Comparison is the thief of joy
Yes
“If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” - Desiderata
Comparison is the thief of joy
Comparison is the thief of joy
If only someone prominent said that very damned thing 70 years ago. This entire thread could have been solved in an instant.
Not if you only hang out with losers!
Or if you’re already the best, have the biggest weenie, etc…like me.
You’re the best until you are not. Then they are the best until they are not. Then they are the best until they are not.
Depends on how realistic your expectations are for yourself.
If your comparison is aspirational, identifying places where others succeed so you can figure out how to adopt their methods yourself, it can be quite beneficial.
If you’re not adopting an active-improvement mindset, and you’re essentially just dick-measuring, then yeah you’re eventually gonna be miserable. There’s always a bigger dick.
Nope, I like a good A/B comparison. I recently compared two whiskeys from a distillery; one their regular release and one aged in sherry casks. The side by side comparison made it easier to pick out the difference between the two. The comparison makes whiskey tasting all the more enjoyable.
I love a good A/B comparison on just about any food or drink.
Comparing things yes comparing yourself to other people nah.
For most people under most conditions I’d guess so, but it’s not inevitable. It’s all stardust in the end, and I think you can compare yourself favourably or unfavourably without too much danger, if you keep that well in mind.
I think comparison can be accompanied by misery but I don’t think it’s inevitable. I don’t know if it’s possible to go your whole life and not compare yourself to anyone, ever, on any metric. Some people are better than I am at some things, and I learn by comparing myself to them. I think the trick is to not condense it all down into a single spectrum. I mean that for broad moral judgements (e.g. “I am a better person than my boss”) as well as in particular domains (“My co-worker is a worse coder than I am”). I think that type of quick judgement can always be peeled apart and analyzed, and learned from, and I think that resolves a lot of the tension that typically comes from comparison.
