He proposes that long-term games can be described as follows:

1. First, long-term games are a series of connected short-term games toward a long-term objective, and you play short-term games NOT to win them but to increase the odds of success


2. One of the most important things in a long-term game is to know and avoid common sources of failure.


3. To play a

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Ultimately, a long-term game must be unique to the individual . This is because to maximize the odds of success and design against failure, you must design a strategy around your unique advantages and disadvantages.

For the most part, I don’t blame anyone. But what’s concerning is that this spirit of exit is becoming the de-facto goal of many people.

• People want to hit it big with equity compensation at the right company


• Work for the highest paying companies no matter what they have to do


• Founding companies just for the chance of an exit, even if they don’t care

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“If we act upon the desire to emulate those growing faster than us, we are more likely to imitate short-term optimization than competence .”

If you were fully “in it” in the tech scene of the 2010s, it may have felt like a game you would play forever. But a lot of what was happening was short-term games and short-term optimization.

Most people did not want to participate for 30+ years or even 10+ years. They wanted to secure the bag, a literal exit, or to downshift to a more comfortable... See more

more charitable interpretation of what’s going on in Silicon Valley is not that there are people thinking long-term at all but that an environment exists where being more generous and helping others succeed is rewarded and this is different than many other parts of the economy.