Comparison trap
Being bad at something and realizing it is the first step to being slightly better at that something. I enjoy having friends who are much better than me at programming and I often feel inferior because I often times am. There are always people better than you at something and a negative outlook on that doesn’t help anyone.
Comparison is the thief of joy
This quote should probably be taken with a grain of salt since it came from this guy…
roosevelt riding a moose
Smail’s Three laws
The initial reason for this post was Smail’s 3 Laws of Psychology but honestly, pictures of Teddy Roosevelt are much more entertaining. Despite that, these 3 laws seem applicable to the situation.
From the Wikipedia entry:
In a sidebar in Power Responsibility and Freedom Smail posits three laws that if understood fully would save everyone a lot of anxiety:
Law 1 “Absolutely everybody wants to be liked”.
Law 2 “Everyone feels different inside (less confident, less able, etc.) from how they infer other people to feel”.
Law 3 “Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time”.