Do we have a very small number of people who “know what to do” and a large number of people who think they do, but merely generate crap? That’s what venture capital Marc Andreessen tells The Wall Street Journal. Is this the most elitist thing you’ve ever heard, or does Andreessen have a good point?
Video above hosted at Rumble.
Scott Ott, Stephen Green and Bill Whittle generate 260 episodes of Right Angle each year…some of which is excellent. Our Members fund this enterprise, and run their own exclusive content site. To become a Member, click the big green button above. To give without joining, make a one-time or recurring contribution with PayPal or credit card using the big blue button. Thank you.
Listen to the Audio Version
25 replies on “The Most Elitist Thing You’ve Ever Heard? Or is 90% of Everything We Make Just Cr@p”
IT is NEVER of the GOAL of the Journey, IT is the Journey itself where ALL the satisfaction occurs.
If we believe it’s crap, it is. Belief owns us.
It should be noted that our crap is 100 % better than Henry the 8ths most valuable things and our poorest are richer than Emperor Caesar in terms of working amenities. Today my net worth counting superannuation fund, assets, books and junk is greater than Henry the first the king of England. His royal banquet was kippers, cheese and a spiced porridge. All that costs $4 a person today.
Interjecting perspective, logic and rational thought into an internet discussion? To quote the greatest climate warrior of our time – How dare you? 😉
IQ, like height, is not evenly distributed. Even so, we don’t need everyone playing point guard in the NBA or being a brain surgeon or rocket scientist.
We don’t need to eat a 5 star Michelin restaurant every night, sometimes tuna salad on wheat bread is good enough.
I think the idea that “the top 10 is just the top 10” is a great way of looking at things, but being willing to ignore the bottom 50 is probably also necessary. its that middle 40 where things are “good enough” that is good enough for the majority of the time.
The idea that if you work so many hours you will become an expert is bogus though. if you have no talent, no appreciation, or no drive in a particular area you can work all you want but not get anything done. The saying “Work smarter, not harder” does exist for a reason.
Yay!! BIll said it! Psychology is NOT a Science! And neither is Sociology! IMHO I’ve been saying that for so long it’s so nice to know someone else has found out too.!! Nuff said!
yep, if someone else can’t set up your same “experiment” study in these cases, and get similar results, it isn’t science.
To Scott’s final comment: I live in Mayberry, in which there is one market that has a great deli, a full liquor license, sells everything from fishing worms to crab bait, bread, milk, dog food, propane grill gas exchange and homemade cookies. The nearest town is 9 miles away. (no lights or stop signs). The last gas pump here shut down 5 years ago because the cost to replace the underground tanks didn’t justify the demand of 500 residents. Don’t have to lock my doors or my car at night (though I do now that the Air BNB scourge has found us.)
During the COVID second home snap up, my town was ground zero. Escalation clauses were the norm for homes that had been on the market for years. These second homeowners arise nobody else can (see supply chain). The money they are willing to spend to get immediate attention is astounding.
When you talk about the 10%, I acknowledge the truth about that. But I agree with Steve, what is valuable to me isn’t necessarily valuable to someone else. Nevertheless, there is an elite out there that will insist on being in the 10%, not because it gives them joy, but because it keeps them in the 10% bubble. And if that’s their benchmark, I feel sorry for them.
I geeked out one evening when reading about Pareto distributions and it does seem to me, based purely on the math, that taking Sturgeon’s Law too literally is a recipe for failure.
Because if you look at an 80/20 Pareto distribution and break it down further, you find that the top 10% is worth about 73% and the next 10% is worth 7%. The temptation might be to say that’s just about negligible.
But hold on– many businesses struggle to break even and most don’t run on a profit margin higher than 10%. The value of the B-grade stuff could turn out to be everything that you get to take home.
The wonderful thing about humans is our innate desire to experience something that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described in his research as “flow”. It’s that experience where you are doing something successfully, but which challenges your skills. It’s that thing where you get into something and you lose track of time. You’re working on a model ship or building some woodworking project or reading a book which challenges your mind and then you look up and hours have passed and you weren’t really aware of the passage of time. It’s something we need as humans – it makes us feel encouraged and competent and is the mental state that gives us amazing inventions, new ideas and great stories, films and that 10% that is “not crap”. Check out some of the hobby groups on Facebook. People who are passionate and have the gift of being able to enter the flow state produce some amazing stuff. I belong to a slot car group on Facebook and you would not believe the tracks some guys have set up in their basements with scenery and tiny figures in the pits jacking up cars and changing tires while the slot cars go whizzing by. You can see train layouts that take classic steam locomotives through mountains, across streams and through detailed tunnels. RC modelers build F-14s that fly and have extending wings like the real thing. guys build 3/4 scale P-51s in their garages. My wife could cook Gordon Ramsey under the table and so could my grandmother and her grandmother. I think it’s damned arrogant for someone to claim 90% is crap when they’ve never sampled more than a fraction of percent of the 90% they disparage. Just sayin’.
After having just moved, having lived in that area for 30 years, 90% of what I thought was valuable turned out to be “crap” that I had little problem “donating” to either Goodwill or the junkman. Time changes perspectives and what may be “not crap” today will more than likely be “crap” tomorrow.
I don’t know if it’s still true, but the Los Angeles Zoo used to sell exotic crap to gardeners. Tiger crap for your petunias? No problem.
“Crap” is a subjective term. Throughout the ages works of art have had contemporary labels of crap or genius; those labels can change over generations. I’m fine with crap; I try not to make something of it that it isn’t.
Works of true genius tend to keep their reputations; lesser works get demoted and forgotten over time.
My favorite example:
Several years ago I saw The Who’s final tour performance of their opera Tommy at the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC. A few weeks later I saw Placido Domingo sing the title role of Verdi’s Othello in the same house. I enjoyed both. I’m under no confusion over which work is genius and which work, if not junk, will fade from memory in a few years from now.
The famous Hemingway line on writing: “The first draft of anything is shit.”
I’ve never been the best at anything. I’m not pretty, but I’m a pretty good dad, guitarist, photographer, writer, racquetball player, fisherman, and teacher. A jack of all trades and master of none. Although I do appreciate the masters.
To be a master is to exclude a lot of other choices. If you’re really good at one thing, you’re probably missing out on some other things. You’re a bit unbalanced. However, I know a guy who is a master jack of all trades; not quite a Michelangelo, but a Ph.D. in physics, member of a semi-pro soccer team, symphony musician, and speaks at least 6 languages. The worst part is that he’s really humble. You can’t say, “But he’s a jerk.”
The thing is, you’re going to die and be forgotten. No matter what area you concentrate in, its best if you master the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the things that matter. Try being the top 10% in those things.
Did you know that “A jack of all trades and master of none.” is not the original phraseology? It was a moniker of the founding and framing generations to be, “A jack of all trades and a master of one“. I assume that the former got it’s legs on early TV as a laugh line to a generation who would have known the difference. Have a nice day.
Somebody’s law: 10% of the effort gets the first 90% of the work done, and the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the effort.
“How’s that project going?”
“90% done; 90% to go.”
After going around and around getting it fixed, I now get a little wave of relief and thankfulness every time I hear my ice maker producing a new batch.
I really like the talk about its okay to like crappy stuff. I absolutely love Star Wars the Phantom Menace even though objectively it is not a very good movie.
Ha! I was getting ready to write that exact comment when I saw you beat me to it! I love citing Episode I as crap but fun to watch.
And if you have it on DVD, Attack of the Clones was made to be watched on DVD. If you skip every Anakin/Padme scene from when they leave Coruscant until they land on Tatooine it becomes a way better movie. And the DVD extras also offer some scenes on Naboo where Anakin meats Padme’s family. You’ll see whyy they got cut, but they’re worth watching once and only once
I do own ow the first 6 episodes on DVD and I have watched basically all the extras (its been about 10 years but still) and I completely agree with you on skipping the Anakin/Padme stuff and watching the deleted scenes. If you want actual good Anakin/Padme stuff I highly recommend any of the episodes of Star Wars the Clone Wars that feature Padme and things happening in the senate. There is some annoying stuff in those episodes but the interactions between Anakin, Padme, and Asoka are great.
Loved The Clone Wars! Rebels was good too – they had me at Thrawn. I haven’t watched any of the offshoots from the parallel universe trilogy tho. I’m assuming that they’re all equally garbage
Well 90% of the stuff in the pop culture is certainly just crap. And yes, I think a crapton of the stuff on the internet is crap. Maybe that’s just the grumpy old man in me that doesn’t like the way pop culture has gone as I age, but I don’t know. I see the west cratering right now and I’m not enjoying it.
And take a look at our landfills. There’s a lot of crap out there.
I don’t think that it’s an elitism thing. Most of us are capable of these things, it’s just that humans are lazy. Actually, I think most animals are essentially lazy — we will try to get the maximum of what we need for the minimum effort. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I like leisure time.
It is true that there are just certain people that are driven to do constructive things … it’s how they get their jollies. It’s a personality type. Elon Musk would be a top example. Those people are rare, and they’re not in a “class” … they can crop up in any socioeconomic class. They’re the people who end up doing the 10% that really stands out.
Scott! Your son is exactly the thing I’m talking about! He’s driven to excel.
What’s the name of his business?
Here it is, Philip. Viewfinder Coffee Roasters
Thanks for asking.