All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
Is life just a game? With winners and losers? And what makes a winner, what makes a loser? For me to win, do you have to lose?

Yes, says the zero sum game theory.

By contrast, it will be the intelligent pursuit of self-interest, according to Robert Wright in his 2006 TED Talk, that will save our society, civilisation and humanity. Wright also called this “non-zero-sumness” — the network of linked fortunes and cooperation that has guided our evolution to this point.

Non-zero-sum games is what I’ll be playing next year. I don’t want to win to make someone else loose. Life is far too short for that. I want to help others to “win”, and I want them to help me to “win”, because as humans we married our fortunes together.

Pádraig finally tried out a new standing frame for the first time, one we had used in Pforzheim and which is particularly well suited to exercise his upper body.

Fantastic, isn’t it?

Oh – I’ve also promised myself not to play zero sum games with others anymore next year. If they insist that this is what they want to do, I’ll tell them that they’ll have to look for someone else to play. My time has become too precious to waste it on stupid games. What about yourself?