Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Winner Takes All???

A number of years ago a heard a commentator on NPR discussing what was a new phenomenon he had observed in higher ed. Lots of four year schools whose missions had been traditionally focused on teaching were recruiting faculty that could competitively chase grant dollars for research. The reason, as he saw it, was rooted in a growing philosophy that if you didn't keep up with the research schools, excellence would pass you by. He felt that there was a growing attitude that said that you had to get in the game and then you had to work to win because second best wouldn't cut it in the minds of prospective students and their parents. Everyone had to be a Harvard or an MIT or a Berkeley or the students won't come. It was a "winner takes all" attitude. Additionally, the commentator said that this trend in higher ed was merely following a growing trend in popular culture.

Over the years I've tried to watch things with this idea in mind because I thought it was an interesting one. From my perspective, his views on the trend in higher ed turned out to be wrong. Too many studnets are too interested in having good teachers. A lot of the research oriented faculty that were hired have since left to pursue different careers and have been replaced by faculty who having teaching as a significant part of their personal missions. The second point, I believe, has turned out to be true. We are becoming a winner takes all sort of society. This is especially true in sports but is also true in other arenas as well. Artistic works are judged more and more often by the dollars they bring in rather than on their artisitic merits. If you're not at the very top of your class, then you didn't really matter. If you don't win the championship then you have failed. Note, this isn't the attitude of most athletes or artists or students. It's the attitude of the society that feels it had the right to comment on someone else's accomplishments.

The interesting thing to me is the effects this attitude set has. For some, it becomes a crushing weight. The ever-increasing mass of expectation eventually causes the individual to collapse. For others, it drives them to greater effort and accomplishment. In both these cases, the external motivation drives their behavior. A third type of person is the type who ignores the winner takes all strategy. This person sees the world as more than winners and losers but as goals met and lessons learned. Achievement comes from meeting goals and moving forward, regardless of what value society places on those goals. Disappointment comes from not doing the realistic things required to meet the goals.

For me, an example is my goal to go to the Master's National Championships. If I don't achieve that goal because I was slack and don't train then I will be disappointed in myself. If I do all that I can however and still don't make it then I can give up on the notion that I've "lost" and realize that I have learned what is realistic. In a sense, a better word is that I'll become dis-illusionsed. Not in the negative sense where I don't place my faith in myself or my abilities (or in someone else's) but in the sense that I no longer have illusions that with the effort I put in I can go to Nationals. I can evaluate things and decide what my next step is. In that sense, I have achieved a great deal whether I go or not.

Winning and losing, like any external system of reward and punishment, is artificial and is thus little more than a minor consequence to a person who is internally motivated. Both winning and losing have can consequences but we learn so much more by the process than by the externally measured outcome.

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