If you haven’t picked up a copy of “Finite and Infinite Games” it is never too late. James Carse drops knowledge bombs in his short, yet profound book that leaves you yearning for more. It’s one of those timeless pieces you can re-read over time and it teaches you something new. It leaves you wondering that you haven’t seen it all and, like watching a picture of a younger self, it reminds you how much your perspective has changed over time. It ranks up there with classic works including “The Alchemist,” “Siddhartha,” “To Kill A Mocking Bird,” “Meditations” and Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena.” His work brings to life concepts of game theory that at first glance may seem dry, but go deep into how we behave and touch core elements of our humanity. As the title suggests, it is playful yet profound to view life as a game. It begs the question: are you playing a finite or infinite game?
Analyzing his work before giving you a shot at reading it first would be an injustice on my part. I believe everyone should have a shot of experiencing the joy of reading the book first with the least amount of bias. To that end, I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite excerpts. I hope it inspires you to read the whole thing and sparks deep thought into aspects beyond classic game theory. In no particular order:
“Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, which is when they end. But infinite games are more mysterious. Their object is not winning but ensuring the continuation of play.”
“One does not bring change to a garden, but comes to a garden prepared for change, and therefore prepared to change.”
“Strength is paradoxical. I am not strong because I can force others to do what I wish as a result of my play with them, but because I can allow them to do what they wish in the course of my play with them.”
“The very liveliness of a culture is determined not by how frequently these thinkers discover new continents of knowledge but by how frequently they depart to seek them.”
“There is a risk here of supposing that because we know our lives have the character of narrative, we also know what the narrative is.”
“True storytellers do not know their own story. What they listen to in their poiesis is the disclosure that wherever there is closure there is the possibility of a new opening, that they do not die at the end, but in the course of play.”
“The contradiction in our relation to nature is that the more vigorously we attempt to force its agreement with our own designs the more subject we are to its indifference, the more vulnerable to its unseeing forces.”
“Genuine travel has no destination. Travelers do not go somewhere, but constantly discover they are somewhere else.”
“It is not distance that makes travel necessary, but travel that makes distance possible.”
“The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pair of eyes.”
“We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning. — Heisenberg”
“Explanations settle issues, showing that matters must end as they have. Narratives raise issues, showing that matters do not end as they must but as they do. Explanation sets the need for further inquiry aside; narrative invites us to rethink what we thought we knew.”
“There is but one infinite game.”
{Fin}