Built-in epicfail
I like to juggle. I'm not particularly good at it, but it soothes my nerves and I can use it to focus my concentration if it starts wandering.
What's quite interesting that whenever someone sees me juggle with three balls, they invariably ask whether I can juggle four balls. If I juggle with two balls, they ask about three. If I happen to be juggling four, they ask about five. It never fails. I'm pretty sure that if I were to juggle something insane like twelve balls, I would be asked about thirteen.
I've come to the conclusion that it must be because people like to see others fail. It does not matter how much you can do, but it's what you can't do that interests people.
There's something utterly fascinating about that.
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| "Main_blogentry_251209_1" last changed on 25-Dec-2009 15:37:08 EET by JanneJalkanen. |
Comments
Heh, true. Next time needs to ask someone to juggle with n-1 just to see the astonishment :)--AnonymousBravewheart, 25-Dec-2009
*grin* Yes, though remember that juggling is the art of using more balls than hands.
--JanneJalkanen, 25-Dec-2009
I can do some things with three balls, but the two-ball siteswap 501 is pretty hard for me.
I usually try to inform people that it's not the amount of balls but what you try to do with them.
--Pare, 26-Dec-2009
In grad school we had two oral exam defenses - one for the masters level project, and one for the final doctorate. In both, we were advised that the examination committee would not stop asking until we ran out of answers. They did not want to know what we knew but what we did NOT know.
I don't think it's that folks want to see someone fail, but to be able to probe the limits of the possible. Watch your boy. He probably gets more fun building stuff that falls than building stuff that lasts.
Exploring the boundaries of The Possible.
--charlie, 26-Jan-2010