Stop Echoing "So Good" at Everything

A couple of days ago, I shared a demo in a group chat — a work in progress, but with a mostly complete structure. Someone gave me genuine recognition, and that made me happy. It showed that I’d finally stopped writing incomprehensible nonsense and had produced something at least halfway decent.

But then everyone else started echoing the same thing. I’ve forgotten the exact wording, but it boiled down to one phrase: “So good?!” or its equivalent.

It got annoying.

I’m not saying I reject the meme. I still post Zimin sticker packs every day and I will exclaim “so good” at other people too. But having a whole group dogpiling on you with the exact same reaction — it genuinely makes me dizzy.

The rhythm game community seems to have developed this “so good” culture recently. No matter what you do, at least one person will throw a “so good” at you. The gut-level impression this gives me is: everyone is insecure, and everyone is flattering each other.

A bit of humility is a good thing. It forces us to reassess ourselves, to look at the gap between ourselves and others, and to grow. But excessive humility is just low self-esteem, and apart from dragging yourself down, it appears to be entirely useless.

I admit that praising others is a good thing. But when everybody is showering you with compliments, those compliments become meaningless. You should have a clear understanding of your own level — what you’re worth. If you have real skill, you should be confident about it. If you don’t, then push yourself to keep improving. Blanket, mindless praise can make some people lose themselves, convinced that they really are that amazing, while others are left stranded without any honest feedback, unsure of where to improve.

I listen to demos posted in the group too. Some of them honestly don’t strike me as outstanding, yet someone always chimes in with a “so good.” It feels a bit disingenuous.

Fewer empty “so good”s, more useful feedback. At the very least, I’ll start with myself — I’m not going to casually throw out a “so good” anymore.

The “so good” density of this post has already exceeded 75%.