The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game with C. THI NGUYEN
About this episode
C. Thi Nguyen discusses the impact of metrics on personal values and the importance of reclaiming unstructured joy in life.
We live in a world obsessed with tracking. From our sleep scores to our social media engagement, invisible systems constantly quantify our worth. But when we replace our deepest values with these thin, easily measurable numbers, we lose a part of our humanity. It is time to step outside the magic circle of optimization and reclaim the unstructured joy of being alive. C. Thi Nguyen is a philosopher whose work gets to the heart of the invisible structures that define modern life. He first established himself as a food writer, exploring the sensory world, before turning his intellectual gaze toward the philosophy of games and agency. He’s the author of Games: Agency As Art . His new book is The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game . He argues that when we simplify our values for the sake of a leaderboard, something inside the human spirit begins to die. In it, he explores a concept called "value capture"—the moment we stop caring about the experience and start obsessing over the metric. He joins me now to discuss how we can lead a playful, spontaneous life without getting lost in the scoring systems of the 21st century…
People in this episode
Guest: C. Thi Nguyen
Topics covered
- value capture
- optimization
- philosophy of games
- human experience
- metrics in life
Keywords
- tracking
- social media
- optimization
- human spirit
- philosophy
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Games: Agency As Art, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game
More episodes of Tech, Innovation & Society - The Creative Process: Technology, AI, Software, Future, Economy, Science, Engineering & Robotics Interviews
- Why Do We Listen to the Talkers More Than the Builders Saving the Planet? - TOM CHI - Highlights
- Climate Capital with TOM CHI - Google X Co-founder, Founding Partner At One Ventures
- AI, Escaping the Screen & Listening to the Living World: DAVID HASKELL on the Songs of Nature - Highlights
- Game Over: Metrics, Big Data & Why We Need to Stop Keeping Score w/ C. THI NGUYEN - Highlights
- Beyond the Plagiarism Machine: Reclaiming Imagination from AI Slurry w/ AL KENNEDY
- SIRI HUSTVEDT on Love, Grief, AI, Creativity & the Future of Humanity
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Tech, Innovation & Society - The Creative Process: Technology, AI, Software, Future, Economy, Science, Engineering & Robotics Interviews podcast page.