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Why You Should Embrace Mediocrity | Crispin Thurlow | TED

From “elite” pickles to “premium” baby diapers, marketers are constantly telling us to seek superiority — but “by the simple law of averages, most of us have to live a life more ordinary,” says sociolinguist Crispin Thurlow. He invites us to embrace mediocrity for a change, offering a different path to contentedness without comparison. If…

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From “elite” pickles to “premium” baby diapers, marketers are constantly telling us to seek superiority — but “by the simple law of averages, most of us have to live a life more ordinary,” says sociolinguist Crispin Thurlow. He invites us to embrace mediocrity for a change, offering a different path to contentedness without comparison.

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61 Comments

  1. @alexsnow3319

    January 2, 2024 at 8:53 am

    An Elite video on mediocrity, also removing an Elite psychological scotoma.

  2. @stevenhendrickson2910

    January 2, 2024 at 8:57 am

    Marxist. No thanks.

  3. @OZMus

    January 2, 2024 at 8:59 am

    Ok I’ll accept my mediocrity but I need to work on embracing it. I’ll throw out my genius master list.

  4. @printface4935

    January 2, 2024 at 9:33 am

    I teach at an “elite” prep school where students are pounded with messages of superiority; every kid says they are a Perfectionist. I explain that, if you are a perfectionist, then you are doomed to fail at your goal. Have you ever met a person who does everything perfectly? I have AP math students who are getting a C in Studio Art; they literally can not do it and do not understand it, yet they all believe they are superior perfectionists. How does that work? To circumvent the cognitive dissonance they denigrate what they are mediocre at.

    • @brianligon2338

      January 2, 2024 at 10:55 am

      Great point!

  5. @harrypearle9781

    January 2, 2024 at 9:36 am

    TRUMPISM? (Trump and the Right in the US are winning voters over, again)
    When will “ORDINARY” voters wake up, and stop this Trumpism insanity in the US?
    Democracy and the economy and our very sanity may be lost in 2024. TNX MUCH
    ==================================================================

  6. @harrypearle9781

    January 2, 2024 at 9:37 am

    TRUMPISM? (Trump and the Right in the US are winning voters over, again)
    When will “ORDINARY” voters wake up, and stop this Trumpism insanity in the US?
    Democracy and the economy and our very sanity may be lost in 2024. TNX MUCH

    • @harrypearle9781

      January 2, 2024 at 9:38 am

      TNX MCH This was amazinng ordinary, common sense!

  7. @akshtulsyan8664

    January 2, 2024 at 9:53 am

    All of us here who are intrigued by the video internally hate mediocricy. We all want to be the best the most successful.

    Someone want to be Elon Musk, Other Dwayne Johnson or you name them a handfull of 1000 famous people and celebrity.

    But that is not completely true either. We are competing in everyday life. At school at office in business. We are all chasing the highest reward. And the highest reward would always go the best.

    The sense of being the best gives you the power. The power to decide what you want the power to dictate. The power to tell someone you are superior than the rest.

    Of course the person who will be the best would be one amongst us. That person would compete hard enough to be the best.

    I believe is we become best in the process. And the process is trying to be better.

    Only if we are best we can have the best life. And the best life is when we can have / do all that we want.

    All we need to do is to learn to compete and enjoy the hard work and competition

    I need a therapist. Please connect me on telegram @tulsyanaksh

  8. @akshtulsyan8664

    January 2, 2024 at 10:01 am

    By fighting mediocrity we can never be great

    But by accepting mediocirty we open the possibility of greatness

  9. @akshtulsyan8664

    January 2, 2024 at 10:02 am

    All we need to strive for is never to be mediocre in our gratitude, efforts, and hardwork and desire to learn and brave enough to try

  10. @pragmaticpoet

    January 2, 2024 at 10:26 am

    Grandiosity is not very healthy 🙄😖😎

    Superiority complex = roots if Narcissism

  11. @jaspertuin2073

    January 2, 2024 at 10:52 am

    As a socialist, it just hurts seeing how the way we (re)define words impacts the world so much in a very real and tangible way with regards to inequality. And yes, this is especially apparent in the world of marketing and politics. Humans should seek values that strenghten collaboration and humanity, instead of relying on the notion that having more or be better than others is the way to go.

    Wanting to be better than others will only cause rampant competition which in turn will hurt all parties involved, given enough time. It baffles me that some people really think they will still come out better in the end.

    Statistically speaking we are áll better off if people in the past chose to better the whole instead of parts of it. This holds even for those who think this does not apply to. We all have the responsibility to choose this path for anyone who comes after us, regardless of colour or other circumstances, for it could just as well have been us.

  12. @johnmockingyou7547

    January 2, 2024 at 11:08 am

    🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 interchange ze word Mediocrity with Humility 😏 & probably this is a contender for whatever Talk i$ Ch€ap Priz€ 🤪 Ain’t buying into any B$ advocating Mediocrity is a Virtue! Meritocracy com€$ Fir$t…..Alway$ 🤑

    • @toydragoninblue

      January 2, 2024 at 3:53 pm

      Mockery doesn’t actually work when you are entirely incomprehensible. Then it’s just white noise.

    • @johnmockingyou7547

      January 2, 2024 at 4:30 pm

      @@toydragoninblue 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I don’t understand what you’re blabbering about 🤪

  13. @LeeahGrace

    January 2, 2024 at 11:34 am

    I will try to embrace mediocrity in more ways, but I am NOT giving up on premium diapers! Millie Moon diapers do an ELLITE job at keeping everything inside the diaper, and I’m willing to pay extra for that.
    Thank you for this video!

  14. @mariaantoniettamontella9173

    January 2, 2024 at 11:55 am

    🙌

  15. @PilarMueckay

    January 2, 2024 at 12:13 pm

    Prefiero abrazar la simplicidad en mi vida.

  16. @NoExitLoveNow

    January 2, 2024 at 12:34 pm

    Because it is my only option?

  17. @ScottAllanJensen

    January 2, 2024 at 1:08 pm

    I think the best message here is less of an its okay to just be par at everything and perhaps more of an accept yourself where your at. Far to many people are expecting themselves to be good or even great at everything. Only by accepting where you are at here and now can you really begin any journey in life and even more so importantly stop living in an expectation set as a standard by anyone else outside of yourself. The root of much suffering exisits in ones self and the interprtation of expectations of others onto ones self.

  18. @Delta2231

    January 2, 2024 at 1:25 pm

    So now we have losers giving TED talks on how to be like them

    • @nishantrostewitz6889

      January 2, 2024 at 2:20 pm

      Fax

  19. @user-bw9lk7mb8l

    January 2, 2024 at 3:34 pm

    wonderful life-changing words. I loved it. just aspiring to be better is enough, not everyone has to be the best.

  20. @toydragoninblue

    January 2, 2024 at 3:40 pm

    In a society shaped by a century of marketing designed only to manipulate people into spending money when they don’t have to, “premium” isn’t just an illusion, it’s an actively malicious act of propaganda. Most of what is sold as “premium” does not actually grant a person a superior experience, only the illusion they are buying an upgraded status in life.

  21. @cjplay2

    January 2, 2024 at 3:47 pm

    “Everything has Elite applied to it” – Remember when Toothpaste had “HD”, or even “3D” to show how cool it was/is? What does 3D toothpaste imply? My teeth will be made fat?

  22. @jennysheets3763

    January 2, 2024 at 4:19 pm

    Love this. It’s hard to find a sane balance between wanting more for yourself and enjoying the lack of strain that comes with relaxing into mediocrity.

  23. @pernus5856

    January 2, 2024 at 4:30 pm

    Embrace mediocrity. It’s what your mediocre corporate overlords want.

  24. @ElijahPerrin80

    January 2, 2024 at 5:09 pm

    You can paint an outhouse but it is still an outhouse.

  25. @Ribberflavenous

    January 2, 2024 at 5:24 pm

    I am more mediocre than anyone, the M.O.A.T. sorry, had to. 😂

  26. @abbygirl1972

    January 2, 2024 at 8:49 pm

    this is a video about using the appropriate word for the situation

  27. @user-kj9gl8xt2o

    January 2, 2024 at 9:21 pm

    It’s a Chinese wisdom called”中庸之道”.

  28. @merylverstraaten8293

    January 2, 2024 at 9:37 pm

    Loved this talk 🙂

  29. @radendanellayasmineprittas9846

    January 2, 2024 at 9:40 pm

    love this

  30. @nokoolaid

    January 2, 2024 at 10:59 pm

    The problem is social politics, like at work. Some people are mediocre but for political reasons are rewarded. While I might recognize mediocrity, it seems some do not and they profit from it. I wonder if this giving up is like teaching people a reward in an afterlife that doesn’t exist. It excuses reality in a sense.

    • @skydragon23101979

      January 6, 2024 at 6:07 pm

      It’s not about giving up, it ‘s about going at your own pace of growth. Mediocre like he said in the root word is the middle path, meaning the all rounder. But not excelling in anything if that is a better way of understanding and accepting it.

    • @nokoolaid

      January 6, 2024 at 6:49 pm

      @@skydragon23101979 Well, if that’s true, then I was an early adopter. Look up factotum.

  31. @ulptungkal7004

    January 2, 2024 at 11:03 pm

    “real courage to be ordinary”

  32. @TheLordsEnvoy

    January 3, 2024 at 12:12 am

    Even if not everyone can be the best, why must I be amongst the average people?

    Why would I embrace mediocrity? Being ordinary? No thanks. No ordinary person has ever gotten anything done.

    • @skydragon23101979

      January 6, 2024 at 6:05 pm

      That depends on your definition of getting anything done. The best advice for you is that you have that capability then go ahead but if you are stressing yourself out and having anxiety attacks etc or have signs that you are going in that direction I would suggest that you slow down.

  33. @TheLordsEnvoy

    January 3, 2024 at 12:18 am

    Lol, I wonder whether this man attained the heights he’s at by being mediocre or ‘just getting by’

    Of course, life is a personal race. You should always strive to outdo yourself, not other people.

  34. @craigbrowning9448

    January 3, 2024 at 12:51 am

    You forgot about Premium Saltine Crackers made by NABISCO on the USA.

  35. @phyllidaacworth5212

    January 3, 2024 at 3:08 am

    The only comparison I find useful is to how I was in the past. Am I developing and improving on my past self? I know that I am. What is not helpful is trying to be the best in your field and comparing yourself to other people. To be enough for the life you actually want is a great place to be.

  36. @travelingtophe

    January 3, 2024 at 4:26 am

    Loved it.

  37. @jedics1

    January 3, 2024 at 4:59 am

    It was a very large and bitter pill to accept my life wasn’t going to be what I had hoped, eventually I did though and I am WAY happier being mediocre, I only do what I want now and have completely cut out all the guilt and sense of obligation as well…..The less you want the more you have really is true.

  38. @leviefrauim1425

    January 3, 2024 at 7:38 am

    Aspiring to mediocrity? Ah yes, the way of the left. Thank God that America remains a meritocracy in spite of the left’s efforts to eliminate it.

  39. @BSPoK

    January 3, 2024 at 10:04 am

    Great talk

  40. @FelpHiro

    January 4, 2024 at 9:13 am

    Amazing talk, I really needed to hear all of that

  41. @kimlaing503

    January 4, 2024 at 10:23 am

    I enjoyed this talk very much. Thank you for doing it.

  42. @practicalenglish4836

    January 4, 2024 at 12:11 pm

    I want to be no one

  43. @raha8113

    January 4, 2024 at 3:53 pm

    لطفاً زیرنویس های فارسی فعال کنید

  44. @susanteller7046

    January 4, 2024 at 6:56 pm

    As someone who was on track to become a print journalist and lawyer and had stalking, harassing, murdering, thieving, psychopath sociopaths gank and destroy my entire life and grinding me into as you say a mediocre existence, I am unable to settle for the mediocre existence I have been forced into.

  45. @user-jh2yn6zo3c

    January 4, 2024 at 11:32 pm

    Mediocre

  46. @agnostigo

    January 5, 2024 at 9:47 am

    Good point but the solution is very very romantic.

  47. @GrowYourPotentialDaily

    January 7, 2024 at 10:16 am

    THEY DON”T KNOW ME SON

  48. @GrowYourPotentialDaily

    January 7, 2024 at 10:17 am

    NEVER SETTLE DOWN WITH MEDIOCRITY

  49. @GrowYourPotentialDaily

    January 7, 2024 at 10:17 am

    NEVER EVER IN YOUR LIFE SETTLE DOWN WITH MEDIOCRITY

  50. @GrowYourPotentialDaily

    January 7, 2024 at 10:17 am

    MEDIOCRITY IS YOUR ENEMY

  51. @prashantkolhe4432

    January 7, 2024 at 8:14 pm

    ## Key takeaways

    – Just aspiring to be the better is enough, not everyone has to be the best.
    – Embracing mediocrity is a Privilege and not terrible place to be.
    – We shouldn’t consider mediocre or ordinary as failure or losers. And it is difficult in today’s social media world, which adds un-ending cycle of social comparison and causes unsatisfied, insecure and inadequate.

    ## Quotes

    > Use mediocrity as a tool to live within our means. Take the money, either invest it or even just save it. Now you lead a Premium Elite Superior life.

    ## Summary

    – Be the best version of yourself.
    – Don’t compare with others, instead find out which things you enjoy doing and what matters to you most.
    – Only try, Don’t be mediocre in your effort and hard work.And desire to learn and brave enough to try.

  52. @user-gc5kv3cd7j

    January 8, 2024 at 1:21 am

    In Chinese mediocrity can probably be translated to Zhongyong 中庸, a state most preferred by Confucianism

  53. @MartinMartin-yi9to

    January 8, 2024 at 7:31 am

    I on occasion embrace mediocrity when buying something MADE IN USA.

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