Greatness in Diminishing Returns
People may have heard of useless greatness. For instance, when a person is too tall to play basketball; it is another way of saying does not play basketball at all. Sun Ming Ming is a basketball player, who is, arguably has the so called greatness in diminishing returns. Josh Levin argues: “He's probably the first basketball player who's too tall to play basketball.”
Standards of greatness are ostensibly arbitrary. People’s description of greatness is attributed to the capability to do one’s shortcomings. In a sense, greatness is commercialized. Businesses seem to capitalize on the allusion of greatness. What is wrong with being number two?
As aspirants to any field, many seem to ignore the fact that talents are distributed unequally. There would be the famous and the infamous. Scarcity of jobs and unemployment would remain. Coming from a third world country (and I am proud of it), this is the reality; A reality in which I became de-sensitized.
Once a person has been exposed to a reality in which no matter where people go, there will always be a person who is smarter and greater than you, no matter what you do. There is the lingering discontent and utter frustration that may emanate you. As an observer of educational institutions, they try to conceal the reality that greatness will always be overthrown by another person. Students come with the idealism that after they study in such institution, unemployment and joblessness would be exclusion to their career.
Furthermore, greatness is paired with uniqueness. When one would say that everybody is unique, it is another way of saying that no one is unique. I would say that greatness and uniqueness relative notions. Perception must take over reality in order to define these terms.
Back to the introduction, Levin proposes that Sun Ming Ming can be called greatness in diminishing returns. I think that he maybe correct or not. William Shakespeare puts greatness as: “"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Well, this quotation summarizes that greatness is distributed unequally. Hence, the unequal distribution of talents does not trivialize greatness in diminishing returns; instead, such inequality explains it.
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