Do you like competition?

Post Reply New Topic

I think competitions are good. I don't really see them as a way to one-up ppl or say that one is better than the other in general- it's about whose better at one particular thing. Although I can see how contests that are based on ones looks and subjective judging like at pageants can get quite distressing. But competitions based on ability are aspiring for ppl because it's a motivation for them to work hard and better themselves. This is good for society in general. Most things in life are a competition setting- job interviews, even dating:D So it's practical to have the right attitude.

I kind of like competition... at least, I really like winning, and I like to think I take losing in good stride, so it's, on balance, a positive. I, for a long while, took part in a lot of board/card game competitions, and generally enjoyed them, but almost all that energy has been diverted into local theatre lately, which has the bonus of generally giving the positive feedback of success, without so much the blows of defeat.

Though I recently didn't get a part I was auditioning for and really thought I was going to get -- it weighed on me pretty heavily for a couple of days, so it's not entirely absent.

I feel the same, and I'm an NT.

No, I don't like it. It's stressful and doesn't motivate me.

I'm an aggressive competitive bastard.
And it gets even worse with alcohol..

People underestamate what a great escape from reality competition can be.

People underestamate how much reality sucks because of it competitive nature
for most people every thing is competition and it touches everything they do and say and even the way they perceived and create reality
their looks,money,position at work...
people even compete to death with the one they supposedly love
u need to escape from reality because it's too competitive
what so liberating in an all out open competition is that at least then we can do it in the open without the suffocating hypocrisy and politeness

I'm secretly very competitive. I won't compete in anything sporting because I'll lose, and at work I haven't finished until I've out-performed everyone else. Partly this has a kind of revenge motivation: they don't have to like me, but they do have to eat my dust. So it's not as much about my knowing I've done better than them as it is about them knowing it. I like to excel without apparent effort: my favourite moments at work have been when someone's come up to me and said, "How did you do that? I didn't see you do anything."

That's an AS thing
When every one treat u as a freak of nature u can get much satisfaction and assurance from the fact that u can effortlessly do what is almost impossible for other
Like,for me it's much easier and natural to program than to talk so at work every buddy eat my dust but that doesn't mean i win because i don't have to invest any effort or even try to win
perhaps that's why geeks like comics so much
we are nothing in the so called real world(sport) but we are supermen when it come to the virtual
luckily for us and the world at large the virtual is turning into real at an accelerating rate

Interesting thread. I came here after I thought about current discussions concerning trans women in competitive sports. What struck me was that someone who is busy with a major change of identity can take competition in sports so serious that not being allowed to participate is a big deal. Must be an NT thing.
I myself, like many of the participants here, never cared much about competition in sports and disliked the social aspects. Growing up, I discovered the joys of working out and sportive fighting. For more than 30 years I have practiced martial arts, including only a handful of tournament karate fights which I all lost. I wasn`t extremely bad in sparring but probably lacked the extra motivation to compete. There`s a famous saying by master Funakoshi about not caring about winning but trying to never lose. Nobody hurt me physically outside sports in my adult life and I`m content with that.
The ecomomic / career aspect is important, of course. I could get along fine in a socialist system as far as work is concerned, would probably get annoyed about the ideology, though. As it is, I live in capitalism and changed jobs every three years on average. I´m happy that I could earn above average wages most of the time and the fact that I didn`t get far in my self-employment projects doesn`t matter much to me. My failures were something to learn from. In success, the failure of others had something reassuring for me but I didn`t see them as competitors beforehand.

YES. It gives me an adrenaline rush and helps motivate me, even when I am dealing with quite bad mental health.

I don't like creating winners and losers among people, but I find technical contests quite valuable as a branch of research.

I'm not very competitive at all. I don't feel any need for it.

Sure, competition is fun, but it is not the be-all and do-all of my existence.

Actually, I have always been quite competitive. When I was a kid I used to cry if I didn't win in games or sports. As an adult I feel I compete socially, worrying about how many friends I have compared to other people (even other Aspies), and what experiences I have compared to other people's. I don't like feeling left behind or inferior.

I was very competitive when I was younger. Recently I kind of stopped caring if I win or not. I think these days social interaction has become so rare and so valuable for me that it's more important that besting the other person.