The Infinite Game


If you wake up every day with a finite outcome as your only goal, I think it’s fair to say that your life will be not only predictable but also decidedly difficult. Why is will it be difficult?

It will be difficult because most things in life just don’t work that way. Most things in life are perceptively understood and that means they are much more difficult to measure finitely.

Say you like to ski or snowboard. You would not measure how enjoyable it was by how many times you rode the chairlift. Yes, riding a chairlift is a finite way of counting how many runs you might have taken but it’s not a consideration when it comes to measuring the enjoyment of the activity. That enjoyment is the infinite part.

How about parenting? Can we raise kids in a finite way? No, it’s not possible. Raising children has many unenjoyable aspects but it’s the infinite aspects of being a parent that are most rewarding.