IGX

This guy did a podcast called Pessimists Archive where he highlights people's skepticism to new things throughout history. People thought the bicycle would cause mental illness. People thought kids reading would be bad. People tried to ban the Walkman. Ancient Romans complained that kids these days are getting soft.

This is one on participation trophies. Before I had kids I thought this concept was somewhat silly and then started thinking, "Encouraging kids for seeing something through even in the face of adversity or defeat is... probably a good thing."

Turns out the people complaining about participation trophies either also got them, didn't do sports, or are 110+ years old, because they've been around since WWI for pretty understandable reasons:



Enjoyable listen

I got them and they're stupid

The only acceptable participation trophies come with twist off caps and come from Walter Matthau’s cooler.

You don't need a trophy for participating. You need the encouragement and approval of your parents for sticking with something, even when it stops being fun. Finish what you start and all that.

I remember being given a tournament MVP award one time along with a teammate, to where even the other teams came up and complimented us. And then our coach decided he needed to tell the rest of the team that they were all MVPs too.

Lotta blank stares in that gym.