My ideal Waypoint Radio sign off:
Danielle: "Be good or be good at it"
Patrick: "And if you can’t be good, be careful"
Austin: "Pea-"
Rob (interrupting): “PEACE”
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My understanding is post-election, Danielle wanted the sign-off to be less snarky and more inspirational. Hence the change from “or” to “and”.
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I always took “Be good or be good at it” as the corollary to Shepherd Book’s “If you can’t do something smart, do something right,” from Serenity.
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yes
An alternative interpretation is similar to “learn the rules, before you break them.” I have encountered this idea in martial arts and programming. Listening to Three Moves Ahead and reading From Masher to Master make me think it can apply to games as well. Follow the rules, until you are skilled enough to break them.
I like this interpretation because it avoids the unsavory moral implications that schnool, Calum and others already called out.
“Be good and be good at it” is better advice all around.
Ok so I’m not sure what this forum is meant for, but I was looking for a certain song title on google that I could only remember some of the lyrics to and came across this website as it was the first result on google. The hip hop artist Lil Wayne raps the lyrics “be good or be good at it” in song in 2010 (Eminem - No Love ft. Lil Wayne).
It’s an old saying but basically means be a good person and if youre not a good person, be good at doing the bad things you do.
I thought Danielle was saying “be good AND be good at it”. Is that “and” really an “or”?
I believe it’s been both! Used to be “be good or be good at it” originally and at some point in a podcast episode Danielle decided it was time to demand both and changed it to and. I like the different meanings and focuses they have - found the change a bit jarring at first but it’s grown on me now.
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The origin of “be good or be good at it” definitely came from the podcast Crimetown. They started saying it on WPR because of that and then it was changed after a bit for a more positive connotation.
Since people have started stumbling into this post via Google, I wanted to clarify that in my 2017 post I didn’t mean to imply that “be good or be good at it” is a phrase that originated in Waypoint, only that it moved from Waypoint Radio to Idle Weekend and not the other way around.
It does seem really likely that the Crimetown usage inspired Danielle’s and the 2010 Lil Wayne song seems to be the first popular use of the specific phrase.
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If I’m remembering my waypoint lore (and I think I am, pointless trivia always sticks in my brain), it was the episode after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting where she changed it from or to and.
Just checked and that’s Episode 101 if anyone’s really curious about it. From what I remember, they said it felt better in the aftermath of a tragedy like that to ask for both.
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