Competition is an aspect, not a virtue.

I'm highly introverted, and I don't like competition.

And I'm in a highly competitive field and apparently good at it, or so I'm told.

Unusual?

I don't really think so.

I do think it's hard for competitive people to grasp, however.

For what it's worth, being a really competitive person is hard for us to grasp.  That is, hard for people like me to grasp.

To take it one step further, hyper-competitive people are an annoyance, to put it mildly.  To put it a little more bluntly, hyper-competitive people tend to be, well, more than a little weird.

I really don't give a rat's ass how your college basketball team did over the weekend and no matter what you may wish to believe, it didn't beat "mine" as I don't have a college basketball team.  Neither do you.

I don't care that your high school football team was first in Ohio's rankings the year you played on it.  Truly, I really don't.

And for goodness’ sake, if you invite me to go bird hunting and ask me to bring my dog, and you bring yours, don't turn it into a competition.

None of these are exaggerations,  I know people who live their lives this way. Everything is a competition to them.  Life itself is a competition. So much so that they'll openly cheat on a minor thing in order to appear to have "won" something, even if nobody cares.

For hyper-competitive people, the concept that other people they're familiar with who are good at their tasks aren't competitive is simply unfathomable.  But they are, as they are motivated by something outside themselves.

That can be any number of things, good or bad. Dedication to something, fear of something, desperation, a sense of moral duty.  Any of those can be huge motivators for people who don't really get motivated by a concept of "winning".

Indeed, as a person who is introverted, and who really dislikes competition, I think those motivators, at least the positive ones, are truer and better ones than a love of competition.  Frankly, I think a love of competition may be genuine, but I also think it can be motivated by really malevolent traits as well, ranging from despising other people at some level, to having a massive sense of insecurity.

Indeed, hyper competition is associated with a series of disorders, including overconsumption and depression.  That's an interesting fact, I think. Hyper-competitive people are measuring their self-worth by "besting" others, even if those others really don't care.

And that's the thing, I guess, that they don't grasp.

I have a hyper-competitive friend.  Fortunately I don't have to deal with his hyper competitiveness often, but occasionally I do.  Indeed, to a certain extent I avoid him on some things as I don't want to bother with the "my dog is better than your dog" thing.  I'm not interested in that.  I'm also not interested in talking about professional football on an argument level, as two guys in their 50s discussing the second most boring sport in the world (basketball is the most boring sport in the world) isn't something I care to do.  The Bludgets did great this weekend?  Who cares, I truly don't.  

But occasionally in some contexts I do, and it's frankly bizarre in the "I'm moving the lines of this game you and I are playing", even if I didn't know we were playing a game "so I can win".  When asked why, the answer is "it's important".  

It isn't.

It's pathetic.

And that gets me around to this point.  

Competition is a natural part of life, we're told.  Everything confirms that.

And to some extent, this is true.

But I suspect it's much less true than people imagine.  Far less true.

Yes, it was probably true that, on an aboriginal level, if Ooot Groonk brought home more game than others, he was a more valuable person to the tribe.

Right up until cooperation for something was required, at which point Ooot was probably pushed in front of a charging wild cow and left there.  "I can kill more of these than you. . "  Okay buddy, go ahead and try.

Which gets me to this. The "I must win at any cost" thing has become really predominant in our society.  We have one political candidate right now having a gigantic hissy fit as he lost the election. That's your hyper-competitive person for you.  It's really not good for anyone.

On any level.

Yes, some natural competition is not only inevitable but desirable. Quite a lot, in fact. But when you must win because you must, because "it's important" that you do, well, . . . that's pathetic.

And here's another thing. Everyone needs help, and cooperation, at some point. Truth be known, everyone needs it to get through their day.  If you turn everything into a competition, well at some point people are going to figure they shouldn't help. Why should they, if you are in competition, your loss is their win.