Playing the Infinite Game
No. 35 – finite games, infinite games, the scarcity ratchet
How much should you charge for your art? How do you get your book published with a major publisher?
HarperCollins is only going to publish so many books every year and those seats get even tighter when it comes to your particular category.
Publishing is a game. Every one of us plays games whether we know it or not. The business executive who doesn’t like board games, but is constantly pointing out how the company is behind on its metric and the photographer who doesn’t like sports that’s always pushing artistic boundaries, are both playing games.
There are two types of games, ones we play to win and games that are played to play.
In his seminal work Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse defined the games played to win as finite games. These games are played around scarcity.
When something is perceived as scarce, like being the best basketball team or making music that sells out venues, a game is created around it. As the scarcity becomes more desirable, the game ratchets up and the scarce thing becomes more scarce.
In 2002 ESPN aired the World Series of Poker and changed everything for the poker world. Hundreds of thousands of people including myself and many close friends went from thinking of poker as a game of chance to a game of strategy. We caught the bug. We played endlessly, talked strategy, and watched whatever tournament ESPN would air. Some went on to play in tournaments in Las Vegas.
Back then if you understood basic poker strategy and perhaps read a book on the subject, you were automatically one of the better players around. Your odds of a successful night went up dramatically from a little basic knowledge on common scenarios and calculating odds around these. Most folks at the table were relying on luck while you employed strategy.
The whole series started in 1969 at a Reno hotel as an invitational event called the Texas Gamblers Union. In 1970 it evolved to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the first tournament winner was declared. Today, WSOP is international with tournaments around the globe. If you want to compete, you must operate like a human calculator; running the numbers at each turn while instantly reading your opponents. Many of the winners from 20 years ago struggle keeping up with the top of today’s game. The stakes got bigger and so did the prize money. The scarcity ratchet continues turning up year after year.
According to Carse, finite games have certain conditions.
There are rules.
Participants accept them.
Participants enter voluntarily.
The game has a beginning and an end.
There are often teammates and opponents.
Play occurs within boundaries: there’s an on-the-field and an off-the-field.
It’s essential, at the end of the game, we all agree on the winner.
Games strip-out the complexity of life and get straight to the mechanics. If your goal is to have your art sold at a famous gallery, make it a game. Strip out all the things that are irrelevant to the game such as what your friends or other artists will think of you. Does your work connect? Do you need to work your way up through other events? Do you need to produce more work or pitch your work to different galleries? What’s the most direct path to achieving your goal?
While a game like this is helpful for getting straight to the goal, it’s not hard to see negative side effects of finite games. There are many strategies and tactics one can employ to have an exhibit at Pace Gallery or get published at HarperCollins.
Maybe you learn that the publisher desperately wants to publish historical fantasy books about The Roman Empire and they just don't get many submissions. And more importantly, you learn who the most influential voices are in deciding which fantasy books get published. So you find one of these people and find out about their favorite writers and copy that style. You're now on a much, much shorter line to getting published by HarperCollins.
You're no longer writing a book because you have something inside you need to share with the world. You're no longer doing it for some internal desire or because you enjoy it. You're only playing to win.
The shorter your timescale, the less you're thinking about the world you're living in. You might get your book published and might even be a best seller, but to what end?
A more fulfilling life comes from a longer game. An infinite games. The game we play to play.
A football game is over at the end of regulation, a chess game is over when the king falls. But what about playing board game with your 6 year old? Are you going to dominate them with your superior strategy so you can win? Probably not. I think this a game you play to play. It's an infinite game.
Sam Harris, the podcaster and creator, offers a pay-as-you-wish alternative pricing for full access to his work. The Transcendental Meditation organization offers pricing based on annual income. The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a 'suggested donation' instead of a set ticket price. At this point, none of these organizations are obligated to maintain an affordable offering. They do it because they believe they are offering a critical service and want it available to as many as possible.
We can either put our attention to maximize the price per artwork sold and climb our way to the top for prestigious awards or we can ask ourselves 'how do I make a difference for the people around me and give to my community so everyone's lives get better?'
Simon Sinek, in his book inspired by Carse, The Infinite Game, points out that businesses with sufficient resources playing the infinite game often outperform and outlast those with a scarcity / winners-take-all approach to business.
Let's go back to having your book published with HarperCollins. What if that's not the game? What if you simply have a book you desire to write? And what if you write it to the best of your ability? Maybe it doesn't have commercial success, but people read it and a few people really love it. And that fuels your next book.
What if you're not writing for the approval of your peers or to be amongst those with with the fancy accolades, but to connect with others on the same journey as you? To pour your heart into something, that someone out there just might love?
When playing an infinite game that thing that's scarce isn't as important as it once was. We discover that we have the time and energy to focus on what matters. Life becomes more playful.
Ironically, high-performers do their best when they loosen up. When we're playing, we find our flow state and increase our chances of success.
And while the earth may be finite in its resources, the opportunity to create a world that's better for everyone is infinite.
By committing to the infinite game, we avoid the pitfalls the greats frequently warn us about:
I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed ... It’s the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.
– Boris Becker
One last thing, while the Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse has inspired me for years and pulled me towards writing this piece, it's this episode of Seth Godin's Akimbo podcast that helped me structure it and I highly recommend giving it a listen.