I guess it&#x27;s not proven, though it seems intuitively obvious (which, I admit, is often the sign of pitfalls) ;). I think what hit me during that talk wasn&#x27;t glorification of competition per se, it was promoting <i>ruthless</i> competition. In the end, team sports and tech challenges are healthy as long as everyone remembers it&#x27;s just a game and doesn&#x27;t treat it <i>too</i> seriously. It works in business too, but there people often forget - sometimes because of greed, and sometimes because money is like hit points - losing them hurts; lose enough and you die.<p>Also interesting note: from my experience, most tech companies aren&#x27;t really competitive. The market is big enough that most successful companies either compete superficially or sometimes outright cooperate, even when working in the same market.