The Kobyashi Maru
If you’re in an unwinnable situation, find a way to change the rules.
One of my favorite scenes of all time comes from Star Trek:
I’m going to let my inner nerd shine here for a bit:
While training at Starfleet Academy, Captain James T. Kirk is presented with an unwinnable scenario. The Kobyashi Maru is a ship that the Enterprise is supposed to rescue. They get ambushed. Surrounded, outgunned, and stranded out in space, the test is a no-win scenario meant to make you fail.
As Spock says:
“The purpose is to experience fear. Fear in the face of certain death. To accept that fear, and maintain control of oneself and one’s crew. This is a quality expected in every Starfleet captain.”
The basic premise of this logical argument is that everyone is bound to fail, to lose, to crash and burn. It is important to experience this feeling. That is true.
The main issue I have with the Kobyashi Maru is not in the test itself, but in the timeframe of the test.
Infinite Games
Two conspirators sit in separate rooms. They’re offered a deal: confess and betray the other person, and you’ll go free. However, if the other person also confesses, you’ll both serve the maximum jail time. If neither of you confess, you serve a small amount of jail time. If the other person betrays you, and you don’t talk, then you’ll both receive a medium amount of jail time.
The decision matrix looks like this:
Important to note about the prisoner’s dilemma is that it occurs within a short window of time. You’re making 1 decision NOW.
That’s why these kind of decisions are tragic.
That isn’t very realistic is it? What happens if these conspirators bump into each other again on the street? What about the outside world beyond the prison? What if they’re faced with a similar decision again?
It’s important to note that people aren’t a line, they’re a four-dimensional vector. They come from a certain place and are heading in a direction with a given magnitude. Adding in the component of time means that decisions and events and actions can happen again and again. Humans are complex and can’t be defined by a single decision point.
When you add the dimension of time into the equation, the intersection at which two people meet to make a collective decision doesn’t become a single point, it becomes another line.
Let’s not get in the weeds on geometry. What does this actually mean?
It means that you can either think of your interactions as transactional, single-dimensional and temporary, or you can think on a longer time-horizon.
When you play an infinite game, you change the paradigm to make it impossible not to win. It goes from a zero-sum game to one in which cooperation is incentivized over competition. It’s okay to lose a battle if it helps you win a war.
I have an infinity tattoo on my wrist to remind me to play infinite games. It’s a call-to-action to think of life on a much longer term time horizon to ensure that the rules that I play by are different. It becomes impossible to lose.
Winning Your Wars
After trying and failing the Kobyashi Maru a few times, Kirk figures out a way to hack the system to win.
When you consistently and continually show up to play the game, it becomes easier to learn the system. When he knew the system inside-and-out, he then found a way to break it.
The more you make decisions, the more you persist, the more you play at what you’re doing on a long time horizon, the more likely you are to win.
However, there’s another Star Trek scene that stands out to me:
It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness. That is life. ~Jean-Luc Picard
So here’s my lesson, my call-to-action to you. If the decisions you’re making keep causing you to lose, change the game. Don’t accept the hand you’re dealt. Play on a longer time horizon.
And it’s always a good idea to watch some Star Trek :)
