Ep 18 Competition, Ego, and Pride

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Time to get big-headed and talk to the flip side of imposter syndrome.

Liner notes:

This podcast was started by having a friendly competition to get work done. An example of healthy competition.
Sheldon’s dumb ass on twitter having ego problems.
We were eating Cadbury eggs.
Remember that released products have been polished.
There is sadness about… your progress. You can see a super successful friend and your ego can get crushed.
There is a danger as an artist to be so competitive with others that you don’t want to play the game anymore. Be wary of that feeling.
Don’t compare yourself.
You can use your competitive drive to be inspired by the masters instead of crushed by them. Deconstruct to learn better.
Igorrr. Listen!
Eric referenced some great artist friends that you should check out:
- [links coming]
- [links coming]
Lego is great…
Craft is never done. You can learn forever if you let your ego stop you. Ego can tell you: I don’t need to learn anymore.
Hopefully interviews soooooooon.
Oh… comment, rate, and subscribe!

Loco April 8, 2018 / 10:23 am

Been a hot second since I remembered to comment on a podcast. In my defense I listen to them at work and head to bed right when I get home. And because my memory is second only to the prestigious goldfish I tend to forget to come back and add my two cents (CAD). Man, I forget things. A lot. Like “I’m worried for my future” a lot. Like “I was totally dropped on my head as a baby” a lot…. I’ll… I’ll move on.

So because I’m a terrible slacker this one’s going to be a little all over the place as I dump bits of previous podcasts into my usual somewhat sleep deprived-caffeine-fueled-borderline arbitrary posts.

I think I’ve mentioned it before but I do a little bit of writing. Not near Sheldon’s level because I can hardly speaks the Englishs despite that it’s my first language. What I do is mostly DnD stories and RP based bits, things for entertainment. Now with that, because me and my group of amigos have our own separate stories and characters I get…mmmmmmaybe a bit competitive. I want to stand out a little. Not a whole lot because I don’t want to be classified as a snowflake, but enough to be like “That Loco sure is a big strong and ravishing man-baby”.

When this starts to happen I use a sort of technique to help me. Not sure if Sheldon has done this ever (curious to know though). What I do is I pick a Hollywood star who I think would play that character and I read it out in my head. I like to think it gives my work a bit more character, make it a bit more different with each character I’m writing for/as.

I also like to think it works because I’ve actually received compliments in the past such as “That was very ok!” and “I was able to read it without vomiting this time!”. All jokes aside I don’t think I would have er adopted this technique if it weren’t for that rare competitive edge that still lingers around.

Back in my baseball and paintball days, that’s when I was very competitive. Showing up early to check my equipment and stretching, doing the whole thing. It was a fun time but also… stressful. Competition and ego can have a real mommy-daddy fight sometimes and that can turn into something ugly. Like kids posting videos on YouTube about the contemporary fad “So that’s what the future generation looks like huh? Tide pods… bodacious” kind of ugly.

I was really into baseball. Eight years I played and seven of them I really cared if we won or lost. That last year I just sort of let it all happen… instead of swinging I’d wait to see if I could get a walk to the first base. I’d ask to play out field because it was rare anybody in those age groups could hit a ball that far. Yeah, it all sort of slowed down to a halt.

But then friggin’ paintball! Went semi-professional, got a team started and entered into tournaments. We won a few of them actually. I loved it. I was the team’s equivalent of a runningback. The second that whistle blows I’m sprinting along one of the sides and taking out everybody I can before I get tagged. That allowed my team to advance while I’m being an asshole. I wanted that first place prize because me and my team deserved it. I liked it. I was good at it and I felt alive. Even when we lost it wasn’t anger and swearing it was “ok we made mistakes. Let’s use that”.

The thing with ego, competition, pride, is that it can get… in the way sometimes. It gets damaged. And that puts a lot of stress on ones self, if you let it.

It’s getting early and I’m falling sleep so I’ll cut this off now, but I will leave you gents with a question: Have any of you used a weird method to sort of assist you or perhaps guide you when in that competitive space?

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Loco April 8, 2018 / 10:23 am

Been a hot second since I remembered to comment on a podcast. In my defense I listen to them at work and head to bed right when I get home. And because my memory is second only to the prestigious goldfish I tend to forget to come back and add my two cents (CAD). Man, I forget things. A lot. Like “I’m worried for my future” a lot. Like “I was totally dropped on my head as a baby” a lot…. I’ll… I’ll move on.

So because I’m a terrible slacker this one’s going to be a little all over the place as I dump bits of previous podcasts into my usual somewhat sleep deprived-caffeine-fueled-borderline arbitrary posts.

I think I’ve mentioned it before but I do a little bit of writing. Not near Sheldon’s level because I can hardly speaks the Englishs despite that it’s my first language. What I do is mostly DnD stories and RP based bits, things for entertainment. Now with that, because me and my group of amigos have our own separate stories and characters I get…mmmmmmaybe a bit competitive. I want to stand out a little. Not a whole lot because I don’t want to be classified as a snowflake, but enough to be like “That Loco sure is a big strong and ravishing man-baby”.

When this starts to happen I use a sort of technique to help me. Not sure if Sheldon has done this ever (curious to know though). What I do is I pick a Hollywood star who I think would play that character and I read it out in my head. I like to think it gives my work a bit more character, make it a bit more different with each character I’m writing for/as.

I also like to think it works because I’ve actually received compliments in the past such as “That was very ok!” and “I was able to read it without vomiting this time!”. All jokes aside I don’t think I would have er adopted this technique if it weren’t for that rare competitive edge that still lingers around.

Back in my baseball and paintball days, that’s when I was very competitive. Showing up early to check my equipment and stretching, doing the whole thing. It was a fun time but also… stressful. Competition and ego can have a real mommy-daddy fight sometimes and that can turn into something ugly. Like kids posting videos on YouTube about the contemporary fad “So that’s what the future generation looks like huh? Tide pods… bodacious” kind of ugly.

I was really into baseball. Eight years I played and seven of them I really cared if we won or lost. That last year I just sort of let it all happen… instead of swinging I’d wait to see if I could get a walk to the first base. I’d ask to play out field because it was rare anybody in those age groups could hit a ball that far. Yeah, it all sort of slowed down to a halt.

But then friggin’ paintball! Went semi-professional, got a team started and entered into tournaments. We won a few of them actually. I loved it. I was the team’s equivalent of a runningback. The second that whistle blows I’m sprinting along one of the sides and taking out everybody I can before I get tagged. That allowed my team to advance while I’m being an asshole. I wanted that first place prize because me and my team deserved it. I liked it. I was good at it and I felt alive. Even when we lost it wasn’t anger and swearing it was “ok we made mistakes. Let’s use that”.

The thing with ego, competition, pride, is that it can get… in the way sometimes. It gets damaged. And that puts a lot of stress on ones self, if you let it.

It’s getting early and I’m falling sleep so I’ll cut this off now, but I will leave you gents with a question: Have any of you used a weird method to sort of assist you or perhaps guide you when in that competitive space?

LikeLike

Matt April 9, 2018 / 2:14 am

Sheldon – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XrbTqiQGcg

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rpgmatt April 9, 2018 / 2:16 am

Sheldon 😛 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XrbTqiQGcg

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sheldoncarter April 10, 2018 / 1:56 pm

Hey Man
1. I love that technique for finding a character voice and sometimes for description as well. Anytime I work to write hard-boiled detective stuff, its always Bruce Willis 😉
2. Also – and the most time consuming/best way to get my words to sound good is even bypassing the actor in my head and just trying to read it aloud. So many… so many mistakes get picked up doing that. I find I skip words or fill in blanks when I read in my head. Aloud forces the issues.
3. Baseball and Paintball stories are great – I think any type of sport can be a good analogy for the creative process, if you let it be. The same feeling hitting a home run and crafting that perfect character for DND and people loving it. Chemically similar if nothing else.

p.s. thanks for your 2 cents (CAD)… kind of sad thinking that with pennies phased out, soon there will be generations that it is an expression rather than an image.

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