system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[middle earth] How has man survived

I know this is more fantasy than science fiction but there is no askfantasy sub so hoping someone can shed some light on this question. Basically I'm wondering how man has survived in middle earth because as far as I can tell they are outmatched by every other race..

The orks are more brutal and can smell others scents. The elves live longer, are more agile and excellent fighters and can enchant weapons. The dwarves seem to be better engineers and can lift more than their own weight. Man just seems to be decidedly average in comparison. Then when you look at the dangers out there like trolls, stone golums, giant spiders etc it makes me wonder how man has prospered at all?
gpt
All forms of speculative fiction is welcome here, don't let the name fool you. 

For the most part, all the other races are too insular and bound by tradition or internal law to spread out in the same way men do. Elves are perfectly happy to remain in their forests and homes and not go outside places they've claimed and ruthlessly keep safe. 

Dwarves and goblins/orcs generally keep underground, where men rarely venture. Dwarves prefer to mine than colonize or fight wars. Of all the good races, men and Dwarves probably have the least contact. 

Goblins and orcs are also usually too disorganized to ever put up a major threat to men and their cities. Yes, they sometimes form armies that are the subject of songs and stories, but for the vast majority of time, they're content to fight each other and only manage to form small raiding parties to harass human settlements. They need a leader to organize them, and not any of their rank and file are ever capable of doing that. It takes an extraordinary one, or a dark lord to do it, and those generally don't exist for much of history. 

As for the other dangerous creatures, we've also survived hundreds of thousands of years in Africa, Asia, the middle east and Australia without the aid of modern technology or even swords and armor. Elephants, lions, bears, tigers, etc, are just as dangerous as trolls, spiders and the like. Men either avoid them (which is often easy since most of those creatures live in areas men don't) or they go off in groups to exterminate them if they pose a threat.