Revisionist History Ep.3 – Threshold: why do smart people do dumb things?


In modern globalized society, most of the people are under the influence of others, though others didn’t intend to affect one another. In the podcast ‘Revisionist History episode 3: The Big Man Can’t Shoot’, Malcolm Gladwell mentions Wilt Chamberlin, one of the renowned basketball player as an example of who made a stupid choice because of other’s eyes.

Wilt Chamberlin was perfect basketball player except for one defect that he was poor at shoot free throws. In 1962, he could fix his only flaw by making his shots to underhand shots, which guaranteed the much higher rate of success and made him the basketball legend. However, he switched his shooting style back again, marring his splendid career; it was because others he was aware of the way others are looking at him. He renounced to be excellent because people remarked that underhand shot seems like a granny and looks silly, and there were no many basketball players who use underhand shots.

It’s about the ‘threshold’: threshold to do something right, the threshold to do something they internally want. People with high threshold usually have a tendency to follow the mob behavior, what most people choose to do so; are easily affected by what others say; and have a lot of things to consider before choosing to do what they want to do; while people with low threshold, who are likely to be more innovative than others with low threshold, tend to be not self-conscious and try to practice what they think is right, regardless of others’ opinion toward it.

After listening to this podcast, I wondered what determines the ‘threshold’. At first, I thought that personality related to the self-consciousness. Reconsidering, however, I thought of the other factor that is more influential to the threshold determination than the personality. I thought that if the desire to success and to be perfect outweighs the reluctance to do something because of others’ eyes, it’s not difficult to do that ‘thing’. For example, Rick berry, as mentioned in the podcast, did know that shooting underhand looks silly, he still chose to shoot underhanded because he was so passionate about basketball, wanting to be perfect as far as basketball is concerned.

I do believe that having a too-low threshold: being too dogmatic and not listening to others’ comment is not advisable, but I personally think that I need to lower my threshold. I have an awfully high threshold. Before making every single choice, I worry about what others would talk about my choice, being reluctant though I know the choice is right and others are not interested in me a lot as I worry. My high threshold used to do more harm than good to me, preventing me from running for what I want to do or practicing the rational and desirable action. Thanks to the podcast, I could introspect on me and decide to try to be a person with a higher threshold to do what I want and what I think is right.

I would like to end my post with two sentences that were quite impressive to me. ‘People think good ideas spread because they are good and benefits are obvious, but it’s not. Excellence is such a difficult and elusive goal.’


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