闲人

We have been taught that if we work hard we will succeed. The unspoken, though often assumed part of that statement is that if we don't succeed, we have not worked hard enough. Yet with any population, there is an average, and standards will be set to that average. Those above it will be revered or persecuted; those below will be seen as failures or be helped if they are lucky. If everyone performs better there will simply be a new average, new standards, new expectations.

Thus, some "fail" simply because their best is not enough. There is no condescension in this statement; there is however something unusual about a society that sees people who have not met certain arbitrary standards as failures.

Our obsession with competition also leads us to always try and seek the "best" choices. Yet... it seems impossible to make an absolute "best" choice. My judgments are based on my conditions at a given moment; it may not apply to others, it may even not apply to myself under different conditions. Maybe a better choice could be made if there was more information, a different state of mind, different emotions. This may lead to better outcomes. Yet all we can do is make the best judgment we can based on what we have, even when what we have is not the best.