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The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

holly.witteman.ca

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Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#21

Post by bsder »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #3

A friend tells me that performance enhancing drug use is pretty common on the high amateur, almost pro level of bicycling. These are folks who are very good and obsessed with the sport, but not at the pro level. But there's also no testing at many of their races so they can get away with the PED use. No one is really sure what to do because these dedicated semi-pros pay lots of fees to support the races. If they're a…

It's the same the whole way down in high schools for things like football.

I was big and for my age--I was over 6" by the time I was in 8th grade and could pull a 200lb stack on a lat pulldown exercise.

Some dudes who were middling 5 foot would come back absolutely jacked after a summer. I was big, working my ass off with weightlifting and couldn't remotely catch up.

And our school was a nobody in terms of sports.

It wasn't until decades later that I found out they were all juicing. I still wouldn't have done it (academics were my ticket to college--not sports). However, I would have been much happier as a high school student knowing why I could never catch up.

This is why I have a a HUGE problem with celebrities who are obviously juicing and lie about it. I don't care that you are juicing--you do you. It's the lie that I have a problem with.

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#23

Post by mauvehaus »

I don't know if Office Space is the cultural touchstone it was 20 years ago, but I think this can be neatly summarized by the observation that: "But real gangsta-ass [gangstas][0] don't flex nuts 'Cause real gangsta-ass [gangstas] know they got 'em"

[0] A shockingly large amount of the dialogue in the movie has to be censored for broadcast television, including this song.

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#24

Post by yodsanklai »

> The truly great researchers are generous and friendly; so are many of the middle of the roaders.

Academia is a field with unique characteristics that exacerbate bitterness and frustration.

- People who were successful students end up with a lesser social status than their friends who followed different paths

- Researchers constantly compare to each other. Everybody knows the publication record of everybody else. They keep awarding themselves all sorts of prizes and titles, and at this game, most of them are on the losing side.

So not only they have a relatively low income, but they feel like losers at work when they feel they deserve better.

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#25

Post by taneq »

Once upon a time I played 4th (ie. worst) division amateur soccer. It was about what you’d expect, lacking in skill but not in passion.

Our team was terrible and we got relegated to the social league. Surprisingly (to me at least), while the skill level was lower, the stakes seemed higher. The teams we faced seemed far more willing to get physical, play dirty, abuse the referee, and generally take out Sunday kick-around far too seriously.

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#26

Post by taneq »

23090jfd wrote: post #11
buran77 wrote: post #6

When you're the best (A lane) it's easy to be magnanimous or nice. Your reward was the win and that gives you all the peace of mind needed for this. When you're the average or below average (C or D lanes) it's just as easy to be nice. Being far from the top means the competitive pressure is not as taxing and maybe even the effort is lower. In those lanes if you feel the pressure to be the best you can either become t…

I guess I'll be honest with myself and say I'm probably the equivalent of the B lane swimmer in a certain area. Some might say I'm A but maybe there's always an A lane where you're B? I guess it depends on your goals; most of life isn't reduced to a single clear metric like speed. One of the things I find frustrating in this particular area — and maybe not all areas are like this — is how much things like luck and qu…

In my experience, something that really separates “A players” (in the career sense, rather than technical skills) from “B players” is focus on the metagame. Networking, schmoozing, manoeuvring, strategically chasing easier high-profile projects and side stepping poisoned chalices. Often this behaviour results in more rapid advancement at the expense of the people they they clamber over on their way up the ladder.

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#27

Post by taneq »

fgblanch wrote: post #8

I’ve observed the same pattern in corporate world with folks which are close to promotion stage. Nice people suddenly become bitter and very hard to work with. Only the best stay nice.

Possibly by that stage they’ve been passed over a few times for (what they see as) spurious reasons in favour of less deserving colleagues.

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#28

Post by [deleted] »

buran77 wrote: post #6

When you're the best (A lane) it's easy to be magnanimous or nice. Your reward was the win and that gives you all the peace of mind needed for this. When you're the average or below average (C or D lanes) it's just as easy to be nice. Being far from the top means the competitive pressure is not as taxing and maybe even the effort is lower. In those lanes if you feel the pressure to be the best you can either become t…

[deleted]

Re: The B Lane Swimmer (2009)

#29

Post by Affric »

wakefulsales wrote: post #18
Affric wrote: post #4

This is a well documented phenomenon in mammalian social systems. Second from the top in the hierarchy is the most stressful (as measured in cortisol). It's 99% of the stress of the top with none of the benefit.

Do you have a source?

Good question because I have found the paper I had misremembered and it’s that the top chimp is way more stressed because no one wants to be number 2 but everyone wants to be number 1.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1207120

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