The Metagame #006: Competition vs. Collaboration

Here’s what’s in store for today:

• When to compete, and when to collaborate

• Reciprocity Bias

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Settlers of Catan is one of my favorite board games.

If you don't know it, it's like Risk and Monopoly had a baby, except it doesn’t make you want to flip over the table.

You collect resource cards, build roads and settlements, trade with other players, and try to win by being the first to ten “Victory Points.”

One common strategy is trading with other players to get the resources you need.

However, as the game progresses, trading with someone might give them the cards they need to win—so what do you do?

Whether it’s board games or the game of life, understanding the balance between competition and collaboration is how you win.

Too much collaboration and you become overly dependent on others.

Too much competition and you isolate yourself.

Situational awareness will help you determine when it's appropriate to use both.

Take a game like poker, for example.

There shouldn’t ever be a time when you want to help your opponent. Collaboration simply doesn’t exist. Why would you want to help someone take your money?

Same goes for chess. It’s a game where you’re playing against a single other opponent, and your goal is to beat them. No collaboration required.

But what about sports?

There’s competition against your opponent, but there’s also collaboration within your own team.

If your sole focus is winning, you sometimes end up breaking apart your own team (at least, that’s how every coming-of-age sports movie shows it, right?)

Now, let’s talk business.

Competitors want to learn your secrets and make a better product than you.

But if you avoid collaboration with others and try to go at it alone, you often get stranded.

A good leader knows how to work with others, without giving up their competitive edge.

To find the win-win scenarios, you need to understand the game is rigged and the rules are constantly changing—but you need to keep playing anyway.

The best way to improve your collaboration is networking online.

There are so many people to learn from—if you know where to look.

It’s worth nothing, the more you grow your network, the more competition there will be…

…but I like to steal ideas from my competitors.

Is there something I’m jealous they have? If so, what are they doing that I can learn from?

Ultimately, your goal in life is to win the so-called “game.” Collect the "victory points" by working with those who will help you, while competing against those trying to outsmart and outshine you.

We love to help people who help us first—it’s called Reciprocity Bias.

Not everyone will be your friend. If you're doing it right, you're bound to make enemies.

But if you help as many people as you can, you’re bound to get help in return and make it further in your career and life.

Quote of the week

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions, hit me up on 𝕏 at @sam_starkman, or feel free to reply to this email!

— Sam