The Art of Competition

We tend to think competition was born on a field. A whistle blows, sneakers squeak, a scoreboard ticks. But competition existed long before sports. It’s survival. Be the best, hold power, win at all costs — that’s not just a pep talk, it’s a primal instinct.

The middle-ages had battle cries; we have push notifications.

Modern competition doesn’t look like swinging swords anymore. It’s not even always head-to-head. It's a comparison. Social media posts. Quarterly sales targets. Followers. Shares. Comments. It’s life as a leaderboard.

And lately, companies have found a way to turn our instinct into their business model.

Gamification, the practice of applying game-like elements to non-game activities, isn’t just for fitness apps and language courses. Duolingo made it addictive to learn a new language. Habitica turns your to-do list into an RPG. Kahoot! makes trivia feel like a championship round.
Cashback, loyalty points, streaks, badges all tap into the same part of our brain that lights up when we “win.”

The hook? They make us feel like we’re getting better.
The fine print? They keep us coming back.

We say we’re “earning rewards,” but we’re spending more to get them. We’re “keeping the streak alive,” but the app is keeping us alive in their ecosystem. And let’s be honest… it works.

I use plenty of apps that give me those micro-wins. And I love them. They’ve helped me build better habits, track progress, and even feel healthier. But I’m not blind to the tradeoff — data goes in, ads come out. It’s part of the deal.

My recent health journey cracked open another layer of this. After trying traditional and alternative medicine, I found myself diving into biohacking communities. Suddenly, my life was a dashboard: heart rate variability, REM cycles, micronutrients, recovery percentages.

Devices like WHOOP and Oura have turned self-optimization into the most intense game of all: your own body. The leaderboard isn’t other people; it’s yesterday’s version of you.

And I think that’s the part people don’t talk about enough: competition doesn’t have to be external.
When you’re competing with yourself, you can win either way.

But, like every good game, there’s a twist. These same tools designed to help us feel better and live longer also feed data into the ad machine, shaping what we see, what we buy, and how we think. It’s a feedback loop disguised as self-improvement.

Healthy competition pushes us forward. Toxic competition tears others down.
And in the business world, the line is blurry. Winning at all costs can mean burning bridges, cutting corners, or stepping over people to get ahead. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it works too well.

The youth sports “everyone’s a winner” philosophy tried to sand down the edges of competition. But maybe it was just overcorrected. On the other end of the spectrum are those who will steamroll anyone in their way. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot: competing with yourself and your limits, not the entire planet.

Whether we like it or not, we’re all in the game. Some of us are chasing a high score. Some of us are just trying to get through the level. And some of us are slowly realizing that the leaderboard was rigged from the start.

Here’s the question I keep coming back to: If life is a game, are we the players or the product?

The answer might be both. And maybe that’s okay. As long as you know the rules you’re playing by, you can decide how much of yourself to put in. You can choose to play for the dopamine hit… or for something bigger.

Final Thought:
Gamification isn’t going away. Biohacking isn’t going away. And competition isn’t going away. The best thing you can do? Play your game on your terms. Decide your own scoreboard. Compete with the person in the mirror, and you’ll never really lose.