Trophy Isn’t Always the Point.

Why sufficiency feels radical in a world obsessed with scoreboards.

This Sunday, there was a lot of talk about sportsmanship after the test match between India and England, where England wanted the match to end sooner, as there was no other result than a draw possible. While India continued to play.

It made me think about what sportsmanship actually means. It was at that point that I stumbled upon an old podcast from Seth Godin.

“Enough is a decision, not a number.” - Seth Godin

In that he talks about sufficiency. Is it the win that matters or sufficiency? Sufficiency denotes that the person (or the team) is sufficient to win and the trophy is a mere formality. At the same time, the trophy in itself does mean something.

But the challenge with sufficiency is that its hard to measure. It's hard to quantify or give evidence, and most of it is just signalling.

In that case, sufficiency might actually be a mental state. Maybe competitive sport is not the best example for it, but non-competitive sport or careers are.

Then it does take a lot to call out something sufficient. Sufficient that a task is finished as per it was required and thats a grey area.