Comparing Yourself to Others, Solved

SOLVED with Mark Manson

Mark Manson

Self-improvement, Education

4.9 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2025

⏱️ 125 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We all compare ourselves to other people—our friends, coworkers, strangers on the internet—and most of the time, it makes us feel like shit. But why do we keep doing it? In this episode of Solved, we dig into the uncomfortable truth behind social comparison, how it quietly ruins our self-worth, and why most of what we envy in others is a projection of our own insecurity. We also get into the brutal paradox of success, the toxic loop of chasing status, and how the constant measurement of our lives against others is one of the dumbest things we do as a species. If you’ve ever felt not good enough, or like you’re falling behind, this one’s for you. We also put together a free companion guide for this episode with all the takeaways, references, and tools to help you get your sh*t together once and for all. Download it here: https://solvedpodcast.com/socialcomparison Sign up for my newsletter, Your Next Breakthrough. It will help make you a less awful person: ⁠https://markmanson.net/breakthrough⁠ Get clarity on what actually matters. Try Purpose, Mark's AI mentor app that learns your patterns, challenges your blind spots, and helps you take action. Get 7 days free at ⁠⁠purpose.app/solved⁠ Chapters: 5:29 CHAPTER 1: Evolutionary Roots 20:18 CHAPTER 2: Philosophy and Social Comparison 48:37 CHAPTER 3: The Psychology of Social Comparison 1:22:19 CHAPTER 4: Digital Technology and Social Comparison 1:44:20 CHAPTER 5: The 80/20 of Managing Comparison Follow Mark Mark’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/markmanson Solved IG: https://www.instagram.com/solvedpodcast/ Twitter: https://x.com/markmanson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmanson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IAmMarkManson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, Drew, I think it's very appropriate we're doing this episode today.
0:03.9	Why is that?
0:04.6	A little ironic, actually.
0:06.1	So I came into the office this morning, and for listeners who don't know, the podcasting
0:13.3	data situation is a disaster.
0:17.4	Yeah.
0:17.6	It's like you would actually think for an industry that's exploding and growing so quickly,
0:22.6	there would be a single dashboard somewhere that actually fucking measures who listens
0:26.7	to a podcast and does it accurately.
0:30.5	But apparently that's a lot to ask.
0:32.2	And so long story short, we came to this realization that our audience was not quite as big as we thought it was.
0:39.3	It's still very big, to be clear.
0:42.6	But, you know, it's not quite as big as we thought.
0:47.4	And it's like instead of being one of the, I don't know, 50 biggest shows in the world,
0:53.3	we're only like one of the 300 biggest shows in the world were only like one of the 300 biggest
0:56.4	shows in the world.
0:58.0	But it was funny because I felt like I like spent a good five minutes talking you off a ledge.
1:04.0	You did.
1:05.3	You had to.
1:06.5	I didn't even make this connection.
1:09.1	Yep.
1:09.5	You got me.
	...

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