No contest
by Alfie Kohn · first published 1986
80% recommend20% neutral
Competition may be as American as apple pie, but social scientist Alfie Kohn argues that our struggle to defeat one another--at work, at school, at play, and at home--turns all of us into losers. Contrary to the myths with which we have been raised, Kohn shows that competition is not an inevitable part of human nature. It does not motivate us to do our best. Rather than building character, competition sabotages self-esteem and ruins relationships. Kohn argues that we need to restructure our institutions so that one person's success does not depend on another's failure. For this revised edition
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…- hell, even changing your password is rewarded: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/404957/Picture%2039.png Highly recommend further reading: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071351450/ Alfie Kohn's "No Contest" is also a great read in the same vein: http://www.amazon.com/No-Contest-Case-Against-Competition/dp...
on “Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator” ↗I've gone down this rabbit hole before (albeit around ten years ago), I think the closest there are are the Alfie Kohn books. E.g. No Contest, Punished by Rewards, etc. Those are more about parenting and the school system, there aren't really any books on early childhood development if that's what you're looking for.
on “Ask HN: Research Based Parenting/ Pregnancy Books?” ↗If you're into educational theory, you might like Alfie Kohn's book No Contest: The Case Against Competition. It's a really good look at the systemic effects of competition. It touches on cheating among other things. It's funny, these days I find myself mostly reading counter-intuitive…
on “Paul Buchheit: Insights into "Don't be evil"” ↗No Contest / Punished by Rewards (Alfie Kohn) The Underground History of American Education (John Taylor Gatto)
on “Ask YC: favorite books” ↗I only read non-fiction that's counterintuitive. I figure, hey, I'm pretty smart, so if it's intuitive then I can probably figure it out on my own. A list of stuff I cite most often: No Contest & Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton PG's essays & ITConversations interviews The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto The Singularity is…
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗The evidence suggests that preference for competition comes from culture and not biology. Check out Alfie Kohn's book No Contest: The Case Against Competition for more details.
on “Boys Rules, Girls Lose - Women at Work” ↗It does have to be that way because that's what happens when there is competition. Check out Alfie Kohn's "No Contest: The Case Against Competition" if you want to understand why.
on “In the Documentary 'GTFO', Female Video-Gamers Fight Back” ↗…eventually get the perspective shift that comes with recognizing the irony of what they and many others are doing with weaponizing and otherwise competetizing AI... Also on that larger theme by Alfie Kohn: "No Contest: The Case Against Competition" https://www.alfiekohn.org/contest/ "No Contest, which has been stirring up controversy since its publication in 1986, stands as the definitive critique of competition. Drawing…
on “Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance” ↗> I imagine there is no good, scientific method to determining how someone should be motivated that we can train teachers with. http://www.amazon.com/No-Contest-Case-Against-Competition/dp... http://www.amazon.com/Punished-Rewards-Trouble-Incentive-Pra...
on “Why Anti-Authoritarians Are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill (2012)” ↗…aristocracy because it provided a justification for oppressing the masses. When you embrace Darwin, you're not embracing science, you're embracing fascism. Some quotes on this from Alfie Kohn's book No Contest: Pter Kropotkin: "Competition [...] is limited among animals to exception periods. [...] Better conditions are created by the elimination of competition by means of mutual aid and mutual support. [...]…
This reminds me of a scenario described by Alfie Kohn in "No Contest: The Case Against Competition". If I recall correctly, he describes how people looking for jobs actually are more successful if they work for mutual success within the context of a network like this one.…
on “Mozilla Lifeboat” ↗…dynamic of the program both between the founders and the YC parters and also between the startups themselves, in a way that undermines the qualities of YC that attract founders in the first place. C.f. No Contest: The Case Against Competition by Alfie Kohn.
on “Paul Graham Should Fill the Startup Funding Gap” ↗…effort can eventually be rewarded with skill. So it is good to praise effort and persistence. And failure is part of life and needs to be dealt with. That said, consider Alfie Kohn's writing, such as "No Contest: The Case Against Competition": https://www.alfiekohn.org/contest/ "No Contest, which has been stirring up controversy since its publication in 1986, stands as the definitive critique of competition.…
on “What I Learned About Failing from My 5 Year Indie Game Dev Project” ↗Not really. Alfie Kohn does have a book called No Contest, where he mentions in passing how competition is used to control people. But it's not really more than a couple pages out of the whole book. And there is another book called Measurement in Psychology…
on “The repetitive and boring gameplay in WoW is probably intentional.” ↗…claim about the link between standardized testing and a narrowing definition of popularity." This is an artifact of competition, not standardized testing per se. The research cited by Alfie Kohn's book No Contest shows this clearly, although he doesn't exactly look at the problem through this lens.
on “Do geeks make better adults?” ↗