One Writer’s Win Is Not Your Loss
What to do if you’re jealous of another creator.
After a year-and-a-half on Medium and 3,000 followers later, I’d like to say that I don’t experience envy toward other writers. Sadly, Elon Musk is still working on my robotic control system, and I stand before you as a flawed human being.
No matter what you have, you’ll always find someone who has more. Sometimes you won’t think twice about it, but other times, you’ll become envious and want that bigger, better, and shinier object. Clinical psychologist Lisa Firestone wrote in Psychology Today:
“Envy tends to be directed towards those with whom we compare ourselves, those with whom we feel we are in competition. As Bertrand Russell wrote, ‘Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.’”
Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, also said:
“Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.”
Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that: When you want what someone else has, you start to resent them. You feel angry, roll your eyes at…
