Do you see competition as a bad thing?

Recently in the Education Solutions thread people started arguing that competitive athletics in schools was a bad thing. Getting down to the core of the arguments, it seemed that some people thought that competition was poisonous, lent to an atmosphere of false togetherness, and gave people an inappropriate us vs. them mentality. To avoid a further derail, I thought we could move the conversation here.

I won't deny that competition has the potential to do these things, but I strongly disagree with these statements. Competition can be fun. Plenty of people enjoy competition, it helps hone your skills, used properly it can teach you to both win and lose with grace, and it helps you prepare for a life where you'll be competing against people all the time (for jobs, pay raises, mates, etc).

So, should we be discouraging competition? My opinion is obvious, but I definitely want to hear more from both sides.

It depends entirely on the context. Healthy competition, as in everyone trying to do their best in a friendly situation, is good. Bitter competition, as in winning at all costs and denigrating the other team regardless of the outcome, is bad. Unfortunately, it's easy for people to slip into the latter when you're trying to encourage the former.

Competition is useful. I was raised to be non-competitive and all that it did was make me lazy and bitter, while my friend who was raised to be very competitive is now at a prestigious university. The problems only start to arise when competition becomes to much.

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Edited by fanty on Sep 28th 2019 at 2:12:04 PM

Competition can be good. It encourages one to better themselves and strive for excellence, rather than coast on "good enough" mediocrity. It's why I believe participation prizes are bullshit. If one is going to get a prize regardless, there's not much incentive for most people to strive for excellence.

However, as with anything, too much competition can be bad. It can lead people to adopt a "win at all costs" mindset, and they focus only on the end goal of winning, rather than bettering themselves in the process in order to win.

That's way too generalized. What competition where? For example, competition in economics is an absolute must; for all my socialist leanings I do believe in the concept of the free market (just well regulated...). Social groups, though? That's more problematic. A certain amount of competition is okay; for example you couldn't play any games or do any sports without at least playful competition. But serious competitions? Well, at least schools might not be the best place for that. The point of tests etc. for example is to test one's own skills, and not to "beat" others or the sort...

Competition is a double edged sword. And Collaboration can be just as useful.

The trick is fostering just enough competition to motivate without turning it into a nest of vipers.

Competitive athletics in school isn't a bad thing, but as an outsider looking at the US I don't see why they set the system up so that a lack in academic skills can be compensated with athletics.

Competition in itself isn't bad, but unchecked it can get ugly.

It has to do with the sheer money it brings in. A well received art show brings the school prestige, maybe some new students. A good football team brings in hundreds of thousands dollars in advertising and merchandise and better athletes.

We'll I guess it comes down to wether you think "University = money making machine" or "University = institution for education and research". I'm for the latter.

The problem is that while the education staff thinks 2, the people who have to crunch the budgets concentrate on uno.

The reason universities are so obsessed with money is because the government gives them so little, seeing as investing in the future = COMMUNISM.

This.

My college has awesome photography and graphic design departments that attract teachers that come from NY Art schools.

The average budget said photo department gets a year for supplies and new equipment? One. Thousand. Dollars. One top of the line photography camera costs 4 times that much. Our cost to attend went up like 50 dollars a credit hour, and the President of the school was apologizing like crazy about how he cant do anything about it because missouri cut education funding by MILLIONS

edited 30th Mar '12 2:47:24 PM by Midgetsnowman

Personally, I hate feeling competitive. It's like a virus that makes me want to get all the attention and recognition. In the end, I always prefer sharing things with people and submitting to people who are better. But when I enter a competitive atmosphere, my instinct throws that out the window. It's why I strive to avoid competitive environments where I can.

If competition is being used as an excuse to get people to strive to do better, people need to rethink their priorities. If you're gonna compete with something, compete with something that has already been set. It's usually when people directly compete with others and when people compete with what they predict their opponent will do that's when trouble arises. Compete only in instances where there is as little reason for others to get hurt as possible.

For instance: Say you're a filmmaker. I say competing with, say, making a better film than The Day the Earth Stood Still is fine. But don't compete to make a better film than competing filmmakers are trying to make; that turns the whole thing far more subjective than it should be.

But I don't fully grasp how the world works, so this is just my opinion, and I apologize if I sound highly naive about things.

I highly agree that while competition itself is not a bad thing, it's the subjective values around it that's toxic to the minds of pretty much everyone. And ever since competition has become the spirit of most things recently, do we see our current society starting to decline. The more we want to win, the more we end up failing

What is the worst is that competition has become the form of education since a long long time ago. Marks, grades and classes. What have they done to us? They gave birth to more and more people who don't think ahead and just join competition for the sake of it.

A certain monk's speech said "Competition leads to fighting, fighting leads to war". I'd like to link the speech but I don't know how to search for it on You Tube. And I doubt it's English subbed

I would like it if the need for competition was removed/vastly reduced. Competition itself isn't actually "bad", but the fact that people need to compete causes problems.

Wanting to compete (like in a game/sport) probably isn't that bad.

edited 30th Mar '12 4:41:43 PM by Ekuran

More school football, I say. It just has to be organised better. And coached better. And have better access to pitches. And just generally be better.

I think it shouldn't be emphasized as much as it is in life, but I don't think competition is inherently evil. It's human nature. There's always somebody trying to be better than somebody else no matter what.

I think that it's our reaction to competition that could do with some adjusting. Winners could be more gracious, and losers could be more introspective and less loathing. That would make each competition mean something. The winners gain pride and confidence. The losers gain a lesson about where they need to improve. It's an effective learning mechanism.

I'm neutral on competition.

I'm not a competitive person. It's very possible that if I were, I could very well become or do as I please in this world. As it is, I take honors courses, get A's & B's, and learn new stuff, and that's good enough for me.

Competition can be taken too far amongst our children, but personally I'm a fan of having it around. I don't like this whole "Everybody is a winner just for playing!" nonsense we're introducing into school these days.

Because that isn't true. Even if they gave every single player on both teams a trophy, one team knows that they lost to the other. Or everyone else knows that someone is the best, there's no denying it.

My favorite was always dodgeball. I hate that schools are discouraging it so much. I loved dodgeball. I was never that guy with the golden arm who could throw a fastball, but I sure as hell could dodge. I'd always be that last squirrely kid who nobody could hit until like 4 of the opposing team members held a ball at the same time and threw them in a shotgun scatter at me so I couldn't dodge out of the way.

Fun times.

Edit: The best competitive environment is one where the people who are the best are encouraged by the people in charge to be mentors, to teach the people who aren't as skilled to improve. The military is big on that. I'm one of the better shots in our unit(and marksmanship in the military is very competitive) and I end up teaching the people who don't qualify the first time to shoot better. It's expected of me to do so. There's the occasional personal rivalries that two individuals get regarding getting a better score, but in general, people who aren't very good shots don't get harassed for it, they just get mentored to do better. For me, teaching someone to do something and seeing visible improvement is addictive. That's why I take all my civilian friends shooting to teach them, not for them, but for me.

edited 30th Mar '12 7:23:58 PM by Barkey

I had the typical nerd experience of dodgeball being 15-20 minutes of sadistic torture.

I definitely don't like the whole "YOU ALL WIN" thing. Turns people into overentitled praise junkies.

Seconding.

edited 30th Mar '12 7:28:44 PM by inane242

My pain oddly never came from such things...If I was pained when it came to sports it's because people went out of their way to ignore me. I was more distressed by the girls I knew however who enjoyed bullying me into letting them put makeup onto me and such before laughing at me.

Competition I don't see as something inherently bad though it has its dangers. Nor do I see it as something inherently good. I do dislike the "Everyone is a winner" sentiment because it's a lie. A dirty lie wormed into the minds of children before they learn the truth and disappointment and bitterness sets in. That or fills them with undue pride.

Neither of which are good.

I must say I don't like how nasty people can become over competition. Though I do like how much of a motivation and rush it can be.

It's something that needs to be dealt with carefully by the individual.

^Thirding it.

edited 30th Mar '12 7:29:50 PM by Aondeug

@Barkey: I suppose. I just have an inherent dislike for school sports programs that eat up all the funding that could be better soent on programs that are vaguely useful for more than a few people after college.

Meh, some things have inherently useful qualities. Obviously people have varying opinions on the matter. But I'm of the mind that competitive spirit and confidence are good and worthy traits that people should carry on to adulthood. The Will To Power, as it would.