“You come up here and do it” – a phrase often uttered by lackluster performers who have just received some negative feedback. Singers, dancers, public speakers, sports people and more – a certain sector of them all have the attitude that simply being able to outperform your critic justifies your belief that you are, in fact, brilliant.

It’s a wonderfully amusing belief based on, well, nothing. By extension, it means that anyone in a wheelchair in unable to proffer a run-down of the tactical errors made by Lisa Dobriskey in the 1500m final at the Beijing Olympics. It means Alex Ferguson, isn’t really allowed to pick a football team since, you know, he’s not Pele (who in turn, isn’t allowed to help out with goal-keeper training). It means paying customers who forgot to go to circus school are not allowed to show their lack of interest in the art-form by not turning up to shows by Cirque de Soleil. In short, it means anyone who utters the phrase that makes the title of this post is an idiot.