Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
by James P. Carse
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Book Reviews of Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
Book Review: Freedom In A Little Black Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse when it came out in paperback and I still remember the THRILL of the opening premise, about there being two kinds of games, finite and infinite.
I bought multiple copies, giving them to my family and friends; keeping several around the house to remind me of the premise whenever I saw their thin black edges on my shelves.
If there is a Western writer of "koans" equal in power to the Zen Buddhists, it must be Carse. He starts with simple premises in the best Western logical style and builds on them. Before you know it you're going, whoa...
Out of nowhere, from reading toward the back of the book I gained an appreciation of why my mother enjoyed collecting silver (something I'd only rolled my eyes at before). And for that matter, why people collect ANYthing.
From reading toward the front of the book I gained a whole new insight about people (including me) wanting to make records that would "stand for all time". And how to still aspire to those without taking them (quite) so seriously. From that "aha" my life perspective gained a new calm and poise.
If there were one word to summarize what this book encompasses (and no, there is no such word), it's "freedom". Freedom to aspire, freedom to achieve, freedom to take life fully seriously but with a mischevious, fun, impish spirit behind it all saying something like, There, there, good job!
Book Review: Starts out well, then descends to nonsense
Summary: 2 Stars
I enjoyed the first chapter of this book. His explanation of what he calls finite games is interesting and can be useful in looking at relationships, politics, entertainment, etc. He draws some nice distinctions between those and what he calls "infinite games," but since infinite games are much harder to explain the book goes awry in the later chapters.
The book is written in a sort of Tralfamadorian-style series of brief sections, each with its own paradoxical and sometimes interesting idea. After the first chapter, though, the style begins to pall and by the third chapter--"I am the Genius of Myself"--paradox becomes an end in itself and a book that had been interesting descends to the merely clever and then to the meaningless. For example, here is the difference between infinite and finite players on the subject of war: "For infinite players, if it possible to wage war without killing a single person [an idea he takes from Rousseau], then it is possible to wage war only without killing a single person." He does not offer any reasons why this is true, or even what it means. In the last five chapters, Carse makes many statements like this. Some are unexplained, some perhaps inexplicable and many that are just silly.
Eventually, the book becomes banal: finite players are bad, infinite players are good. If you must read the book, stop after the second chapter.
Book Review: What kind of game are you playing?
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything that you do can be thought of as a game. All human activities take place within boundaries, all have a limited duration, and all are directed towards some sort of end or goal. There are rules for chess and rules for polite conversation, rules for checkers and rules for driving, rules for soccer and rules for the boardroom, rules for football and rules for the bedroom. You play games by yourself, game with friends, games with coworkers and games with strangers. Everyone is a player, weather they realize it or not, but what type of player are you?As James P Carse puts it, there are two types of games, finite and infinite. And two types of players. Finite players play -within- rules, infinite players play -with- rules. Finite players play to end the game (with their victory), infinite players play to continue the game (by whatever means they see fit). Finite players play to win, infinite players play to play.
This book helped me see things in ways I hadn't seen them before. By putting my attention on the rules I play by, I realized I could do more with those rules, and change those rules, more than I had thought possible. I became better at playing all my games, because I no longer played for the same reasons as I had before.
Read the book and you might play a different game as well.
Book Review: A good book for some...
Summary: 1 Stars
...but not for me. His definitions and classifications are on their face thought-provoking, but ultimately too abstract and contradictory to be of any value to me. The establishment by examples of his game theory in the first section in my eyes seemed most unfortunate. He would've been much better off, in my opinion, approaching the subject from the idea of "play" rather than "game". It seems that using the term "game" at all put the whole reading in a concrete, finite position, and when we can only identify the infinite through its actions in the finite, of what real value is the infinite?But then again, maybe this was all by design. The interplay of abstraction and contradiction has been what's made the best religious/spiritual writings what they are. I personally no longer find any spiritual sanctity in this kind of willful complication of thought, hence where his writing and my reading may part ways.
Worth reading? Sure. What book isn't? But if you have any particular taste for logic and rationality at all, as God asked Noah(via Bill Cosby), "How long can you tread water?"
Book Review: SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR THE PLANET
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I spent the evening looking through my book collection to find my copy of Infinite and Finite Games. The ideas seem simple, but are complex. It is one of those book whose concepts stay in your mind long after you have finished reading the book. I remeber right after I finished the book for the first time, years ago, I went to a bio-diversity. I remember thinking that most of the species on the planet are playing an infinte game. That is they are playing in order to keep playing. We are the only species who plays the game soley to win. That is our tragic flaw. One species playing only to win can destroy life on an entire planet.
I hope we learn the most important thing is to learn to play infinite games--to learn to play in order to keep playing. If we don't learn this simple lesson, life here will, of course, not survive.