In Praise of Mediocrity via the NYTimes

The article as a whole felt lacking, but there were a few particular lines that caught my eye as relevant:

We’re afraid of being bad at [hobbies]. Or rather, we are intimidated by the expectation...that we must actually be skilled at what we do in our free time. Our “hobbies,” if that’s even the word for them anymore, have become too serious, too demanding, too much an occasion to become anxious...If you’re a jogger, it is no longer enough to cruise around the block; you’re training for the next marathon. If you’re a painter, you are no longer passing a pleasant afternoon, just you, your watercolors and your water lilies; you are trying to land a gallery show or at least garner a respectable social media following. When your identity is linked to your hobby...you’d better be good at it, or else who are you?

Then later:

The demands of excellence are at war with what we call freedom. For to permit yourself to do only that which you are good at is to be trapped in a cage

This probably stuck out to me because of my post “The Art of the Side Project” I wrote back at the beginning of 2017. Still seems relevant.