Why do screwups stick around?

[Vern5]

You do realize that grades (we're talking about school grades, right?) don't mean everything. I'm not exactly a stellar student (mostly Bs and Cs with the occasional A) but I've done pretty well for myself considering. I've had a well-payed job working for the State Department overseas and now I have a whole collection of recommendations from government officers of all kinds.

All fear over future prospects as instilled in us by education systems and society aside, what you really seem to be asking is: what is life worth?

That's all really up to you, isn't it? Nothing has intrinsic value until you've placed value upon it. I know two old geezers who have worked in the same barber shop for nearly 50 years now. I asked them about it and they proudly stated it's been their lives and they've enjoyed enough not to trade that experience in. Now, admittedly it does take a degree of finesse to be a barber in the first place but their jobs and the jobs of some highly successful individual like a lawyer, scientist, or doctor are not exactly comparable.

My point is, success is what you make of it. If you didn't overcome all obstacles in school then you work with that. You try again or you just go with what you have. Your success in school and success in life are not completely intertwined.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

You'll generally find them in bedsits at 35 with half a degree and a collection of tracksuit trousers.

The only people like that in the town I live in are the ones with a drug and alchohol problem. As long as they're getting their fix, I don't think they really give a shit.

 

[dimensional]

Well I have a lot more respect for those who try and fail but keep trying than those who try fail and give up or never try in the first place.

Also I take it we are talking about failing in getting a high ranking job or something here in which case I see no problem with failing to attain one and continue on quite contented with yourself all you have to do to carry on is challenge yourself as a person and keep pushing forward seeking to improve yourself through adversity and moments of peace not allowing yourself to be seduced in the pursuit of money and power (as long as you have enough for a comfortable life you dont need anymore).

I dont see how people who live for their job/money/others/pursuit of short lived pleasures etc can keep on going and be satisfied with what they are doing with their lives not that I particularly care tbh.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Ugh...disgusting. I honestly couldn't imagine being this weak.

You heard it here first, folks. If you can't have nice things, why bother with life? So devote yourself to wealth accumulation and being a "success" within the narrow parameters you've been given.

 

[Mullahgrrl]

We are designed to strive on through adversity.

We weren't designed. No living organism was. Not yet, at least.

How about domesticated pigs,hens and dogs?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

How about domesticated pigs,hens and dogs?

That's not "design". That's encouragement through selective breeding.

 

[Bassik]

We stick around because we stick together. Show me a screwed up loser beyond redemption, and I can assure you he has mates in a similair spot that will go through the fire for eachother.

Also, don't forget that the people who are most succesfull nowhaven't allways been, nor will the remain so. For example, the IT guys make more money then my little group of misfits ever will, but they can't survive a day without all the modern comforts, while we take a three week trip to the woods every year to live under harsh, but simple conditions.

 

[Quigglebert]

:/ its a good point, the only thing i can attribute it to from personal experiance, is i'll be damned if im going to let someone as petty as lady luck be the cause of my death, i'll beat her just like i beat my old physics teacher, but some people are scared some people are put on treatment and some of us actually have the sheer force of will to put the middle finger up at life

 

[HardkorSB]

As somebody who has blundered from less-than-stellar situation to less-than-stellar situation purely of his own accord over the past few years, it occurred to me today that the whole thing seems rather futile. As much as it goes against what I'd like to believe, life seems to be stratified into layers of achievers, and the lower ones rarely move upwards. You'll generally find them in bedsits at 35 with half a degree and a collection of tracksuit trousers.

Anyway, what keeps people like that going? I personally think it's a mixture of family [pre-emptive guilt] and a biological imperative. But it still strikes me as odd that one could chronically achieve crappy grades in all avenues of life and still keep soldiering on. Opinions?

So, you think it's better to just give up and fade into obscurity?

 

[DuelLadyS]

There's multiple measures of sucess out there... looking at myself, one could say I'm doing terribly. I have a bad job that doesn't pay enough for me to live on my own, I don't have and can't afford the education to move much higher, I rarely go out- I must be miserable, right? Nope. Because in my mind... I have family and friends who care about me and are willing to keep a roof over my head, I have a steady job that pays enough to buy a few games and movies and help out said family/friends when I can, and we find time to get together and spend an afternoon gaming about once a week. What do I really have to be miserable about?

 

[zehydra]

Survival is the ultimate value. What you call "screw-ups" are only "screw-ups" because you believe they are "screw-ups". They probably don't think of themselves as "screw-ups" or even if they do, they probably simply don't give a shit.

 

[zehydra]

degree? what a piece of paper that tells me your a smartass?

put that knowledge to some use and help others with it otherwise your great knowledge was worthless.

perhaps these people in life just help those with what they got

People who cant help themselves usually dont help other people

I'd like to know how you figured this out.

 

[Dragonpit]

So what? I've been screwing up all my life. And you're saying I should just stop and do nothing? Give me a break! There are things I want to do. Just plain giving up won't help me achieve anything.

 

[Tanakh]

Anyway, what keeps people like that going? I personally think it's a mixture of family [pre-emptive guilt] and a biological imperative. But it still strikes me as odd that one could chronically achieve crappy grades in all avenues of life and still keep soldiering on. Opinions?

Aren't all lives so far ultimately pointless? To a dead Newton or a dead muleteer there's no difference, and if the mule man enjoyed his life more, then i would say it was a better life.

 

[Frankster]

I think moviebob actually said it pretty well
Natural selection, and nature is very good at it
screwups and general stupid people will ultimately be sorted out of the genepools
by their own self-destructive ways

Moviebob said that? Meh this is 1 of his low points then.

First of all, natural selection doesn't apply to us anymore for the most part, we have "social" selection amongst others that replaced it.

Then the problem with this line of thinking is that throughout history too many good people have lived short and cruel existences despite their struggles and too many undeserving people have lived comfortable and prosperous lives regardless of their faillings for the "nature will sort out the natural winners from the losers" line to be entirely true, rather as humans have learnt to control their surroundings natural selection has been replaced by other ways (not neccesiraly better...).

Nevermind that it is an incredibly reductionist point of view, as is the view the world can so easily be divided between those who "succeed" and those who "don't".

 

[SilentCom]

Here's a question for you, why do those who achieve keep going on?