Competitiveness...or lack of. Who else gets it...or not?

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ConcreteBadger summed it up nicely. I am exactly the same, if not worse (not meaning to offend, it is just even more pronounced, I think). I don't engage in any kind of competition, and I remember having played a computer game only once in my life-when I was 8 or 9. I don't even know where the games folder must be, and I know my way around in most OSs.

I'm also not competitive in the slightest. I like it when people are happy, so even if I win at something and they feel bad, I feel bad for them. I don't really understand the whole "I'm number 1" thing. You're first. You won. Yaay?

I've never been competitive. I liked my job and didn't want to make a career and get ahead of others.

When I was asked if I could teach an apprentice (we still have an apprenticeship system in Germany for most skilled jobs), I was totally freaked out. I couldn't imagine having a subordinate under me and telling them what to do I simply wanted to do my job in quiet and peace and had no ambition whatsoever.

I really don't care for anything that involves childish behavior. Guess it's why I don't care for politics or what they've become with mud slinging ad campaigns. If that's not already bad enough, they're invading youtube along with all the other useless ****. Ugh. Don't like sports much, either. Generally with this kind of stuff it involves walking all over somebody else, which is something that you would never do otherwise and would be seen as hurtful. It has to do with the kind of "survival of the fittest way of thinking which, nowadays, should not even have to be an issue.

However, being a gamer, I am sometimes competitive I guess you could say. I do prefer single player or co-op games, or just those that are really not so serious, but I do like to try to get better at a game regardless of whether it's against a computer or a real person. Halo is the only series I've really been able to view as "fair" and thus possible to really be competitive in. On the other hand, you have stuff like Super Smash Bros. or Call of Duty, wherein I really can not find a level playing field and can't take anyone seriously when they say that they take real skill.

Even then, there's a sort of attitude that comes with competitive play that I don't like. Thank goodness I have friends to stick in a party with so that I don't have to listen to the other team - either we get accused of cheating if we won, or told to quit playing because we lost. There's really no good sportsmanship. Then I also have to be grateful that most friends don't blame anyone else if we lose or do badly. I've had some that do that, but they weren't worth keeping so I've let them go.

It really doesn't matter to me who wins or loses so long as it can be fun. In real life, I feel any sort of competitiveness is no longer necessary for what society has evolved into.

I am not competitive, and I don't have to be....I don't mind maybe playing against someone on a video game and seeing who get's the high score but that's just for fun. But other then that I think a lot of things would work out a hell of a lot better if people could maybe work together rather then competeing all the time I mean if the focus is on being better then someone else I can see how that would get in the way of any real innovation and such.

I do not enjoy how competitive society seems to want people to be...nor do I enjoy a competition based society.

Social compitition has got out of hand these days, more than it ever was (and it's always been pretty bad). People are just not so friendly now as they used to be back in the '50s (or so older people say), and there's a lot more snobbery and snootiness, and rich and poor people are mixed together in the same areas (well it's like this where I come from), and so people tend to look down upon eachother and get more paranoid than ever, over silly things. People are just too scared to be ''different'' or ''skanky'', and so are spending the rest of their lives trying to impress other people who they may never even speak to. Not all people are like this, I do know some people who aren't so bothered, but I also know a lot of people who are. And I've now cottoned into this silly trend and it's got me all paranoid of what other people think of me because these days you don't have to do much to appear different, and so keeping up with trends has become more of an effort which is sometimes hard to keep up, especially if you're under a lot of stress and could do without extra worry.

I am very competitive with myself. IF anyone else is involved in the process, my primary objective does not involve competing against them.

I have triggers......."It's impossible." "It can't be done." "No one knows." "We don't know." LoL.


TheSunAlsoRises

Depends on the situation, but I'd have to say I'm not very competitive. I liked running, swimming, but mostly to improve myself. I did get a trophy in a 5K once though. I surprised myself that day, as I had just wanted to finish the race, not place in my age category. Was an actual proud moment. These are rare..
I don't try to get ahead of people at work either, just like doing the job.
Board games are OK, and I don't really care if I lose at them. Its actually about the (rare) company for me.

Sincerely,
Matt

I'm all in or not interested. I prefer solitary sports (running, swimming) , but have a soft spot for poker, quizzes etc. Although those are hardly team games.

Jason

I was competitive as a kid. I hated losing and would get upset. I even hated vs and always preferred teams or groups. Not one and one. Then I realized how stupid it was to get upset over a game just because you lost or were losing. So I stopped just like that. I now understood why people would say "it's just a game" when someone would get upset or me for losing or when someone do something to them in the game that was part of it.

Sure when I am playing a video game and I am trying to beat a level, I do want to win and not lose. But I am not going to get so upset I throw my Nintendo 3DS or toss my game controlled across the room or at the TV like some gamers do. I only curse or say "stupid )insert game character here)" or insult enemies or objects in the game.

Now I don't care about winning anymore. I do things just to have fun. If I play Bingo, I am playing for fun, not to win. If I win, I win, if I lose, I lose.

I've proven such skills as I have to my own satisfaction and to other people. I'm occasionally competitive at work or play or if trying to master some new skill (or relearn an old one), but by and large I'm focussed on learning new things and I do so because I like it, not to score points.

What irks me about competition is that people mistake it for an end in itself ("competition is good!") instead of a tool ("competition can often be useful.")

No. I'm not a competitive girl. I just focus on doing the project and having fun with it. I could care less about competing. I just don't have it in me.

I am extremely competitive and have been ever since I was little. The anger I feel at losing is the root of why I don't typically like one on one sports, but I love team sports, gives me a protocol to interact with people.

Bison

I'm very competitive. Always have been. Always compared myself to others and always tried to beat my high score. Now, perfectionism is not exactly the same as competence - I'm not as gifted as others and (as to be expected of perfectionists) I am never close to meeting or exceeding my own expectations. As an adult, I now look at my perfectionism and think 'This is a serious neurosis that is actually impeding on my ability to succeed'

I guess that's why many aspies can be very competitive - perfectionism. This is a very common trait among people on the spectrum. As for a lack of competitiveness, I guess those aspies don't feel compelled by the social pressure to compete? I dunno. I just know that me and many of my autistic friends are terrible losers.

I am allergic to competition.