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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
reflective
fast-paced
The first chapter is really all you need to read. After that, it quickly devolves into finding new ways to restate the same thing over and over again while sounding novel.
Definitely enjoyed it. From what I understood the ideas really resonated with me. I say from what I understood because I found the book conceptually challenging, the language extremely succinct, and I listened to it as an audio book. The book defines terms, makes logical statements and draws conclusions and almost never repeats itself. This means if you miss a sentence cause someone cut you off on the road or you are looking for street sign understanding degrades quickly. This may even be 5 stars, but I feel like I need to read it instead before I can say that.
incredibly dry. games as in discrete math kind of games. didn't give any practical examples
challenging
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Such an interesting idea, but seemed to be forced into every context possible. The presentation of the thesis was repetitive and became predictable.
It started out interesting but too quickly it became a “theory of everything”. He diverges too far from game theory into a philosophy with an all too predictable final conclusion: there is only one infinite game. Once you claim you’ve explained everything you’ve actually explained nothing. Here’s the problem: you can’t develop laws that explain everything when within your first 10 axioms you say “and here’s a paradox!” and don’t stop there. As with any 1980s popular psycho-philosophy book, there’s a long and unnecessary tangent on sex.
Turns out, I'm just not so into philosophy, I think. I mean - there's some fine bits of wisdom in this little book of ideas but the central conceit is just a little hard to wrap my head around. It seems like the author made up some categories to describe the world and then spends the book organizing things into his categories. Maybe that's all any philosophy is? Filing? Infinite Games seem pretty cool, though and I like his thoughts on myths. But here's an example of what's here: "The infinite player in us does not consume time but generates it." Interesting - but huh?!
informative
reflective
medium-paced