Who Won?

Old and busted:

The New Hotness:

Near the end of their lives, a group of old friends walk into a bar. Many decades ago, all of them have resolved to a competition to live their best lives. As they recounted their life stories, to their astonishment, each of them seem to have acquired a different distinction among the group:

At the next table, you find yourself overhearing the conversation between them. The group of friends know better than to ask someone else to referee for them, but you can't help but think about this to yourself. Who won? How should these friends be ranked?

Technically a trick question, since everyone who lived to their meaning has “won” in some sense.

And there are a lot of flaws with this formulation too. Different wordings could make the same person choose differently; I probably missed some common answers too, since I came up with the question on the moment; and “winning at life” feels a bit contrived as a competition.

Regardless of these flaws, if one is willing to suspend their disbelief for a moment, I think this is an interesting question.

As for me, my personal ranking (best to worst):

This is the kind of question I'd like to ask a lot of people about :)

— Categorized under: #philosophy