Finite and Infinite Games

Don't bother. Or at least, put it on your soporific pile. It's long-winded, full of semantic games, and a bit simpleminded. It reads as if some guy had a great acid trip, figured out all the world's problems in a flash of insight, came down, and tried to make sense of his trip.

That's what I wrote to a friend back in 2005, years before I even heard of Goodreads. Also years before I tried psychedelics, and now that I have a few trips under my belt I retract that last sentence: yes, I've had moments of understanding but ugh, I've never been pretentious enough to play condescending word games with it. If you're in the mood for Deeply Profound Insights, go visit the New Age Bullshit Generator instead.

Ah, the games we play! Carse presents his philosophy of looking at human behavior in the framework of finite and infinite games. He maps society onto this dichotomy and produces many smart quotes (he is quite good at the word-play): “A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.” - “Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.” - “To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”

This produces a black & white perspective, which ultimately leaves a dark world, because besides a few stand-out examples (life, language, ..) all the games we play seem to be rather finite. This book - which sometimes reads like a sermon - is ultimately a call-out to be more open, more playful, more infinite in our approach to life, relationships, politics, work, education. Yet this paints an utopian picture, because more playful in his philosophy ultimately also means less serious, fewer consequences to actions.

The first chapters are the strongest, then his analogies become more convoluted, less elegant. So it could have profited from being even trimmer, but nonetheless, an interesting read.