The Law of Gravitational Mediocrity — here’s why you’re getting more dumb every day

Thomas Despin
2 min readApr 16, 2022

If you wanted to become the best pingpong player in the world,

Would you learn from from random people who don’t know what a top-spin is?

Or from world-class pingpong players?

OBVIOUSLY, the latter.

To produce world-class OUTPUTS in a field,

You look for world-class INPUTS, in this same field.

And the opposite is also true.

To become mediocre..

..learn from mediocre sources.

Consume dumb shit on social media,

watch random meaningless videos on Youtube,

and don’t forget to read mass market media.

Mediocre INPUTS = Mediocre OUTPUTS

It sounds so stupidly obvious,

I wonder why I even have to write it down (for myself and whoever feels concerned).

We go to mediocre inputs because they are free, convenient, easy to consume.. and shared by the majority..

They make you feel good, somehow.

They are hard to avoid.

This is the LAW OF GRAVITATIONAL MEDIOCRITY, as made famous by absolutely nobody (just made the term up).

The mass of overall dumb shit around us is SO heavy, it passively attracts us into what I call THE DUMB SHIT HOLE.

This is where you PASSIVELY falls when you do nothing about your life.

The default mode of the world.

Sinking into its own BS.

To escape the gravitational field of mediocrity,

it takes effort, energy and willingness to do so.

However, the more you fall down the DSH (Dumb Shit Hole), the less you want to escape it.

For example, if you watch the Kardashians and spend hours debating in Facebook comment section, while eating junk food on your couch..

..you’re probably really close to the bottom of the DSH, and I don’t know what can save you.

And you most likely don’t even want to be saved.

However, if you read it until here, what can you do?

First, start replacing BS stuff by useful stuff..

Stop arguing in comment sections,
Stop watching idiotic content,
Stop eating junk food,
Stop talking to people who watch the Kardashians,
Stop reading mass media..

Start ignoring content that triggers you,
Start watching content that teaches you things,
Start eating food that actually feeds you,
Start talking to people who are smarter than you,
Start reading books and blogs of interest..

Yes, it takes more energy than letting yourself sink into the DSH with the rest of humanity.

It’s frustrating, painful and it makes most people think you’re a weirdo who can’t enjoy life.

It makes you lose friends.

It makes the whole world consider you a marginal with extreme thoughts and lifestyle.

And so be it.

Because yes,

being world-class at anything means that BY DEFINITION you live at the marge.

Feel grateful the 99% think you’re different.

It was the whole point from the beginning.

Wasn’t it?

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Thomas Despin

I build sustainable beach villas on remote paradise islands, in Indonesia — Seen in Forbes, WIRED & Entrepreneur — hi@thomasdespin.com | www.reconnect.id