Superlatives

Sleep has a funny habbit of evading me for a few days every now and then. Tonight, reading the last 100 pages of the book I was going through hasn't helped. Turning in bed for a few hundred times didn't help either, and I found thoughts racing through my head. They're doing so even faster than what I'm used to in the shower which by now everybody knows is my inspirational place. If we can be so misled as to call these things in my head inspirations, that is.
So I thought blogging as a means of documenting my brain's electrical activity was in order.

Of course, the net had to be down at my place. For only the 3rd time since I got it here a year ago probably. But, like sleep, it seems to go away when I want it the most. Or maybe we've grown too attached to our online "presence" that all the time is when we want it the most, but I digress.

So anyway, I'm writing in notepad and will post it later, I think.

My amusing thought of the day is about human nature and competition. If there is anything that human beings are best at, it's getting better at something. Every day people in all walks of life outdo other people as well as previous versions of themselves in a relentless quest for something that I can't figure out yet.
Sometimes it's about wealth, and sometimes it's about fame, but most of the time you can't really tell what it's about. People are breaking records and outdoing everyone else noisily and quietly every day and at things ranging from the grand medical or technological breakthroughs to the absurd eating records.

We're all proud of ourselves and how well we do a specific thing or two, be it our jobs or playing a sport, musical instrument, or a particular video game. I know I am. But a little exposure to the best in the world usually changes your perception of just how good you actually are.
Look closer and there is someone who's stronger than you are, another one who's taller or shorter or fatter or thinner, someone who's better at doing what you do for a living, and someone who's better at playing your favorite sport or video game. There's someone who's more social, someone who can speak more languages than you do more fluently, and someone who can drive faster.
You can only attach superlatives to yourself in a (very) limited context, and it's a scary thought, even a depressing one if you let it get to your self confidence and sense of self worthiness.
After all, if that's the case then you're pretty much disposable from a world point of view.

I thought this would be the end of this post when I started it, but as I type the thoughts came flowing and I think I found a way out.
I guess this is why I keep on blogging.

Most of us can't be the best at everything or even one thing almost by definition. As long as there are more people than things to gauge skill at this has to be the case. There just can't be 10 best people at doing 5 things. There can only be 5, and this doesn't bode very well with 3 billion people in the world.

But each one of us is the (relatively) unique combination of how well he/she is at those things combined. I am the mix of an 8/10 driver, an 8/10 gamer, a 7/10 programmer, a 2/10 ping pong player, an 0.1/10 squash player and a 0/10 singer. As well as a bunch of other stuff, but you get the idea.
It's not only the things we're good (or best) at that makes us who we are, but also what we're fairly good at, not so good at, and absolutely bad at.

Maybe now I can sleep.....