Define the Game

Theory #14 | If you haven't found a game that you want to play, make one up.

I grew up playing tennis with my sister at the public courts near home. For a long time, I just cherished the joy of playing and watching the careers of the "big 3" unfold. But recently I’ve started to appreciate something more about tennis: the clarity of the meta-game around the game.

It’s easy to tell when you’re good at tennis, and just how good you are. 

Every professional tennis player’s dream is to win the most prestigious tournaments, the grand slams, and to be ranked #1 in the world. Tennis is largely an individual sport, making it easier to figure out exactly where you rank. Not only that, it feels meritocratic. If you win enough matches, you move up the ranks; the winners aren't chosen by some committee.

Sports do a great job of defining a game — both the micro and macro. 

But in most fields, there isn't a clear set of rules at either level. This is freeing but also unfortunate. As much as we criticize playing "the game" in our field, we usually end up doing it. Too many people think that they’d rather play undefined games, or games with no rules. But I’ve started to think otherwise — that defined games are valuable far beyond sport.

I’ve started noticing defined games in other worlds I pay attention to. Many of them, tech and startups included, are arguably undefined arenas, but there are rare examples.

The Undisputed Best

In the world of music, there’s a long-standing game. Every artist wants to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (the most popular singles in the US). They dream of their album going gold, platinum, and diamond — an official certification for huge sales. Record deals and distribution has historically been gated, but the growth of on-demand streaming and discovery via the likes of TikTok makes rankings feel more meritocratic. 

As someone deep in the world of consumer social, it's a stand out in tech: Everyone who builds social apps wants to chart on the Apple App Store. Hitting #1 in the Social Networking or even in Top Free Apps is the dream. Consumer social is arguably one of the most meritocratic sectors; no matter who you are, it’s hard to chart, and even harder to stay there.

The Chosen Ones

It’s rare to have such cleanly defined, seemingly-meritocratic games with objective rankings. Instead, a common system is experts bestowing awards to “top” performers in a field or category.

This exists in creative fields of course — Oscars, Grammys, Pulitzer, Booker, and more. Then of course there are the lists — the Midas List, Forbes 30 under 30, and the like. These types of games breed status chasing and create frustration in the process. Who was deserving? Who got snubbed? Who was responsible for the success?¹

A related system is admitting or accepting people into an exclusive group. This isn’t spoken of as an achievement, but in practice it becomes a credential. This is the world of Ivy league college admissions. In tech, we see this around getting into Y Combinator or being backed by a “tier 1” VC fund. There are such earned “in-groups” in every field.