The reason to play the game is to be free of it.” — Naval Ravikant

= 人生賽局

• Be carefully selective/picky in the games you choose to play. Which game you play is much more important than how well you play the game. Fight battles you are destined to win.
• Don’t play games you don’t want to win. If you play stupid games, you will win stupid prizes. Escape the rat race cycle.
• Analogy: 夾娃娃機
  • 本體 (e.g., 機台造型、擺設方式)
  • 贈品 (e.g., 保夾金額、物品價值)

Winner’s Game vs. Loser’s Game

In the 1999 tennis book, Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Tennis Player, author Simon Ramo broke down the difference between amateur and professional tennis, writing that they were two different types of games:

• Amateur tennis is a Loser’s Game: 80% of points are lost on unforced errors. You win by avoiding errors and waiting for your opponent to make errors.
• Professional tennis is a Winner’s Game: 80% of points are won on incredible shots. You win by hitting incredible shots.

You have to know what kind of game you’re playing

• In a Loser’s Game, there’s no point trying to hit magnificent shots. You’re better off keeping it simple and avoiding unforced errors.
• In a Winner’s Game, there’s no point trying to play conservatively to avoid unforced errors. You’re better off trying to hit the elegant, perfect shots.

Most games in life are Loser’s Games

Occasionally, a situation may call for the elegant, perfect shot. You want to be prepared for those moments and know you have it in your back pocket.

You want to be able to win the Winner’s Game.

But most of the time, you just want to keep the ball in play.

You just want to stay in the game long enough to let the magic of compounding to do its thing.

You don’t need talent or luck to win a Loser’s Game—you just need to keep showing up.

You don’t get “paid” for complex, magnificent shots—you get “paid” for consistently avoiding unforced errors.

In most games in life, the sum of consistent, ordinary performances adds up to something extraordinary.

But intelligent people are naturally drawn to sexy, complex answers and solutions.

Why? Because they make you sound interesting.

Self-awareness is key

1

Alex Carusoentered the NBA’s development league after going undrafted in 2016. A few years later, he was a key player leading the Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA championship.

When asked about how he rose from undrafted nobody to this level of stardom, he said that self-awareness was the key:

“A big reason guys get stuck in the League is because they don’t realize the position they’re trying out for. It’s like going to a job interview thinking you’re going to be the CFO of the company and they’re looking for someone to clean the bathrooms. […] It’s a self-awareness of understanding what you’re good at, what teams need, and trying to do that.”

2

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at 2024 SIEPR Economic Summit

One of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations, and I mean that. Most Stanford graduates have very high expectations, and you deserve high expectations because you come from a great school, you were very successful, you are on top of you class. Obviously, you were able to pay for tuition, and you’re graduating from one of the finest institutions on the planet. You are surrounded by other kids that are just incredible. You naturally have very high expectations. [However,] people with very high expectations have very low resilience. And unfortunately, resilience matters in success. I don’t know how to teach it to you, except [to say], “I hope suffering happens to you.” I was fortunate that I grew up with parents who provided conditions for us to be successful on the one hand, but there were [also] plenty of opportunities for setbacks and suffering. To this day, I use the phrase “pain and suffering” inside our company with great glee, and I mean that [in a happy way], because you want to train and refine the character of your company. You want greatness out of them, and greatness is not intelligence as you know; greatness comes from character, and character isn’t formed out of smart people, it’s formed out of people who suffered. So, if I could wish upon you—I don’t know how to do it—but for all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering.

[@carseFiniteInfiniteGames2012]

• 出奇制勝結束了有限遊戲；而出乎意料則是無限遊戲繼續進行的原因
• To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated. (準備應對驚喜，意味著接受訓練；準備迎接驚喜，意味著接受教育)
  • While training is essential for certain scenarios, education is more important for truly navigating the complexities and uncertainties of life
    • Training: A more rigid approach where you aim to minimize surprises by mastering specific skills or responses.
      • 訓練是在未來重複一個已經完成的過去
    • Education: A more dynamic, flexible approach that allows you to engage with and learn from surprises when they happen.
      • 教育是將未完成的過去延續到未來

The 2 Types of Status by Sahil Bloom

See Also

• Work smart
• Escape competition through authenticity
• Everything in life has an opportunity cost