The Infinite Game

One of my favorite books is Finite and Infinite Games. It offers a simple message that keeps giving and giving over time. Whenever I find anyone who has had a similar experience, I feel an immediate connection.

You can think of The Infinite Game as Finite and Infinite Games, ported to the business world. Instead of vignettes creating shadows of what finite and infinite games are, The Infinite Game uses typical business/leadership case-study writing to illustrate how long term thinking is sorely missing in modern companies.

To that extent, it's fine. Perhaps even good. The strongest pitch for this book is that leaders need to be aware of what game they're playing, and consider a thoughtful frame that includes long term thinking. But — I suspect that outcome is already achievable by anyone who was psychoactively impacted by Finite and Infinite Games. It's a lens that pervades everything, so of course it would impact leadership and business. However, the case studies were interesting, and illustrated how short term thinking impacts the long term prospects of great companies. Yet, this has the same issue as all case-study-driven books: selection bias and hindsight bias.

Overall, I'd recommend reading James Carse first, and if you typically enjoy business/leadership books, you may get something from this one as well.