Siiiick

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Sunflower seed oil futures!

Trust you Nestor to have the theoretical physics perspective. :-)

I'm happy for the guy - he got some bad press after that little victory gesture was taken in a bad way.

You know when you've been studying Japanese too long, when you start to compare beautiful acts of human achievement, to cramming for JLPT1.

I can't wait till the Olympics do away with gender and nationality, and we have the technology to just instantly scan someone's body for their overall health, running computer simulations of every possible movement and scenario a human could physically go through to see who's the 'best'--except it wouldn't be for the 'best', since you'd either have a digital vacuum w/o no recognized variables, or you'd impose arbitrary reference points which would by necessity render the measurements unfair to those whose reality doesn't match the artificial boundaries.

Nukemarine wrote:

vosmiura wrote:

You know when you've been studying Japanese too long, when you start to compare beautiful acts of human achievement, to cramming for JLPT1.

I make the comparison due to the amount of time I've spent on physical fitness, not on Japanese. Plus, the comparison of physical acts such as running, golf, combat arts to mental acts such as chess, violin, Japanese shows overlap on benefits of determined study.

I'm more impressed with a guy or gal who can run a mile in 5 minutes and deadlift 500 pounds (300 pounds for the female) than someone that can run a mile in 4 minutes but cannot even deadlift their bodyweight. Likewise, I'm more impressed with a guy like Masamo that can make such articulate posts yet not have the vocabulary to pass the TOEIC, than someone that can ace a TOEIC but not be able to produce such fine work.

I'm personally more impressed with people who devote themselves to their sport to such a degree that they reach higher levels of achievement than any other human being in history than I am with someone who scoffs at that idea and strives for "pretty good" at several things. I do have respect for the second person's accomplishments, but in a different way. Everyone has different goals, and for that person, DLing 500 and running a fast mile is more important than running a 4 minute mile no matter what.

What I don't have respect for is the condescending attitude towards people who have put in countless years of work to reach the upper limits of human physical achievement. Bolt is a sprinter, not a powerlifter or "Crossfitter." His objective is to run as fast as he can in whichever distance he's competing. I doubt he's worried about his "Fran" time, because that won't help him run the 100m in 9.58 seconds.

Your physical/mental analogy breaks down when we start looking at some of the mental giants throughout history. Would you have told Einstein not to specialize in physics, but instead to get "pretty good" in a range of subjects? Would you have told Beethoven that it was a better to be widely educated instead of devoting so much time solely to music? High-achieving specialists are the ones that propel humanity forward. They are the ones that push our boundaries.

Maybe being "pretty good" is best for some people, and it is certainly impressive to meet someone who can speak in depth on nearly any subject or one who can outrun, out-lift, out-jump, and out last you in sports. But don't look down on the ones who pick one thing and excel at it. That's just narrow-minded.

Nukemarine wrote:

Bflatnine, you're right. Bolt, Woods, Jordan, Tom Cruise, etc. are the best in their areas and are paid millions for it. In such cases, being the best equates to a generous lifestyle. Same goes with your historical examples that equated to improvement on our artistic or scientific communities at large.

Then again, you have some historical examples of the generalist such as Da Vinci or Thomas Jefferson or Buckminster Fullerin that excelled at many areas in part because they called upon expertise in the other areas.

Seeking continuance improvement in many areas or even specific areas should be sought. Hopefully, one can enjoy a lifestyle based on those choices.

So, while I would not call Bolt "The World's Greatest Athlete", I would call him the "Currently World's Greatest Athlete at 100m Sprint". With that, I'm not looking down on his accomplishments, but I'm not giving it more credit than it deserves either. And in the end, he'd still be able to buy and sell me 8 times over which puts the value of my opinion of him in perspective.

I completely agree with this post. Well put. It takes all types, and all goals.

Ability/training does not exist in a vacuum that only allows it to relate directly to the one specific task you have made a goal.  Someone that has trained their butt off to be the best in the world at one specific thing has actually increased their overall potential for countless other endeavors.

  Also, using one's ability for one specific goal and only being good at one specific goal are two very different things.   Sure Bolt might "only" be the #1 in the world at a very specific thing (short distance running) but you'd have to be pretty ignorant to believe that those abilities wouldn't translate over to other athletics tasks.  I'm willing to bet Mr. Bolt has a more well rounded athletic ability than 95% of the male population on planet earth WHILE also being the fastest short distance runner ever.