"The most awful thing to happen to anybody is to fail."

WRONG. The most awful thing to happen to anybody is to fail and not try again.

Society has advanced with more thanks to cooperation than competition.

^cooperation to compete against a common enemy

>> ^quantumushroom:
"The most awful thing to happen to anybody is to fail."
WRONG. The most awful thing to happen to anybody is to fail and not try again.


Way to go Dwight Schrute. You totally took that out of context. It was not a statement in and of itself, it was in reference to a viewpoint based on a particular attitude.

the quote is this, pay attention to punctuation:

"In our culture, in our modern culture, we set (high ??) by success; [whereby] the most awful thing thing to have happen to anybody is to fail... And so we worship in the temple of cuttthroat competition."

So even though i can't literally understand what he is saying, the quote is still in context now as a statement. Perhaps someone can fill in the blank. In your head.


Plus even out of context.. it depends on your definition of fail. If you define it as to "stop operating or functioning", than it fulfills your criteria:: that the removing of the ability to exist in a state capable of continuating/operating towards a goal is 'the most awful thing to happen to anybody'

But even there you're wrong. I think torturous pain is about the worst thing. This is some good shit.

Natural selection has been almost entirely replaced with economic selection.

That's right Mr Tutu.. competition is horrible. African inertia is far superior to competition.

Why would any farmer wish to yield more crops per acre than his neighbour? Why would he want to produce more nutritious grain than last year's harvest? Or more beautiful fruit to make it more attractive at the market?

In fact, why even bother planting seeds at all, why even "compete" with nature for providing your own sustenance?

I suppose being a passive hunter-gatherer society is far more "right" than trying to better one's peers with innovation.

This gentleman's ideas is why Africa is a continent of failure.

Don't get me wrong... I have nothing against Africans or their way of doing things. But don't expect me to envy their so-called sagacious proverbs and two-cent philosophy.

My 30 year old friend who works in finance has had ulcers for years.. status symbol? hmm.

Wow, this is the first time I've seen a video on the sift and been disappointed with the comments; everyone is taking out of context what he is saying. He ISN'T saying that we shouldn't try and PROGRESS- people are confusing "culture of competition" with progress. Notice that it's "culture of competition" and not just "competition". He denounces the extremities of competition which result in a LACK of progress because people become so concerned with being the best-- being better than their neighbors that society as a whole suffers and stagnates.