Scrubs (or playing on hard mode)

I came across the term ‘scrub’ from Cedric Chin’s excellent essay, Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

Per Cedric, a scrub is

someone who isn’t playing to win the game they are playing.

The ‘game’ is defined as what you want it to be - the original term came from video games (below), he also references ultimate frisbee, judo and business as different 'game' domains.  

Cedric quotes a detailed definition of a scrub from David Sirlin's article on video game scrubs:

someone has “a scrub mentality…by being so shackled by self-imposed handicaps as to never have any hope of being truly good at a game...if you can’t get over these common hangups, in a sense you’ve lost before you event started. You aren’t playing to win”.

A scrub is someone who unnecessarily plays a more difficult game than they need to be playing.

While reading the article, I recalled a situation from when I was 18-years-old. During a semester break during my pre-university days, my dad told me that he had set up an internship opportunity for me at his friend’s office. 

I was incredibly heated about this. I did not believe it was the ‘right’ way to go about things. I immediately told him I did not want to take it. 

Applying the scrub framework to this situation, I made the career game more difficult for myself by rejecting the chance to gain valuable work experience and real-world exposure; until that point, I only had one month of work experience. 

Reflecting on that situation, I regret declining my dad’s offer to give me a leg up. Hindsight is 20-20, but present-day me would encourage every 18 year old to get some work experience before heading off to university. It was a decidedly scrub move on my part. 

But wait. Was I just a scrub? As much as that is partially true, there’s more to it. The reason I was heated about the whole arrangement is because I was very much a believer in meritocracy. The situation, getting an internship at my dad’s friend office without even applying for it, came across as non-meritocratic and unfair. It went against something I valued at the time. 

This takes the discussion to a higher level. By purely applying the scrub framework, I was a scrub. Now that I am almost 6 years into my career, I wish I had more experience in my youth to complement what I’ve gained in the last half-decade. While I’ve learned a lot, I could have been at a more advanced stage of my career, both in terms of skill and compensation, if I took on more work experience earlier. 

But from a value-judgement lens, there was a completely valid reason for me to reject the opportunity. I was taking a stand for something important to me. The discussion then takes the shape of the following: If an action is decidedly scrub-like, but can be justified using a value-based reasoning, then does that erase the ‘scrub-ness’ of the action? Or do values supersede ‘scrub-ness’? Or, are values on a higher plane altogether, operating in a space where the scrub framework should be deemed unqualified? 

I don’t have the answer, but it’s an interesting question. Where I stand on it now is, generally, I’d be cautious about wielding the scrub framework in every situation. 

For sure, there are areas where it is an incredibly powerful lens to use to reflect on my actions, but clearly not everywhere. There are plenty of avenues where being a scrub is completely fine. Or admirable, even. Cedric mentions Roger Federer as a prime example of making things unnecessarily difficult for himself with his technique.

He also correctly observes how we have a sense of respect for people who achieve success in their game despite these self-imposed restrictions. I do get why it can be satisfying to play a game on hard mode when it’s not required. I’ve no doubt it’s linked to intrinsic motivations of wanting to strive for something worthwhile. And there are certain notions of artistry and honing your craft that push us to become our best selves, beyond the requirements of the game. 

Like most things, the feel-good (and likely correct) answer to how I should apply the scrub vs non scrub framework in life is ‘in moderation’. A good place to start is to identify the high-leverage ‘games’ I play in life. As mentioned above, my career is an obvious one. Relationships, health and wealth-building are the others. To me, these categories are too broad to be labelled as games, so I’d zero in on specific sub-sections of each.  

I won’t go into details because they don’t contribute to this piece that much, but I’ve been slowly applying the scrub framework to reflect on how I’m currently approaching my career (subset: the way I navigate my corporate job). Almost immediately, a stream of thoughts appear in my mind, resisting the uncomfortable notion that I may have been a scrub for most of my career to date.

A selection of the thoughts that arose when I reflected on my career using the scrub framework:

“So what if I’m trying too hard by switching to a role that’s more difficult, I don’t want to bum around, I want to ‘move the needle’ for the company”

“I’m voluntarily going for challenging and high-impact projects to set myself up for that promotion”

“I want to grow and upskill myself"

If you’re an ambitious person reading this, you’d think that all my resistant thoughts are valid and should not result in my actions being labelled scrub-like. Its part of the game of advancing in a corporate setting. Without further context, I’d agree with you. 

But context matters. In large corporations, it is entirely possible to progress and rise up the ranks (comfortably to middle management at least) without a great emphasis on working hard to generate value, but instead by coasting along via building relationships and being visible. In that regard, focusing on merit as your main lever for career progression can be seen as being a scrub, because the alternative of brown-nosing and self-promotion is an easier (and proven) tactic to win the corporate game. 

But then, to properly define what the corporate game looks like, we must go back to the question of how do you define the games of your life? For example, here are two competing games in the corporate context: If you’re just looking to maximise your income from a steady pay check, the coaster + brown-nose life is for you. If you want mastery of a domain and become an industry titan, you have to put in the hours. Choose your battle. And then only do you apply the scrub framework for the game you're playing.

So far, what I can say is these reflections make me realise I haven’t crystallised exactly what I want from my career, which will in turn shape the type of game I should be playing, which will let me assess if my current actions are scrub-like, and whether there’s a need to modify and adjust accordingly. 

I’ve enjoyed wrestling with this. There is no neat ending, reflective of this being an ongoing journey of thinking about the scrub framework.