Excellence is boring

If you're a world class athlete it's hard to please everyone. You pride yourself on excelling, outperforming, dominating and winning. But people will deride you for it. Roger Federer for the longest time was the best tennis player in the world, and he was also - to me at least - extremely boring. Guys like Nadal, Roddick were more fun to see play, and root for.

The Spanish football team is without question the best football team in the world. They have the playing style that few if any can emulate. And by now their games are probably the most boring to watch. I'd rather watch England, Portugal, Brazil possibly. They are flawed, far from perfect, but much more entertaining to see.

LeBron James is arguably the best basketball player in the world, but after making some dubious decisions - the Decision for one - he's the basketball player everybody loves to hate... until this past week when he won the NBA title after several failed attempts.

Point is, excellence is boring. Domination is not entertaining. People root for people they can relate to, and - unless you're from the country or region a superstar or a team is from - athletes who are flawed are more recognizable to the general audience than the ones who are seemingly transcendent.

Musically Disconnected

There comes a point in every person's life when he or she loses his or her connection to what's popular music. People had this with Rock & Roll, Rap, Dance music, where the young sought to express themselves against their elders, their parents, against the establishment. But at some point, and through no fault of your own, youth becomes the establishment, and something else will come along that replaces youth.

Now this month it has happened to me. I am no longer part of the popular culture. I am now conventional. My music tastes have peaked. Dubstep defeated me. It just sounds like noise and flashy lights to me. I can't listen to it without going mad. It doesn't make sense to me, much like hardstyle and heavy metal didn't make sense to my parents. I can't move at the bpm without twisting my ankle.

I'm officially musically disconnected from a teenager or twenty-something, unlike a Simon Cowell who caters to the tastes of the youth well into his fifties. Then again he gets paid to do that kind of thing.