there’s something visceral about the prospect of competition that stirs most of us, i think. in its most raw form, competition is about winning: doing your best to do better than someone else. in this respect, it’s what’s called a “zero-sum game”. that is to say: if there are 5 people competing, only one of them can win, whereas the rest must lose.
there are many endeavors in which competing is the only logical course. certainly, this is true in wafare as well as in its slightly more-civilized descendant, sports. it’s so true of us as creatures that there are many synonyms for winning and those who do: winners, victors, champions, etc., but so very few for those who do not win: most commonly, losers. and that’s in english, hardly one of the world’s oldest languages.
there’s a visceral appeal to winning. we call it “the thrill of victory”*: the adrenaline rush and emotional high that attend coming out on top. we have a tendency to lionize the winners and forget the losers. if you don’t believe me: you know who won in the last election in which you participated, but do you remember who lost? what about who lost in the previous election, or the election before that? and even if you do, how many other people do you know who also could?
considering the extent to which we glorify competition and winning, one would expect then that competition is always the way to achieve a desired end: acquisition of resources, territory, customers, market share, what have you.
that may even be true in the majority of cases. and certainly, it’s what many people’s initial reaction entails, i’m sure.
but it does not tell the whole tale.
competition requires expending your resources: it’s expensive. if you’re waging a war, it requires soldiers, weapons and other war materiel. if you’re engaged in business, it requires spending money to negate your competitor’s advantage (whether product/service quality, price, marketing). and in business, there’s always the risk of a price war.
but the interesting thing to me is that competition is not always best way to achieve a goal. sometimes, the solution is cooperation. it requires fewer resources to compete against one entity than three, after all: if you can cooperate w/ two possible competitors, you can pool the resources of three entities against while forcing the one competitor to address a single, more effective foe.
i’m not saying that competition isn’t good or valuable—it clearly is. it’s a good way b/c something in the human psyche needs to test itself against something opposing it.
this is just a reminder that it isn’t always the best way.
so was that painfully obvious already? is the reminder even necessary? comment and let me know.
ed
*whole generations of americans who grew up watching sports on TV are automatically appending to the end of that phrase, “…and the agony of defeat”.
silverwhisper posted on Dec 06, 2006
| views: 297
Comments
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lioneljay said on Dec 06, 2006....
I have a sort of love-hate relationship with competition. As someone who can become obsessively competitive, I am fully aware of the changes that competition makes in one. Your vision narrows, you become tempted to set aside your principles, and your focus on self overwhelms you. Competition is an exercise of the ego, by the ego, and for the ego.
That said, I find myself remarkably uncompetitive in some aspects of life. I can be vicious when I play Trivial Pursuit and have to force myself to lay off the competitiveness when I play golf with friends. Yet I'm not at all competitive in business. Not sure what this says but it is what it is.
And whoever coined that "thrill of victory, agony of defeat" phrase should be hung by his vocal chords. -
MissMimi said on Dec 06, 2006....
I am not competitive when it comes to games, with the exception of Trivial Pursuit. I can never get anyone to play it with me, because I seem to know an amazing amount of trivia. LJ, if we were Trivial Pursuit partners, we could rule the world. My husband and my daughter won't be my partner in card games because basically, I don't pay attention like I should. It's more social for me than anything else.
I wonder sometimes what I would have accomplished in my life if I had been more competitive. It seems like competitive people demand more of themselves, and I sure could use a little more of that particular trait.
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lioneljay said on Dec 06, 2006....
Mimi, no one in my family will play me in TP unless they get to use the standard edition and I have to play from some narrowly-focused set of cards like the Star Wars or 70s game sets. I have only lost once in twenty plus years of playing solo in my house, and that was long ago in a galaxy far away where the wifely one agreed to play strip TP. Of course, I didn't really lose, did I? -
MissMimi said on Dec 06, 2006....
Strip TP? Heehee, if I played that with B, the game'd be over right quick, and he'd be sitting there buck naked! :D -
CreativeWoman said on Dec 06, 2006....
I'm not very competitive. I have the drive to be better than what I am but not to be better than someone else. Does that make any sense?
CW
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Astrapsee said on Dec 06, 2006....
A thought-provoking post. At least in America, there is such a winner takes all mentality & competition is so encouraged; other societies apparently look down on too much competition, like everbody has a place & they should remain there. This competition vs cooperation debate has even been in evolutionary theory, which one is a better way of survival. Unfortunately in real life cooperation sometimes it is in name only, there are still winners & losers, even if the loser is treated more amiably. -
WhyChromosome said on Dec 07, 2006....
Hi Ed, your comments on words or phrases for 'winner' and the relative lack of those for ones who aren't, made me think on ones I've heard in the latter context, like 'runner-up', 'vice-champion', 'place-getter', 'finisher' ( and also 'non-finisher'), 'competitor', 'the field', 'the pack', 'finalist', 'medallist' (British spelling, so sorry), 'participant', 'others', and perhaps the worst and most negative one of all -- 'also-ran'.
I guess the reason so many come to my mind is because I have been referred to by most of them in various competitions during the past few decades of my life. But while they all mean 'loser', there's another one I never apply to myself when I am not the winner, because while expressing an outcome, 'loser' does not mean:
'failure'.
:)
Kind regards and thanks for the post. It gives me some positive feelings.
Whyc
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moonriver said on Dec 07, 2006....
moonriver confucius say: competition and cooperation same as yin and yang. one presuppose the other. but exact relationship something like this: genes have to cooperate, be compatible, to create highly-integrated genome. genes that stick out like sore thumb ultimately get booted out by natural selection. but natural selection depend on reproduction. in reproductive phase, genes compete: either dominant or recessive, either expressed or not. trait either selected or not.
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mousenphonic said on Dec 07, 2006....
I must say that I'm probably a healthy competitor. Not with sport though, but as the only female in my lan club, being competitive wins you respect. I knew absolutely nothing about pc's a few years back, but I always went with my bf to lan parties and ended up to spent an evening listening to other girls discussing make-up and celeb gossip. After about a month of that I had enough, I bought my own gamer's pc, my first pc game (C&C Generals) and started to practice up to five hours a day. It does cost you a lot of time and money to get there, but winning still feels good at the end of the day.;) -
secretlife said on Dec 07, 2006....
personally, i'm not particularly competititve either-I don't see things as I win and you lose.In the corporate world, they tell us this time of year that they value our ability to be 'team players'....yet i think handing out individual merit awards flies directly in the face of being a team player.in business, i understand the need to be competitive if you want to stay in business.in life, sure, it's nice to win. but in the end, i think it's much more important how we play the game. -
silverwhisper said on Dec 07, 2006....
LJ: i know what you mean. about many things, i don't honestly care, but about certain, very specific things, i become demonically competitive. :>
mimi: i'm not bad at trivial pursuit some times, but i suspect you two would trounce me in a game. and no, i don't mean strip trivial pursuit. :p
CW: that depends: does it make sense if i say i view it as you competing against yourself?
astrapsee: i agree that sometimes when people say cooperation, they mean "hi, i just wanna catch you off-guard for when i stab you in the back". but then again, that's always a risk, and i think that's why we see cooperation so infrequently in business.
whyc: i've been called those things too, but mostly loser. :> but i'm proud to be in such company if you've worn that label, too.
moon: cooperation/competition viewed through genetics as a metaphor...that's really quite interesting. i want to think about that more before responding at length to it.
mouse: only woman in a LAN club, eh? you've gotta have some hardcore skillz! and hey, winning does feel good, i agree. :>
SL: i think a lot of people view the zero-sum game model as the only way to understand their reality, and that to me is a darned shame.
ed -
missb said on Dec 07, 2006....
I never really thought of myself as competitive but i've had people tell me that I am. I think i'm also like you ed. Very competitive in some aspects but could'nt care less in others. Usually for the things i know i'm not too good at, or atleast not too good at yet, I don't get competitive at all. As for games, hell, i am very competitive especially when my opponent is male :) Long live girl power!
Cheers! -
kruuyai said on Dec 07, 2006....
I've never really liked the idea of competition. I like cooperation so much better. If I'm playing ping pong or badminton, for example, I'd much rather work with the other person to see how long we can keep the ball (birdie) going than to try and smash the other guy.When I'm teaching, I never give tests or grades. I just keep tabs on how well my students are doing based on their classroom participation, and when I see that they need help with something, I help them.I was witness to a noncompetetive society when I taught in Thailand. It was really inspiring to see how welll the students there cooperated with each other. Everyone wants everyone else to do well. They don't like it when someone fails. The idea is to help everyone get ahead and be a part of the group. Even on the playground, I never saw a kid left out of the group for any reason. Kind of makes me wish I'd grown up in Thailandl. -
moonriver said on Dec 07, 2006....
hey kruu, i'm glad you appreciate the positive aspects of this teaching style which i note is predominant in some asian countries -- perhaps a confucian legacy, which is hindered by its own feudal shackles, but still worth learning from...
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silverwhisper said on Dec 08, 2006....
miss b, kruuyai: i'm generally more fond of cooperation as well, but sadly, not every situation can be a positive-sum game, IMX. that said, more of 'em can be than people think.
ed -
CreativeWoman said on Dec 08, 2006....
Ed,
I would say that is a fair assumption. I do compete with myself. No one drives me to be better, but me.
CW
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silverwhisper said on Dec 09, 2006....
it's the writer in you, CW. it's the same when you struggle w/ writer's block, no?
ed
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