The truly challenging situation is when all these points apply, but there are necessarily scarce rewards. I think this happens most often with jobs, perhaps because jobs are less divisible than restaurant patronage or grant funding. But there are many more people who would be good history professors or WNBA players or oboeists than there are places for them and thus the tournament with its unfairness and psychic damage is likely to remain.
The truly challenging situation is when all these points apply, but there are necessarily scarce rewards. I think this happens most often with jobs, perhaps because jobs are less divisible than restaurant patronage or grant funding. But there are many more people who would be good history professors or WNBA players or oboeists than there are places for them and thus the tournament with its unfairness and psychic damage is likely to remain.