When you win the game, you stop playing

Now, If I could only figure out the rule to the game I've been playing. (halF-joking).

- Adam Victor Lattimore

[P.S.]: Loving the daily output, Derek!

Truth. Reminds me of: “Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.” ― Italian proverb

An additional thought on this, though.

I "won the game" in the corporate world when it came to making money, but it wasn't fulfilling or needed for the planet/humanity. So, I quit, and I'm now pursuing entrepreneurship that is fulfilling and needed but makes little money.

For the last couple years, I've had an aversion to monetizing anything. But, this quote hit me hard recently: “Aversion is the flip side of greed, the same desire from a different direction.” — Stephen Mitchell paraphrasing Vicki Chang (Tao Te Ching)

Maybe everything comes full circle.

// Kyle, Sloww.co
I LOVE that proverb! Never heard it before. Thanks for posting it, Kyle! — Derek

It made me ponder about what could be the most boring thing that could happen to a person in one lifetime. It should be avoided at all cost. Thank you, Derek.

Hello Derek,
As always I look for your metaphor, and start looking for my own by looking at concrete examples to spark an abstraction.

The only man I ever invited to do a guest piece on my blog (twice) was a fellow who had been a successful business man. I guess he won at that, or won the knowledge to switch tracks, because when I knew him in my Toastmasters Club he was a beloved school janitor. He did a splendid speech on hugs that I wanted on my blog. (He has passed away)

As a senior citizen, if I attend university for a second degree, it will be to finally get lots of liberal arts under my belt (I chose to take a career degree) I had already won by the time I got my first degree.

I won the ability to have an open mind, hold two opposing thoughts like a scientist, discuss without polarizing and to honestly listen. I'm still amused and annoyed when undergraduates will interrupt a sentence part way through because they have not yet learned to keep their CPU (Central Processing Unit) turned off until the full stop. (the period) ...A Muslim researcher in Canada, from Pakistan, said terrorists never major in the liberal arts.

You are truly an inspiration Derek.

I want to be Someone Saying like you :)

That makes perfect sense.

Though I would add, at some point, I think we simply play a different game. We don't stop: we just move on to something else. That's evolution surely.

Throughout our lives, we don't stay the same do we, even though we may think that little or nothing in our life has changed.

I can think of several "momentous swings of change" during my life, including, growing up, girl friends, meeting the amazing girl for the first time who by some amazing chance agreed to become my wife, the birth of our daughter, then our son, when I had my first book published, when I had my fifteenth book published, creating websites, ditching Joomla, WordPress, for Publii, and so on.

As for web ads, I think we're coming to a time when the nature of website ads will need to change, to be much better than what we endure at present. Ideally, to not interrupt our interaction with a web page, until we choose, or a more suitable time or opportunity is available, yet somehow still be profitable for the ad provider (that's a big ask under that model).

But of course, most of us humans, I feel, try to be nice and considerate to others, so we put up with a lot of "ad noise" if the target website is worth our attention. And who knows what is around the corner? Blockchain, the cryptoweb, and more perhaps.

We also stop playing when we lose.

I've always said I'm well ahead of the curve, ideologically (e.g., I was born abhoring the idea of eating meat, much to my parents' dismay, long before it was common to become a vegetarian in any way), and so I tend to be a good predictor of future cultural changes.

I lost the competitive game over a decade ago, and did indeed quit playing.

My life has been rather wild in it's complexity since then, but I would never go back. The collaborative, creative, playful, life-promoting, entropy-embracing game that evolution designed us to play is so much more rewarding.

Great. The game of sharing is more fun

Dear Derek,
I am viewing this article from another perspective. Do bear with me.
Your revelation reminds me of the book of Ecclesiates By King Solomon. You are blessed to be able to help many people around you and maybe help them find their way in this great fog, we call life. Maslow's theory on needs would probably puts you at the pinnacle of his triangle, of self actualization, whatever that would means to each person. It is a good place to be at but then ultimately the true meaning in life is not in ourselves but in the interactions with the people we meet in our journey we call life.

Love and being loved is a life long lesson that most of us will not graduate in this life.

What happened to daily articles?

On winning the game. Do you have any thoughts about the Infinite Game? Or infinite games? Perhaps when you win you keep on playing that. I'm trying to get some handle on "practical wisdom" as an attribute of playing the Infinite Game.
Thanks!

That's a nice start. But I thought you would take the next step in the analogy. When you win the game, great! Then you put the Monopoly money back and everyone starts with the same amount again. If you really are good at it, and not just lucky, you shouldn't mind. You seem thoughtful and self-aware. But too many winners these days want their winning to mean they never have to play again.

And when it's the game of life...you end up with a really cool epitaph.....I've stopped playing and I'm off to do something else.

Infinite Games
danitrusca.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/infinite-games/

The question is not completely without merit. I mean I’ve literally won thousands of games of canasta (card game, if you don’t know it, it’s worth learning) and yet, if someone is up for a game, or better yet WANTS TO LEARN to play, I’m always down for it. And, in essence, you are still playing the game - because with your books/blog articles, you’re teaching others how to play. I admire and aspire to do the same, but I’m not really much of an expert on anything, which is good, because I’m not annoying. :) Unless you find reading and commenting on your website at 4:30 AM annoying. If you do, feel free to delete my comments.

Nice insight

Hey. Nice idea :) !