Competition

Just a general question, do you think you perform better in a competitive environment?

Be it at school, or work or maybe courting some woman or having a rival of sorts. They say competition is always good in business coz it forces companies to do better but what about us individuals.

nothing, just wall of nonsense

Short answer: No.

Long answer: I feel competition to be oppressive because it's a win-or-lose situation generally. That may not actually be a serious thing until it becomes existential. But people often think they have to be better at certain things than others or they feel they aren't worth anything - total BS, I tell you.


To win a competition, you either have to be "better" than others (the "fair" way to win) OR make the other "lose". In capitalism, I feel it's usually the latter.

Someone speaks from experience I see. That is a stupid way of thinking. If you get so discouraged just by losing once or twice, it's better if you do not compete at all. Don't play the game if you can't handle it, so to speak.

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: Whether or not competition may cause the loser to feel discouraged or less worth, an competitive environment forces the competitors to preform their best to get the desired result. Especially if you face a foe that are seemingly equal to yourself in skill; if I would speak from my own experience, I'd say that constantly being on edge and fighting a battle of King of the Hill with someone that seems to be of comparable skills to myself does not only make me think of new ideas and gives me better judgment of the situations, but it also teaches me that you can find joy even if you lose, if you deem your advisory worthy of his victory, and it will also make me try even harder next time.

What if you cannot NOT play the game?

Then suit yourself. However loud you scream at the screen, the other players can't hear you.

I don't think I understand what you want to say with that.

Competitive environment gets things done. Here at the university, I have to at least perform above average to get decent grades. When I see everyone doing better than me, it causes me to attempt to study more, and thus do better. If it isn't a competitive environment, where I don't seek to gain something over my peers, I will obviously work with less fervor.

The same goes for counter-strike. I tend to try harder when playing against players than if I am playing against bots.

Generally trying harder causes an improvement in results (you do better under pressure), but for some, too much stress caused from competition can have a negative effect on performance. It's all about how you can deal with working under pressure.

For me, I tend to do better in a competitive, pressured environment.

it does but there is a trade off, those who aren't consistent winners take a large hit in the self esteem department most of the time and begin to resent those who do always win. So as a society North America has begun to coddle lesser humans to keep things "fair" which in turn slows our progress and smothers our accomplishments. Places where there are no "no child left behind" rules tend to do much better these days as they truly nurture the bright, while the remedial remain less than average. Competition will always exist and bring out the very best/worst of human beings.

Hm.... I agree with the competition makes us better...
Cause my opinion is that conflict is the one that makes people grow

You should write goth poetry with me and TMS.

I want to write goth poetry. It's so great, every time I read goth poetry I get pushed one step closer to the sweat release known as suicide.

Depends on the reward!!!

At work; I been with the company several years longer than the others in my department. I am the lowest paid by salary. Why?? I did not graduate from MIT, Harvard, Stanford or any major university. These graduates receive higher starting salaries than my type of university.

I was with the corporation during the merger. I received my PhD from a minor university and while I was working at the corporation.

I have for the last seven years receive the largest bonus.

The complaints from my collegues are:

1) I come to work smelling of alcohol/drunk.
2) I am a rowdy/neanderthal. I was a scholar athlete. (the geeks dislike me and same for the jocks.)
3) I DO NOT acknowledge their superior education.
4) I play jokes on them. (At Valentine's day; I send choclates and flowers to the women but sign a goofball's name to it. To the so-called office stud, I sign the meanest women's name on the card send to them and others etc...)
5) Sometimes referred as the dirty old man since I am several years older than my collegues. (So far no sexual harassment charges)

I like having fun at work.

Edible, i really suck at prose and poetry... I guess you would be the one crying tears of blood from the agony of reading my work. Besides, I only behave this way when im sufficiently enraged.

As for me, I seem to work pretty well when im competing with someone, I just feel motivated, forced to or not.

I agree with Waar about the lesser humans and the no child left behind matter.

I'm going to keep this short.
Both yes and no, it depends on many things, like the person, who you are competing against, what you get out of it and many other things.

I don't work well in competitive enviroment. In fact people usaully don't know if I'm good at something or not. I remember in my freshmen year at highschool my freinds saw my report card and were surprised I got all A and B on it. apperently they thought I was an idiont but then agian I was somwhat of those people who just sit there making inmature jokes all the time

Yep. Always. Any situation that involves stress. I use that to my advantage with school. I wait til the last minute and then do the project and I get better grades.
Might also be procrastination...

Yea, work would be a good example for me. I perform much better when people are paying attention to sales and there's some sort of tally mark somebody can look at and see who is doing better then who.

I put my game face on to show everyone I can do great, but when I think nobody is looking, I tend to slack a little. No sense in putting forth a lot of work if you won't get any recognition for it. The wage is hourly, so no matter how productive I am, I'm going home with the same amount of money in my pocket. Though when I can show somebody how well I do - I'll perform better because there's the liklihood of moving up in the business.

I perform much better when I work with people then competing with them. There's always something to be learned from another person and you just learn less when you're focused on winner rather than the result. Sure some level of competition gives some people a reason to strive but too much and people get too focused on "being the best" or "making the best" than making something that's actually good. If all you aim for is better than that guy then you're never aiming for the best anyone can do. And in the case where you do aim for the best possible all by yourself you don't accomplish what you could have with others.

Besides, doing "better" than others in many things is as often as not more random chance that it has to do with actually being good at whatever.

I believe competition is a great thing. Without it Apple would of never created their Ipod, Microsoft wouldn't of created Windows, and google probably wouldn't exist.

It makes companies set higher and higher standards for themselves.

That's certainly true about companies.

Also, I used to have this fierce competition with my classmate/close friend for top of the class. We were mostly tied, but it gave me the motivation I needed to work harder and strive to beat her.