We're Not Really Choosing—We're Playing Someone Else's Game

Here's the thing most of us miss: we don't actually decide our own values. Instead, we inherit scoreboards that others designed. Likes. GPAs. Net worth. Rankings. These metrics aren't neutral—they shape how we spend our time, energy, and focus.

Then we optimize everything around them. We chase the scores without stopping to ask if they're worth chasing in the first place.

The real question is whether we're making deliberate choices or just playing games with rules we never agreed to. In crypto and finance, this becomes even more apparent. We optimize for price movements, portfolio percentages, trading volume—but do these really align with our actual goals?

Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen digs into exactly this in his work on value systems and optimization. The stakes? Understanding what we're actually optimizing for, before we wake up realizing we've spent years playing the wrong game.