Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes and no. Comparison with others is not only natural but necessary for progress. What is important is how one deals with knowing where he stands in relation to others.

A person with positive attitude will find more determination and ways to better himself while a negative person will only see doom and get depressed.

Both at the individual and societal level, contentment leads to stagnation and complacency. In a world that is rapidly changing and progressing, countries and indeed, individuals that stay still will fall behind. Had Singapore been "contented" when it achieved its independence status in 1964 and not sought to progress further as a nation, we will not be where we are right now.

As a 55 yo Singaporean, I have lived through and benefited from the amazing growth and progress that our nation has achieved. Back when I was at "O" levels, the expectation among the neighbors in my kampung was that achieving "O" level was adequate. But luckily for me and my siblings, my parents were forward looking (though they were not highly educated). They compared with the children of their relatives (our cousins) who lived in the city. They were aiming for overseas degrees! My parents then encouraged us to continue studying for as long and as high as we could and not be contented with "O" levels. But some of my neighbors stopped after "O" levels and went to work. In those early years, their families seemed to fare better financially, while our family was really poor while we continued studying. We had to give tuition and worked part time to pay our school fees. Seeing our neighbors buying color televisions, refrigerators, new sofas etc.. were really temptation for us to give up our studies and join the workforce. But persevered, we did.

Fast forward to today, it is now hard to imagine how any parent would ever be satisfied that their children stopped studying after "O" levels. Today, the minimum is a diploma if not a basic degree. Should we be satisfied? Yes, we should celebrate what we achieved, but we should not stop pursuing more. How much more? The answer lies in comparing with others who have achieved more!