OnlySubs: A Logic of Positive and Negative Competition

OnlySubs Episode 114: A Logic of Positive and Negative Competition is now available exclusively for New Discourses contributors on the following platforms:
Facebook
Locals
Patreon
Subscribestar
Substack
YouTube Members

Competition has two forms: positive and negative. In positive competition, competitors try to improve themselves to win. In negative competition, they try to cut down their opponents instead of bettering themselves. Only the first produces a positive-sum game in which all ships rise with the tide, so it’s the type we should want to encourage. The thing is, as a company grows, incentives to engage in positive competition diminish while incentives to engage in negative competition increase. In this episode of James Lindsay OnlySubs, my subscribers-only podcast, I explore this idea a little. I hope you’ll join me and give it some thought.

Additional episodes of the OnlySubs Podcast can be found here.

James Lindsay

An American-born author, mathematician, and professional troublemaker, Dr. James Lindsay has written six books spanning a range of subjects including religion, the philosophy of science and postmodern theory. He is a leading expert on Critical Race Theory, which leads him to reject it completely. He is the founder of New Discourses and currently promoting his new book "Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody," which is currently being translated into more than fifteen languages.