Comparing Yourself to Others, Solved
11/15/20252 hr 10 min
We all compare ourselves to other people—our friends, coworkers, strangers on the internet—and most of the time, it makes us feel like shit. But why do we keep doing it?
In this episode of Solved, we dig into the uncomfortable truth behind social comparison, how it quietly ruins our self-worth, and why most of what we envy in others is a projection of our own insecurity.
We also get into the brutal paradox of success, the toxic loop of chasing status, and how the constant measurement of our lives against others is one of t...
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Mark Manson· Host0:29
You know, Drew, I think it's very appropriate we're doing this episode today.
Drew Birnie· Co-host0:33
Why is that?
Mark Manson· Host0:34
Little ironic, actually. So I came into the office this morning, and for listeners who, who don't know, um, the, the podcasting data situation is a disaster.
Drew Birnie· Co-host0:46
Yeah.
Mark Manson· Host0:47
It's like a... Y- you would actually think for, for an industry that's exploding and growing so quickly, um, there would be a single dashboard somewhere that actually fucking measures who listens to a podcast [laughs] [laughs] And does it accurately. Uh, but apparently that's a lot to ask.
Drew Birnie· Co-host1:02
Yeah.
Mark Manson· Host1:02
And, um, so long story short, we, we came to this realization that, um, uh, our audience was not quite as big as we thought it was. It's still very big, to be clear [laughs], but, you know, it's, it's not quite as big as we thought. Um, and it's like instead of being one of the, I don't know, 50 biggest shows in the world, we're only, like, one of the 300 biggest shows in the world.
Drew Birnie· Co-host1:27
Right.
Mark Manson· Host1:27
Uh, but it was funny because I felt