Culture

What Makes Greatness

1. Corded vs Smartphones

Have you ever wondered why we judge something to be better than just 'good'? Consider this: If the telephone on our office desk is working well, we never think of it any better than just being good. But with the iPhone, or any other smartphone(s) in our pocket, we never stop admiring it when it's in order; even valuing it as much as - or maybe more than - what we have been willing to pay for it; that is until the next new version comes out.

In fact - and correct me if I'm wrong - when the 'old school' telephones were first used in offices and homes around the country, they must have received as much admiration as we give smartphones today. So why don't corded phones seem so cool to us now? Is it simply because it is old technology? Maybe not.

If something is valuable only because it is new, there would be no market for antiques. Despite what we might have thought in our naïve younger days, not all new things are good.  Neither are all old things in general. So if being new  (or old) does not necessarily make something seem great in our eyes, what actually does?


2. Of what use

Obviously no good comes from a useless thing. Although precious stones and metals, like diamonds and gold are practically useless, they at least serve as symbols of value - just like money. We value them only because they serve as symbols of value itself. When they lose this quality, for example in inflation or in certain situations, they can very quickly lose all their value (e.g diamonds and gold won't feed you in the jungle).

For other valuable things, we can easily imagine why being useful is important to make them seem good to us. But use is obviously not the only reason why we value something. If we compare old telephones with smartphones again, we can see why this is so. Both can make calls (smartphones can do much more than that, but they are phones after all), and yet we value smartphones much more.

So why don't we, just like previous generations, think corded phones are cool, and yet we value smartphones much higher and would pay more to get them - when both have the same primary use: to make calls!


3. Hard work & The Price Illusion

The missing ingredient to what makes something great apart from being useful, I think, is hard work. That is, something is great only when it requires hard work. This is because we would naturally value our own effort and the resulting product of that effort, more than other people would do. Therefore, when something demands hard work in order to achieve it, we tend to value it more than those that are easily achievable. 

Let's look at smartphones again. If we ignore what the production companies (e.g Apple, HTC, Samsung) tell us, there can be no great differences between the smartphone models, in their actual use - calls, messaging, Facebook, etc.  And yet, some models are much more expensive than others.

As we may eventually realize, cheaper models can do virtually all the tasks that we would expect from the more expensive ones. And yet we genuinely find the high-end phones to be much more valuable than their cheaper alternatives. Are we really that gullible?

Or maybe we feel that the extra effort to pay for the higher price tag can only be justified by a higher intrinsic value. "I worked hard for that cash to pay for this phone, so it must be great." The only danger is when our logic is turned backwards, and we start thinking, "It's awesome, so I must work hard for enough cash to buy that phone."


4. What makes greatness

So there are two criteria for something to be better than good (i.e to be awesome, great, wonderful, excellent, etc.), that it must be both: useful; and demanding. Without one or the other, it can never be great.

From sports cars; to the portrait of Mona Lisa hanging on the wall of Musee du Louvre; to our favourite song from an obscure album; our idea of greatness in these things comes not only in their proper use (as transport, decoration, and entertainment accordingly), but also from the great difficulty in obtaining each of them (by being expensive, unique, or obscure).

Then we may say, our life can only be 'great' by being both useful and demanding. And in order to be useful, we must be responsible - and the only way to survive a demanding life is to be hardworking. Only then, will greatness ensue.

__

Image source: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=1454

Live with strangers

"Are you in adversity? Do not mourn in the darkness of solitude, do not regulate your sorrow according to the indulgent sympathy of your intimate friends; return, as soon as possible, to the day-light of the world and of society. Live with strangers, with those who know nothing, or care nothing about your misfortune; do not even shun the company of enemies.

Are you in prosperity? Do not confine the enjoyment of your good fortune to your own house, to the company of your own friends, perhaps of your flatterers, of those who build upon your fortune the hopes of mending their own; frequent those who are independent of you, who can value you only for your character and conduct, and not for your fortune"

Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)