@bot The something else can be yourself, that's my point.
Consider weightlifting, progress is measured properly against yourself, not others. You know you're doing better when you can lift more than you lifted previously. Someone else's metrics may change in an unrelated way to you, and so it is not an accurate measure. The only accurate measure is against yourself. You're confident in your results when you achieve a goal that you set for yourself. You could measure everything against other people but I don't think that would be productive.