[visarga]

I am not convinced by the article. For one, I don't think beginners mind is necessarily superior to expert mind. After all, why would society value the expert more than the novice? Has anyone actually checked to see if experts don't have an even greater openness towards learning and novelty?

About giving up on projects and how the ego plays into that, I don't think in such black and white - giving up = bad, persevering = good. Sometimes you need to give up in order to find a better approach. There are reasons why this instinct is present in our species (something to do with the exploration exploitation trade-off). We can't paint over it with self help advice.

Comparing yourself to others is bad? Why? It's an evolutionary advantage to learn from the experiences of others. By doing comparisons you can calibrate your values. Competition is a great motivator. Having a row model can be fast way towards improvement. Comparison between peers is like a second order metric, first order metrics relying only on self.

The advice about not comparing yourself to others is useful only in a limited setting - where you devalue your accomplishments and have nothing to gain from it. But when comparison motivates you to improve, then it's actually not bad. Also when comparison prompts you to take action and avoid a crisis you could be spared a lot of suffering. Comparison can act like an alarm. Another function of comparison is to make groups more cohesive - if they form a common culture they can function better - so aligning oneself to the group can be beneficial for all.