Sunday, January 20, 2008
Aspiration vs Pragmatism -vvw

I recently had a chat with a friend about his brother who is a secondary school student. His brother excels in a certain sport, so much so that the school is willing to overlook his less than desirable test scores.

If I were my friend, I would be in a dilemma. On the one hand, one should support one's brother in the pursuit of his dreams. On the other hand, building a career as an athlete isn't exactly very practical in Singapore, especially if you have no safety net should your athletic career ends abruptly.

I think it was rather irresponsible for schools to constantly reward students who can win trophies for the schools but not pass exams for themselves. These students will grow up thinking that their athletic abilities will continue to bring them success regardless of their academic results. A day may come when they sustain injuries so severe as to end their sports career, they will be left jobless and without any qualifications. Where then will they go for help? Certainly not the schools.

It is not easy to pursue one's aspirations especially if they are not pragmatic in nature. The choice between aspiration and pragmatism is often more than a simple matter of courage. Perhaps a person who opted for the former lacks foresight to see the implications of his decision. Or maybe he has no responsibilities holding him back.

One should not be hasty in dishing out advice or in judging the choices of others. Many who chose the safe route regret it later in life but so did those who fought for their dreams and failed miserably.

p.s. There is a loosely related article that I think is worth a read at this link: Prime Movers and Second-Handers

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Yiheng made 12:43 AM

1 Comments:

It's a painful choice having to decide between aspiration and pragmatism. You seem to place great emphasis on the disutility who would feel if he would one day be robbed of the means to live his dream.

Just like a singer who lost her voice, or a disfigured actress. Well, you can either take it easy and start life over, or as I would prefer, agree that you have tried your best in living your life, and commit suicide.

But would this pain be comparable to the kind where you live life taking the safe route, with full knowledge that you ought to have done better with your life?

I dunno man, most of the people I know who followed their dreams seem quite content with life, regardless of being success or not.
By  Soqcrates, at 11:28 PM  

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