Winning the Game of Life
Focusing on winning Singleplayer Games over Multiplayer Games is more sustainable
I recently had a thought, which kept building. I don’t think this is particularly novel but the analogy seemed fun enough to birth into a post. If we consider life a collection of games we play, then focussing on winning singleplayer games is more sustainable than neglecting them to win multiplayer games. What do I mean by this?
WHY GAMES?
Firstly, why is life a collection of games. This might initially sound nihilistic and there is some truth to that. Ultimately, an objective view of the human condition leads to the conclusion that everything humans care about is a construct in meme space. An asteroid that is on track to hit earth in 150 years doesn’t really care about causing an extinction level event and what humans think about that. Everything we ascribe value to is a figment of our anthropocentric view of the world. Things we try to achieve to call our lives meaningful, worthy or fulfilled, can therefore be seen as games or “an activity that one engages in for amusement or fun” (dictionary definition of game). In a so called objective reality nothing we do really matters to the fate of the universe, which will eventually end in an epic crunch, freeze, rip or decay. Of course, on most days I don’t think this way but today let’s entertain this notion. So what are singleplayer games versus multiplayer games then?
SINGLE VERSUS MULTIPLAYER
Winning singleplayer games requires very little input from others and most of the input from us. You are fully in control of learning the guitar. Multiplayer games are games where many externalities need to align for you to win. For instance becoming rich or becoming a celebrity are both games that require others to believe, support, buy, collaborate etc. for your victory. Of course, sometimes we play games not to win but for entertainment. However, there are some games in life you’d rather not lose. With that in mind what games should we focus on winning rather than losing?
The most important single player games seem to be the ones that are most engrained with the core of our being. We are social animals and our immediate tribe of people is core to our being, as such being a great son/daughter, father/mother, husband/wife, uncle/aunt, or friend seem to be the most important games to win. The results of the longest running study (80 years) in adult development says as much. Note that I didn’t say “being the best son/daughter...” as that would be a multiplayer game, where you have to beat everyone else. I am also aware that being a good son/daughter requires more than one person to play along. However, consider that if you would poll 100 people to judge your father/son relationship and they consider you a winner of the title “being a great son”, then strictly speaking you are a winner even if your father doesn’t think so. There are simply easier to judge behaviours and parameters that allow us to assess winning in singleplayer games. We, therefore, establish that there is a stronger correlation with your input in these core singleplayer games and their outcome versus multiplayer games.
Of course, multiplayer games are a lot of fun and to some they probably have more allure than singleplayer games. Who doesn’t want to be rich or famous…? Well I’m not saying to give up on trying to for instance become a great entrepreneur. Most multiplayer games are actually core to moving our civilisation forward in some “meaningful” (anthropocentric bias for sure here but we gotta live a little) way. The point I’m trying to convey is that the odds of winning are a lot lower and the fulfilment might be short-lived, as evidenced by celebs and rich people not giving up on winning singleplayer games. The point is winning multiplayer games at the detriment of singleplayer games doesn’t seem like a good strategy to win life. Most people seem to regret losing singleplayer games more than multiplayer games.
If you are one of the few (sociopaths) that doesn’t care about singleplayer games then I suggest you need a good amount of resilience and conviction. While resilience is self-explanatory, let me clarify the word conviction here. We are malleable and prone to be programmed by all sorts of influences constantly bombarding us. If you want to trade singleplayer losses for multiplayer wins, you should make sure that the game you are pursuing is really one you want to win, because it really fulfils you, rather than one that you have been programmed to win by media, capitalism, or your weird uncle.
CONCLUSION
In summary, I’m not suggesting to become less ambitious and give up on your dreams but to consider the tradeoffs you are making. Playing for safe important singleplayer wins, while having side objectives of winning some multiplayer games seems like a sustainable strategy.