Stroke of Genius: America’s Forgotten Champion

Human achievement is most awesome when one of the common folk, doing common things, rises to greatness. Da Vinci’s representation of distance and perspective may have forever changed the way humans perceive their world, but it fails to register more than a brief “oh really?” from the general public. On the other hand, I have seen people wait an hour to sit at the counter in a diner where the fry-cook can prepare and present a dozen breakfasts, keep-up a running argument with a waitress, and smoke a cigarette all at the same time.

The mastery of some banal craft — mixing drinks, laying bricks, dismantling a fallen tree with a chainsaw — appeals to us in a way that grander, more esoteric achievements don’t. We may not all be able to comprehend string theory, for example, but we all know what it takes to fold a pizza box, and we stand properly in awe of someone who can accomplish that task 50 times a minute.

It is unlikely that there is a more commonplace endeavor than masturbation, but it is not something we normally associate with excellence. A largely private endeavor, we have nothing to compare it to — and the achievement of excellence demands comparison. We are nervous and insecure with no frame of reference. One of the most common questions sex experts get is how our individual habits compare with others’.