On: How Completely Messed Up Practices Become Normal

[devonkim]

This appears related to learned helplessness except on a sociological basis rather than individual basis.

[taurath → devonkim]

And as a corollary the moment someone breaks an "unbreakable" record in many sports that record can sometimes be frequently broken right after.

[devonkim → taurath]

Competitive eating is a great example of this. Never really thought this carried over in general to other forms of sport / competition.

[coderzach → devonkim]

The best example I can think of is in middle distance running, when Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile.

[kovacs → coderzach]

I think the best and most relevant example of this for the HN crowd might be Donkey Kong :-) Ever since the documentary "King of Kong" came out, and that douche Billy Mitchell's record was broken, there's been a stream of new records.

BTW if you haven't seen "King of Kong" you owe it to yourself to watch, regardless of whether or not you're a video game person. It's hilarious.