this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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But isn’t that the point of the “could’ve gone pro” comparison? Those athletes most likely weren’t pro-caliber either, they just had those expectations forced on them because they happened to be the ringer compared to the rest of their high school. But that was enough for the adults looking to live vicariously to push them to wreck their bodies young.
Yeah like kids going into the pro scene early and get that increase load that their body isn't gonna be accustomed to and get injured at a critical time of their athletic development
Most of the so-called gifted kids aren't asserting that they were geniuses, but the jocks in this circumstance definitely are saying they could have gone pro. At least, that's the received cultural understanding from the latter meme, since they are usually the only ones still talking about it. "I could have been a contender," etc.
I think that comes from sports injuries being framed as accidents more so than as the result of repetitive over exertion. That one’s Achilles getting injured and not ever truly recovering from it is just chance that got in the way of their goal rather than their body being pushed beyond what it can shoulder. With mental over exertion, the common view is that the brain can take on infinite load and that burnout is just an excuse for lacking sufficient Protestant work ethic. So former “gifted” kids don’t talk like that because they know people will perceive them as making excuses, or believe it themselves and engage in self-loathing.
That being said, a lot of that debatelord, fallacyman,
brain mentality is a manifestation of former “gifted” kids trying to maintain that feeling of potential. They might’ve burned out their junior year of high school or dropped out of the good college a semester in, but if they can own someone online with logic facts and reason, they can convince themselves they’ve “still got it.”
yeah i wouldn't have been some multi millionaire tech guy, but i could've had a degree and a career instead of being unable to function in society