I’ve been thinking alot about the difference between adults and children or between mature people and immature people or between professionals and um… whatever I decide to call the opposite of professionals. They aren’t casuals. They take what they do seriously but there’s a level of mentality about professionals that their opposite cannot boast of. I’ve been watching alot of competitive events as well as military tactical videos about really old battles.
Alexander the Great and his army is a great definition of what it means to be a professional. His troops are Pros and his enemies never understand that and they could never match it. His opponents aren’t professionals so they make all sorts of mistakes and their soldiers are far worse fighters. Alexander’s dedication to leading a professional army is why he could do ballsy stuff with fewer men and constantly come out on top. It’s a mentality about your goals and abilities that classifies a person as a professional. It’s hard to describe that mentality very well.
On an entirely less violent metaphor I can talk about competitive video game players. I know none of my zero readers know about esports but I’ll explain it clearly and it’s not very complicated. At the top of the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate competitive esports scene there is one player at the top, MKleo. Maybe I shouldn’t use this as an explanation since you have to know whats going on to really see the differences. Anyway, this guy is so clearly a professional among a throng of children. In every clutch and tense moment of the championship games you can see his opponents break down. Their mentality is for shit. They get too aggressive or too upset or too emotional or too depressed and you can see it in their play. This is one reason I love to watch a different smash game called Melee. The game is fast enough that a person’s mentality is obvious to a competent spectator and observing that mentality is what is great about it. People’s character comes through in their play and you can see their creativity and all sorts of stuff.
Unfortunately for Smash Ultimate as a spectator sport, MKleo is the only one that has the mentality of a professional. Obviously, any esport is going to be hugely populated by children.
I feel like I need to establish what I mean by “children”. When I say children I make no claim about age. Any person of any age can be children. As should be expected, esports players are highly likely to be children in their 20’s. Where do they have a chance to grow up? They go from being in high school and being good at video games to getting signed with an esports team’s brand and being good at video games. They get fame and clout and have no fucking clue what they are doing. Where do they get a chance to grow? Even in actual physical sports a player can go from some touted high school kid to a super star on campus to a super star on national television. I’m not belittling anyone for being a child here because when were they gonna grow up? You can’t be an adult if everything just falls into your lap all the time and nobody, not your parents, your employers, or your fans ever show you what it means to be an adult.
Being an adult is something most people don’t accomplish until their well on their way to being old. Whenever I see anyone or watch anyone on any level whether I’m watching them in a sporting event or in a casual conversation I try to get an idea of how immature they are. I know that sounds judgmental and it is but observation and objective analysis are very different from judgment. I desperately want every person to be an adult and one of the problems I had growing up was that I just assumed everyone was smarter than me and more mature than me and that I had no idea what I was talking about. I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. I still do but I’m not gonna lie to myself when someone shows their immaturity. When I was a kid I would try to come up with ways to explain their decisions from a reasonable and rational view point and as soon as I found a reason that was intelligent I just sort of assumed that was the real reason because other people can’t be stupid and they certainly can’t be stupider than I am. I’m just a normal kid! Why would I know better than anyone else?
I firmly believe that it is entirely possible and entirely beneficial to rationally understand and objectively conclude people’s maturity levels as long as you can keep yourself from being happy that you are smarter than them. Most children love being smarter than other people. I believe that I am smarter than alot of people and I know for a fact that I’m more rational and observant and mature than most people but believe me I do not let it go to my head and my opinion of children has never been a negative one. I worked with children for 5 years and in that time, along with other experiences, I learned that every single human is capable of being a rational and amazing adult that can be happy and supportive and intelligent. The problem is that nobody shows them how to be those things. Education in this country has nothing to do with teaching kids how to be adults or how to do actually important things like take leadership roles or how to empathize with their fellow man. Kids aren’t taught how to do taxes or why people do things. They aren’t taught how to introspect and develop themselves. They aren’t taught how to pay attention to things or what the benefits might be to using their brains. They’re taught a bunch of essentially useless bullshit that allows them to fill out scantrons in the way where their school makes the most money. Believe me when I say that I know many 4 year olds as mature and rational and capable as many 25 year olds I know. Also believe me when I tell you that even 4 year olds can easily understand, internalize, and apply complicated ideas about psychology and friendship to the rest of their lives. The only thing they need is for some one to tell them and show them what kind of mentality is possible. Show them what respect looks like and what intelligence looks like. Show them what empathy looks like and sit them down and explain to them why empathy is good and even a 4 year old kid can have a rational conversation.
I’m not really sure how on topic I am anymore but I’ve written this over the course of like 4 hours so things are kind of jumbled. should I try and sum it up?
I don’t know how to sum any of it up and if I did this unread blog wouldn’t be the final product of that summation and it wouldn’t be the place for it either.
The Mind of Joshypoo 