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>They will get the best jobs (or not have to work), the best mating opportunities, the best everything. This is very much impossible. Above average? Probably.

>They will get the best jobs (or not have to work), the best mating opportunities, the best everything. This is very much impossible. Above average? Probably. But then they become satiated with the above average things that they do have, get bored, adopt a new definition of "average", and wish they had the bank president's salary. The bank president wants to be president of Goldman Sachs. The president of Goldman wishes he had a wife like so-and-so's. Ambition is fine and all, but once you start measuring your life that way there's nothing but a black hole all the way down. >If you want to coast through life, that's fine, as long as you have a good understanding of the costs and benefits. Same thing definitely goes with viewing life as a competition.

ansible 10y ago
Same thing definitely goes with viewing life as a competition. As long as someone else views life as a competition, then it is. As long as there are limited resources, then it is. It doesn't matter what you think. And if you choose not to compete at the highest levels, that's fine. I know I don't, and I don't look down at those who don't.
- allemagne 10y ago
  Of course competing is part of life. I don't conflate that with it being the existential meaning of my existence. Sneezing is part of life whether you like it or not. Is life just one big sneeze?
  - ansible 10y ago
    Oh young grasshopper! Your analogy is very flawed. Competition defines your existence. It determines where you live, where you work, and what you eat. It has determined who you are and how you are made, for you are a product of evolution. It is woven deeply into the fabric of your existence, on a daily level as well as on geological timescales. It even determines how you think, according to some theories about how mental processes work. You don't have to derive your existential meaning from competition, but ignore it completely at your peril.

ansible 10y ago

Same thing definitely goes with viewing life as a competition. As long as someone else views life as a competition, then it is. As long as there are limited resources, then it is. It doesn't matter what you think. And if you choose not to compete at the highest levels, that's fine. I know I don't, and I don't look down at those who don't.

allemagne 10y ago
Of course competing is part of life. I don't conflate that with it being the existential meaning of my existence. Sneezing is part of life whether you like it or not. Is life just one big sneeze?
- ansible 10y ago
  Oh young grasshopper! Your analogy is very flawed. Competition defines your existence. It determines where you live, where you work, and what you eat. It has determined who you are and how you are made, for you are a product of evolution. It is woven deeply into the fabric of your existence, on a daily level as well as on geological timescales. It even determines how you think, according to some theories about how mental processes work. You don't have to derive your existential meaning from competition, but ignore it completely at your peril.