"trying" is so 2010
2016-05-05 22:32:47.176546+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments
JWZ: DNA Lounge: Where "trying" is so 2010:
Dr. Kingfish has a theory, that I find hard to counter, that these days "trying" must be a thing that is commonly considered to be uncool. People flock to these semi-crowdsourced events that offer nothing but "participation", so long as that participation takes zero effort -- the kind of Special Olympics where you get a prize just for showing up, like pillow fights and lightsaber battles. If participation means wearing a trivially simple uniform and leaving a mess for someone else to clean up, people are all in. But if participation means you had to actually try, oh, no way, forget about it. "Trying" isn't done.
I've got mixed feelings on this. A friend of mine is a square dance caller with a really good voice. He DJ's a local square dance club's Christmas party. He has expressed frustration that they have discouraged him from participating too heavily in the Christmas song karaoke.
And I get their point: If he stands up and croons, everyone else is gonna be self- conscious about doing anything. I think we need to encourage more people to stand up and take risks and put themselves out there.
On the other hand, we've come to celebrate mediocrity. The guy who stands up there and, completely drunk, slurs the shit out of everything on one note, a semitone below where he should have started, is gonna get kudos.
So I understand asking the accomplished people to step aside and let the duffers try, but we're way on the other side of that balance right now.