C. Thi Nguyen, “The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game”

Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen analyzes the effects of games and scoring systems on human values and behavior. In his new book published by Penguin, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, Nguyen shows how different forms of games and play—from video games and sports to cooking or gardening—can enhance human development and meaning. He contrasts this potential with the growing role of metrics and rankings in workplaces, schools, governments, and everyday decision-making. These systems, he argues, can make us outsource our values and interests to external authorities. In developing ideas like value capture and the gamification of modern life, he invites audiences to consider when scores and metrics can be rewarding, or alienating.

Nguyen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. He is the author of Games: Agency as Art, published by Oxford University Press, and an editor at Aesthetics for Birds.

See also:

• “Why We Call Things ‘Porn’” — C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams, The New York Times
• “Are We Measuring Our Lives in All the Wrong Ways?” — The Ezra Klein Show
• “Appreciating the Art and Agency of Gameplay” — Jonathan Bastian, Life Examined, KCRW
• “How to Win at Real Life” — Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez, The Atlantic

Views expressed in Tanner Humanities Center events do not represent the official position of the Center or the University of Utah.

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