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This reminds me of the advice in "How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS" (I liked the article overall). I'm more confident in my disagreement

This reminds me of the advice in "How I’ve Attracted the First 500 Paid Users for My SaaS" (I liked the article overall). I'm more confident in my disagreement now. Ignoring competition does not make it go away. Being a competitive person is good, and it gives you an advantage. The top of most any field is comprised of very competitive people. I do not agree with this very generic advice. You shouldn't back down the second you feel any pressure / stress, this is not the behavior of a competitive person. If you are getting irrationally jealous or saddened to an unhealthy degree, you should learn to deal with this. If you are unable to, you should reconsider whatever field you're in. It seems common for people to move goalposts when talking about this, as if being competitive and not ignoring competition detracts from your ability to improve your own project, or to be able to think independently of what competitors are doing.

jm__87 8y ago
> The top of most any field is comprised of very competitive people. Being competitive is good, if it helps you succeed. The degree to which you can be successful if you just "focus on your own shit" vs. paying close attention to what your competitors are doing is going to depend on what you are doing. If you play football professionally, you absolutely need to pay attention to what the competition is doing to succeed. If you write code for a living, you are going to be way more successful paying attention to your own shit than spending time paying attention to what everyone else is doing. It is just stupid to say that being competitive is the only way to get to the top of your field. Being the best at what you do will get you to the top of your field, by definition. The drive to get you there can come from wanting to be better than everyone else, or it can come from somewhere else.

jm__87 8y ago

> The top of most any field is comprised of very competitive people. Being competitive is good, if it helps you succeed. The degree to which you can be successful if you just "focus on your own shit" vs. paying close attention to what your competitors are doing is going to depend on what you are doing. If you play football professionally, you absolutely need to pay attention to what the competition is doing to succeed. If you write code for a living, you are going to be way more successful paying attention to your own shit than spending time paying attention to what everyone else is doing. It is just stupid to say that being competitive is the only way to get to the top of your field. Being the best at what you do will get you to the top of your field, by definition. The drive to get you there can come from wanting to be better than everyone else, or it can come from somewhere else.