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Why are some seemingly so obsessed with one-upping others?

Know someone who likes to "one-up" everyone? You know, when you talk about a wild drunken night when you drank too much and started dancing with a pole you thought was an actual person, and THAT guy then talks about his drunken night of streaking around downtown Chicago, getting chased by a gang, getting arrested, before being bailed out by his mother while he's sitting in a jail cell mostly nude? Yeah, that guy... I know someone like that as well. We don't see each other too regularly, but whenever we're out and about together, especially when others are with us, he seems to feel the need to one-up everyone, especially me.

Why? Really, why do some people feel the need to do this? I'm sure most everyone could make up a story to one-up another's, but why do that? Is it out of insecurity? Always wanting to be the center of attention? How they've been brought up? An obsession with the old Saturday Night Live skit which centered around this very behavior?

It's not like after a person talks about some health problems, I suddenly feel the need to say, "Oh yeah? Well, I had brain surgery, so there! I win!"

Everyone has their own stories to share. I wish more people would take the time to actually listen to other's stories and soak them in completely, before deciding where to take the conversation next.

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