Comments on: Who deserves a standing ovation?

By: Timo M

Timo M — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:38:46 +0000

Standing ovation is one of the necessary evils of these days. It doesn’t really hurt to stand and clap your hands and perhaps it makes someone’s day.
Like coming to work and saying good morning, or asking your cousin’s namesake “how are you”… meaningless gestures, there is no content (perhaps it is even a social agreement?), and the result is often rather neutral (will you really care or remember how that person was doing, or did you count how many person’s replied to your good mornings and in what way?).
In my opinion we just do these gestures just because it is the lesser evil: if we would not do it, we might stand out, and isn’t that the worst thing a person can do? It may be culturally bound, but perhaps the fear of standing out is bigger than the bother of standing up?

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:16:21 +0000

Good comments all – it’s made me think perhaps I’d rather there are too many ovations than not enough. It’s such a subjective thing anyway.

And Steve’s comment counts – if it’s the only chance you think you’ll get to see someone perform, and you’ve loved them for years, the ovation may be more about wanting to express that larger feeling than a commentary on the specific performance.

By: Sean Landry

Sean Landry — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:08:56 +0000

I agree with the ovation inflation especially at the State of the Union address. I think the way to remedy this would be to take away the seats of the Democrats (vice versa when a Republican is president) that way we don’t get the awkward “should I stand?” moments.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:02:54 +0000

Scott, I personally agree with you about standing ovations – I participate, but it’s often reluctantly, once I start to feel like a curmudgeon with everyone else around me standing and applauding.

That said, I don’t trust my private feelings of inflation and nostalgic yearning for the days of yesteryear when “it really meant something” (or whatever).

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:14:51 +0000

Jason: That’s a good point. There is a cascading effect.

I have stood in part because the people in front of me did, and in order to keep seeing what’s going on, which then causes the people behind me to have to stand.

This happens at sporting events too. It’s sort of a false ovation – to whoever is on stage it seems like an ovation, but it’s really a bunch of people trying to see.

By: Jason Crawford

Jason Crawford — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:58:35 +0000

I agree that there has been ovation inflation. I lean towards the “misguided politeness” explanation.

I don’t stand unless I am particularly impressed, except occasionally when everyone else around me is standing and I can’t see. (Even then sometimes I’ll stay sitting.)

By: Steven Levy

Steven Levy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:55:40 +0000

Last lecture at MSFT — as someone who was there, I think the ovation was a chance to show appreciation of all the work you’d done at Microsoft, culminating in this lecture. Or maybe we were being polite….