C. Thi Nguyen

'The Score' on how the games you pick end up shaping you

Shaan recommends The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game by philosopher C. Thi Nguyen. Its premise is that games dictate your goals, behavior, and identity. Nguyen describes chasing a philosophy-professor leaderboard until he hated his work. The book argues for striving play: caring about winning in the moment, then letting it go.

“C. Tai Nguyen is the guy's name on the COVID but it's called The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game. And this is a guy who— the fundamental premise of the book is amazing. So he's talking about the power of a game. So he's like, imagine a game. Let's say we take Pictionary. We open up a game of Pictionary. Games are this incredible thing because they tell you What winning means.”