I've watched a fair number of Chinese American kids grow from age 6 to
16. My exercise sport is table tennis, and my club has a large,
excellent kids program which is probably 2/3 Chinese American. Some
of the kids felt large stress/pressure at times. But it was almost all >self-imposed (though perhaps indirectly imposed by parents). It was the kids >saying "if I'm going to do this, I'm going to try my best and I know I
can do better than this."
On 23 Nov 2023 04:09:54 GMT, Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:
On 2023-11-23, Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:<snippo>
On 11/22/2023 7:01 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
Chinese fantasy webnovels, in general, agree with E.E.Smith's belief
that stress is essential to growth.
From personal experience stress is NOT essential to growth. Enough
stress will actually retard growth in the real world and cause real harm >>> both mentally and physically.
I would agree that enough stress will do that in real life. The Chinese >>answer in these webnovels seems to be:
1. The ability to manage stress can and must be trained.
2. If you can't manage the stress, you're not the main character or a
MC friend. The fatality rate for non-MCs is very high!
Point 1 is not unreasonable. To not learn to manage stress is to not
learn a very useful life skill.
But there is the saying
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
which implies that an alternative exists to remaining under stress.
This would probably be in contrast with the attitude in your point 2.
As to the topic:
I don't like sports, but, really, how can team sports not be
competitive, at least when more than one school is putting up a team?
Even Chess is competitive, when found in tournement form.
OTOH, when my workgroup ("team") won second place in a
decorate-the-workplace contest, I was not thrilled at their idea of
marching around loudly proclaiming "We're No. 2". This is something to
be proud of?
In chess it is common for defeat to come almost entirely due to errors
made 2-3 hours previous.
On Thu, 23 Nov 2023 08:50:54 -0800, Paul S Person ><psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
On 23 Nov 2023 04:09:54 GMT, Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:
On 2023-11-23, Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:<snippo>
On 11/22/2023 7:01 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
Chinese fantasy webnovels, in general, agree with E.E.Smith's belief >>>>> that stress is essential to growth.
From personal experience stress is NOT essential to growth. Enough
stress will actually retard growth in the real world and cause real harm >>>> both mentally and physically.
I would agree that enough stress will do that in real life. The Chinese >>>answer in these webnovels seems to be:
1. The ability to manage stress can and must be trained.
2. If you can't manage the stress, you're not the main character or a
MC friend. The fatality rate for non-MCs is very high!
Point 1 is not unreasonable. To not learn to manage stress is to not
learn a very useful life skill.
But there is the saying
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
which implies that an alternative exists to remaining under stress.
This would probably be in contrast with the attitude in your point 2.
As to the topic:
I don't like sports, but, really, how can team sports not be
competitive, at least when more than one school is putting up a team?
Even Chess is competitive, when found in tournement form.
What do you mean EVEN - it is common in chess for a 4-5 hour game to
be determined on the basis of an error made by one player within
seconds - as opposed to baseball or basketball where you can always
make back the score the other team has made in the later part of the
game.
In chess it is common for defeat to come almost entirely due to errors
made 2-3 hours previous.
On 2023-11-12, Andrew McDowell <mcdowell_ag@sky.com> wrote:and signs of repeated hard use. The two are linked; the drive for competitive success (within the rules) focusses attention on all and only those activities necessary for success. "Children of the Lens" emphasises a third element - personal growth occurs
I have been re-reading E.E.Smith's Lensman series, with an eye to two recurring motifs. Smith's heroes are intensely competitive, driven, men. Their tools and weapons are kept in perfect working order, but not polished for display; they bear the scars
it. Our current government (perhaps soon to be replaced) has tried to support competition, but it is difficult for me to see how competition is consistent with an academic crusade against inequality, so I expect the struggle against competition to resume.
Is this emphasis on competition out of date? I grew up at the start of a period when the educational establishment was working hard to stamp out competition, most notably from school sports. In the UK, parents disliked this to the point of ridiculing
been justified?
If there has been an effort to erase competition from education, the result does not seem to have been an improvement in the mental resilience of those currently leaving education and entering work. Could E.E.Smith's enthusiasm for competition have
Nice topic. I'm going to break my response into several messages/aspects to (somewhat) avoid a wall of text (addressing mental aspects later).
On Mon, 27 Nov 2023 11:05:23 -0800, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:
On Thu, 23 Nov 2023 08:50:54 -0800, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
On 23 Nov 2023 04:09:54 GMT, Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:
On 2023-11-23, Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:<snippo>
On 11/22/2023 7:01 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
Chinese fantasy webnovels, in general, agree with E.E.Smith's belief >>>>>> that stress is essential to growth.
From personal experience stress is NOT essential to growth. Enough >>>>> stress will actually retard growth in the real world and cause real harm >>>>> both mentally and physically.
I would agree that enough stress will do that in real life. The Chinese >>>> answer in these webnovels seems to be:
1. The ability to manage stress can and must be trained.
2. If you can't manage the stress, you're not the main character or a
MC friend. The fatality rate for non-MCs is very high!
Point 1 is not unreasonable. To not learn to manage stress is to not
learn a very useful life skill.
But there is the saying
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
which implies that an alternative exists to remaining under stress.
This would probably be in contrast with the attitude in your point 2.
As to the topic:
I don't like sports, but, really, how can team sports not be
competitive, at least when more than one school is putting up a team?
Even Chess is competitive, when found in tournement form.
What do you mean EVEN - it is common in chess for a 4-5 hour game to
be determined on the basis of an error made by one player within
seconds - as opposed to baseball or basketball where you can always
make back the score the other team has made in the later part of the
game.
In chess it is common for defeat to come almost entirely due to errors
made 2-3 hours previous.
I suppose I should clarify: when I played chess, I played it with
friends for enjoyment, not with rivals for prizes.
So I think of chess, as such, as not competitive. Although you are
correct, in more organized contexts it certainly is.
On 11/30/2023 11:08 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
On Mon, 27 Nov 2023 11:05:23 -0800, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:
On Thu, 23 Nov 2023 08:50:54 -0800, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
On 23 Nov 2023 04:09:54 GMT, Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:
On 2023-11-23, Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:<snippo>
On 11/22/2023 7:01 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
Chinese fantasy webnovels, in general, agree with E.E.Smith's belief >>>>>>> that stress is essential to growth.
From personal experience stress is NOT essential to growth. Enough >>>>>> stress will actually retard growth in the real world and cause real harm >>>>>> both mentally and physically.
I would agree that enough stress will do that in real life. The Chinese >>>>> answer in these webnovels seems to be:
1. The ability to manage stress can and must be trained.
2. If you can't manage the stress, you're not the main character or a >>>>> MC friend. The fatality rate for non-MCs is very high!
Point 1 is not unreasonable. To not learn to manage stress is to not
learn a very useful life skill.
But there is the saying
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
which implies that an alternative exists to remaining under stress.
This would probably be in contrast with the attitude in your point 2.
As to the topic:
I don't like sports, but, really, how can team sports not be
competitive, at least when more than one school is putting up a team?
Even Chess is competitive, when found in tournement form.
What do you mean EVEN - it is common in chess for a 4-5 hour game to
be determined on the basis of an error made by one player within
seconds - as opposed to baseball or basketball where you can always
make back the score the other team has made in the later part of the
game.
In chess it is common for defeat to come almost entirely due to errors
made 2-3 hours previous.
I suppose I should clarify: when I played chess, I played it with
friends for enjoyment, not with rivals for prizes.
So I think of chess, as such, as not competitive. Although you are
correct, in more organized contexts it certainly is.
Must have had a different style of friends than I had. The enjoyment was
to crush your opponent, see him driven before you, and to hear the >lamentations of his...well, on the off chance he had a woman you'd hear
her lamentations.
I am not very competitive myself. I worked with a competitive chess
player for a while. One day he told us of an unusual strategy he had
been able to use. He noticed that his opponent had forgotten to flip
over the chess clock after making his move, so he just sat there doing nothing but waiting and watching his opponent run himself into time
trouble.
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 546 |
| Nodes: | 16 (0 / 16) |
| Uptime: | 170:43:47 |
| Calls: | 10,385 |
| Calls today: | 2 |
| Files: | 14,057 |
| Messages: | 6,416,559 |