What do you think about trying to become the best? — 12paul123

You need a lot of luck, otherwise known as the mandate of Heaven. With that, nothing can stop you, and without it, you don't stand a chance.

I knew a man once, who was the BEST prayer. His prayers always got answered. He was not only good at it, he was the BEST.

In my high school years I was voted three years in a row to be the best maasturbator.

These days, Donald Trump is the BEST communicator. Of his ideas. He just says anything that comes to his mind.

If you get selected in your army unit to lead a squadron through a minefield, replete with poisonous snakes, under heavy enemy fire, you are chosen because YOU ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST.

That is what I hate about competitions, they only have one winner that is usually called the best.

A bunch of football teams spend all year playing against each other to win a championship, only one winner. So the rest are losers, second rate teams. And maybe the "best" team got there by making a mistake or getting lucky.

What do you think about trying to become the best? — 12paul123

Personally, I don't waste my time trying. Either what I do is the best that I can do or I will not bother doing it. I don't try to make myself into the best at anything.

I like this theme. The "problem," however, is that it's difficult to make a moral point without implying a hierarchy. For instance, the best people are those who don't obsess over being the best. Let's not obsess over being the best, 'cuz we want to be the best kind of people.

As I see it, there's no obvious way around this structure. So the goal is priding yourself on the best kind of bestness. Many of us would probably agree that the right kind of humility is a virtue (which is to say with the spirit of your OP.) But I think we still enjoy ourselves even in that in terms of being more aware than those who think otherwise.

In short, I think it's futile to attack the desire for superiority. Instead the issue is which kind of superiority is truly superior. We may even decide that the truly superior attitude is to leave this question unanswered, if only because we can afford to (we are secure enough in our own choices to not be threatened by the value systems of others.)

you are chosen because YOU ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST — szardosszemagad

Or because somebody wants to get rid of you.

Or because somebody wants to get rid of you. — Bitter Crank

:-) well, that's what the point was. Hehe. Being the best means... basically dick all.

"Thus, the first shall be last and the last shall be first."

Or, as my old friend Paul Spenser put it, "nice guys don't even finish."

Or, as my old friend Paul Spenser put it, "nice guys don't even finish." — szardosszemagad

I heard that they finished in their hand.

What do you think about trying to become the best? — 12paul123

If you want to reach a consensus, it is best (sorry) to define the term 'best'. Here is my attempt:
Best is ranking #1 at quality X, relative to others also having this quality. We can derive a few things from this definition:

1. Best is a relative term only, and says nothing about absolutes. You don't necessarily need to be good at X to be the best at X.
2. It is fully dependent on others having that quality.
3. It is competitive. There can only be one #1. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if it starts to fail the Golden Rule of ethics.

My take: Trying to become the best at X is not necessarily bad and can be a good motivator to be better at it, but we must remember to also become good at X in the absolute sense.

What do you think about trying to become the best? — 12paul123

I think you can only be the best at something you can measure, things like speed, time, weight, distance and so on.

You cannot measure, for example; who is the best piano player? Who is the best painter? Who is the best football manager? Who plays the best batman? Who makes the best cup of tea?

These things will be different for so many people. You could argue; the piano player with which the most people think he or she is the best is the best. But does that mean that all the other people who thought other piano players were better were just plain wrong and their opinion is irrelevant?

I think most would agree that trying to be the best - unless you are trying to break a world record, which will undoubtedly become broken again in the future - is paradoxical.

In my own experience, i would consider myself a creative. I imagine things and try to make them an actuality. Whether it is writing, music, or a team of organised people. I try and forge the best reality of how i imagine something.