Skip to content

You just lost THE GAME!

2010-06-19 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Philosophy & meaning · reflection essay

After a mock intervention over John's World Cup obsession, Hank makes everyone lose The Game and argues the meme hides a Buddhist truth: every game is lost, so what matters is choosing the right game, and the only real way to win is not to care if you lose.

What is said

00:00:00 — Mock intervention with Nerdfighteria: John must cut back on soccer (a second Twitter account for the World Cup); it is just a game

  • ★★ Hank, with Nerdfighteria, stages a mock intervention: John must cut back on soccer, since making a second Twitter account to tweet about the World Cup is too much. (playful) (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria, Twitter
  • ★ Hank won't argue whether soccer is a good game, but however great it is, it is just a game. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Hank loses The Game and makes viewers lose it; the rules; at first he thought it dumb and annoying

  • ★★ Hank explains The Game: you are always playing it, there is no way to win, and thinking about it means you lose. — 00:00:29
  • ★ At first Hank thought The Game was dumb: a self-fulfilling statement that is mildly interesting but mostly just annoying. — 00:01:00

00:01:29 — The only way to win is not to know you're playing; desire leads to loss (Buddhism); academic researchers; choose the right game; win by not caring if you lose

  • ★★★ Hank has come to find that the fascinating thing about The Game is that the only way to win is not to know you're playing, a bit of wisdom about human folly. — 00:01:29
  • ★★★ Hank says the meme's truth is that all desire, and in some ways all knowledge, leads to loss: a principal tenet of Buddhism hiding inside an internet meme. — 00:01:55
  • ★★ As an example, Hank says academic researchers, who do much good, fight their whole careers for recognition in obscure journals and, once they get it, only want more. — 00:01:55
  • ★★★ Hank argues the game can be anything, fame, money, romantic conquest or even good things like ending poverty or a happy family; if you live for it, you never win. — 00:02:25
  • ★★★ Hank concludes what matters is playing the right game: every marriage not ending in divorce ends in death, fights are always lost, but some are worth fighting. — 00:02:25
  • ★★★ Hank says thinking you'll only be happy when you win is the surest way never to be happy; the only real way to win is to not care if you lose. — 00:02:54 > «The only real way to win is to not care if you lose.»

Humor (significant)

  • Hank and Nerdfighteria stage an intervention over John's soccer obsession, citing his second Twitter account for the World Cup. — 00:00:00 > «that person is probably spending a little bit too much time thinking about soccer.»
  • Right after insisting soccer is just a game, Hank thinks of The Game. — 00:00:29 > «And God, I just lost the game.»
  • Hank breaks the bad news to everyone watching the video. — 00:00:29 > «You guys just lost the game too.»
  • Hank used to think The Game was only a pointless trolling device. — 00:01:00 > «the game is actually more than a way for 12 year old boys to exercise some tiny and meaningless amount of power over other people.»

Threads in this video

BR2_9a17feabba