How to Win the Game of Life: With Applied Game Theory

Let's explore a master approach to life strategies.

I have created a unique daily model for living.

I have essentially trained myself to see the world, and life itself as a type of game. It doesn’t mean that I need to have others lose for me to win.

If I strategize PEEPASA (with practicality, effectiveness, efficiency, precision, productivity, accuracy, and self-awareness), I know everyone can win. That is my intention. To have everyone win.

Early on, having a strong interest in Game Theory and the creation of effective life strategies I began to explore how this theory, a theory in which researchers have won multiple Nobel Prizes, might be applied to the concept of best business practices and as a tool for solving personal problems. Game theory was created to address economic problems, but understanding how this works on a basic level is quite fascinating.

Game theory is especially invaluable when external factors are the primary obstacle. You see, most economic theory focuses on the process and conditions under which individuals or organizations minimize their costs and maximize their benefits in those markets where their actions do not materially affect others –This is known as “perfect competition”. In life, we seldom encounter perfect competition. More often than not, there will be some healthy competition, and/or hierarchal conflict when economic decisions are to be made. In such a situation Game theory is an especially valuable tool. One party’s action may induce a reaction from others. Game Theory will help all those involved to achieve the greatest benefit at the lowest cost.

One of the most basic and easy-to-understand explanations of game-based thinking, and classical game theory is a highly influential book by religious scholar James P. Carse titled “Finite and Infinite Games”. In the book, Carse presents a way of looking at actions in life as being a part of at least two types of what he describes as “games”,

1. finite

2. infinite.

Both of these types of games are played within rules, as agreed upon by the participants; however, the meaning of the rules is different for the two types of games. Carse’s book stresses a non-serious (or “playful”) view of life on the part of “players”, referring to their choices as “moves”, and societal constructs and mores as “rules” and “boundaries”. Though he regularly employs common terms in specialized ways, he frames them as associated with finite or infinite play & players.

For Carse boundaries are “rules” that we must stay within when playing a finite game, in contrast with horizons, which change with the player, and are constantly shifting as one “plays”. Clearly, Carse has based virtually all of his ideas on classic game theory but has made it much more accessible to the general population. In Carse’s model a “finite game” is played to win (thus ending the game), while an infinite game is played to continue the play.

Crarse’s concept of finite games is quite similar to what is known as a “zero-sum game” in classical game theory. Both have a specific beginning and ending and are played to win. A finite game, as is so for a zero-sum game, is played within the context of its rules, with a winner of the competition being declared and receiving a victory. The rules exist to ensure the game is finite — that the game ends at some point. Examples are engaging in war, sports, board games, video games, debates, earning a degree from an educational institution, or belonging to an organization.

Once we decide to apply game-based thinking to our choices we are likely to see competitive forces that we never noticed before. This is where the concept of the finite game comes into play. Rather than making choices intuitively and organically, what is commonly called “going with the flow” choices must have an intention behind them. This intention, combined with the knowledge that free choice in various situations is a more effective life strategy than blaming external forces for our lot is key to being an effective “player”. When an end game is defined choices are automatically seen as conscious and voluntary. This is the very opposite of the thinking that dominates when a game is seen as infinite, i.e., a game with no end. Here continued participation in a round of the game is involuntary.

Even if we want to quit playing the game (exiting the game) before its completion, we must do so according to specific rules. In a sense, this is again very much like a zero-sum game, though not all finite games are zero-sum, in that the sum of positive outcomes can vary.

Unlike finite games, infinite games do not have a knowable beginning or ending. They are played to continue play, and sometimes with a purpose of bringing more players into the game. In an infinite game the way one “wins” is to simply keep the game going. An infinite game continues play, for the sake of play. Though people get divorced marriage is usually seen as an infinite game. A master of this idea is the actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who when asked in a television interview what the secret was for her 35-year marriage responded: “Don’t Leave!”

Games by their very definition are ever-changing and flexible for if the game appears to be approaching resolution or an end because of the rules of engagement, the rules must then be changed to allow continued play.

The only purpose for whatever rules there are is to ensure the game never ends — is infinite. One might say that the “endgame” here is to not have an endgame. For the most self-aware humans, the only end of the game is the end of life itself.

Often we do not even know that we are playing an infinite game. We begin to participate in the infinite game of living with our very first breath. We continue the game by continuing to breathe. It is an involuntary process free of conscious thought. Life though does have stages; early childhood, the teenage years, adulthood, aging, etc. Each stage can be defined as a “round of the game”. Continuing participation in the current round of gameplay is voluntary. “It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely.”

Here is a simple mental exercise to ponder:

Explore your life and imagine how various aspects of your daily activities would change if seen from the perspective of game-based thinking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YueJukoFBMU&t=2s