Being Competitive is Not An Excuse — Quarter Mile
Everyone had that one friend (more likely, mutual friend) growing up. You would go play a game of basketball and they would get really into it. They’d start throwing elbows. They’d hurl their water bottle across the court afterwards if they lost. They’d push and shove. And anytime you called them out on it, they would say something to the effect of: “Sorry, I’m just competitive.” Sadly this is not just kids. There are adults, and I would say a lot of adults, who are like this. A whole category of people who have internalized that ‘being competitive’ is a sort of virtue that outweighs other things (like being kind, or being ethical, or caring about other people). It’s like they get into their competitive flow state from which anything they do is justified. You see this a lot at tech startups and other high-stakes environments, where being competitive, or “wanting to win” justifies a bunch of things that would otherwise be quite bad. Justifies breaking the law, maybe. Or justifies puttin