Another Culture Change

[Elliot191]

Originally Posted by Cory

Why should you not want to win?

Why do we celebrate mediocrity as a culture?

Why do we look down on people who have competitive drive?

FIRST is a lot of things, but at it's heart it is a robotics competition. When we are at a competition we're there to win. There's a lot of other great things we get out of the actual competition like meeting other teams, learning about other teams robots, etc, but it IS a competition and if you aren't there to compete and try to win, why bother?

A desire to be the best you can at everything you do should be what all teams strive to teach their students, in my not so humble opinion.

This comment saddens me. What many people are failing to see is that the competition is a byproduct of the mission of FIRST. To even question why a team would build a robot for anything other than competition, who to imply that every team should be driven by an insatiable need for winning is feeding into the attitudes which FIRST is against.

Let me reiterate. It's not about the competition. FIRST is simply about spreading interest in science and technology . the competition is a byproduct, one of many tools employed by the organization. But competition is not at the heart. If a team builds a robot to field, even builds a robot that won't move, they've all won, because they are all taking part in the solution. If a group is working to inspire students to go into science and technology, then how they do in the competition is dust in the wind, because it's the building and long hours to accomplish a collective goal that are going to stick with them, not the scores of their 3rd qualifying match at FLR.

Also, how can you imply that if a team isn't winning, they are mediocre? any person involved in building a FIRST robot is far from mediocre. The advanced systems, design techniques, teamwork etc. is far from what society would consider mediocre.

That being said, I'd love to win. Anybody would. But in the long run, winning and losing are the same thing. At the end of the day, every team in FRC has accomplished something amazing in the sculpting of the next generation of leaders.