# Debate about Competition
**URL:** https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/debate-about-competition/2246
**Category:** Debate
**Created:** [September 23, 2026, 11:56pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/debate-about-competition/2246 "2026-09-23T23:56:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eternity](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Eternity)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 11:56pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/debate-about-competition/2246/1 "2026-09-23T23:56:26Z")
Debate with @Dface about competition.
* * *
I’m not a big fan of competition. I’m unsure if the issue is with competition itself or with how others go about competition.
This is not about economic competition. Maybe some of the stuff I’ll say can apply there, but my issue is more so with competition in general. Sports and video games are the two places where I know there is a lot of competition, but people compete in a lot of things. There are baking contests, art contests, music contests, architecture contests (though I think that was just _The Fountainhead_), and much more.
My issue with how people approach(?) competition is that they focus on being better than the other person (instead of wanting to get a good job) and, relatedly, fail to appreciate what they have accomplished. Something that comes to mind is any kind of sports _media_ (I’m unfamiliar with sports themselves, I’m assuming here that media like movies and anime are accurate in this respect I’m discussing) where you follow a team and see everything they do to win.
You follow this team, see all the struggles they go through, and eventually see them win. That’s great. However, what about the other teams? Sometimes you see their perspective. Their crushed, devastated. They say things to make themselves feel better, but at the end of the day they didn’t win. My issue is related to how caught up they can get in the loss.
People focus too much on winning. Winning is how they know their good. Lots of amazing athletes probably don’t appreciate their career because they never won. The best is appreciated, everyone else is kind of seen as water. Maybe that’s reasonable from an outside perspective, but for the people involved I think it’s bad. People should be able to appreciate their accomplishments outside of comparisons to others.
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### Author:  [@Dface](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Dface)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2026, 1:39am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/debate-about-competition/2246/2 "2026-09-24T01:39:15Z")
> [@Eternity](#):
>
> I’m not a big fan of competition.
Now that I read this, I’m not sure if Im a big fan of competition either. I practice it sometimes, but the times I made it a habit, it became too stressful to maintain.
After briefly reading @Eternity’s post, I think I don’t know a lot about competition. I think I’ll make mistakes understanding some points when responding. Also, I don’t know if I fully agree with my own position from the other thread:
> [@Request a Debate](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/request-a-debate/1946/7):
>
> I dont think I stated my position so I should just write it. I think competition is good cuz you can use it to practice and get better at problem solving.
>
> I don’t think there’s anything wrong when competing in like a chess match. If you’re competing against someone in like [chess.com](http://chess.com) then i dont think there’s something inherently wrong there. Like, even if you lose, I think you dont actually lose something of value. Here, I’m recalling Ayn Rand’s quote about rational men interacting with each other. I dont remember but something about there being no loss between them.
Also, I don’t know what rationality methods to use and how to make them helpful. Like, when should I use a grammar tree? Do I want to use a grammar tree to analyze something? A part of me thinks I’ll only get a small amount of info to use for the debate.
I think I still want to respond to a few parts and maybe express a disagreement. Maybe I can show an error of mine or say something that helps with the topic.
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### Author:  [@Dface](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Dface)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/debate-about-competition/2246/3 "2026-09-24T01:53:05Z")
> [@Eternity](#):
>
> I’m unsure if the issue is with competition itself or with how others go about competition.
My question would be what’s the difference between competition itself vs. its approach? Maybe knowing what competition is helps with knowing if it’s bad or not. Maybe people are making mistakes when practicing competition. Also, how do social dynamics work in competition? Is that a big factor why the approach is bad? Idk too much about social dynamics but I thought maybe it’s relevant.
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### Author:  [@Dface](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Dface)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2026, 1:54am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/debate-about-competition/2246/4 "2026-09-24T01:54:07Z")
> [@Eternity](#):
>
> This is not about economic competition. Maybe some of the stuff I’ll say can apply there, but my issue is more so with competition in general. Sports and video games are the two places where I know there is a lot of competition, but people compete in a lot of things. There are baking contests, art contests, music contests, architecture contests (though I think that was just _The Fountainhead_), and much more.
Is there a difference between competition in general vs. economic competition? Is there a reason it has the word “competition” in it? Also, why exclude economic competition and not competition in baking contests, art contests and music contests?
I thought economic competition was the same as competition in like a video game. I thought that cuz there’s a competition in both somewhere. Like, there are people who win and lose. I think I’m using the word competition intuitively here.
Edit: a part of me doesnt want to reply to everything cuz I think I might clog up the thread. Like, isn’t it better to talk about a few things at a time in a debate?