Which is more important: to win or to play by the rules?

Irwin

Irwin

Well-known Member
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
This is the question from this year's Great American Think-off. The deadline for entering the contest was April 1, but we can still ponder the question.
https://www.kulcher.org/2021-great-american-think-off-question/

Which is more important: to win or to play by the rules?​

Winning and playing by the rules are both highly valued in our society, but they are sometimes in conflict. How have you experienced winning or losing? Did you play by the rules, or not? How did you feel if you won but cheated? How did you feel if you lost to someone who didn’t follow the rules?

What do you think?
 

Life is one big game, and that's where cheaters often prosper. A lot of successful people didn't play fair. Bill Gates comes to mind. Now he's trying to atone for some of it by being philanthropic, but that doesn't make up for all the small businesses he destroyed while building the Microsoft empire.
 
You can't possibly be serious with this question, can you?

It wouldn't even be a consideration! I'm sure we have all evolved beyond this!

Once one has reached a certain level of growth in his character, it's not possible for him to perform any action except action in harmony with all existence. Truth and honesty is ingrained in your demeanor. Cheating is no longer possible for you to perform!
I put this in this forum once before in a different thread:

In 1925, a golfer, Bobby Jones, lost the U.S. Open by one point because he called a penalty on himself.
The press praised him for his actions and he allegedly replied.
"i don't know any other way to play the game."
 
“Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory”

I see these words etched in the wall of the University of Nebraska football stadium when I visit for a game.

Those words are not just about sports, but a lot of life.
 
Ruthanne said:
When I played cards I always played by the rules; I won most of the time as I was quite good at it.
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I never played to win when playing an actual game, like cards, monopoly, whatever; playing itself was the “win”. I never gambled trying to “win”, playing was always enough. I don’t understand, I supposed, the concept of needing or wanting to win. I am good at somethings, not good at a lot of other things.

Participation is what matters. @Ruthanne playing by the rules, if the rules were fair matters. Losing and winning matters only in real life with real issues, IMO.
 
False dichotomy. Why can't I play by the rules and win, or, alternatively, cheat and still lose?
 
While I typically play by the rules, (I’m risk averse so that’s not surprising) my overriding game philosophy is to have fun playing. Whether it’s the game of living life itself, or playing cards or playing Monopoly, I don’t care who wins (I’m also not competitive) as long as I’m having fun and enjoying myself.

I find it sad to see someone crushed when they don’t win, to be so focused on the one and only outcome that will make them
happy that they ignore the fun of the journey. They are so focused on the goal that they lose sight of the process along the way, and the enjoyment to be derived from
just playing the game regardless of outcome.
 
Murrmurr said:
Which is more important then, winning by playing according to the rules or losing by cheating? Or are they equally important?
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They are not mutually exclusive, so why does one have to be more or less or equally important than the other?
 
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