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  "id": "1pyy0066xrns1a5nm77sh3w52j",
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  "origin": "https://www.msweet.net/notes/",
  "page": "062-cobalt-crows",
  "author": {
    "name": "Matthew McDowell-Sweet",
    "url": "https://www.msweet.net/"
  },
  "created": "2026-09-02T21:06:52Z",
  "updated": "2026-09-02T21:06:52Z",
  "version": 1,
  "content_md": "Winning finite games used to mean enhanced status for the winner. That status drove audience creation and brand power.\n\nNow, the winning of finite games is too sparse an event to satisfy the demand for audiences to coalesce and for brands to attach to.\n\nSo we decompose the finite game into smaller and smaller increments, manufacturing events out of what used to be the process.\n\nA world championship happens once a year. Too slow. So we decompose down to a season. Too slow. Down to a race, a match. Still too slow. Down to the buildup, the training, to the planning of the preparation. To the thinking and the talking about the planning of the preparation.\n\nIt isn’t the familiar “process over outcome,” “the score takes care of itself” thinking. That treats process as something separate, as sacred in and of itself.\n\nThis is the opposite. This is the evisceration of process itself, in favour of infinite sequences of nano finite games, each one framed to have a winner, with each competitor competing for drops of status in a barren landscape.\n\nA training session isn’t *won*. A rehearsal isn’t *won*. A draft isn’t *won*. But legibility abhors a true process, so a winner gets imposed and the audience can continue to not really pay attention.",
  "content_html": "<p>Winning finite games used to mean enhanced status for the winner. That status drove audience creation and brand power.</p>\n<p>Now, the winning of finite games is too sparse an event to satisfy the demand for audiences to coalesce and for brands to attach to.</p>\n<p>So we decompose the finite game into smaller and smaller increments, manufacturing events out of what used to be the process.</p>\n<p>A world championship happens once a year. Too slow. So we decompose down to a season. Too slow. Down to a race, a match. Still too slow. Down to the buildup, the training, to the planning of the preparation. To the thinking and the talking about the planning of the preparation.</p>\n<p>It isn’t the familiar “process over outcome,” “the score takes care of itself” thinking. That treats process as something separate, as sacred in and of itself.</p>\n<p>This is the opposite. This is the evisceration of process itself, in favour of infinite sequences of nano finite games, each one framed to have a winner, with each competitor competing for drops of status in a barren landscape.</p>\n<p>A training session isn’t <em>won</em>. A rehearsal isn’t <em>won</em>. A draft isn’t <em>won</em>. But legibility abhors a true process, so a winner gets imposed and the audience can continue to not really pay attention.</p>",
  "content_hash": "sha256:fe81f7650f32c13a1da40952a1f0a9d980d49990593cebac6e3664c5ea134a21",
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  "changelog": [
    {
      "version": 1,
      "at": "2026-09-02T21:06:52Z",
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