Resolution + next steps

The Network Game is the most generous game and the most easily exploited.

Generous because the value you create benefits others by design. You're building bridges. You're reducing friction. You're making possible things that couldn't happen without you.

Exploited because the generosity is easy to abuse—by others who take without reciprocating, and by yourself when you give without sustaining.

Now that you can see the game:

• If you're a Leaky Hub: Build containers. Your generosity needs structure to survive.
• If you're an Indispensable Node: Make yourself unnecessary. Your freedom requires letting go of control.
• If you're an Isolated Connector: Build value first. Your network will form around what you create.

The Network Game, played well, looks like this: you build infrastructure that makes connection possible, you position yourself to benefit from the network's health, and you know when to step back so the network can outgrow you.

The switchboard operator who stays at the switchboard forever becomes a relic. The one who builds a telephone system becomes essential in a different way—not as the person routing calls, but as the person who made calling possible.

That's the move. From operator to architect. From hub to builder. From essential to generative.

The network doesn't need you at the center.

It needs you to make the center unnecessary.

You've reached the end of this path. Where do you want to go next?