Hello everyone! We are back again today with another edition of Splinterland Economics - a series in which we introduce a basic economic concept and then apply it to Splinterlands. If this is your first time reading, just to tell you a little bit about myself: my day job is in an unrelated area but I consider myself a little bit of economics nerd - I read a little (or maybe way, way) more news than I should, double majored in econ, and am obsessed with optimization. I love the way Splinterlands is equal parts card game and resource allocation game. My goal with these articles is to share a little bit of what I know with you all.

Our topic this week is competitive advantage. While applying this topic will be a little lighter on the hard math, it provides a framework in order to help you determine the best ways to apply your time, energy, and resources towards different aspects of Splinterlands. Oh, and it just might be useful while going about your everyday life too!

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What is competitive advantage?

Competitive advantage refers to the fact that different parties (people, companies, countries, etc.) will be more or less effective at doing certain types of activities in order to produce different types of goods and earn some sort of profits. Competitive advantage can occur due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to, prior knowledge and experience, geography, or existing capital.

You might be familiar with French wine, Swiss cheese, Canadian maple syrup, or countless other products that are known to come from certain areas. It is likely that those areas have a competitive advantage for some reason. Maybe they have the perfect climate to grow grapes, knowledge and a strong reputation gained from a long history of cheese production, or a whole lot of maple trees. This allows those countries to have some sort of combination of benefits that they can use to their advantage, such as higher production capacities, better quality, or being able to sell their products at a larger markup.

Regardless of how this competitive advantage is obtained, whoever or whichever party has the competitive advantage will tend to dominate whichever area they have the advantage in. It is important to note here, however, that the party with competitive advantage is not necessarily the only one who will participate in a certain activity, but there is a good chance that they will at least be able to grab the lion's share of the profits available.

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How do we apply it to Splinterlands?

There are a whole lot of ways to make income in Splinterlands, and everyone is going to be better at different types of activities in order to earn that income. Maybe you're great at random battles on the ladder, or at picking someone's lineup apart in tournament matches, maybe you're a wizard at sniping underpriced cards in the market and flipping them for higher values, or faster at writing up high quality blog posts. Heck, maybe you have more time than you know what to do with and can sit at your computer all day watching streams for free giveaways. Your path to success in Splinterlands lies in finding what your competitive advantage is and leveraging it as much as you can.

Do keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to devote all of your time towards whatever specific thing you are best at. Taking the time and effort to improve your skills with the end goal of becoming more efficient in a new area is a more than worthy use of your resources, and can do great things for your long term well-being. Some examples of this would be taking the time to get better at playing on the ladder, researching which cards will be most sought after in order to determine the direction of the market, or working on your blog posts in order to be able to put out higher quality content.

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Why should we care?

You'll make the most of your time in Splinterlands (and maximize your assets) by identifying what you do best and doing as much of it as you enjoy. Remember that there are plenty of different ways to earn in the game, so keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out different areas that you are good at, or enjoy and have a passion for.

Everyone comes to Splinterlands with their own set of skills, experiences, and resources. When looking at other players you may spot players who have huge amounts of capital, are wizards at playing on the ranked ladder, or excel in countless other areas. It is important to recognize that everyone has different advantages. If you can know yourself and identify your competitive advantages, you'll be able to figure out how to find your niche and grow your resources.

Oh, and a quick final note - don't limit your self-analysis to Splinterlands! While this is an outstanding game with an amazing community and development team, there is much more to life than a blockchain game. Remember to be mindful of your competitive advantages in order to find your edge away from the keyboard too - it can be a great help in your work and social life too!

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Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:

• Welcome to Struggletown, Population - Me: Using Feral Spirit in Battle! - My entry into last week's battle challenge, a matchup featuring Feral Spirit.

• Splinterlands Economics: Sunk Cost - An introduction to the concept of sunk cost, and how it relates to Splinterlands.

• Chaos Legion General Sale Plans and Goals - Laying out some of my goals for the chaos Legion general sale.

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Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!