Many things are winner-take-all. Olympic Gold. Company founder. CEO.

And looking past the top one person, there are power laws too. The number 2 person in a company gets paid twice what the number 3 person gets, and so on.

And it's not just money. There's power - politicians. And fame - actors, and others. They all follow the same pattern.

Given that this is the world we live in, there's a huge incentive to move up one rung on the ladder relative to the people around you.

Part of this drive to move ahead of other people is rational because of the geometrically increasing rewards.