On the Infinite Game

This week’s book learning is from The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin.

If it’s work, the instinct is to do less of it. Work is a grind while games are voluntary. When we see “work” we do as part of a game, we bring the right spirit to work.. But not all games are the same.

James Carse wrote about the idea of finite and infinite games..

Seth wraps it beautifully with a message for his younger self –

“But the one thing I wish I had known then was that whatever happens, things are going to fine in the end, that the pain is part of the journey, and that without the pain there really isn’t a journey worth going on.

No, it doesn’t all work, but you always get to dance. Win or lose, you get to play. I would tell myself not to put so much emotional baggage on every project and every interaction. The goal is to keep playing, not to win.

At the end of a project, the end of the day, and the end of the game, you can look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that at least you go to dance.”

I found the learning on the “infinite game” very very inspiring and timely. He is spot on. Everything doesn’t work but things work out just fine. And win or lose, we get to dance..

Here’s to enjoying the “infinite game” this week, and onward..