And do systems not have end goals? Or do you just set up artifice for entertainments sake?

Maintaining the system is the one goal. But that distance, and that trust, that the system is yours alone, is what works.

A system is set up to accomplish something other than its own continued existence, it isn't just a perpetual motion machine or some Kafkaesque bureaucracy. If the system has an aim there is a goal, so to say "losers have goals, winners have systems" is vacuous. It sounds pithy and perhaps even profound, but it isn't.

> A system is set up to accomplish something other than its own continued existence

Well, it could be, but it doesn't have to be.

Somewhat pedantic, I assumed the original commenter was talking about systems with a point, otherwise the entire thread of thought is more pointless than I originally thought.

Here's the thing though, if you want to set up some sort of system for living your life, there can't be any finite goal to the system because if you reach that goal, what then? It's a more important requirement to continue the system itself.