Envy · 6:17pm Jan 9th, 2014
I won't bother explaining what envy is, but I will go into the side effects.
When we see something we want, we'll often ruminate on it, or spend time dreaming of owning it. It's a rather normal thought process in a consumerist world like the one we live in. When applied to pony, and this site in particular, we'll sometimes see people with a lot of followers. Writers whose stories have tons of views and faves and comments.
But is it a bad thing?
I mean, sometimes, seeing someone succeed at something we wished we could do will drive us to try too. Sometimes a healthy dose of competition will give us the boost to stay up later and work harder.
But it also makes us feel like crap. More than once I've found myself thinking thoughts along the lines of "Why can I write as pretty as him/her?"
What're your thoughts?
Is envy a good or bad thing, or should it be taken in moderation? Do you suffer from it too, or do you try to avoid it and just have fun?
Obligatory FMA ref.
Far too much its crushing in its weight as it often happens.
I go through this myself. There are writers on this site and others that I see and wish I could be just half as good as they are.
However, that just gives me a bar to work towards. Otherwise, I'd just be content to waddle in mediocrity and never feel the need to improve.
Envy is a good thing, so long you remind yourself to improve yourself to the envied position, or try to seek an alternative you value equally.
The problem is when you start looking to diminish the other to bring him down to your (perceived) level. Then Envy is a terribly destructive force. Too bad we use the same word for both.
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I usually find admiration to be a much better word for the good side of it. Envy has a negative connotation, and is almost always used in reference to the latter of what you mentioned.
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Hmm, yeah, I guess you're right.
It depends on how we percieve it, then?
I admire those that can do... say, parkour. It's cool and useful. I envy them when I can't even jump over a decent snowbank outside though.
I'm never envious of any of authors that have more followers or are featured because I don't care about followers or being featured. Most of the time it is just a measure of who writes popular lesbian ships and Fallout fics.
In fact most of the time I am never envious of anyone unless it is the unproductive kind that breeds hate do to that certain thing I am jealous of is something that I will never get due to them having it thanks to luck of their life. I usually let these feeling happen as I know for a fact I will never act on them in any way shape or form because I know deep down it is a HIGHLY petty thing to hate someone for and keep it to myself. The hate just makes me feel better.
I find it to be good and bad, depending on how I myself feel at any given time. Sometimes I read a story and wish I could do that and get sad other times I'm like I want to, no I will do that and it spurs me to work on something of my own. With the followers and likes thing, that just annoys me because I have read crap stories with hundreds of likes and comments that I just can't fathom how people love this work, and the good stories well written and enjoyable that no one else seems to like (that's were I fall, decent syories and even admittedly bad ones and I think a few good ones that no one else cares for or have found because I have no name) so in the end I just pay attention to comments which no one bothers with. Envy can be good if you use it to fuel yerself, but if you let into yer head and sick it becomes bad. It's all about how you deal with the envy.
Whenever I see something that I love in writing, I sit it down and read it a lot, then when I sit down to write, I think to myself "what can I do to make myself feel like I'm reading this thing that I just really loved?"
It helps a lot, actually. Mimicry (of course, it goes deeper than literally copying words and styles) is one of the first and best ways to learn and eventually do things better ourselves.
So I'd say more often than not, with the right mindset, it can be turned into something very positive.
I think it's something that needs to be taken in moderation, just like everything else. Though, like Empour said, admiration is the positive connotation.
I tend to use it to try to better myself and my motivation, and admiring a writer like you, Rust, or the numerous others that I follow leads me to want to do better, and I know that the only way to do that is to keep working at it. My writing has improved significantly since I began, and it will only continue to get better until I'm 'One of the Greats' should that be my destiny.
Though, when I read an author's work who's skill I could never hope to match, I don't let it discourage me, mostly because I write for my own enjoyment. I do like to let it drive me to push myself though, because how will you know your limit if you never go past it?
I realize that I'm beginning to not make much sense, so I'm gonna go ahead and shut up now. Keep your heads high fellow writers! You can always do better, so long as you work at it.
Envy, at its core, is a force of ascension, and is very closely tied with Greed. As such, to understand one, one must first understand the other. There is nothing wrong with being greedy, as it only means that one wants more than one already has. Envy means to look with favor upon the possession of others, and to be desirous of obtaining similar things for oneself. Envy and greed are the motivating forces of ambition--and without ambition, very little of any importance would be accomplished.
Everybody experiences Envy at some point or another: a child watching his friends play outside while he nurses a broken arm; a college student fighting for an A on the bell curve in his chemistry class; a janitor pulling the trash from the bin as he hears the doctors with high salaries chatting it up over coffee in the breakroom. These scenarios share a common trait, the desire to have what others have. A desire for more. A drive to be better in the world. Envy is growth.
And yet, there is another side to the coin. Envy, at its strongest, can be much more than ambition. It can morph and twist into a desire to not only have what another has, but to prevent others from enjoying their possessions; the desire for others to not have anything at all. Denial of happiness. It is the jealous man who slashes his neighbor's tires because he cannot afford a sports car of his own. It is the employee who steals company money because he has none of his own. It is the schoolyard bully who taunts the child wearing name-brand clothing, when he wears hand-me-downs. Envy is cruel.
To keep a balance, one must accept that Envy can be a force of either good or evil, depending on what one allows it to become. One can either use it to better themselves and reach their goals, or they can trod upon and stamp out everyone else. The choice is theirs.
I find envy to be a silly emotion. Why wish you were someone you're not?
When I see someone doing something that I want to do, I don't wish I was that person. I just start working toward that goal. There's no point where I look and say, "Man, I wish I was as good as that person," because either I'm being lazy and don't want to be as good as that person, or I'm already doing my best and being irritated (which I often feel when envious) is a silly thing to feel when you're already doing your best.
I work with a bunch of other technicians, most of whom are several decades ahead of me in their computer experience. I don't envy their higher learning; rather, I feel there is far more I can learn just by observing or, dare I say, asking in regards to things I'm not as good as them at. So far, I've gotten very efficient at working with tape backups, using system monitoring applications, and checking servers for proper functionality thanks to them. Currently, I'm learning how to send e-mails to an enterprise network management team and not get fired for being incompetent.
So, no, I'm not envious of others for what I don't have, because if I was the best at everything, I'd hardly be me now, would I?
'taken in moderation'