Studying and working in big groups creates competitive environment. Some people believe that living in a high-achievement space is beneficial to individual. Let’s compare the pros and the cons of this statement.
First of all, being surrounded by motivated and aspiring people might give us additional external support to continue our tasks. For example, in order to impress your colleagues, you would want to make a pitch presentation as clear and prepared as possible, so you would devote more time for that, maybe even in a work-free time. Second of all, by trying to be better than somebody, you also are growing yourself, improving in skills and knowledge. For instance, when you’re trying to get a higher grade than your classmate, you’re learning extra-curriculum material for the class, which gives you more new information. So, competition makes people try harder and challenge themselves.
On the other side, individuals face psychological problems being faced with a racing environment. It puts a lot of pressure and places high and toxic standards. To illustrate, I’ll provide an example of my experience in university. While I was trying to achieve high grades, I stressed a lot and reached a complete mental burnout which led to an academic leave. Another downside is that competition might create an artificial race of empty numbers instead of real quality. For instance, grades in school do not always match the level of knowledge of a student. It might be pure luck or the result of cheating. To sum up, trying to get excellent results in study and work might lead to negative results such as burnout and self-doubt.
To sum up, there are positive outcomes of a competitive environment, such as boost in motivation and personal growth as well as negative ones, like different mental struggles and pressure.