I've gone snowboarding about 30 times since I started learning a few years ago, but every time I'm on a lift, most of the other riders have been out 90 days just this season1. In fact, almost everyone I see has been skiing or snowboarding for decades, and comes out almost every day.

It's hard to stay motivated when I'm the worst snowboarder on the mountain.

This might seem like a big coincidence, but I'm also one of the worst runners I know AND one of the worst writers that I'm aware of.

Iron Man meme showing Obadiah Stane in a suit pointing and yelling at a scientist in a cave laboratory. Top text reads 'SCOTT ALEXANDER COULD WRITE SOMETHING BETTER IN A CAVE'. The scientist is labeled 'MY HOMUNCULUS', Stane's gesture points to 'MY BRAIN WHICH I CONSIDER TO BE SEPERATE FROM ME FOR SOME REASON', and bottom text reads '...WITH A BOX OF MEMES OLDER THAN JESUS!'
When I compare my writing to Scott's

I'm even a terrible hiker. Half the people I hike with casually summit 14ers2 on the weekend while I can barely do an easy 1,600 ft climb3.

Doing A Thing Puts You in The Top 10%4

Oh wait, I forgot about all of the people who don't snowboard at all. Only 10 million6 of the 330 million people in the US7 ski or snowboard. So, actually I'm better than 97% of all skiiers and snowboarders in the US. Yay!

Pie chart titled 'How I compare to other people at snow sports' showing a large green section labeled 'Worse than me' at 97.0% and a small red section labeled 'Better than me' at 3.0%

I'm also in the top 15% of runners8, the top 20% of hikers9, and a top 9% blogger10.

So, Where is Everyone?

I'm a way above average snowboarder, top 3%! So why does it feel like I suck? Where is everyone else who sucks more than me? Why can I see 100 other snowboarders on a run but don't see 97 of them falling down?

I guess the problem is.. they're not there at all.

The 97% of the population that doesn't ski.. doesn't ski. And of the remaining 3%, most of those who don't ski most days didn't go skiing today. And of the people who have ever tried skiing, the ones who did it last year but not this year aren't here this year. And the people who are so much worse than me that they injured themselves5 are still recovering.

Most of the people I see on a day of skiing are the people who ski every day and are good enough not to hurt themselves.

And That Sucks

It sucks that whenever you start doing something hard, most of the people you see are going to be way more dedicated than you. You're only barely dedicated enough to do it in the first place, so if they weren't more dedicated than you, they probably wouldn't be doing it at all.

But, uh.. feel good about yourself for trying or something? When you stand at the top of a small hill drenched in sweat while literally everyone else is fine and talking about their stupid 14er this weekend, remember that the average person couldn't hike that hill at all, and most of those who could didn't show up today. And then still be annoyed because people who are good at things are jerks.

  1. This is only barely an exaggeration. People who are into skiing are into skiing. ↩

  2. A mountain that's at least 14,000 feet tall. ↩

  3. XKCD-style comic with two stick figures in conversation. First figure: 'Hiking is second nature to us, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only does 1,000 ft elevation gain hikes in their free time.' Second figure: 'And bouldering.' First figure: 'Of course.' Caption below reads: 'Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field.'

    Stolen and edited from XKCD ↩

  4. Source: I made it up. ↩

  5. Oh wait, this was me last year. ↩