We all feel the urge to compare ourselves to others. (No, it’s not just you), including the absolutely most successful among us. But is that actually good for us? And are the images we’re comparing ourselves against even true?
Kara and Tanja talk about comparison, competition, and what it’s like to accidentally be the one others are comparing themselves to (and what to do about it if that happens).
Kara talks to her friend Nina, who is currently working three (and sometimes more!) jobs. Is the hustle never ending? What does the urge to compare mean when you’re a business owner and trying to start your own thing? Find Nina on Twitter and at collectiveblue.co
And today we’ve got an interview with money blogger J. Money (J$), who started the Rockstar Finance net worth tracker, inspiring radical transparency across the personal finance blogosphere. He also blogs at budgetsaresexy.com.
Also referenced: You Did Not Sleep There and Socality Barbie instagrams
Season 1 of The Fairer Cents is sponsored by FreshBooks, the cloud accounting software for business rockstars. Go to freshbooks.com/tfc and enter “the fairer cents” in the how did you hear about us box to get a one-month free trial of the accounting software we both use and love.
The Fairer Cents Podcast 
This was a nice discussion. If you are interested in more about why people (as in everyone) is like this, you might want to look into Mimetic Theory (as founded by Rene Girard).
The fact of the matter is, most of the things we we want are simply based on our fundamental nature to mimic others, and not just the behavior of others, but also the desires of others.
If you can internalize this idea — that most of your desires are merely just copied from what you see others wanting and consuming — you will stop wanting or caring about a lot of things (and vacations to popular places).
Thanks for putting this together.
This was a good talk, but I think it was the first podcast where I actively disagreed.
I think wage transparency should be the norm across the board, especially in the public sector. How else are you going to fight wage gaps and gender inequality, unless you do as Iceland just did and make it flat out illegal to pay someone less for doing the same work? There might be some hiccups in the beginning, like CEO pay skyrocketing in the beginning, but I do think it’ll flat out.
Can’t you check tax records anyway? We can go online and see how much John Doe paid in taxes three years ago. I don’t think many people do so actively, but that information is available for transparency’s sake.
Do you know that the volume of this episode varies a lot? Your voices are very, very low, J Money is louder, and the music is way louder. It’s especially difficult to hear on my Jambox.
I agree with pixieroses. I had to stop listening after five minutes because I was tired of changing the volume every time you spoke and every time there was music.