Laws was walking through a crowd of pedestrians. It was a surprisingly large crowd, all heading for the college football stadium. It was rare for him to be in crowds, and like now, it was usually by coincidence. Like him, the people in the crowd weren't students. But he was walking in the opposite direction, aiming for the campus library. Occasionally he'd stop and help people with directions to the football stadium. He had the time to stop and help them because he didn't actually have to get to the stadium himself. But he did like the opportunity to be useful.
It reminded him of an interview he'd taken recently. He smiled to himself, even though he had been passed over for that job.
"So, how do you argue?" the interviewer had asked.
"I state the facts, present my solutions, and let others choose as they will," Laws had said.
"That doesn't sound like it would work. People usually have a vested interest in getting their way."
"Sometimes."
"So, what do you do when others are trying to win?"
"I let them win."
"But ... that means you'd always lose."
"I almost always win."
The interviewer had looked puzzled. "How could you almost always win, if you give up whenever there's competition?"
"Because there's almost always no competition."
The interviewer rolled his eyes. "That's not my experience. Everything I do, I'm in competition from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep. You're competing for this job. There's even competition for the house where I sleep."
"It appears, my friend, that I live in a rather different world than you do."
The crowd made him happy. This was his world. No competition yet again.