The limits of optimizing

A group of us play a pickup soccer game together every weekend, with plenty of banter along the way. Recently, after one game, a casual conversation about the result spiraled into talk of tracking stats: who’s on which team, goals scored, win rates. That escalated further quickly, all the way to using an app for team assignments and stat tracking. Then the following weekend, we played with all of it in place. Everyone was excited going in. But the game itself was far more competitive than usual. People played tighter, more aggressive, more conscious of every touch. Which defeats the entire point of a Sunday pickup game: work out, have fun, don’t get hurt. My takeaway afterward was that the game became a lot more competitive and a lot less joyful the moment people knew they were being tracked. It is a good reminder that many things in this life are best left un-optimized.