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Forums - General Discussion - Do you believe that the highest paid professionals are the best?

BoleroOfFire on 29 June 2009

I'll repeat the question as it didn't fit in the subject line:

Do you believe that the highest paid professionals in any sport/field/career are the best at what they do in the whole world?  That is, out of the approximately 6.7 billion people on earth, nobody else could possibly outperform them if given the chance?

Example 1: No person alive can play baseball better than the men in the MLB.

Example 2: Nobody on earth can beat the UFC Champion in a fight.

Example 3: No one can cook a dish better than the world's top chefs.

Are these people at the top because they are truly the best?  Or do you think that other factors should be considered such as location and opportunity?  A yes or no response is sufficient but if you have time to provide your reasoning it will be appreciated.  



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BoleroOfFire on 29 June 2009
kowenicki said:
generally..... yes, but there will be exceptions to the rule.

But wouldn't the existence of these exceptions make your answer a no?



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BoleroOfFire on 29 June 2009

You're being vague! Answer yes or no. Please.



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Words Of Wisdom on 29 June 2009
BoleroOfFire said:

Are these people at the top because they are truly the best?  Or do you think that other factors should be considered such as location and opportunity?  A yes or no response is sufficient but if you have time to provide your reasoning it will be appreciated. 

No.  I will use the Peter Principle to support my belief:

Wikipedia said:

The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." While formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1968 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology", "inadvertently founded" by Peter, the principle has real validity. It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. Peter's Corollary states that "in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out his duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence"

The people at the top may have excelled prior to their reaching their current positions however that does not necessarily imply that they are or will excel in their current ones.



BoleroOfFire on 29 June 2009

Thank you for your answers.  



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Words Of Wisdom on 29 June 2009
kowenicki said:
@words of wisdom

thats the everyone must be "promoted beyond your ability" idea... which has some merit. but it has no relevance in sport for instance.

I know exactly what idea I posted thank you.

I would say that it has plenty of relevance in sports.

I'm sure there have been players who did well in the college divisions but not pros or assistant coaches who were very good at what they did however were not capable as head coaches.  In order for the Peter Principle to completely not apply to something, you must demonstrate either the lack of a hierarchy or that there is no skill level difference between levels of a hierarchy.  Clearly you cannot do either with sports.



Arius Dion on 29 June 2009

Absoultely not. I think many in the given fields are good maybe even great, but circumstances and other variables have an impact on why certain individuals make it and others do not.



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If the Wii sells more than 20 million in 2009 (as defined above) Arius Dion wins and gets to control Slimebeast's sig for 1 month.

BoleroOfFire on 29 June 2009
Words Of Wisdom said:
kowenicki said:
@words of wisdom

thats the everyone must be "promoted beyond your ability" idea... which has some merit. but it has no relevance in sport for instance.

I know exactly what idea I posted thank you.

I would say that it has plenty of relevance in sports.

I'm sure there have been players who did well in the college divisions but not pros or assistant coaches who were very good at what they did however were not capable as head coaches.  In order for the Peter Principle to completely not apply to something, you must demonstrate either the lack of a hierarchy or that there is no skill level difference between levels of a hierarchy.  Clearly you cannot do either with sports.

I'm not sure I follow.  Can you explain this part?



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Words Of Wisdom on 29 June 2009
BoleroOfFire said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
kowenicki said:
@words of wisdom

thats the everyone must be "promoted beyond your ability" idea... which has some merit. but it has no relevance in sport for instance.

I know exactly what idea I posted thank you.

I would say that it has plenty of relevance in sports.

I'm sure there have been players who did well in the college divisions but not pros or assistant coaches who were very good at what they did however were not capable as head coaches.  In order for the Peter Principle to completely not apply to something, you must demonstrate either the lack of a hierarchy or that there is no skill level difference between levels of a hierarchy.  Clearly you cannot do either with sports.

I'm not sure I follow.  Can you explain this part?

In football for instance, you have levels of the sport.  Highschool which goes onto college which goes on to the professional level.  It's possible for someone to do well in one of the lower levels yet simply not be up to the challenge of the higher level one.  You might have been a star QB in college but not hold up nearly well enough in the pros. 



ManusJustus on 29 June 2009

1. Since baseball is a sport with a specific skill that takes time to master, I think MLB players are the best in the world. However, for a sport like running, there may be better athletes out there that we just dont know about.

2. There are a lot of people out there who would destroy a UFC champion. I'm specifically thinking of masters of martial arts, but there are probably a lot better 'seemingly normal' people out there who just dont want to do something like UFC.

3. I think many things like cooking food are relative.