comparison leaving people feeling insecure, inadequate, and unsatisfied.
09:35 🤝 Embracing mediocrity as a key to contentment: Acknowledging the inevitability of averageness, finding value and privilege in being unexceptional, and having the courage to be ordinary in a world of constant comparison.
The only comparison I find useful is to how I was in the past. Am I developing and improving on my past self? I know that I am. What is not helpful is trying to be the best in your field and comparing yourself to other people. To be enough for the life you actually want is a great place to be.
I truly believe in intrinsic value and that humbleness is unconditional love for yourself and others. I also think being selfless is important to because it is not neglecting yourself it is just not making yourself the main focus. We’re not here to be special we’re here to hangout with other humans.
Such a amazing idea so beautifully presented!
I enjoyed this talk very much. Thank you for doing it.
I was not too happy when I first listened to this, because I think the message being conveyed is that you should just settle with what you have because your fate is sealed, you are just mediocre.
After finish listening to the whole speech my understanding shifted somewhat. I think he is really trying to say that we should embrace "not being the best" and being pressured to only be the best. It's unrealistic and painful, but it's what people around us, our parents teachers and fellow students and colleagues are pushing us to become. However I believe that the reason a lot of people are just "mediocre" is because they get pushed around and pressured by all those factors around them without really finding something they are passionate about or "trying to be a bit better than yesterday".
I would say you should stop looking ONLY externally and trying to "be the best" at every single area or field you dip your toes in. It's unrealistic and not really a plan to get you anywhere. There are still tons of things I don't know and there is always new tech emerging and new things to learn. If people just take it literally and "embrace staying in the middle", would we want our children to live the same lives as we did? Being inspired by others and improving our own abilities and capabilities should be what we embrace.
We should embrace that we can be better than yesterday, we should embrace we would probably (and almost certainly) never be the best, so instead of making "being the best" as a goal, make it something that inspires us to learn and improve. That's my understanding.
No one is great on their own. To be great, requires mediocrity. If all were great, then all is mediocrity. Accept you may not be great.
Amazing perspective
As a software engineer, I find it concerning that most job adverts ask for a "talented software engineer" or similar... Can't I just be a solid engineer, who knows his craft well? Why do I have to present myself as a superhuman deity to get an interview?
Very good speech. 👏👍
There's a saying that I think support the opinions expressed in it: "Perfect is the enemy of good".
Being "only" good at something is most often okay. More important is that you want to strive for being better - but to do that without stress.
Great talk
love this
It’s competing with others that causes the “symbolic violence”-indeed which can be and is toxic… competing however with yourself and who you were were yesterday is the healthy component of the culture of excellence… two very different things.. The key is not that everyone has to be at the top but to keep striving to do better just for the sake of doing your best, exploring your potential abilities by just going the extra mile.. the trick is to build, not lose, your self esteem by the self fulfilling and rewarding effort made. In doing so there is also improvement in the world and its general ethic/culture.
top comment 👍
Embrace mediocrity. It's what your mediocre corporate overlords want.
Loved it.
Ah , inspiring!
Prefiero abrazar la simplicidad en mi vida.
In Chinese mediocrity can probably be translated to Zhongyong 中庸, a state most preferred by Confucianism
Keeping it simple since 1961
In a society shaped by a century of marketing designed only to manipulate people into spending money when they don't have to, "premium" isn't just an illusion, it's an actively malicious act of propaganda. Most of what is sold as "premium" does not actually grant a person a superior experience, only the illusion they are buying an upgraded status in life.
this is a video about using the appropriate word for the situation
An Elite video on mediocrity, also removing an Elite psychological scotoma.
The copium is not mediocre in this one.
Fr, these losers have to wake up. Thank god, there are still some based people left.
How about Premium gasoline?
what is meant by mediocrity jobs ,life?
This channel the best show for ever ..
Just remember: a premium originally meant being able to ask a higher price for the same thing.😂
Ok I'll accept my mediocrity but I need to work on embracing it. I'll throw out my genius master list.
As someone who was on track to become a print journalist and lawyer and had stalking, harassing, murdering, thieving, psychopath sociopaths gank and destroy my entire life and grinding me into as you say a mediocre existence, I am unable to settle for the mediocre existence I have been forced into.
"Thrive on thousands, survive with ease,
But for a show, millions please."
"real courage to be ordinary"
Some are born to mediocrity.
Some strive for mediocrity.
Some have mediocrity thrust upon them.
## Key takeaways
- Just aspiring to be the better is enough, not everyone has to be the best.
- Embracing mediocrity is a Privilege and not terrible place to be.
- We shouldn’t consider mediocre or ordinary as failure or losers. And it is difficult in today’s social media world, which adds un-ending cycle of social comparison and causes unsatisfied, insecure and inadequate.
## Quotes
> Use mediocrity as a tool to live within our means. Take the money, either invest it or even just save it. Now you lead a Premium Elite Superior life.
## Summary
- Be the best version of yourself.
- Don’t compare with others, instead find out which things you enjoy doing and what matters to you most.
- Only try, Don’t be mediocre in your effort and hard work.And desire to learn and brave enough to try.
Can be used to console most of the times 😶
👏👏👏
This video came at the right time after my AI video… for a while I thought to myself how stupid I am now with all the AI advancement… this video just keep me grounded
Good point but the solution is very very romantic.
You forgot about Premium Saltine Crackers made by NABISCO on the USA.
As a socialist, it just hurts seeing how the way we (re)define words impacts the world so much in a very real and tangible way with regards to inequality. And yes, this is especially apparent in the world of marketing and politics. Humans should seek values that strenghten collaboration and humanity, instead of relying on the notion that having more or be better than others is the way to go.
Wanting to be better than others will only cause rampant competition which in turn will hurt all parties involved, given enough time. It baffles me that some people really think they will still come out better in the end.
Statistically speaking we are áll better off if people in the past chose to better the whole instead of parts of it. This holds even for those who think this does not apply to. We all have the responsibility to choose this path for anyone who comes after us, regardless of colour or other circumstances, for it could just as well have been us.
If we do not strive for excellence, you'll not find cures for disease, famine, poverty and the like. Socialists are happy living in their gray, four walled buildings, being told what to do by those who 'know better.' Thanks, no thanks, sport.
🙌
Way ahead of you there, buddy…
someone put this guy next to David Goggins and make them have a 30min talk, please
Loved this talk :)
Nice, being mediocre is the only thing I'm great at :D
I've no problem being just an ordinary gal. 😅😅😅
I on occasion embrace mediocrity when buying something MADE IN USA.
I've embraced mediocrity but everybody but my sisters and a couple friends has rejected me because of it
You can paint an outhouse but it is still an outhouse.
"Everything has Elite applied to it" - Remember when Toothpaste had "HD", or even "3D" to show how cool it was/is? What does 3D toothpaste imply? My teeth will be made fat?
Everyone can be above average? Math really is difficult! Think of winning a 3 week bike race by 2 seconds. What?
Try your best, accept your mediocrity.
All i know is that The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega are the true elite
Proudly mediocre...😂😂
I think we should go back when we were sailing age of sails or wooden sailing with sails, rigging and made of wood and only thing as for the ships was some winds and manpower and went about 10 to 14knts and didn't have sonar or motors and use dangerous fuel and oil and I'm not too including the stupid whalers but you research some of the old sea captains writing or maybe have a old sailor in someone's family heritage told of stories about the whales and dolphins would swim with these ships and some of the old fishermen would tell how whales and dolphins including orcas would help them with their catches and then the sailors would return them some goodies for the help I recently talked to a old whaler he said that he did regret hunting the live whales and dolphins but his ship crew knew how to break down a dead whales and made oil so the dead whales weren't being a Hazard to marine animals and the Risk of a deceased whale bloated it can be a ticking time bomb and rupturing smelly mess and what id not used is left for the marine animals to fest on or sink down the ocean flop and back during the time of sailing and sailors what is called now tall ships were less on environment and if a wooden ship did sink it was less harmful to the ocean because they were made of wood and the sailors uses natural things to keep the ship cleaned and they used natural things like pinetar for repairs and reasoned for whale oil was because it was more safer than using kerosene on wooden ships for lik3 lanterns and whales fat mixed with beer wax made a candle that burned slower and less hotter than a normal candle because some of these ships for protection had iron shots and iron cannons that used gunpowder and so to keep the ship from not blowing up or easy for a fire is hace stuff less of a hazard but also keep the ship and crew doing the job and I wish we could go back to the 15th through the 18th century sailing ships and combinations with maybe without war or the bad stuff but the good things like more chances to be able to sail and chivilary was a must
I will try to embrace mediocrity in more ways, but I am NOT giving up on premium diapers! Millie Moon diapers do an ELLITE job at keeping everything inside the diaper, and I'm willing to pay extra for that.
Thank you for this video!
"Embrace mediocrity" itself sounds rather elitist.
Goggins ain’t going to like this…
Gee, like this doesnt sound like the powers that be trying to make us dumber, nooo. Not at all.🙄
لطفاً زیرنویس های فارسی فعال کنید
Because it is my only option?
Not necessarily you can still choose to be the best the only question is are the costs and sacrifices worth it?
@@skydragon23101979 No. I AM mediocre, and will never be the best at anything.
It’s a Chinese wisdom called”中庸之道”.
其实是知足常乐
Grandiosity is not very healthy 🙄😖😎
Superiority complex = roots if Narcissism
Learn from the dead. Look at animal kingdom and you see a reflection of human instinct /behaviour.
I want to be no one
I am more mediocre than anyone, the M.O.A.T. sorry, had to. 😂
Capitalism demands "growth" ,it makes life harder. Satisfactory work should be embraced!
Namechecking DeBotton, another yucky 'thinker' repackaging ancient wisdoms & hiding self-aggrandisement under a veneer of cleverness.
Lol, I wonder whether this man attained the heights he's at by being mediocre or 'just getting by'
Of course, life is a personal race. You should always strive to outdo yourself, not other people.
definitely blame capitalism for this
The problem is social politics, like at work. Some people are mediocre but for political reasons are rewarded. While I might recognize mediocrity, it seems some do not and they profit from it. I wonder if this giving up is like teaching people a reward in an afterlife that doesn't exist. It excuses reality in a sense.
It’s not about giving up, it ‘s about going at your own pace of growth. Mediocre like he said in the root word is the middle path, meaning the all rounder. But not excelling in anything if that is a better way of understanding and accepting it.
@@skydragon23101979 Well, if that's true, then I was an early adopter. Look up factotum.
Jesus can change your life ♥️✝️
You should aim for escaping mediocrity/being loser. Regardless of the outcome, if you have true intention to be excellence, your life will more improve than those who embrace being average.
Mediocrity equates to average. How does your mediocrity definition suddenly change to below average??
Mediocre
First
*Andrew Tate enters chat.*
Even if not everyone can be the best, why must I be amongst the average people?
Why would I embrace mediocrity? Being ordinary? No thanks. No ordinary person has ever gotten anything done.
That depends on your definition of getting anything done. The best advice for you is that you have that capability then go ahead but if you are stressing yourself out and having anxiety attacks etc or have signs that you are going in that direction I would suggest that you slow down.
Medicore people get an average amount done. How does average equate to nothing, according to you?
So now we have losers giving TED talks on how to be like them
Fax
First impression is this guy is plenty comfortable with his 'mediocre' lifestyle, from the accent, anecdotes, pressed shirt & bulging waistline & the unspoken but inevitable education, career, car, house... & pension!!
An academic western white male playing with words, in a cosy auditorium talking about exceptionalism is just hilariously deluded. Actually, obscenely so.
This was made for the phrase . I can feel a little bit of bile rising.
For most people, 'mediocre' - as HE experiences it - is an unachievable ambition requiring a time machine or a bank heist.
Keep trying, TED. Surely there are people with real insights worth sharing?
Mediocrity by definition is a subset within a set and thus requires a defined set, he never defined that set. Is it humanity as a whole or the people around you? AKA your neighbours, friends, family, your borough/nation/region etc. Your being overly critical for no reason whatsoever, this was a pretty decent talk and for you to invalidate it based on your own emotional state is unjustified.
Have you ever thought that maybe this message wasn't for you?
Not all talks are meant for everyone. It might resonate with some people, but might be offensive to some. That Doesn't make it a lie.
What he says is meaningful and necessary for a lot of people.
@@georgythomas8451I'm not too bothered honestly but - idle thumbs...
You mean, like Marie Antoinette was misunderstood? Or just OBLIVIOUS to the fact TED is global and completely democratic (except in regimes which ban the internet etc).
But agree that he WAS talking to a particular crowd and so the other 99pc of people were not his audience.
But that's the point of my last line, TED org are squeezing a dry sack. They literally don't care. They throw stuff out and hope it gets traction.
@@Betweoxwitegan Unjustified in your opinion, which has no higher justification. Doh. The contrarian is often a hypocrite. I don't like your opinion because mine is better? Give me a break!
@@jonr6680 No your opinion is simply invalidated, I literally explained why I my previous comment and thus your opinion is unjustified.
Clicked on the video just to dislike
Everyone has two choices in life:
You could live a very comfortable and stress free life as a mediocre person who nobody cares about or listens to. You will simply exist for a short period of time and then die while thinking about everything you could've achieved but didn't because you refused to push yourself. No one would care about you ten years after your death, you would be completely forgotten fifty years later
Or
You could live a very uncomfortable and stressful life where everyone values your opinion and respects your authority. You can acheive great things with your life, you could become an amazing bodybuilder, an extremely wealthy businessman, a well known entrepreneur, a famous actor, or just about anyone you want to be. You will lie in your deathbed thinking about all the great things you did with your life and the mark you've left on the world, possibly having inspired hundreds of millions or even billions of people. Your name would be remembered for centuries after your death and the companies you've founded, the books you've written, the legacy you've left behind will still be standing long after you're gone. Oneday, someone would read your story and make the choice to become great themselves.
Choose wisely.
NEVER SETTLE DOWN WITH MEDIOCRITY
MEDIOCRITY IS YOUR ENEMY
THEY DON"T KNOW ME SON
NEVER EVER IN YOUR LIFE SETTLE DOWN WITH MEDIOCRITY
Sorry to disagree, we shouldn’t be scared to compete to the point of settling to “mediocrity” but on the other hand, aim for excellence but PRACTICE HUMILITY. May God be with us all. 🫶🏼
This excellence should only be true to its word if it lifts everyone involved up to better standards. That would also imply mediocrity will still exist but overall improvement is made on all levels. You would excel your past level regardless of starting conditions, so it would be relative but still good.
Having said, I feel we see a lot of the opposite where some small group is bettered at the cost of others, and then they call or sell it as excellence and claim it as their personal hard work or even worse, the fault of others for not being able to keep up or something.
People in power use a lot of ways with words to justify their actions, but I would just call this ''excellence'' taking advantage of others with less harsh words. Misleading words are nothing close to humility in my opinion.
❤ @ eugistudio
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 interchange ze word Mediocrity with Humility 😏 & probably this is a contender for whatever Talk i$ Ch€ap Priz€ 🤪 Ain't buying into any B$ advocating Mediocrity is a Virtue! Meritocracy com€$ Fir$t.....Alway$ 🤑
Mockery doesn't actually work when you are entirely incomprehensible. Then it's just white noise.
@@bluedotdinosaur 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I don't understand what you're blabbering about 🤪
MEDIOCRITY IS YOUR ENEMY