Why Cooperation beats Competition in Games, Education & Parenting, with Alfie Kohn

[@lochdhud]

I totally concur! As a retired teacher I fought for this ideal everyday. My philosophy is that the only time we win is when everybody wins, no classmates were ever left behind. Early finishers would help their peers succeed through peer tutoring and coaching, I found that students will listen to each other long before they listen to a teacher. I would love to hear a student tell another student " try this it worked for me. Once a student finished a skill set they would go help another student. If we finished early we would all kick back and go off topic (nothing is ever off topic) for something fun to explore.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Love your attitude - your students were lucky to have you as their teacher

[@NavigationForDailyLiving]

I love how Alfie is driven by his frustration! A great motivator in itself.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Exactly!

[@NavigationForDailyLiving]

It's a good point that pitting others against each other doesn't breed teamwork and cooperation is so important to teamwork. I am now curious about seeking engaging activities that promote cooperation.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Cool! Glad this inspired you.

[@swingtag1041]

I hate competition because I'm mostly a loser. But in the rare instances where I'm a winner, I also don't like it.

[@GameThinkingTV]

LOL - love your POV

[@pablo1835rigel]

I began hating excellent grades in my final year of HS and learnt the harsh truth in uni.

[@BitterTast3]

I am curious to what Alfie would say to the concept of mob mentality. Because he asserts that multiple minds are better than one but in the case of the mob they are not necessarily smarter than each person would be individually. Along the same lines are things like group think and indoctrinated masses.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Interesting... I'd love to find out his take on this!

[@modmartinez]

Love this interview

[@GameThinkingTV]

So glad you enjoyed it! Alfie is a gem 💎

[@kennethkutz5037]

So important.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Agreed! Glad you enjoyed the interview

[@TheLordHighlander]

Sometimes I do wonder if the reason why we teach students compteitve sports for example instead of co-operative, is because there is this expectation that some of them will go on to be professional athletes. It is less of a case here in Finland, but I could see this being one of the root causes.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Interesting...

[@deborahrose648]

I really appreciate this

[@GameThinkingTV]

So glad to hear that! Anything in particular catch your interest?

[@SilverStarGG]

I love it so much. I would love to see more videos about cooperation and competition. I've come across it while researching a bit about the prisoner's dillema which just completely supports cooperation. Thank you for that

[@GameThinkingTV]

So glad you enjoyed this -- cooperative game design is our jam, we're happy to make more content like this.

[@Person-ef4xj]

I think it would be pretty easy to modify tennis into a cooperative game. Just make it so that the objective of both players is to keep the ball from hitting the ground as long as possible while bouncing it back and forth. When I first heard of tennis I actually thought that what I just described was basically how tennis works, and I think cooperative tennis is also more challenging than competitive tennis as it not only involves trying to catch the ball but to aim the ball at the other players racket.

[@GameThinkingTV]

Love it!

[@jasoncharles83]

Great interview; excellent 💡 ideas!

[@GameThinkingTV]

So glad you enjoyed it! Alfie is truly a mind-blowing visionary🤯

[@sooooooooDark]

the way he talks is really engaging/information dense even tho i didnt agree with many points i could watch the whole thing without stopping (which for an almost 28 min vid surely isnt bad xD)

[@GameThinkingTV]

WOW - that's so interesting. I have mixed feeling too, about many of Alfie's points - I see a more nuanced view of gaming & fun. But like you, I get swept up by his passion.

[@craigsproston7378]

You sound like a socialist communist to me. Even cooperation will have competitiveness. What happens if people disagree during a cooperative situation. Not everyone agrees so what about debate ? What about politics, what about the job interview? What about when 50 people apply for one job?

[@GameThinkingTV]

Hmmm... interesting POV