Competition

As evidenced by the post below, there are some pretty silly forms of competition. But even in Mario Baseball, competition is meaningful. The reason you can actually care about a ghost named Boo dominating the hell out of a squad of Nintendo misfits is the actual human competition behind it. It is what makes solitaire a time filler instead of a pastime, and sports in general such a thrill.

To me, their is a tremendous difference between competition and conflict. I'm a total wuss to conflict, but love competition. When countries come together in competition you get the Olympics and the World Cup. When they come together in conflict...KABOOM. And besides the trend for people getting a little more hurt in conflict than competition, I feel competition is much more productive. You learn and better yourself from it. With conflict, you're lucky if you learn how to stay out of it next time.

I plan on applying for an open position at work in the near future, and I'm slightly worried that it could end up being a thin line between conflict and competition. My mentality in applying is more too get my name out there and improve myself; to find what shortcomings I might have in my advancement. I don't have the level of seniority of several other likely candidates, and even though I feel I'd be good at it, I won't in any way be let down if it goes to one of them. However, I am worried the atmosphere at work will trend towards conflict regardless. Pity.

Oh well, one day till weekend.
-Duncan