Infinite vs finite games

The last few years I’ve been pushing myself really hard. This end of year holiday period, I spent some time introspecting on this.

I realized that I’ve been playing finite games—and I think this is one of the root causes of this cycle of self-imposed pressure.

I came across this notion of finite vs infinite games from Ali Abdaal.

Finite games are played to win. Infinite games are played for the fun of it—with the purpose of continuing to play.

Since I started university years, I’ve set many work goals along the lines of making X money, or reaching Y position, or Z lifestyle. This—along with my ambitious and perfectionistic personality—is what I believe continuously built a significant amount of internal pressure.

The opposite would be playing an infinite game where in this case the goal would be to find work that I enjoy doing. Because if I enjoy doing the work itself, then there’s no pressure anymore in chasing a promotion or higher salary.

Taking a step back and focusing on playing infinite games instead of finite ones has quite profoundly changed my state of mind.

This of course comes from an extremely privileged position of already having a job with a salary that covers all my basic needs…

That being said, I think a lot of people suffer from playing finite games. It’s something that is deeply embedded in the corporate culture and much of the university programs.