Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "mozart"
Child Prodigies Suck Actually
Here's Mozart, aged eight. Already a master pianist. Composing symphonies. Isn't that impressive?
No.
Fuck that guy.
Kids pick up some complicated stuff from time to time, and any time they do, we put them up on a pedestal and praise them for it. Look at that, he learned something that most of us only learn as grown-ups. But so what? Nothing says you need to be a grown-up to learn any of it - you just need to put the time to it, and some of us get to start younger than others.
They don't know any better yet. They can't make meaningful decisions for themselves yet. They don't know what they want to be when they grow up. They don't know if it's this thing they're now doing. They just like it, it's fun to them, so they keep at it. And they have some distinct advantages that we tend to ignore: a lot of time in their hands with zero expectations or obligations, parents that indulge them in everything, a curious mindset always up for new things to try, and, sometimes, when the stars are right, these things all coming together in the best of ways and getting them started on the road to stardom. The world - or slightly overbearing mother - offering them something that gets their neurons going just right, and off they go. In fiction you could add something more magical and inexplicable, like super-powers or divine blessings or a genuinely bigger brain, but it comes down to the same thing.
None of it was up to them. None of it was by choice, and therefore, none of it was deserved. Even if they did put the work in, managed to focus for an extended period of time to hone their talent... well, we can all do that. And, again, they had it easy.
I therefore submit that if you want to praise someone, you should praise the older people for doing the same. Mid-thirties, forties, older. These are the people well set in their ways. People with obligations and responsibilities: family, work, bills, all eating into their time and gnawing at their mental fortitude. With many advanced cases of mental barriers and neuroses that would stop them from doing anything too unusual. With well-established circles of friends and acquaintances and family that, in all likelihood, have entirely different priorities and couldn't offer any help even if sought for.
Such a person managed to break free out of their comfort zones and pick up a new hobby, even for a little while, even casually, that would be a thing worth complimenting them. And if they managed to actually invest in the time and effort, blood and sweat and tears, to get really good at this thing of theirs? That would be a laudable thing indeed. They would deserve all the acclaim we could heap upon them.
Save your adulation for these folks, not for the snot-nosed little brats.
No.
Fuck that guy.
Kids pick up some complicated stuff from time to time, and any time they do, we put them up on a pedestal and praise them for it. Look at that, he learned something that most of us only learn as grown-ups. But so what? Nothing says you need to be a grown-up to learn any of it - you just need to put the time to it, and some of us get to start younger than others.
They don't know any better yet. They can't make meaningful decisions for themselves yet. They don't know what they want to be when they grow up. They don't know if it's this thing they're now doing. They just like it, it's fun to them, so they keep at it. And they have some distinct advantages that we tend to ignore: a lot of time in their hands with zero expectations or obligations, parents that indulge them in everything, a curious mindset always up for new things to try, and, sometimes, when the stars are right, these things all coming together in the best of ways and getting them started on the road to stardom. The world - or slightly overbearing mother - offering them something that gets their neurons going just right, and off they go. In fiction you could add something more magical and inexplicable, like super-powers or divine blessings or a genuinely bigger brain, but it comes down to the same thing.
None of it was up to them. None of it was by choice, and therefore, none of it was deserved. Even if they did put the work in, managed to focus for an extended period of time to hone their talent... well, we can all do that. And, again, they had it easy.
I therefore submit that if you want to praise someone, you should praise the older people for doing the same. Mid-thirties, forties, older. These are the people well set in their ways. People with obligations and responsibilities: family, work, bills, all eating into their time and gnawing at their mental fortitude. With many advanced cases of mental barriers and neuroses that would stop them from doing anything too unusual. With well-established circles of friends and acquaintances and family that, in all likelihood, have entirely different priorities and couldn't offer any help even if sought for.
Such a person managed to break free out of their comfort zones and pick up a new hobby, even for a little while, even casually, that would be a thing worth complimenting them. And if they managed to actually invest in the time and effort, blood and sweat and tears, to get really good at this thing of theirs? That would be a laudable thing indeed. They would deserve all the acclaim we could heap upon them.
Save your adulation for these folks, not for the snot-nosed little brats.
Pankarp
Pages fallen out of Straggler's journal, and others.
...more
- Juho Pohjalainen's profile
- 350 followers
