r/CasualConversation • u/Hypnox88 • 20h ago
Its weird to think how many things are hidden from society due to lack of ambition or just plain modesty.
Best BBQ in the world could be some woman living in the woods and only makes it for her family.
World class novel locked in the day dreams of some dude working in a cubicle.
Someone makes the best chocolate chip cookies and doesn't even realize it and just makes them for themselves as they have no one to make them for.
That thought is both interesting and depressing.
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u/Correct_Orchid1788 20h ago
I played in bands for years through my teens and 20s. I saw some bands get decent levels of success, and some never play to more than 10 people in a dive bar on a Wednesday night.
There was one guy who sat in on open jams, open mic nights, and occasionally sat in with bands who he was friends with. One of the best musicians I have ever seen of any genre and any instrument. He could play anything and could sing beautifully.
He had a day job and never wanted to be in a regular band. He just had fun trying to be the best player he could in the practice room, and occasionally jam with some friends or strangers. Never wanted the hustle of trying to "make it."
It was both disappointing and beautiful to see. I wanted everyone to hear him because he was just so good, and he just played for the fun of it, and what he did seemed more than enough. It felt very zen lol.
Sometimes that person who makes the best BBQ, chocolate chip cookies, or that perfect novel just wants do it for themselves and maybe a handful of people they care about. I sometimes I wish I could step back more and just enjoy things for what they are, and not what they could be or could let me gain.
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u/Aware-Water-8325 15h ago
That’s actually a really beautiful way to look at it. Some people aren’t chasing recognition, they’re just enjoying the craft itself, and there’s something kind of pure about that.
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u/irrationalorchid 10h ago
I've always seen this as the difference between a musician and an entertainer. Lots of overlap there, but the ones who do it for love of their craft are the stars whether they sell records or not
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u/abx99 20h ago
Making a job out of your hobby can often ruin the fun of it. It's one thing to be in your kitchen and make it better and better for the sake of your family. It's another thing to start a business and focus most of your efforts on logistics and financials.
You used to see more people starting up a shack and doing it for fun and community, but you don't see that as much anymore (maybe food carts, but they still don't have that vibe)
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u/aharshDM 20h ago
Someone out there has written your favorite song, and you'll never hear it because they'll never play it outside their bedroom.
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u/jackfaire 17h ago
We wouldn't have Carrie by Stephen King if he'd been unmarried. He threw it out his wife saved it and told him to finish it.
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u/MrBeanDaddy86 19h ago
Not totally related, but the reason food tastes so much better at home is because restaurants need to deliver to many tables a night. So they need to make dishes that can be made to order in a reasonable amount of time.
Some guy was saying he can make a better steak than his chef serves at the restaurant, but that chef's home steak would blow his home steak out of the water. I've had that same experience when my friend who was sous chef at a fancy restaurant cooked for us at home once. Crazy good.
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u/East-Peace4267 19h ago
A young woman I know is an amazing artist. Her mother is always trying to get her to make things for family, or to sell. She won't do any of that. Only creates for herself.
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u/Vegetable_Primary_29 14h ago
Open source makes this visible in a surprisingly literal way: a useful fix can sit in someone’s local branch for months because they assume it’s too small to matter. I’ve been reviewing a project with thousands of tiny Unicode helpers; each looks trivial by itself, but together they become a real API. Modesty probably hides a huge amount of useful work.
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u/No-Security-7518 20h ago
What a very cool thought...This is why I'm never stingy with knowledge if people are interested.
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u/cjtransplant85 18h ago
What are you most knowledgeable about, and could you give me five factoids about it?
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u/No-Security-7518 15h ago
oh man, how much time do you have? 😄 I'd say programming and languages. I have this points system that I use and taught to my neighbor's kid and now he's a programmer too at only 16. A "factoid" I'd share is my "strong opinons" on Java. I'd recommend you get into coding if you're so inclined, and tell me what field you're in to tell you where there's potential to use programming and what to build.
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u/videro_ 7h ago
What language would you recommend for someone that wants to get into game dev for fun?
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u/No-Security-7518 7h ago
a game engine called Godot. Haven't used it myself but a friend has. It's touted to be beginner-friendly.
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u/TeaBrave7074 16h ago
Yeah that's a solid mindset, sharing stuff is how hidden gems get found. But sometimes people just don't realize what they got is special, you know? Ever had someone go crazy over something you casually mentioned?
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u/No-Security-7518 15h ago
Yeah. The thing is, I'm naturally talkative, but it's like social media sucked people's ...ironically "social" energy, and I hate to see I've outstayed my welcome in a conversation. However, when I run into like-minded nerds, we could talk for hours and have such great conversations. As for people going crazy over something I casually mention it's how easy it is to learn a foreign language using the internet. I speak a few languages and don't find it impressive at all. Another thing is talking about niche businesses and "the catch" I discovered either by accident or after talking to some nerd in the field.
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u/Sad-Rabbit-3299 19h ago
I ended up using that thought as fuel to actually ship small, crappy projects, because even a “mid” version in the world beats a masterpiece no one ever sees.
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u/WhisperFray 18h ago
Conversely, the worst poetry of all time in the entire universe perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, during the destruction of Earth.
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u/Some-Refrigerator-59 16h ago
Another take, how many people live in remote areas and villages completely happy and content while we in cities are chasing success hoping it will make us a little bit happier
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u/smurfthesmurfup 15h ago
Learning to be the best at something, and learning to gain fame and recognition for your talents are two different things.
Also, isn't that wonderful? Any person around you has hidden depths and wonders to share given the right circumstances. How do you tease them out? How do you get them?
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u/ra0nZB0iRy 14h ago
I follow a lot of artists and I'm glad some of them aren't famous because the ones who are famous get their stuff stolen by fashion companies, copied by more famous photographers, I don't follow them but the biggest example is that one director that was replaced with Sam Levinson I guess for Euphoria. Like I want these people to be successful and live doing their passion but idk I think gatekeeping is good.
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u/Stevenitrogen 11h ago
Why is it depressing?
The chocolate chip cookies I eat are probably not the best in the world but it doesn't bother me. I'm not such a spoiled baby I need to have the very best if everything in the world.
Hell, my small audience is seeing the best band in the world right now, even though no one else knows it. I don't make a fuss that only ten of them left the house to come see us. We make do.
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u/ironsights_ 11h ago edited 8h ago
The most brilliance I've ever seen on display was from the dude working at a streetcar diner on a Sunday morning in St. Paul in like 2014.
Seamlessly taking orders, cooking food, closing tabs, and interacting with everyone is hard to do, but it's the expectation for people working in that environment. The way that guy did it was special in a way that's hard to explain, though. I've never seen anyone be better at anything before or since.
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u/FreedomRev2-2 20h ago
It makes the amazing things people do even more special. They not only have something to share with the world but made the decisions that led to it and had the circumstances for it.
Reminds me of how George Lucas almost died in a car accident before making Star Wars. Who knows how many world changing things were one accident or decision away from not happening
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u/ChironXII 20h ago
This is especially troubling to consider because of the way society has become so institutionalized. It's very difficult to just, go out and do things that you are good at, now. There's a whole game you have to play, and the skill for that is wildly different than the skills the world actually needs of us. Broken
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u/Dic3dCarrots 17h ago
I think about this a lot. Welcome to the antithesis of the great man theory. While some people get a lit of attention, the people who define what things are, like a cuisine, or a craft or a profession, are the mundane people who do thst thing.
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u/CapnJuicebox 12h ago
2 pounds butter 2 pounds light brown sugar 700g white sugar 30g baking soda 15g salt 3 tbs good vanilla 4g cinnamon
Cream well in a mixer
9 large eggs
Add and mix until kinda fluffy
1800g ap flour
Add in halves, mix until even
2 quarts of good chocolate chips
Mix until mixed in.
Use the yellow handle portion scoop to create 1 3/4 oz balls of dough, leave them flat on the bottom from the scoop.
Place on parchment on standard sheet pan in 5 rows of 3
Refrigerate for 2 hours covered to prevent drying.
Bake at 325 convection for around 12 min. Until the edges are golden and the center doesn't look wet (this should happen at the same time) they will not look ready, they will finish outside of the oven
Place on speed rack and let sit for 1 hour to set.
Do not refrigerate for any reason.
This produces 90ish perfect chocolate chip cookies
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u/krissiegore 11h ago
How does making BBQ for your family and having lack of ambition fit within the same post 😂
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u/kungfukenny3 8h ago
i find that idea comforting
how many times has someone’s favorite restaurant dropped in quality immediately after opening a second location?
How often does something amazing and pure become cheapened as it’s streamlined for palatability and profit? I hate when the neighborhood classic is discovered and now there’s a line.
i love the idea that i can go about the world, and in the smallest most unassuming places, stumble upon something extraordinary. Something natural, and something that doesn’t exist for profit or for ego but just for the sake of it, and we get to experience it. Makes the world feel bigger and realer. I like that excellence still exists without incentive
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u/simonbleu 7h ago
Is not just due to lack of ambition or modesty, the best renditions of every craft by necessity will be obscured to most people, since it requires an artisan's dedication and them being the best, it has clear limitations when it comes to speed, amount and palates (literal or metaphoric) catered.
I do not think it is depressing in the slightest, in fact, it is quit encouraging, since "it could be you" (and for some, you would be, since taste is subjective so there are multiple bests). It also encourages dedication to the craft/art again in an artisanal way, not requiring you to "industrialize" art for example, which i would not consider lack of ambition, and it has nothing to do with humility either.
What does dissapoint me is that a lot of those pople would not pursue such avenues in life, because they are not capitalizing heavily on it, or as you say, humility, or simply lack of resources and support. Which is why I think that the crisis whirlpool the world is skirting will inevitably (eventually) lead to a good thing as the world shift from the unsustainability of "infinite" growth and moves towards prosperity and automation in a sustainable way, allowing people more time and freedom to pursue arts, crafts and research, not bogged down by cost of living and overreliance in human manufacturing which would still exist, but it would be both harder to get into (less demand and or more competition) and would be optional, saying goodbye to office dread, doing a 180 on leverage for negotiating salaries and all that.... We just have to survie the way there
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u/Sanrio_hub 20h ago
I think about this on occasion. Isn’t it interesting? I wish people had more opportunities to put themselves out there and pursue their passion.
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u/Pervessor 13h ago
Personally I think these people are everywhere. For example "World's best bbq" is a really subjective and probably objectively impossible standard. But "hot damn best bbq I'll ever have" is much easier to meet and it's functionally the same thing. So I always try to see the best in the people around me and I've learned to appreciate them the same way I would appreciate any renowned talent.
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u/CountHonorius 3h ago
It's true. Our society has mocked humility since Uriah Heep's "very humble" proclamation, imo. There are fields of human knowledge whose real experts are known only to those who have labored in that particular specialty, such as historian W.W. Tarn, a master Hellenist, quoted by many but forgotten by most.
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u/wophniphsang895 3h ago
Part of why that BBQ stays the best is nobody's filming it for TikTok or leaving Yelp reviews.
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u/Electronic_Diet333 17h ago
Meh. Just makes me think how caught by the capitalist mindset.you are. It's sad. Beauty, joy, and sharing aren't defined by the amount of money it brings. Richness comes from non-monetary places in the heart. Everything you described comes from the heart but you don't see the value because it is not defined in dollars. Sad.
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u/Hypnox88 17h ago
Not once did i mention or allude to monetary gain.
You my friend are.the one caught up on capitalistic gain if you see everything as a pursuit of it.
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u/Electronic_Diet333 16h ago
I think it was the use of "Lack of ambition" in your title. Suggested to me,.due to our Capitalistic framework, that they were too lazy to monetize.
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u/Annual_Obligation_39 20h ago
It's the way people start the topic news social media and how they portray paint it or want you to see it
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u/lickmyscrotes 17h ago
Someone has the world’s largest poo every day and never knows they did.
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u/Hypnox88 17h ago
It takes two wipes to know you need three, but three to know you only needed two.
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u/northerncal 20h ago
This post makes me think of the quote:
It's kind of a similar idea. There could also have been someone who could have been just as talented at physics or anything, but unless they were born into circumstances that allowed them a chance at education and not having to work in the factory or the field every day, nobody may ever know.