What if you could only win once?

Hatching Mayflies.

I woke up this morning with one of those strange thoughts; what if we were only allowed to win once?

What win would you choose for yourself?

"Winning" is one of those concepts, like "Growth", that has entered the lexicon as somehow a universally good thing that should be done as much as possible. But they both carry a price, as we see specifically this week as we look at the consequences of "winnng", of "Mission Accomplished," in Afghanistan, and more generally and more precipitously in a long history of unconstrained growth creating an existential crisis.

"Winning" is very much a "horizon 1", "finite game" concept. Fine for sports or music competitions and other things of transient importance, but not for things with significant systemic consequences.

What if everything leading up to winning was preparation, and everything after it using the victory to help others achieve their wins? What if we regarded our win as the start of the work, not the end of it?

Winning, like l…