The more I think about it, the more bizarre it seems to me that we narrativize history in terms of the hero-washed exceptions rather than the unwashed mediocrities. I think this is because history has roots in myth-making, which has entirely different motives and methods.
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Imagine if modern metallurgy were still being conducted using alchemical transmutation to gold narratives. Alchemy is bildungsromans for base metals. Horacio Alger metallurgy. Or if astronomy were forced to use the language of astrology. Or mathematics numerology.
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One way to define mediocrity is: there may still be an aspirational self, but the gap between who you are and the “cheat” version of the aspirational self is zero.
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Under the auspices of the excellent
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Over the corpses usually
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If you're the one who lasts the longest, are you really mediocre?
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is this regression to the mean
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Among other things
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As I’ve long told people, odds are you’re average
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