Michael: It takes some quality character to call yourself on being wrong, kudos to you. Personally, I think I essentially said what you think I should have said, I think maybe you’re reading the post a bit subjectively. Either way, you’re free to disagree with me. The world would be pretty boring if there were never any disagreements.

I do understand your view, and in some respects, I don’t disagree. Proceeding through life trying to achieve the impossible (or at least, statistically improbable) at the expense of personal happiness and fulfillment isn’t exactly my idea of a life well lead.

On the other hand, I do think that we owe it to one another to live up to the best within each of us, and strive to achieve all that we’re individually capable of. Obviously, among 100 people, only 1 can “succeed” on some ranked metric, but that’s not what I mean. By success, I simply refer to doing justice to one’s own ability. I care not a whit for the ability or success of others (although I will certainly use competition as a motivator when applicable). My original comment was not in disagreement with that, but was instead meant merely to point out apathetic undertones.

You seem to imply a defeatist attitude toward achievement in much of the wording you’ve used. Namely, that we can’t all be the best, that we shouldn’t try. Statements such as “If more and more people achieve what they thought would be ‘life changing’ moments then these achievements would actually lose value.” and “If everyone moves closer to greatness, the measure of what is great moves further away by definition.” and “A far more sensible approach would be to have realistic workplace goals…” are technically correct, but bother me in that they’re worded in such a way and placed in such a context as to make me interpret the post as bearing a message of indolence. I believe we should _always_ try our hardest. The only kink is that the competition is with ourselves, the judge is our own sense of honor, integrity, and justice, and our reaction is that of fulfillment and pleasure at paying homage to the best within us.

In any case, I still can’t condone the post as written, but I thought I’d apologize for the outburst and explain.

Thank you for this post. I really enjoyed reading it. I’ve always subscribed to the theory that I must only compete against myself. Only I truly know what my competencies and limitations are and how I can push those bit-by-bit to improve myself. In my experience, it’s foolish to compete with those in the workplace. On one task, you may be far more qualified than others and get too high a sense of self. On another, you may be a little less qualified and either resent those you are working with or kill your self-esteem over it. It’s best to just get along and push yourself internally.

TunnelRat: you may be right about the black turtle neck – maybe I touched a nerve And you go with the shameless blog plug!

BTW, I think Michael is one of the black turtle-neck and trendy glasses guys that Mr. Angry is writing about — all full of hype and little substance. They call themselves “idea guys” and have little patience for details. That is what Mr. Angry and I are their for– to fill in blanks of their poory though-out “visions.”

Now, time for a shameless blog plug:

Overpaid and Underworked C# .NET\SQL Developer