Always uncomfortable to me to see people react to musicians or actors or other creators like

"wow what a has-been, so embarrassing. And look how FAT and OLD"

Like first off, yes, we all experience the passage of time, including those who are made up to look young and attractive.

But what what the FUCK, people? If you made millions of dollars because of a single hit, how does it make you pathetic to not effortlessly replicate that success from then on?

@heatherhorns I always feel like one hit wonders much better represents decades and the like, even if they don't often represent the artist.

it's really sort of a larger fetish for the present and newest and latest throughout culture. I feel like we maintain an eternal present where we like to pretend current problems are wholly new and unrelated to the past, and the way it is now is the only way it was.

@heatherhorns And it's very much a capitalism thing imo, how it's treated as this new advancement over earlier systems, but also part of human nature and all markets.

It's kinda like how medieval artists just drew everyone in the clothes of their time and culture.

@chimerror @heatherhorns this feels related to the horrible phenomenon of “30 under 30” lists and so on. Like you have to be an amazing perfect creator and you have to do it yesterday, and once you’ve hit 30 you should already be a success at your peak because nobody’s going to care 5 minutes later.

@fluffy @heatherhorns Yeah. Anyone who is famous enough to make that list were usually exceptional even before they made it.

I think one of the biggest problems is that we are so focused on the exceptional, often to the cost of the average. We'd rather have one very rich person than many well fed people but no one is that rich.

@fluffy @heatherhorns And same with school and sports. The people who got the ground running for whatever reason get the lion's share of attention, while everyone else is just neglected.