Shoutout to the guy at the Portland game store who taught me how to lose

I was at Guardian Games last month trying to learn a new game called Root. I was getting wrecked, super frustrated, and probably looked like I wanted to flip the table. This older guy, Mike, was watching from the next table. He came over, sat down, and said, 'You're playing to not lose. That's different from playing to win.' He spent the next twenty minutes just walking me through my last few turns, showing me how I was so focused on protecting my stuff that I missed two chances to actually score points. It wasn't about strategy tips, it was about my whole mindset. I've thought about that a lot since then, especially when I get tilted in a game. Has anyone else had a moment like that, where someone changed how you think about playing, not just how you play?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_piper24d ago

Yeah, my chess coach used to say something similar.

graceowens24d ago

Wait, you had a chess coach? That's wild to me. Most people I know just learned from their grandpa or an app. Was it for a school team or something more serious?

angelaw7824d ago

Whoa, hold on, a coach that said something similar? That's actually crazy. I thought my coach was the only one who pushed that old school "learn from a person, not a machine" thing. Makes me wonder if they all read the same teaching manual or something.

evan_cooper732d ago

Funny enough, I see this in pro sports all the time. A team gets a lead and then just plays scared, trying to run out the clock instead of sticking to what got them ahead. They stop attacking and start hoping the other side messes up. It's the same thing. You go from making your own moves to just reacting, and you always lose in the end. That guy was right, it's a total mindset trap.