In Praise of Mediocrity

[downtowndeco]

An interesting article. Thoughts?

"Lost here is the gentle pursuit of a modest competence, the doing of something just because you enjoy it, not because you are good at it. Hobbies, let me remind you, are supposed to be something different from work. But alien values like “the pursuit of excellence” have crept into and corrupted what was once the realm of leisure, leaving little room for the true amateur. The population of our country now seems divided between the semipro hobbyists (some as devoted as Olympic athletes) and those who retreat into the passive, screeny leisure that is the signature of our technological moment.

I don’t deny that you can derive a lot of meaning from pursuing an activity at the highest level. I would never begrudge someone a lifetime devotion to a passion or an inborn talent. There are depths of experience that come with mastery. But there is also a real and pure joy, a sweet, childlike delight, that comes from just learning and trying to get better. Looking back, you will find that the best years of, say, scuba-diving or doing carpentry were those you spent on the learning curve, when there was exaltation in the mere act of doing."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/opin ... crity.html

[RBPhillips]

Hear, hear. And along the way, we turn out some works that later we shake our head at and say, "hey, I did THAT?"

[chappyman66]

I like building cars. And yes, they are not perfect....but it's fun and they run well enough on my track. I am probably in the middle of the bell curve somewhere. ;)

[ccobra]

I'm more at the bottom of the pack when building these models and getting them to perform. But in the end, the Judges choice that really counts is the smiles that the little cars create on the grand children. That really puts the fun back into the model building for me.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Someone else shared this with me, but seeing it here brought a smile.

I could go on and on about this :)

But I do miss the fun of the simple times. It is one reason why I still review a new slot car. And try to get a new slot car set every year.

I might be in the middle of a scratchbuilt chassis with a hand crafted body, along with a small fortune in running gear. Or testing/adjusting a controller that costs more than I paid for my first 1:1 car.

But I'll put those down when the mail comes in :) Opening a new slot car case never gets old. The fun of seeing a new slot car set in the box and just putting it together. As ccobra just hinted at...just racing a simple slot car with my grandkids might be the most fun I have in this hobby.

Thanks for sharing this here.

[ourwayband]

I like this..Looks like some of us still are having fun.. :D
Silly Scary to some,but I've set up my Carrera go plus set,with the loop ,even throw in a jump and see-saw sometimes.Been catching myself laughing out loud...
Yep 58 years young..

Rusty H

[waaytoomuchintothis]

When I was in the seventh grade, in Industrial Arts (Shop) class, one of my classmates called my shoeshine box "mediocre". I am sure he only recently learned the word, and knowing that he was completely capable of fending off anything I threw at him, pronounced my work mediocre with a sneer that would have made a statue cry for shame. The Shop teacher, a very fine woodworker who gave his time to the school after he retired from his boatyard business, came over to look at my project, and spoke to me in low tones so no one else could hear.

"Son, you did fine on this. Its just a box. And you built a good, square, solid box that will last a long time."

"But it is kinda shabby", I said, biting my lip.

"Let me tell you what mediocre means. Medi is half, halfway the distance. And ocre means mountain. So what is halfway over a mountain? The TOP!" So there."

At this point, let me say that whereas "medi" can mean halfway, it is undeniable that "ocre" means yellow. He was a fine man, and well-intentioned, but it didn't occur to him that I would go directly to the library and look it up. So, my colleagues, here's to being half-yellow.

[chappyman66]

Ah, Rusty.....
You didn't get to see me grinning ear to ear when my grandsons were racing on Saturday with a pair of Artin cars....
Or when our Thursday club is laughing because we are all nerfing the track owner in the same corner each race....
Or when we just run unusual cars for a few weeks to play with new stuff....
Or the laughs we had in the 90s racing cars made from sheet styrene, toothbrush motors and Patto's bodies.....

The Slot.it package proxy from a couple years ago was a perfect example.

The laughs and smiles are what it's all about.

[RBPhillips]

Heck, 2017-2018 I am finally getting to projects I abandoned in 1968. Not the actual components, but the cars!

[slothead]

A definition from Google: "When something is distinctly not as good as it could be, it is mediocre".

This works for me. The research I did for my degree had to be exact and precise. When I do a budget report for the organization I'm part of, it has to be correct. My cars are mostly untuned RTR cars, far from perfect replicas or supreme racing machines. On the oval, my dirt modified cars have printed photo paper bodies and are decent replicas of the cars I loved watching at local short tracks, but it never occurred to me to add roll cages or drivers - details you can't really see from the grandstand as they whiz by. Everything about my slotcar setup is not as good as it could be, which is A-Okay because I'm relaxing, having fun, and not about to break a sweat about details that just don't matter.

[Czar]

If better is possible, good enough isn't.

[Broman62]

Nice write up!! It really surprises me all the people that don’t have a hobby!! I’ve asked guys around work for years about having a hobby and probably 80% of said they didn’t...pretty sad...even my closest buddies don’t have any hobbies and when I try to show them pictures of slot cars I have worked on or whatever slotcar related they’re like “nice” and that’s about it!! I’ve always had a hobby all my life with one thing or another just to have the relax time, away to my happy place time, or just have that “I did this” time...as I get older now it’s basically down to 2...slotcars year round and golf from spring to fall!!! Enjoy it while you can :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber:

[mattb]

I don't think any of us can understand the lack of a hobby or enjoyment of it. We are all like minded about hobbies and really I think we are all pretty close on the talent scale. Yeah a few guys are in that top group, but most of us just enjoy mediocrity. I have about 6-8 hobbies/activities that I enjoy. I can get started on any of them and just go on and on being mediocre. Maybe a lot of that comes from our families as kids and whether we were around other people that filled their spare time with activities besides tv or cell phones as so many people do today.

My wife always has plans of hobby type stuff she is going to do, but very little really ever gets done. When I was building this new routed track, I had a guy ask to buy it when it was done. I told her and she said "surely not". I said well I would just build another and do a better job. She didn't understand at all. I had to explain that I could just work 2-3 hours on a part of it or some painting, but when I got done and would leave the shop, I would look at it and really feel good about what I had accomplished, even if it is mediocre. The sense of relaxation and accomplishment is the reward. I hope I can get that feeling every day for the rest of my life!

That first resin body or driver, when you've never done any of that before. Laying that copper tape and touching some power wires to it and seeing a car actually run around it. I go on and on about the spirit of the guys on this forum and the "can do" attitude to at least try to make or build what you want. All that stuff helps with your self worth and is good release for real life!

I am so mediocre, I'm not even sure if I spelled it right.

[slothead]

If better is possible, good enough isn't.

I certainly took that attitude to work with me, and always encouraged students to do their best. At home, up in the barn loft mancave, 'better' has a range of meanings. My overall experience of the hobby is better now that I have a complete field of actual Trans Am replicas to recreate races from the golden era. Except for PGT's on all the cars, almost none of them are tuned, because the goal is parity. Same goes for the other series and cars I collect, all are dependable runners which fulfills expectations.

When I raced at a commercial track or in a club I built the best car I could, and tried to bring a better one the next week. The competitiveness between friends was part of the enjoyment. If someone came up with a new design or technique that was an improvement within a few weeks several others would have implemented it too.

It's said that 90% of the effort in any build goes into the last 10% of performance. At home, where fun rules all, I can get to a point where 'good enough' works just fine and I can move on to other projects.

Stage of life also matters. There was a time when a good day meant something good happened. Now, a good day is a day where nothing bad happens, and I just get to enjoy life.

[RichD]

This is an interesting subject. In my view any activity that you actively participate in is superior to a more passive activity. With slot racing there are many ways to enjoy the hobby, I divide the participants into runners, racers, modelers and collectors, but of course people can belong in more than one category.
I have been in the hobby for many years and I have found that the best way to ruin a hobby is to get too serious about it. When you enter formal races with rules and stuff things are bound to heat up. People that get into that aspect of the hobby and have high expectations may be in for a disappointment unless they adjust their attitude. Too many people expect to stomp the opposition right off the bat, when they get dusted they often get discouraged and drop out of the hobby. A philosopher once said that slot racers are grown men racing toy cars for bowling trophies. I try to remember that when I am having a bad night.
Some of the most enjoyable races that I have participated in were the ones when I went head to head with someone lap after lap and heat after heat.