Talented Idiot
2026-05-06
You know, David Goggins is pretty cool, all things considered. I remember in the Motivation Bro clip-sphere, there was a turn of phrase circling around that I think was coined by him and that a lot of other Motivation Bros co-opted. He said "It's easier than ever these days to be great," or something along those lines. Now, the initial interpretation of that quote can be chewed up and spit out as obvious engagement bait, but stay with me here for a second. Sure, it might seem like he's saying that everyone is weaker these days and that he thinks mediocrity is encouraged. More than that, it invokes feelings of shame in the listener because the obvious response to this kind of rhetoric is to simply agree with the premise and say "well, clearly I'm not great because I'm part of the problem." But don't worry, I'm not going to be a midwit contrarian and reject the premise. Instead, I'll stand by it and add some extra rhetorical flair for your reading pleasure.
There's a phrase my folks like to say that's more indicative of traditional wisdom: "If it were easy, everybody would be doing it." This makes that initial turn of phrase easier to agree with. So, yes, these days it's easier to be great—and if something's easy so that more people do it—then that actually means there are way more great people than ever. Mediocrity isn't encouraged, but it's getting closer to being eliminated. Socially, economically, whatever—there's not as much room for being just a middle-of-the-road average person in the global sphere. The middle class is shrinking year after year, and standards are increasing across the board. I think this is actually a good thing, because people now are more inclined to make everything better just out of the sheer nature of the change in competition.
And honestly, an increased capacity for great people is a wonderful thing. We all feel so distrusting of the world and everything else, but even in the midst of that distrust is the sheer immutability of the human experience, which is something I need to spend more time thinking about. I know I struggle with feeling like there's something out to get me, whether it be through fits of paranoia or anxiety about potential dangers looming around every corner. But I also understand that love is a more powerful thing than weakness and evil, so I can find comfort inside of those maladies.
There's a great quote from The Wire (a white guy who likes The Wire, no way!) about doing time in prison: "You only do two days. That's the day you go in and the day you come out." Foucault, despite his affinity for ten-year-old boys, had a good line of analysis describing the panopticon as a model for modern society. I've gone through an almost constant meditation on the trappings and imprisonment of everyday life, whether as a prison or as a fish bowl. I've been to jail once, and only spent a few days in a cell after getting bailed out—but even outside of a jail cell, the trappings I felt in life are still more or less the same; boredom, tedium, and fatigue have been a messy feature of the lifestyle I find myself taking part in. God has been quite sparing with the gifts that He has given me, and I find that to be the case because it functions as a means for my own repentance; my arrogance, selfishness, and lack of faith have at least since been going through the healing process.
It's so easy for me to hide behind intellect to explain my defects of character as greater institutional problems, and yet even when I confront myself about those things honestly, I still find myself unable to carry out my aims in a more correct way because ultimately, I'm just too tired and scared to do so. Every day, it's unknown how I'm going to wake up in the morning, and yet the day still has to go on regardless of how I feel. I know I'm a small part of something greater, but with all these great people around, I guess I'm just afraid of getting cast out for not being able to show up to the things that matter. When someone needs me, I don't think I can give them any help; how can I? I don't know how to help people anymore, and I don't think it'll be up to me regarding how that'll transpire.
Among all of these self-trappings I find myself falling for, the only thing I can truly rest on is that there are only two days I'm living for: today and the last day of my life. Everything else, past or future, has no stake in any of these anxieties no matter how much I might want them to. As long as I get through the day intact, what reason do I have to really be so intent on finding any kind of destiny or pursuit that goes beyond sundown? I've come to understand that I will always be a hand-to-mouth guy. Many might say that kind of thinking is imprudent, impractical, or just plain selfish and stupid. But I also know that most fortunes are founded on thievery, and I already do enough to displease God, so I don't want to keep adding stuff to my list. I know that if any fortune befalls me, it will be spent giving it away to those who need it.
The biblical parable of the talents is most relevant here. St. John Chrysostom gave an excellent homily on it. Also, I had to use an LLM to help me understand it because old text like that is so far removed from modern vernacular that it makes me feel really dumb when I'm not comprehending sentences in my native language. Anyway, the gist is that a boss was going on a long business trip and gave three of his employees three different sums of money (called talents back then) to keep watch over while he was out. The first received five talents, the second received two, and the third received one. The first two employees took their talents and put them in the market, doubling their money; the third held onto his and kept it out of sight. When bossman came back from his trip, the first two employees showed him their returns and they, uh, probably got a promotion or something. Then the third employee gave the boss his talent back and said "hey boss, you're, like, a genius investor and I'm an idiot so I decided to keep the money under my mattress so I wouldn't lose it," and the boss got pissed and fired him.
That's me, I'm the idiot.
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