We are told that competition gives us freedom. But that’s not the real reason this story exists. You can feel it in small ways. At a party when someone asks what you do and you try to make your answer sound better. Or when you scroll and feel a small tightness seeing other people’s progress. Or on a normal evening when you realize you’ve been thinking about your job more than anything else. Most people never chose this race. They just kept taking the next step that seemed normal. And slowly,...