We never stop comparing ourselves to others. Sometimes it's because we don’t have the things that others have, even though most of the time we don’t even need that thing. We do this even when the comparisons aren’t meaningful. Even when they make us unhappy. Even when they don’t actually make us better, smarter, or more productive human beings. And we seem to be doing it more and more. So why do we compare ourselves to other people? Is there any benefit to seeing how we stack up against others? And if there isn’t, how can we stop? Zhuangzi in the second inner chapter, by employing fantasy dialogues and light-hearted allegories, offers us not the diagnosis but also the solutions to the problem. Hopefully this podcast, by calling upon the listeners to take a pause from mundane life and take self-reflection like a philosopher and to question the relations they have with others and themselves, can alleviate some anxiety of peer pressure.

Overview:
0:32 Introduction: the act of comparing
3:14 Summary of the Second Inner Chapter "Equalizing Assessment of Things"
4:50 The Question of Comparison I - the essence of "others": who are we comparing to?
9:44 The Question of Comparison II - the essence of "self" in comparing
13:05 Sum up & Solution to the act of Comparing

3 takeaways by reflecting on Zhuangzi and act of comparing:
1)You don’t know about others quite enough.
2)You don’t know about yourself quite enough.
3)We are comparing our idea of ourselves to our ideas of others.

Reference List
Social comparison theory. (2021, March 17). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_comparison_theory

Xu, K. (2011). A Different Type of Individualism in Zhuangzi. Dao. 10. 445-462. 10.1007/s11712-011-9244-z.

Zhuangzi & Ziporyn, B. (2009). Zhuangzi: The essential writings with selections from traditional commentaries. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.

Ruby Luojia Chen