Van Gogh again

I've been reading Van Gogh's letters, Dear Theo on and off, mostly off, for years now.
Mostly he writes about how little money he has and using the poor as models.
Then there will be a bit about mixing colors or using charcoal pencil.
This bit, however, has relevance to life today. "Competition that arises from jealousy is quite a different thing from trying one's best to make the work as good as possible for the sake of mutual respect. I do not see any good in jealousy, but I should despise a friendship which did not call for some exertion from both sides to keep it on the same level."
On the Human Kinetics website, author David Shields went so far as to rename the negative approach to a contest - simply trying to knock out the opponent by any means, calling it decompetition, writing, "The term "competition" comes from Latin roots and literally means "to strive with." Importantly, it does not mean "to strive against."