On Defense
I like attacking. And defending. It's weird. Usually, attacking is fun -- being the striker of the soccer team, heading for the goal; being the prosecutor for a case, finding mounds of evidence to hurl at the opposing side until victory is achieved; sacrificing a piece in chess, pulling off some brilliant combination that mates at the very last move. All super fun, satisfying things to do.
Yet for me, I find defense to be preferable. To be able to counter the wing attacks in soccer; to be able to defend against that wild piece sacrifice; to parry the opposition's every move with a piece of evidence of your own; and so on.
Perhaps it's because defense it's hard. It's hard to perform and defend under pressure -- to need to pull out in front and stop something hurling at you, whether that be chess pieces, legal briefs, or a soccer ball. It's hard to predict and shut down and plan for the opposition's every possibility, the every twist and turn that the person in front of you can take. It's hard to counteract the asymmetry of the situation; an attacker only needs to exploit one weakness, a defender must cover all.
Besides being difficult, defense does have two advantages. First, you can take apart and dismantle the attack if it does not come through well, and moreover, you can launch a counterattack -- "the best defense is offense". As such, in some sense, defense is fun as you're waiting for your opponent to mess up; you've made preparations, they're coming at you, and like an attacker picking apart a defense, if you've prepared adequately, you can pick an apart an attack just as easily as a wave can crush a sandcastle.
Second, although you're on the back foot, you do have more intel as to what's happening and what's going on (being the second mover) and moreover, your victory condition is 'easier' than the attackers. Instead of needing to obliterate, holding is all that's necessary -[ instead of 'proving beyond a reasonable doubt,' you can introduce some doubt ]-[ instead of needing to checkmate your opponent's king, you can simply hold on to the material gained and brace for impact (easier said and thought about than actually done) ]-[ instead of needing to capture a position, you merely have to hold and repel].
Unfortunately, defending comes with one big downside. The attack (if done well) (in some circumstances) has the element of surprise. And while you can surprise your opponent with a counterattack, in some sense that engagement was expected; after all, it is one way of relieving pressure from the defensive end.
I just like defense. It feels good to be like Morpheus and dissect an attack like a fish until there's nothing but a carcass and the attacker has to limp home, unsatisfied and rebuked.