Playing to Win
by David Sirlin · first published 2005
84% recommend16% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Competitive-gaming strategy text, free online, that teaches a win-focused mindset: the scrub concept, what to ban, and reading opponents. Applied beyond games to business, management and career choices.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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Really clever hack and entertaining blog post! Love this author's writing, esp this other post of his on Playing to Win - http://robertheaton.com/2014/11/03/why-you-should-read-playi... A hacker at heart.
on “Fun with your friend's Facebook and Tinder sessions” ↗…paper what I had been trying to do for years. It was something I reread often to try to improve my manager/leadership skills. This type of thinking helped me become a better CEO (it wasn't instant). 2. Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works Great books on tactics and strategy; it helped me improve why we did things and created a much better approach to problems. 3. 4. Lean B2B: Build Products Businesses Want…
on “Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?” ↗If you've never read it before, I highly recommend reading David Sirlin's Playing to Win. http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/ Specifically the chapter "Introducing... the Scrub" discusses exactly this sentiment. http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/introducingthe-scrub > In Street Fighter, the scrub labels a wide variety of tactics and situations “cheap.” This “cheapness” is truly the mantra of the scrub. Pe
on “Amazon disallows pointing out paid reviews” ↗Read some of David Sirlin's stuff (like his book "Playing To Win" http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/) and see how lazy you think competitive gamers are.
on “Virtual Leagues Fold, Forcing Gamers to Find Actual Jobs ” ↗This reminds me of a great thought piece that I studied a lot during my gaming years: Playing to Win. http://www.sirlin.net/articles/playing-to-win Particularly relevant to the Jeopardy contestant that buzzed in when he didn't know the answers to block others from getting the cash.
on “Victory on “The Price Is Right” Made Them Change Their System” ↗…over things like "compensation" or "spending time with my kids" or "adequate health insurance". Note: I'm riffing somewhat on the ideas David Sirlin presents in the first chapter of his book called "Playing to Win"; worth a read: https://www.sirlin.net/articles/playing-to-win Edit: in fact, I'll just quote from Sirlin: A scrub is not just a bad player. Everyone needs time to learn a game and get to a point where…
on “Ask HN: 40+ Career Advice?” ↗I used to feel like "playing the game" or "playing politics" was for poor performers to cover up their weaknesses. Thankfully over time I swallowed my pride and decided if I was going to play, I was going to play to win at any cost. Check out the free book Playing to Win by David Sirlin [1]. Once I adopted this mindset, it was easier to do the "lame" things that were clearly just signalling mecha
on “Am I the only person who can’t get a job?” ↗Sirlin has written what seems to be the most commonly referenced piece whenever games and "thinking" come up. Playing to Win, available free at his website (www.sirlin.net/ptw/), doesn't directly deal with game design, but it comes up throughout. His blog generally trends on game design topics. (He's been a fighting game pro,…
on “Game Theory - Marginal Advantage” ↗I think it's pretty hard to get into a "playing to win" mindset at any age. At least it is/was for me, it's hard to let go of the joy of winning through clever or flashy moves and focus on the joy of winning a high level competition, where everyone is playing to win. Sirlin's (fighting game player / game designer) has a good book/series of articles about this that's made the front page a few time
on “Video Games Are Changing the Way Soccer Is Played” ↗The Overwatch example reminds me of Playing to Win (http://www.sirlin.net/ptw), and in particular, "the scrub" section (http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/introducingthe-scrub). "A scrub is a player who is handicapped by self-imposed rules that the game knows nothing about. A scrub does not play to win."
on “95th percentile isn't that hard to reach” ↗If you want to improve at competitive games, I recommend David Silrin's "Playing to Win": http://www.sirlin.net/ptw
on “Smash Training Retrospective” ↗Highly recommend this book as well. The psychology he discusses I've found very relevant to life in general. Often I've wished something in my life was better and found self-imposed handicaps or my true goals differing from my stated goals (eg. really wanting esteem from peers even though business success is my stated goal) being the source of my difficulty. Exactly the "scrub mentality" Sirlin di
on “Smash Training Retrospective” ↗Also, I saw a lot of parallels with Playing to Win by David Sirlin [0], about competitive gaming. One of Sirlin's points is that the most common reason casual players lose is because they restrict themselves to a subset of legal moves. I.e. they play the game they think exists, or they think is "fair", rather than the rules as written. Transposed into negotiation, Voss feels very similar to me.
You have hit on a way of thinking that, for me, was inspired by reading David Sirlin's masterpiece 'Playing to Win'. The book is available on amazon or for free on his website http://www.sirlin.net/ptw Although the book focuses on competitive video games it quickly establishes an important point that can be applied to nearly every situation in life: There are two types of people in a situation, "
on “Bribing maitre d' to skip the line” ↗There's a whole book on the concept of game balance, focused on arcade fighting games (Street Fighter), written by David Sirlin, who balanced Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. http://www.sirlin.net/ptw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sirlin Particularly relevant is the section on 'scrubs', the people who arbitrarily ban certain techniques for
on “Jeopardy Champion Ken Jennings Q&A about IBM Watson” ↗