It Is Time To Drop The Mindset Of Competition

This is something that is ingrained in us from the time we are young. Growing up, we hear about competing in different things. Sports, beauty pageants, and classroom activities all foster the idea of "competition".

After all, the world is survival of the fittest.

Of course, this is nothing more than programming us for when we enter the "real world". There is competition for jobs, resources, and market share. We admire characteristics such as drive, cut throat mentality, and the desire to win. These are the people we put up on a pedestal.

The challenge with all of this is that is is nothing more than scarcity thinking. It is a system that is designed to breed maximum fear. If we do not join the crowd and give all we have to get ahead, we, by default, will be left behind.

We see the same thing in cryptocurrency and blockcain. We are entering an era where abundance will be the norm yet people still are looking at everything as a competition.

The problem with this is that it is not best for humanity.

Let us look at a prime example.

Steemit Killer

How many times have we heard this?

In my, almost, year and a half on this blockchain, there are so many things that were tossed out as a Steemit killers. Of course, as I write these words, none of them have come to pass. Even if those projects did work out, why would they have to "kill" Steemit? It is because that is our mindset.

To start, we will have to differentiate. Steemit here refers to the application. What is interesting, if you want to get down to it, Steemit's competition is on this blockchain. No need to look elsewhere. Busy.org along with @steempeak are two interfaces to use. Personally, I believe these light years ahead of Steemit.

On the mobile front there are also a number of alternatives for users. Hence, we see the situation expanding.

Of course, the latest is the big elephant in the room: Dan Larimer creating Steemit 2.0. This is surely going to put the nail in the coffin.

Competition at it's finest aka scarcity mentality.

A Better View

I do not view Steemit, Busy, and Steepeak in competition with each other. In fact, I use all three although Steemit is only for the exchange of SBD to STEEM. Nevertheless, I do different things on all three applications on a daily basis.

If Dan comes up with a Steemit 2, I might use that also. Copy/paste works real well on my computer and there might be some articles I post on here that I could also serve up on that one.

Why wouldn't everyone do that? If there is the possibility to earn a few tokens for the same work, one would be foolish to pass that up. From a personal branding perspective, cross pollinating is a smart idea.

Certainly, those who invested money into organizations have a much different perspective. They are looking for a ROI and this often comes by getting the business. Again, we see the outcome of the scarcity system we live in. From this perspective, there is no other approach but to "take what you can garner".

However, if we evolve into DAOs, then the mindset is much different. Then we have organizations that are community owned. Under this model, people are contributing to the enterprise with a different mindset. Growth does not have to come at the expense of others. In fact, the view becomes to embrace what others are doing since we are dealing with a great deal of open source.

We will see things fall by the wayside. Why? Because they did not interest the community. That said, there will be applications which are highly successful with very few users. Many will serve only a handful of people who will value that.

People like to take this idea to blockchains. Steem is fighting a battle against everyone else. After all, it is survival of the fittest. That is the mindset.

Let me ask you, is your home wi-fi in competition with the cellular networks? Are the wi-fi and the cell towers battling on your phone to see who will win? This is absurd of course.

Yet that is exactly what we are doing when we pit blockchains against each other. Many have nothing to do with each other. Nevertheless, we are conditioned to look for the "winner".

To go one step further, we are starting to see the development of chains that connect blockchains together.

This is called interoperability. Another word for that is integration. And still another word is collaboration.

And that is the mindset we need: Collaboration.

Source

Competition results in a few winners and everyone else losing. Now many will tell you that competition is healthy, that is drives people to excellence. This is programming. It is also the old mindset.

Olympic power lifters can put up some incredible weights. They compete against and push each other. This is how they become the best.

Yet these physical monsters of humanity are dwarfed in their results by a 120 pound woman who lifted up a car when her young son was trapped underneath.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain is a new world. It is a part of the new energy I have written about. This means adopting a new mindset about the way things are going to be. We will not be residing in scarcity.

Thus, there is no need to "compete". Instead, look to create.

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