Keep Playing

Winning or losing can be quite relative, especially knowing that it's a happenstance that everyone experiences at some point in their journey.

A defeat today can actually become the foundation for tomorrow's success. Vice versa, what we consider a victory today could later reveal itself as a stepping stone to greater challenges.

Usually, we tend to associate wins or losses to certain milestones along the journey. If I win this scholarship, then I will get into X University and secure my dream education, which will lead to an ideal job, which will result in financial stability, which will enable me to.... It just never stops.

The chain of expectations keeps extending as long as we're measuring our journey against a moving horizon of what society, or we ourselves, deem as success.

Sometimes, it's the end or the beginning of another journey. I have succeeded in this trade, now I have X amount of tokens, which was the goal all along. Now, I can focus on something else. Maybe a larger trade or a different market.

If it was just that easy as I've mapped out above.

In reality, there's always this urge to push further and chase bigger wins within the same set of parameters and metrics.

Part of the reason comes from a gradual conditioned realization to seek increasingly larger stakes, even after our initial objectives have already been met.

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A Perpetual Game

I experience this urge more as a pull to keep playing into what seems like a perpetual game, in which the rules and stakes keep evolving.

This is especially true in trading and competitive sports, where there's this flavour of infinity. For me, it's the numerical nature of the former that creates a somewhat illusionary perception of unlimited potential for improvement, despite having a good understanding of the basics.

Or there's this counterintuitive realization, that you're playing the game neither to win nor lose but to keep playing, because the process itself has become the purpose.

The latter is more true with life in general. Interpersonal relationships, personal development, and creative pursuits can be viewed as infinite games where there's no final fixed winning state.

If I'm playing an infinite game, then I need to re-calibrate my mindset routinely, in order to maintain sustainable progress without burning out or getting over bored.

Arguably, infinite games are the hardest to play and the longest to get right, as in understanding and going with the flow without taking anything that happens too personally.

I'm not sure if being impersonal helps in becoming better at this type of game.

In theory, having an individual arc lightens up(makes it alive) any story, creates resonance and relatable-ness.

In a way, a game is also a story we're actively playing and depending on the game, we can simultaneously be the protagonist and the author.

Experiencing each moment and also contributing to shaping the path forward. That's what life's game offers us, generally.

In practice, there's a twist. The narrative is written as we go, learning from past chapters and remaining fairly uncertain about the next ones.


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