Siddhant Dubey

What's Your Win Condition?

For all my life, I thought that if I had enough money and enough solitude, I’d be a very happy man. Living by myself this summer, with a decent chunk of cash flowing into my bank account every two weeks, has thrown that thought out the window. Turns out, I don’t like being by myself all the time, and having a disposable income isn’t enough to have fun. This realization sent me down a shallow rabbit hole of introspection guided by one question, “what’s my win condition?”.

Admittedly, this particular line of introspection came very late in my life. I’m a little socially stunted that way. I’m 20. I love being a computer science major, and I’m kind of enjoying my (2nd) software engineering internship. I’m set on a path. Luckily, I don’t want to change my career, and I’m happy with my decisions so far. I don’t think my ideal life is the same anymore.

Previously, my dream life started and stopped with lots of money. Now, my dream life begins with a decent amount of money. Once I achieve a decent salary, I’ll be on the way to building a dream life. But that’s not all I need to make that dream life. I need to find a job I’m really, really passionate about. Something that I go to sleep thinking about and wake up eager to do. I want a family at some point, so I’ll probably have to start dating. In games, a win condition is the setup you need to be able to win the game. In life, a win condition is the setup you need to wake up every day and unabashedly love your life. This is not groundbreaking information. It’s just a typical dude in his 20s realizing what actually matters. But it’s something I needed to think about.

Now that I have a win condition, I can work on getting there. Some points are easier to get to than others, but at least now I know where to focus my time. It’s pretty simple, and I assume most of you have a similar win condition. But, even if you think you know what you want out of life, take 15 minutes out of your day and think through it. What do you really want?

My Win Condition: