Silver Medal Linings: In sports, business, or elections, it is the runner-up who defines a memorable winner

Evolution has hardwired into us the idea of a winner and, by the principle of complementarity, a loser. Out of breath and hiding away from a sabre-toothed tiger, managing to grab a seat on one of those Polynesian canoes headed to Hawaii (no stops), escaping the yearning jaws of prehistoric crocodiles at a watering hole, it was either ancient cremation rites or a few extra happy years for furthering hominid genes. Not a surprise that our genes learnt to be selfish, to think of a binary of win or lose.