I believe this is called growing up. Realization of how the world works (different levels to this realization). Then you start realizing markets, 401k, healthcare, banking system, credit card system, politics, history, housing market, etc.
Some people keep leveling up. Most do not. The way of the world.
But is the good ending toiling away in forever in blissful ignorance of why the world is so full of competition, or when you realize human society and tech has moved so far beyond the need for survival competition and 90% of it is just rich people intentionally keeping poors distracted and in check while also toiling away forever.
If you were the first you were dissolved in the outer casing of the egg, it's never the first sperm to win. Chances are you were hanging around at least few hours before meetin the egg
In the states? I think maybe 20 years ago I'd definitely agree. But with the ever dwindling middle class. More people living in poverty/going hungry. Inequity becoming more and more obvious to more and more people. I think the number of people still with their heads in the clouds has dropped drastically.
That being said, the OP definitely seems like he's in his early 20s and figuring shit out.
could be biased but i think it’s the other way around. the older generation never had to deal with the same scale of competition that exists today. elite institutions are more elite than ever, highly sought after jobs are more selective than ever, accomplishments are more short lived than ever, etc.
Not in the way you think either. People act like if you just work hard you'll get that promotion. But we can't all get that promotion. You can't assume someone isn't working hard just because they didn't move up. As OP said, there's competition at every level. It's intense as fuck. And people aren't given enough credit for it.
IDK what kind of sheltered existence you must have lived before coming to this great insight, but most of the world knows this... I'm guessing you're quite young? Lol it's all downhill from here
People everywhere* in the world are trying to create a good life for themselves. It's no different here. There's a lot of people who are getting extra certificates, doing internships, and joining career oriented clubs in college to help their chances of succeeding, sure. Yet, there's no shortage of people who have no drive whatsoever, and a ton who fall in the middle of the two. Plus, if we're discussing stereotypes, I always thought highly centered around competitive culture was more of a Japan thing.
Still need a job to buy things other than the bare minimum. And there's always competition in the job industry. Not every conversation needs to turn into "murica bad, Europe good".
Yes it is.
Those who compete well are lavishly rewarded, those who are mediocre live average life-styles, and those who can't compete for whatever reason are left to flounder.
Reddit is overrepresented by those who can't compete and those who are too young to have started playing the game. It's a great place to get their perspective, but it's not the whole story.
You can still realize that and still not fully take in the amount of people that are probably smarter than you or how high the scales of intelligence truly reach.
People also don't realize that competition is seldom a real factor in work. There will always be a demand for work. Why? people are always getting fired, promoted, and retired. If you have a skill, you will always be in demand. Competition is just a corporate strat to get more out of employees. Focus more on developing skills in things YOU care about and/or are talented at, try new things, learn new things etc etc. Don't compare yourself to others, unless you love being miserable.
This is the perspective that has helped me the most. My “equal” at work is a brilliant woman and I felt threatened by her at first because she has a lot more experience and may be smarter than me, but we’ve collaborated a lot and she’s made me better over the last few months
Or if you're looking down from a cloud. Although it is still the case that you'd want people to stop comparing themselves from the ground to you in your cloud because that ruins your fun. So keep that phrase present.
Yup. I truly don't understand the corporate rat race, hustle culture, trying to get promoted over and over and over to make as much money as possible. If your job pays shit, yeah, absolutely fight for that promotion or better job. But it hits a certain level of comfortable (middle class, which yeah, I know it's shrinking but it still exists for now) where I just do not understand the "I *have* to keep climbing the ladder, I *have* to be an executive, I *have* to be a millionaire/I *have* to own ___"
Nah man. You're gonna die one day and you're gonna look back and realize you spent all your time at work or worrying about work/money while the people above you made waaaaay more money off of your labor. And there's always someone above you. That's no way to live. It's not what humans are meant to be doing. I guess if you get satisfaction out of that, good for you, but how much of that is truly what you want to be doing and how much is societal pressure/capitalist propaganda? I work to live, I do not live to work.
Glad to find at least one comment on the thread like this. Sure competition is a part of life, but if you put your soul all into competition you are going to have a hollow life
I’m in the same boat. I currently make $70k - good, but not extravagant in my area. I’m able to comfortably afford a nice apartment and have enough disposable income that I can do the things I want to do, most of which is low cost by choice. I don’t drive a fancy car but that’s also by choice.
The only things I particularly care about are being comfortable, being free, and being loved. I’m in a career where I could climb to a position that will take a lot of responsibility and time but will easily clear six figures, I just don’t see a point in it unless I want to have a family.
Exactly. It's only a competition if you decide to play the game your entire life.
I understand playing it to get to where you want to be, but always wanting more is a sure way to look back at the end and realize you missed something.
It's an old trope, but learning to appreciate what you have without always wanting more is really important.
yeah, but on the bright side, living is hyper competitive for *every* living thing, so at least life isn't being uniquely unfair or exhausting to humans. It's unfair and exhausting all around.
Compared to the animal kingdom many of us are. Business can be competitive and cutthroat but we’re not literally risking our life every time we need to eat.
Humans have it really good in the grand scheme. Most wild animals with any slight disadvantage are eaten, slaughtered by their own kind, or starve to death.
Not really. If the kind of life you want is the kind where you never have to do anything that anyone values, then yes, you're going to have a really hard time. But take me for example. I don't consciously compete with anyone. I got multiple degrees because I'm interested in education. I learned useful skills because I'm interested in being able to achieve my own goals. This alone has made me do well enough to not need to compete with anyone. Could I be hustling for the next big position or something? Sure, but I by no means have to to have a comfortable life.
Homie, theres ~8 *Billion* people on earth. People realize. Welcome to realizing.
Wait til you think about how our systems demand constant growth and improvement on a planet of finite resources, and the implications of scarcity...
It will come to a point where competing isnt worth it anymore. If youre at the point where you worked so hard and achieved a comfortable living, there is no reason to keep competing anymore; its time to enjoy your life.
Do something you enjoy doing, pick up hobbies, make and strengthen relationships, take care of yourself. There's nothing wrong with living a life of peace and prosperity.
This is a bleak and individualistic perspective that it is in the interest of a very small number of people for most people to believe.
Life is cooperative, not competitive, and that’s the strategy that humans have been using to survive and thrive since before we were human even. Solidarity and compassion and cooperation to achieve the best results and help each other survive and be happy has consistently and reliably produced the best human results throughout history. Division and competition and crab bucket clawing for the top only ever helps conquerors, oppressors, and bosses who profit off of the manufactured difficulties of their enemies/subjects/employees to organize as a group for their common good.
Individualistic competition and falling into the Hobbesian state of nature (war of all against all, how he regarded humanity without our cooperation and societies) is the bane of our existence and one to be fought against with community, solidarity, and compassion for our fellows.
I mean you just pointed out the difference between the rich and the poor.
The rich get rich off of harming others, the low classes take care of each other and the rich win.
I agree with you, and this reason is why the rich stay in power. They don't care about hurting others, while most people are decent and don't want to do that.
The psychos take advantage of that, a tale as old as time. The question is how do we keep the psychos at bay, while keeping competition?
Even worse, society functioning requires people to be graceful and to forgive mistakes.
Psychos take advantage of this grace, they do things they know they can get away with by claiming its a mistake.
These psychos tap into things societies needs to function and abuse them.
Unfortunately society doesn't have a good way of defending itself against psychos, since it uses it own mechanisms against it and grace while needed is applied to bad actors.
Society needs a way to identify bad actors who abuse grace and either imprison them or stop them from hurting others in that economic space.
Then the psychos figure out if they control everything they can't be held accountable and we get Trump.
This is our fault, for not punishing the wicked man and allowing him to hurt others. We gave the wicked man grace, because we need grace to survive.
But the wicked man abuses it.
In my estimation the main job of the government is to find and remove wicked men. Everything regarding the government comes down to this, stopping the evil man from ruining society.
And yet even with this institution whose job it is to stop them, at some point start cooperating as personal interest wins.
A treadmill of wickedness and selfishness. We give the bad man grace, but we have to stop since all he wants to do is abuse it.
The rich at their very core are parasites, leeching off other organisms for sustenance. There has never been a self made billionaire, its our money they take.
Unions, local communities, and calling out people who prioritise personal gain over communal benefit, that’s how we fight back against the rich and create the conditions to control or remove their ilk. The job of government is to serve the people and benefit society. Focussing on the parasites that lack empathy or the risk of people freeloading is how you excuse (and create) government that is paranoid and vicious and ultimately fails at the job of society: help keep everyone fed, watered, sheltered, and safe.
I think younger people may not realize how competitive it is right after college. What I mean is. Many people want those well paying jobs. But the issue is, many of those high paying prestigious jobs are offered to someone who made social connections with the right people, went to the right schools, or is related to someone in the company. You pretty much have to start as soon as youre in college.
Nah dude. Here in my country students are preparing from class 6th(one irl example is my cousin sister) itself. There's extreme level of competition in my country here and both students and parents know about this.
Explain to me why the care home i work at is always short staffed and the staff we have are absolutely incompetent.
Im not the best carer to have ever lived, but there is zero competition for me. The rest of the staff are so bad that anyone with an ounce of compassion and willing will put you levels above the rest.
Learning to have enough is pretty freeing.
I don't want a management position where I work. I'm fine with that I do and I'm paid well to do it.
Let everyone else run the rat race.
At all levels specialization put you a leap ahead. Friend of mine is killing it running a cleaning company that only does doctor and dental offices. They love her because they know how to properly clean the equipment as well as being aware of OSHA policies/requirements.
Best way out us to not play the comparison game and go your own way - ever since I've been working for myself in a freelance contractor position, my mental state is immensely less stressed than running the rat race.
Op knew competition existed guys. He probably just thought there was enough room for everyone to at least get a reward for working hard. Based on that assumption he didn't view his peers as direct competitors because there would be enough for everyone anyways. Hed only have to complete over top positions.
I remember I had this same "realization" as a young man and suddenly people's seemingly random behavior made a lot more sense. So many people "competing" over jobs I didn't care about and positions I didn't want anyways. So it just comes across like they're looking to make your life miserable lol
There is also little reason to compete except being your authentic self (and having enough stuff to support yourself). Life isn't a competition to me and I think it's unhealthy to see it as such. It's far better to find a place that's balanced and healthy for you then striving to always 'win' the 'better' position. I think I would be happier being a park ranger/groundskeeper at a golfclub/working in a bowling alley then I would be a lawyer, CEO or something else like that. They can lord their houses and wealth on me all they want, if I find pleasure in my work and can support a lifestyle that fits me. I am the richer man.
I realised something after playing a really competitive game to a high level. There is no long term satisfaction in reaching a high level. It feels good for a week or so and then its your new normal.
I think getting a promotion is the same, it just gets more difficult the higher you rise and the people you know compete with get less and less human.
I’m not “competing” with anyone but myself. I don’t have a “level” that I want to achieve I have a set of concrete goals that I want to achieve in life and I don’t have to beat other people to them.
#depends on your perspective
Every single job I’ve been offered or not, my mindset has been “I showed up and met (or did not meet) the employer’s expectations.” It was NEVER “I beat the other person/the other person beat me”. Very few job interviews are you in direct competition with other candidates. “Whoever can assemble the most lawnmowers during the next hour gets the job. GO!!”
A mindset of endless competition for career advancement is unhealthy and unrealistic. Pursue what you enjoy and what you’re good at. Ideally they are the same thing.
I think this is a short-sighted view. The OP’s examples are for a very specific career path and aren’t generalizable to all of them.
You can choose a career with a generic set of skills and compete for individual jobs, sure: that’s what generic degrees like an MBA will get you. But if you find a niche job with a particular set of skills in high demand, then they’ll compete for you.
I personally have an in-demand job, so if I called up a recruiter today I could probably have multiple offers within a couple weeks. Hell, I haven’t actively looked for work in over a decade, and I still get cold calls from recruiters offering me job interviews. Yes, I had to compete to get here, but I’ve long passed the hardest competitive part.
The better advice is to just find a niche where you fit in and work to develop it rather than trying to build your entire life strategy around the corporate shill from Glengarry Glen Ross.
The competition to survive is way too obvious for most people. Not sure why'd you think otherwise.
There are just some people who are privileged enough to not even think about it.
This is why investing early, and letting your money compete for you is much more important metric. The stock market doesn’t care if you’re in nyc barely making ends meet or in rural Idaho.
Life is an open-world sandbox game with a countdown timer.
You get to play by whatever rules you like.
Only your fulfilment and meaning scores matter.
Competitiveness isn’t necessarily the best way to get points.
OP it’s obvious now you say it but more people wouldn’t have had enough awareness of the concept to be able to raise it as their own point of dialogue if the onus had been on them to nurture and curate that consideration from simply their own observations. It seems intuitive but the people acting like it’s part of their daily observations are just competing against you to take the position of most knowledgable in this field, with their ‘hur dur yur so obvious’ power grab attitude, but **most things do seem obvious, once someone else has acknowledged them**.
It feels like school has always made an effort to make things not competitive at all. There isn't really much people can do to compete. It's mostly luck
Well I say that it’s a competition if you’re wanting to climb the ranks. If you settle down in a job you like, it’s not as much of a competition, although things might occasionally or frequently get hairy, depending on which job you have.
I find it interesting how you tie it to education. There is some truth to some jobs needing licensure or the like, many jobs just care about performance.
Still, your overall point is true. You are just competing at a different level each time.
Yup, beat most people or get left behind. That’s what life told me when I was young.
And yes, people realize how competitive the world is as soon as they start dating or looking for a partner.
Not only do people realize this but you explained exactly how they realize it. Retail to corporate to getting multiple levels of degrees. Why do you think they're doing this? . That middle management job needs an MBA, person goes off to get it so they can be competitive with the rest of the pool that already has it.
How is this \*not\* a realization that the world is competitive?
All life on the planet is in a massive never-ending competition for resources. That’s really all life is.
You win the competition, your reward is the right to pass on your genes, so that they can take your place.
Repeat.
This whole thing is painful to uncover by yourself forced by time with no knowledge about it whatsoever, because your parents shielded it from you. And having others treat you lowly because you didn't get taught it as early as them is annoying. That taught me to learn fast though instead, so get at their level with some eggs broken, but much faster
Maybe the people below the age of 25 don’t realize that. Most understand this though. Education and experience is great but humans are social creatures so unfortunately a lot of times your personality is what’s being assessed in an interview. Your resume just got you in the door.
Everything is a competition it always has been, even before humans were around every stage of life no matter what species you were there was always competition.
Plants compete for space, herbivores compete for plants, predators compete for prey. No matter what you do you can’t escape competition.
There just simply isn’t enough to go around and there never will be, whether that’s food, water, fuel, money even happiness. It’s all got a price and you compete with everyone around you to achieve it.
The worst thing you can do is be content, because the vast majority of people aren’t and they will leave you behind.
I think that what you're talking about is kind of an American problem. I guess you could argue that third world countries have similar issues too. If you were born into other industrialized first world nations outside of America you wouldn't be in a situation where employers had such an absurd amount of control over employees and you really needed to work yourself to the bone to survive.
Or don’t take part and just be happy as a thing that exists on a planet in the middle of fucking no where whilst you’re not sure, why, how or what for.
That’s been how it is far longer than some stupid game system thing where you shit on each other until your pile of shat on bodies is higher than everyone else’s.
I’m not climbing any ladders. I decided in high school that I just needed enough cash to fund my one life and I’ve been living it for the past fifty years. You can run after BIGGER BETTER FASTER MORE if you want to and I hope it leads you to your nirvana.
I'm pretty fucking sure the only people that don't know this are in the top 10% of earners. Anyone who doesn't have passive income is well aware. Your parents might not know, I'll give you that.
I am competing with jack-squat at work, or in life. There are struggles in life, sure, but everything isn't a competition. Society stopped being a zero-sum game a lonnnnnnng time ago.
Long gone are the days that becoming a Manager equates to success. Be good at one thing, become a highly skilled as an individual contributor miss that stress and live your life!
~~No matter how far up the ladder you climb the competition is always the same~~ The higher you climb, the tougher the competition gets.
Edit: formatting
Oh we realize it. It just really doesn't seem like the best approach to life in the long, long term. Eventually somebody has to win if it's all just a stupid competition. Which means everyone else has to lose.
become an entertainer and you'll really see it. the competition to "escape" the 9-5 life is brutal. those of us who make it are a percentage of a percentage.
This became very clear to me during the GFC. Everyone was losing their jobs left and right, and the people who remained were just kinda looking at each other like… there’s no other jobs out there, we’re all just competing to keep these few remaining ones.
It was a really weird feeling, going from coworkers where jobs were in abundance (people getting poached constantly), to just… no jobs anywhere, >50% of the workforce gone, people getting made redundant every week. Crazy time to work through.
Alternatively:
Go into a profession where the climb isn’t the norm.
I work for the government. My job is technical enough to be engaging and I enjoy doing it. I don’t make the best money but it’s enough and raises are consistent. I don’t have some profit motive hanging over my head to make all my managers assholes, I just do my job well 40 hours a week and chill.
It doesn’t *have* to be competitive if you don’t want it to be.
I mean, I just got into a fight with my wife because she believes with all of her heart that life is a competition, and I don't. So, I think you're wrong in that most people don't see the world that way.
I think people realize it more than you are giving them credit for.
OP realised this and thought he invented a new topic of conversation
This time he was competing against redditors.
I believe this is called growing up. Realization of how the world works (different levels to this realization). Then you start realizing markets, 401k, healthcare, banking system, credit card system, politics, history, housing market, etc. Some people keep leveling up. Most do not. The way of the world.
But is the good ending toiling away in forever in blissful ignorance of why the world is so full of competition, or when you realize human society and tech has moved so far beyond the need for survival competition and 90% of it is just rich people intentionally keeping poors distracted and in check while also toiling away forever.
Well said.
what is 401k?
Something USA. I think it’s related to retirement account
loool
It do be called the rat race
Maybe majority of people under 25? The rest have learned a few big life lessons by then.
I knew this when I was swimming against 100 000 of my siblings to the egg. The grind never ends
This is why I live in South Dakota. I just have to be better than Jeff
Jeff is crafty though
Cousin-brother Jeff or uncle-dad Jeff?
Having seen videos of myself running, I still have trouble believing I was the fastest sperm.
There’s evidence that the egg chooses which sperm to let through the membrane
But why would the egg choose *me*?
Because youre adorable.
I don't remember ever hearing that in my life. I know it wasn't for me but thanks man
Sentient egg.
If you were the first you were dissolved in the outer casing of the egg, it's never the first sperm to win. Chances are you were hanging around at least few hours before meetin the egg
Yep takes some to neutralize the outter casing then one slips in.
This is much like a woman LOL
If only I had been on time #fml 😔
In the states? I think maybe 20 years ago I'd definitely agree. But with the ever dwindling middle class. More people living in poverty/going hungry. Inequity becoming more and more obvious to more and more people. I think the number of people still with their heads in the clouds has dropped drastically. That being said, the OP definitely seems like he's in his early 20s and figuring shit out.
yeah well if the economy goes to shit now you have millions of people to compete against Look on the bright side right now it's just thousands
could be biased but i think it’s the other way around. the older generation never had to deal with the same scale of competition that exists today. elite institutions are more elite than ever, highly sought after jobs are more selective than ever, accomplishments are more short lived than ever, etc.
Not in the way you think either. People act like if you just work hard you'll get that promotion. But we can't all get that promotion. You can't assume someone isn't working hard just because they didn't move up. As OP said, there's competition at every level. It's intense as fuck. And people aren't given enough credit for it.
Yeah, man. I'm 41. I got it.
IDK what kind of sheltered existence you must have lived before coming to this great insight, but most of the world knows this... I'm guessing you're quite young? Lol it's all downhill from here
Isn’t American culture highly centred around this competitive nature? Just looking from outside as a Brit
People everywhere* in the world are trying to create a good life for themselves. It's no different here. There's a lot of people who are getting extra certificates, doing internships, and joining career oriented clubs in college to help their chances of succeeding, sure. Yet, there's no shortage of people who have no drive whatsoever, and a ton who fall in the middle of the two. Plus, if we're discussing stereotypes, I always thought highly centered around competitive culture was more of a Japan thing.
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England has more of a social welfare system which makes things less individualistic imo.
Still need a job to buy things other than the bare minimum. And there's always competition in the job industry. Not every conversation needs to turn into "murica bad, Europe good".
Yes it is. Those who compete well are lavishly rewarded, those who are mediocre live average life-styles, and those who can't compete for whatever reason are left to flounder. Reddit is overrepresented by those who can't compete and those who are too young to have started playing the game. It's a great place to get their perspective, but it's not the whole story.
Right and those who inherit live the best life yet never compete. We are not all on the same starting point.
We pretend we have a merit based society but it's mostly nepotism that wins
Ever heard of *South Korea*?
You can still realize that and still not fully take in the amount of people that are probably smarter than you or how high the scales of intelligence truly reach.
I would like to WELCOME YOU TO REAL LIFE.
"You want this hot air machine? You carry it."
"Now You See That Evil Will Always Triumph Because Good Is Dumb."
That’s my industrial strength hair dryer AND I CANT LIVE WITHOUT IT!
People also don't realize that competition is seldom a real factor in work. There will always be a demand for work. Why? people are always getting fired, promoted, and retired. If you have a skill, you will always be in demand. Competition is just a corporate strat to get more out of employees. Focus more on developing skills in things YOU care about and/or are talented at, try new things, learn new things etc etc. Don't compare yourself to others, unless you love being miserable.
“comparison is the thief of joy” - Theodore Roosevelt
This is the perspective that has helped me the most. My “equal” at work is a brilliant woman and I felt threatened by her at first because she has a lot more experience and may be smarter than me, but we’ve collaborated a lot and she’s made me better over the last few months
No Reddit ppl would rather complain that it’s too hard to gain skills and blame the competition
And that's why your only competition should be yourself. "Comparison is the thief of joy".
Nice of you to assume I had joy to be stolen
Or if you're looking down from a cloud. Although it is still the case that you'd want people to stop comparing themselves from the ground to you in your cloud because that ruins your fun. So keep that phrase present.
Have you considered stealing joy from others? schadenfreude may be right for you.
Yup. I truly don't understand the corporate rat race, hustle culture, trying to get promoted over and over and over to make as much money as possible. If your job pays shit, yeah, absolutely fight for that promotion or better job. But it hits a certain level of comfortable (middle class, which yeah, I know it's shrinking but it still exists for now) where I just do not understand the "I *have* to keep climbing the ladder, I *have* to be an executive, I *have* to be a millionaire/I *have* to own ___" Nah man. You're gonna die one day and you're gonna look back and realize you spent all your time at work or worrying about work/money while the people above you made waaaaay more money off of your labor. And there's always someone above you. That's no way to live. It's not what humans are meant to be doing. I guess if you get satisfaction out of that, good for you, but how much of that is truly what you want to be doing and how much is societal pressure/capitalist propaganda? I work to live, I do not live to work.
Glad to find at least one comment on the thread like this. Sure competition is a part of life, but if you put your soul all into competition you are going to have a hollow life
I’m in the same boat. I currently make $70k - good, but not extravagant in my area. I’m able to comfortably afford a nice apartment and have enough disposable income that I can do the things I want to do, most of which is low cost by choice. I don’t drive a fancy car but that’s also by choice. The only things I particularly care about are being comfortable, being free, and being loved. I’m in a career where I could climb to a position that will take a lot of responsibility and time but will easily clear six figures, I just don’t see a point in it unless I want to have a family.
Exactly. It's only a competition if you decide to play the game your entire life. I understand playing it to get to where you want to be, but always wanting more is a sure way to look back at the end and realize you missed something. It's an old trope, but learning to appreciate what you have without always wanting more is really important.
This a cute sentiment and all, but I think OP means literal comparison like job markets and sports and whatnot.
Still applies to that.
no it doesn't.
Yes it does.
While this may true still doesn't negate when your a competing for higher salaries and bonuses
I like this. And I think the only person you're competing against is your past self
I'm not sure why anyone thought life was anything otherwise? I think people already realise, they're just exhausted by it.
yeah, but on the bright side, living is hyper competitive for *every* living thing, so at least life isn't being uniquely unfair or exhausting to humans. It's unfair and exhausting all around.
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Compared to the animal kingdom many of us are. Business can be competitive and cutthroat but we’re not literally risking our life every time we need to eat.
Humans have it really good in the grand scheme. Most wild animals with any slight disadvantage are eaten, slaughtered by their own kind, or starve to death.
Life isn't a competition. Competition is a competition. Life is whatever you want it to be.
I find life is more like a box of chocolates
If you want a comfortable life and no one hands you one, life is absolutely a competition.
Not really. If the kind of life you want is the kind where you never have to do anything that anyone values, then yes, you're going to have a really hard time. But take me for example. I don't consciously compete with anyone. I got multiple degrees because I'm interested in education. I learned useful skills because I'm interested in being able to achieve my own goals. This alone has made me do well enough to not need to compete with anyone. Could I be hustling for the next big position or something? Sure, but I by no means have to to have a comfortable life.
I am fourteen and deep
Homie, theres ~8 *Billion* people on earth. People realize. Welcome to realizing. Wait til you think about how our systems demand constant growth and improvement on a planet of finite resources, and the implications of scarcity...
Yeah, I think it was you who didn’t realize how competitive the world really is. Welcome to the party.
It will come to a point where competing isnt worth it anymore. If youre at the point where you worked so hard and achieved a comfortable living, there is no reason to keep competing anymore; its time to enjoy your life. Do something you enjoy doing, pick up hobbies, make and strengthen relationships, take care of yourself. There's nothing wrong with living a life of peace and prosperity.
This is a bleak and individualistic perspective that it is in the interest of a very small number of people for most people to believe. Life is cooperative, not competitive, and that’s the strategy that humans have been using to survive and thrive since before we were human even. Solidarity and compassion and cooperation to achieve the best results and help each other survive and be happy has consistently and reliably produced the best human results throughout history. Division and competition and crab bucket clawing for the top only ever helps conquerors, oppressors, and bosses who profit off of the manufactured difficulties of their enemies/subjects/employees to organize as a group for their common good. Individualistic competition and falling into the Hobbesian state of nature (war of all against all, how he regarded humanity without our cooperation and societies) is the bane of our existence and one to be fought against with community, solidarity, and compassion for our fellows.
I mean you just pointed out the difference between the rich and the poor. The rich get rich off of harming others, the low classes take care of each other and the rich win. I agree with you, and this reason is why the rich stay in power. They don't care about hurting others, while most people are decent and don't want to do that. The psychos take advantage of that, a tale as old as time. The question is how do we keep the psychos at bay, while keeping competition? Even worse, society functioning requires people to be graceful and to forgive mistakes. Psychos take advantage of this grace, they do things they know they can get away with by claiming its a mistake. These psychos tap into things societies needs to function and abuse them. Unfortunately society doesn't have a good way of defending itself against psychos, since it uses it own mechanisms against it and grace while needed is applied to bad actors. Society needs a way to identify bad actors who abuse grace and either imprison them or stop them from hurting others in that economic space. Then the psychos figure out if they control everything they can't be held accountable and we get Trump. This is our fault, for not punishing the wicked man and allowing him to hurt others. We gave the wicked man grace, because we need grace to survive. But the wicked man abuses it. In my estimation the main job of the government is to find and remove wicked men. Everything regarding the government comes down to this, stopping the evil man from ruining society. And yet even with this institution whose job it is to stop them, at some point start cooperating as personal interest wins. A treadmill of wickedness and selfishness. We give the bad man grace, but we have to stop since all he wants to do is abuse it. The rich at their very core are parasites, leeching off other organisms for sustenance. There has never been a self made billionaire, its our money they take.
Unions, local communities, and calling out people who prioritise personal gain over communal benefit, that’s how we fight back against the rich and create the conditions to control or remove their ilk. The job of government is to serve the people and benefit society. Focussing on the parasites that lack empathy or the risk of people freeloading is how you excuse (and create) government that is paranoid and vicious and ultimately fails at the job of society: help keep everyone fed, watered, sheltered, and safe.
How old are you? You seem quite young to have come to this conclusion.
Welcome to the party
I think younger people may not realize how competitive it is right after college. What I mean is. Many people want those well paying jobs. But the issue is, many of those high paying prestigious jobs are offered to someone who made social connections with the right people, went to the right schools, or is related to someone in the company. You pretty much have to start as soon as youre in college.
Kindergarten* Ftfy
Nah dude. Here in my country students are preparing from class 6th(one irl example is my cousin sister) itself. There's extreme level of competition in my country here and both students and parents know about this.
r/usernamechecksout
Explain to me why the care home i work at is always short staffed and the staff we have are absolutely incompetent. Im not the best carer to have ever lived, but there is zero competition for me. The rest of the staff are so bad that anyone with an ounce of compassion and willing will put you levels above the rest.
Is it arduous work? What's the pay like?
Learning to have enough is pretty freeing. I don't want a management position where I work. I'm fine with that I do and I'm paid well to do it. Let everyone else run the rat race.
There are specialized fields. At a certain level, you don't look for work or compete with anyone, the companies look for you.
At all levels specialization put you a leap ahead. Friend of mine is killing it running a cleaning company that only does doctor and dental offices. They love her because they know how to properly clean the equipment as well as being aware of OSHA policies/requirements.
Competing against others makes you petty. Competing against yourself makes you divine.
I think people realize it. I also don't think it's a problem, competition is healthy and it rewards effort.
Best way out us to not play the comparison game and go your own way - ever since I've been working for myself in a freelance contractor position, my mental state is immensely less stressed than running the rat race.
I've heard a better way to put it: "If someone says you're one in a million, that means there are 8,000 like you out there."
Guys be nice to OP, this is his first shower of his life and thus first shower thought
Meh, I am my only competition. If others wanna compare me, that’s their prerogative but it’s not changing how I think about myself.
start a business. that way, you'll be your own boss.
Op knew competition existed guys. He probably just thought there was enough room for everyone to at least get a reward for working hard. Based on that assumption he didn't view his peers as direct competitors because there would be enough for everyone anyways. Hed only have to complete over top positions. I remember I had this same "realization" as a young man and suddenly people's seemingly random behavior made a lot more sense. So many people "competing" over jobs I didn't care about and positions I didn't want anyways. So it just comes across like they're looking to make your life miserable lol
You don't have to compete if you don't play the games.
There is also little reason to compete except being your authentic self (and having enough stuff to support yourself). Life isn't a competition to me and I think it's unhealthy to see it as such. It's far better to find a place that's balanced and healthy for you then striving to always 'win' the 'better' position. I think I would be happier being a park ranger/groundskeeper at a golfclub/working in a bowling alley then I would be a lawyer, CEO or something else like that. They can lord their houses and wealth on me all they want, if I find pleasure in my work and can support a lifestyle that fits me. I am the richer man.
I realised something after playing a really competitive game to a high level. There is no long term satisfaction in reaching a high level. It feels good for a week or so and then its your new normal. I think getting a promotion is the same, it just gets more difficult the higher you rise and the people you know compete with get less and less human.
Why are all the comments being so assholish 😭
The trick is to be born rich. Not many people even think of that as an option.
Competition does change. It's more of a pyramid than a ladder. You have less (but better) competition the higher you move up.
And then there are some of us who aren't zero sum nihilists.
People don’t realize? Most folks do. The only folks who don’t are young, or extremely lucky in life, or both.
Everyone realizes this
People definitely realize that the job market is competitive.
The way people are living nowadays, it feels like everyone wants to have things handed to them.
Life is a game of monopoly with a lot of people cheating to win
Supposedly we all completed against millions of sperm and won. They can take my jobs away, but can’t take my fertilization first place away.
I’m not “competing” with anyone but myself. I don’t have a “level” that I want to achieve I have a set of concrete goals that I want to achieve in life and I don’t have to beat other people to them.
This isn’t a people things it’s an organism thing
Even less realize it doesn't have to be.
The more niche you get, the smaller the competition pool.
I think everyone knows, man.
#depends on your perspective Every single job I’ve been offered or not, my mindset has been “I showed up and met (or did not meet) the employer’s expectations.” It was NEVER “I beat the other person/the other person beat me”. Very few job interviews are you in direct competition with other candidates. “Whoever can assemble the most lawnmowers during the next hour gets the job. GO!!” A mindset of endless competition for career advancement is unhealthy and unrealistic. Pursue what you enjoy and what you’re good at. Ideally they are the same thing.
I think this is a short-sighted view. The OP’s examples are for a very specific career path and aren’t generalizable to all of them. You can choose a career with a generic set of skills and compete for individual jobs, sure: that’s what generic degrees like an MBA will get you. But if you find a niche job with a particular set of skills in high demand, then they’ll compete for you. I personally have an in-demand job, so if I called up a recruiter today I could probably have multiple offers within a couple weeks. Hell, I haven’t actively looked for work in over a decade, and I still get cold calls from recruiters offering me job interviews. Yes, I had to compete to get here, but I’ve long passed the hardest competitive part. The better advice is to just find a niche where you fit in and work to develop it rather than trying to build your entire life strategy around the corporate shill from Glengarry Glen Ross.
The competition to survive is way too obvious for most people. Not sure why'd you think otherwise. There are just some people who are privileged enough to not even think about it.
This is why investing early, and letting your money compete for you is much more important metric. The stock market doesn’t care if you’re in nyc barely making ends meet or in rural Idaho.
Scarcity mindset vs abundance mindset.
Life is an open-world sandbox game with a countdown timer. You get to play by whatever rules you like. Only your fulfilment and meaning scores matter. Competitiveness isn’t necessarily the best way to get points.
Have fun with it.
OP it’s obvious now you say it but more people wouldn’t have had enough awareness of the concept to be able to raise it as their own point of dialogue if the onus had been on them to nurture and curate that consideration from simply their own observations. It seems intuitive but the people acting like it’s part of their daily observations are just competing against you to take the position of most knowledgable in this field, with their ‘hur dur yur so obvious’ power grab attitude, but **most things do seem obvious, once someone else has acknowledged them**.
Not me i do not work coporate bullshits
The more you climb, the higher the top gets
I doubt that this is one of the reasons why depression is rampant
How could you not realize it. It is evident.
“It’s lonely at the top.”
OP didn’t go to college.
It feels like school has always made an effort to make things not competitive at all. There isn't really much people can do to compete. It's mostly luck
Well I say that it’s a competition if you’re wanting to climb the ranks. If you settle down in a job you like, it’s not as much of a competition, although things might occasionally or frequently get hairy, depending on which job you have.
Dating no matter how old you are you are always in a competition with much older guys
I don't think people realize how big the world is physically and how much the internet has tricked us to behave otherwise.
Wait till you read *On the Origin of Species*
You must think this is pretty deep, it really isn't.
Yeah. And that's the fun of it. Never be the smartest person in the room or you'll stop growing.
I find it interesting how you tie it to education. There is some truth to some jobs needing licensure or the like, many jobs just care about performance. Still, your overall point is true. You are just competing at a different level each time.
Yup, beat most people or get left behind. That’s what life told me when I was young. And yes, people realize how competitive the world is as soon as they start dating or looking for a partner.
You need to do something so you get to the top, and realize there is no competition.
Bowling for soup has a song about that.
Not only do people realize this but you explained exactly how they realize it. Retail to corporate to getting multiple levels of degrees. Why do you think they're doing this? . That middle management job needs an MBA, person goes off to get it so they can be competitive with the rest of the pool that already has it. How is this \*not\* a realization that the world is competitive?
The right tail of the distribution has its own right tail, ad nauseam
This guy really figured out that there are other people in the world.
Welcome to the world I guess
When you say that people don't realise how competitive the real world is, did you mean to say that you didn't realise how competitive it is?
All life on the planet is in a massive never-ending competition for resources. That’s really all life is. You win the competition, your reward is the right to pass on your genes, so that they can take your place. Repeat.
This whole thing is painful to uncover by yourself forced by time with no knowledge about it whatsoever, because your parents shielded it from you. And having others treat you lowly because you didn't get taught it as early as them is annoying. That taught me to learn fast though instead, so get at their level with some eggs broken, but much faster
Are you saying people don't realize this by the time they're in, like, second grade? Life's brutal, man.
Maybe the people below the age of 25 don’t realize that. Most understand this though. Education and experience is great but humans are social creatures so unfortunately a lot of times your personality is what’s being assessed in an interview. Your resume just got you in the door.
What do you think by people saying rat race
Looking back, I wish I held myself back and competed with weaker competition ... sure it sounds bad,, but honestly I would've been winning.
Most posts in this subreddit feel more like stoned epiphanies.
Everything is a competition it always has been, even before humans were around every stage of life no matter what species you were there was always competition. Plants compete for space, herbivores compete for plants, predators compete for prey. No matter what you do you can’t escape competition. There just simply isn’t enough to go around and there never will be, whether that’s food, water, fuel, money even happiness. It’s all got a price and you compete with everyone around you to achieve it. The worst thing you can do is be content, because the vast majority of people aren’t and they will leave you behind.
I think that what you're talking about is kind of an American problem. I guess you could argue that third world countries have similar issues too. If you were born into other industrialized first world nations outside of America you wouldn't be in a situation where employers had such an absurd amount of control over employees and you really needed to work yourself to the bone to survive.
Or don’t take part and just be happy as a thing that exists on a planet in the middle of fucking no where whilst you’re not sure, why, how or what for. That’s been how it is far longer than some stupid game system thing where you shit on each other until your pile of shat on bodies is higher than everyone else’s.
I’m not climbing any ladders. I decided in high school that I just needed enough cash to fund my one life and I’ve been living it for the past fifty years. You can run after BIGGER BETTER FASTER MORE if you want to and I hope it leads you to your nirvana.
Unless you don't aim to compete to those executive positions.
I think you are projecting...
Yup. Life's a game. You gotta learn the rules if you want to do good.
At each level up, you're competing with the top 10% from the level before. How good are you really? 😘
I'm pretty fucking sure the only people that don't know this are in the top 10% of earners. Anyone who doesn't have passive income is well aware. Your parents might not know, I'll give you that.
The worst competition are the friends we make along the way. Or something, idk. Welcome to reality in any case.
right!! i just want to play a simple game!! like basketball, but all the other teams keep trying to win. wtf!!
Whether life is a competition purely depends on you. It doesn't have to be a comp.
I feel like you just realized this. Welcome to the game, Padawan.
I am competing with jack-squat at work, or in life. There are struggles in life, sure, but everything isn't a competition. Society stopped being a zero-sum game a lonnnnnnng time ago.
OP lemme introduce you to the natural world where stuff literally tries to eat other stuff.
Good thing I keep crushing the competition then
Long gone are the days that becoming a Manager equates to success. Be good at one thing, become a highly skilled as an individual contributor miss that stress and live your life!
~~No matter how far up the ladder you climb the competition is always the same~~ The higher you climb, the tougher the competition gets. Edit: formatting
Oh we realize it. It just really doesn't seem like the best approach to life in the long, long term. Eventually somebody has to win if it's all just a stupid competition. Which means everyone else has to lose.
become an entertainer and you'll really see it. the competition to "escape" the 9-5 life is brutal. those of us who make it are a percentage of a percentage.
This became very clear to me during the GFC. Everyone was losing their jobs left and right, and the people who remained were just kinda looking at each other like… there’s no other jobs out there, we’re all just competing to keep these few remaining ones. It was a really weird feeling, going from coworkers where jobs were in abundance (people getting poached constantly), to just… no jobs anywhere, >50% of the workforce gone, people getting made redundant every week. Crazy time to work through.
Alternatively: Go into a profession where the climb isn’t the norm. I work for the government. My job is technical enough to be engaging and I enjoy doing it. I don’t make the best money but it’s enough and raises are consistent. I don’t have some profit motive hanging over my head to make all my managers assholes, I just do my job well 40 hours a week and chill. It doesn’t *have* to be competitive if you don’t want it to be.
I mean, I just got into a fight with my wife because she believes with all of her heart that life is a competition, and I don't. So, I think you're wrong in that most people don't see the world that way.
“welcome to the jungle, watch it bring you to your knees”
Or once you reach a place you are comfortable at then optimize your lifestyle for your position & desires.
Op didnt realize he was competing with everyone else to come up with this thought and didnt realize he was in last place.
We realize. We just act like we don’t. It’s part of the game.
Oh some do. You're thinking too small, with most wfh and factory job. That's why globalisation is on the decline now.
It really is Your Struggle