I think a lot about optimising my performance in everything that I do, and this moved me to learn about the importance of optimising your environment to help you do what you want.
You want to work more efficiently? Clear your desk. You want to push harder in sports? Eat more clean. Anything else you want to get yourself in? Buy the tools of the trade, learn them, use them well. You probably heard all of this advice already.
But you’ve forgotten about it. So did I. And then, I watched a video, that recontextualised everything. Well, not directly, so bear with me.
The video talks about the esports scene surrounding the League of Legends game and, in particular, its Korean player base, whose teams have won 10 out of 15 world league of legends championships. The closest in terms of performance are the Chinese. But why is that, for a game that came out first in America, and has not even had a server in Korea when the first championship happened?
In short, it’s all about culture. The video goes more in depth with this, but to summarise:
- Korea went through a huge economic crisis.
- They were bailed out, and sponsorships helped the entire country get connected to the internet (including rural communities) via a combination of high-speed internet and ultra cheap, second hand, good quality PC sales.
- The high density of Korea prevents (young) people hanging out easily in public areas. So internet cafes have become highly popular location, since every person takes very little space.
- Internet Cafes (or PC Bangs, as they are known in Korea) are extra popular due to the cost (less than $1 per rented unit per person). It is possible to be this cheap due to the aforementioned second hand cheap quality PC sales, and they are so popular, due to the economic crisis.
This was the perfect background for a free game like League of Legends to break in and take over in popularity, since it added an extra element that was missing from most other games: multiplayer competition (in contrast with Starcraft, the previous most popular game, which was 1v1).
Western Culture baseline
If you’re reading this, and you’re from the west, this will likely look like some fanfiction of a science fiction novel, but it is reality. And it is a reality that is very similar to our own.
Just caused by different reasons.
Think of Europe and South America. In comparison, the entire continents are significantly less densely populated. This allowed our parents and their friends to play on the streets with the little that they had available, very often being a ball and a couple of stones. As rudimentary as this is, it is enough to set up a mini football game. Everyone, from rich to poor, have the tools and space to play football.
This is the same starting point, but from the Korean perspective.
And it does not end here.
Academic and non-academic support
You’re probably aware that there are academies for sports, whether that is sports management, or the actual competitive aspect of the sport. There are mentorships, scholarships, sponsorships, amateur competitions, and finally, professional competitions. This is well known due to American movies, since many “jock” characters talk about how they need to perform in their American football games, in order to secure their scholarship for college.
Well, this is what is happening in Korea right now, but with League of Legends (probably with other video games as well, but I’m not as well informed on the matter). There are academies for esports, mentors and private tutors whose job is literally to improve the gameplay of people, for which parents pay!
Similarly to how, when a person in Europe or America shows talent and passion in a sport, or a trade, or a science, the parents will support with tutoring, to reach a good institution to improve, and make it into a career, in Korea, you can do that with video games in the esports scene. And you can do it well!
The only other culture that is coming close to this level of support for the esports trade is China, but is not close enough, and it shows.
In the west, we still root to the idea that “video games are a waste of time”, that it’s “not real life”. And to a certain extent, I inherently believe that. After all, I’ve been born and raised with these influences. But at the same time, I see the appeal. A part of me would have liked for this to be a valuable career path in my society.
But a part of me believes it is not. And a part of you likely does as well.
When culture shapes performance
So finally, now that we see these examples, we can reach this conclusion:
The best of the best in anything will come from the places that support those people the most. That which shapes what we value and support in society is culture. Therefore, any competitive field will be won by people from the area whose culture supports that particular field.
It is why Dagestan keeps producing top fighters for the UFC. It is why the Silicon Valley produces the worlds most profitable startups. It is why the best football players come from Europe and South America, and why the best basketball players come from America. The culture appreciates the art, and therefore supports the art more than any other culture in the world.
What to do: make your mini-culture
It is very likely that, if you resonate with this article, something about the culture of the country, or the city, or the school, or the community you live in, does not fit right with who you want to be. A part of you feels misunderstood, and unappreciated, and therefore, the best of you is dormant.
I therefore highly advise you follow the principle of “make yourself the environment in which you can perform best”, but take it a step higher, just not as far as to take over a country (or do it, who knows, it may be for the better :)).
I propose you reshape your micro-community.
The quickest way would be to choose what you want to do, then find the smallest group that is easy for you to meet on a regular basis, and befriend them. That is your people. Love them and support them as if they were your family. If one of you succeeds, all of you will, and turning your passion into your life will become easier than you think.
The second, more drastic step, is to note which people in your life do not want you to do the things that you want to do. When you can, cut them off. Not easy with family or “close friends”, but it may be for the best. At the very least, see them more rarely, or ignore their advice. They are the influence that you want to minimise, the naysayers, who don’t believe that what you do is worthwhile, or that you will succeed. If you listen to them, you might even start to believe it, and then your dream is over.
The third, most drastic step, is to move area, city, or even country, to the place where the culture supports what you want to do. If the culture of the place is what you want to do, it will become significantly easier for you do perform your craft. There will be opportunities, even for amateurs. There will be opportunities to improve the skills of your dream, even with sponsorships, if you show talent. For instance, a few hundred years ago, if all you wanted to do is paint or sculpt, you should go to Italy, where you’d find a patron to support your craft, and then sell your work to collectors, which there were tons of wealthy ones, that would come to Italy specifically to find people like you. And on that note:
A question for you: why did art die?
Today, I’m rather spent on ideas, but I’m full of questions. And this one is for you.
I visit museums every now and again, and my jaw drops when I see the sculptures of the Renaissance, the paintings we did around the Italian peninsula. But now everyone needs to be an engineer, into computing, into finance ideally. We live in a culture where money trumps everything, and we abuse every legal loophole we can find to make our money make more money, ethics be damned!
If you’re an artist, good fucking luck to you, cuz you’re likely on your own. Your parents will try to convince you to become an architect instead, your friends will go do other shit, while telling you that what you’re doing is “cool, but does not matter”. And then you look at the bullshit that you would doodle when you were three, that some people are able to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions), and they call it “modern” or “contemporary” art. And you are grinding right now on some math exam for your engineering course that you finally gave in to doing.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to be an artist, and to find some levels of success. But as opposed to 500 years ago, or earlier, it is bloody difficult. The arts schools are seen as a joke, for people that “don’t take their lives seriously” or are just “taking a piss”. So you have to self-educate, in a world that is pulling you to do literally anything else. Then you have to publish your work for free, to gain interest from social media, and while you do this, you need some way to sustain yourself, either work, parents, or a partner that is willing to be the sole breadwinner until you hit the jackpot. Which, you remind yourself, may possibly never happen. It’s a scary hope, and a dream, that you’ll sideline for a very long time until it becomes reality.
The culture we live in does not support you, and now with the AI slop that started overtaking the internet, your skill is seen as less and less useful. I’m so afraid we’ll soon forget to write on paper anymore, and one of our first skills that separated the human race from common animals will be lost to time.
So my question is: how did we lose this part of our culture? If you know when, and how, and what was the last place on this planet that broke under the cultural strain, please share your thoughts.
And let’s think together.
I think I know a lot about many things 