Author Shane Parrish writes: “Just as the accumulation of tiny advantages makes the future easier, the accumulation of tiny disadvantages makes the future harder.” By this, Parrish means that:

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The question centers on Shane Parrish’s idea that small, incremental advantages or disadvantages accumulate over time to shape a much easier or harder future, respectively.
Option 1: 'It is not always easy to determine whether one should play the short game or the long game, so people need to consider this carefully.' This introduces a deliberative tension between short-term and long-term strategies, but it does not capture the key claim about cumulative advantage/disadvantage over time. It’s more about decision difficulty than about the specific accumulative effect Parrish describes.
Option 2: 'Everyone wants to experience advantages, and no one wants disadvantages.' While this statement reflects a common bias, it misses the core mechanism Parrish highlights: the compounding effect of choices over time, regardless of initial desire, and how small disadvantages can accumulate.
Option 3: 'Short-term consequences add up more quickly than long-term consequences.' Inverse to Parrish’s point, this suggests a reversal of the actual idea. Parrish emphasizes that small long-term accumulations shape the future, not that short-term outcomes dominate the aggregate in time.
Option 4: 'The sooner people start the long game, the better; the longer people delay, the harder it becomes.' This option directly expresses the notion of cumulative, compounding effects over time: engaging in gradual, positive long-term actions early reduces future difficulty, whereas delays amplify future challenges.
Option 5: 'The short game is an advantage for some people, but the long game is an advantage for others.' This splits advantage by game type and by people, which does not align with the universal observation Parrish makes about the impact of small advantages or disadvantages accumulating over time for anyone who engages in long-term versus short-term behavior.

In sum, the reasoning emphasizes how incremental progress (the long game) compounds toward easier futures, while delaying that progress leads to progressively harder outcomes; other options misstate the mechanism, confuse timing with desirability, or introduce opposite or unrelated claims about advantages and disadvantages.

Accelerated ELL Writing 5 | The Surprising Power of the Long Game Quiz

Author Shane Parrish writes: “Just as the accumulation of tiny advantages makes the future easier, the accumulation of tiny disadvantages makes the future harder.” By this, Parrish means that:

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