Sunday, April 15, 2012

What I Need is a Good Nemesis

As the ancients knew, as Renaissance Italians knew, it is often personal rivalry that drives people to and animals to excel:
. . . having a nemesis is in many ways as intense and personal a relationship as having a friend, and studies in the animal world and the human one are revealing that those relationships matter, too. For animals, dear enemies may allow individuals to spend less time and energy fighting with foes; for humans, direct personal rivals appear to help people push their performance. A small number of researchers are exploring how these relationships affect our motivation and success — and although “enemy studies” isn’t likely to ever become its own discipline, their findings provide a different and perhaps more realistic way to think about how competition works.
Alas, I'm not very good at making enemies. Any volunteers?

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