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Bounce! Conversations with Larry WeeksAuthor: Larry Weeks
A podcast about the challenges of being human (and running things). Host Larry Weeks interviews thought leaders across psychology, business, science, and culture to explore resilience, emotions, mental health, and practical ways to stay grounded through change while building purpose and real happiness. Language: en Genres: Education, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Self-Improvement Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Score Trap: C. Thi Nguyen on Goals, Metrics and Games
Friday, 4 September, 2026
Scores can be useful, but they can also quietly take over—until we start serving the metric instead of the reason we played the game in the first place. Sometimes we don't choose the game. At work, for example, the scoring system just comes with the role. So how do we keep a score useful without letting it hijack our behavior? And for the games we do choose to play, how do we make sure we don't lose the sense of play that made them worth doing? C. Thi Nguyen is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Utah specializing in the philosophy of games, technology, and value. He was named to Vox's 2024 Future Perfect 50 list of thinkers working to make the world better. His first book, Games: Agency as Art, won the American Philosophical Association's Book Prize, and his newest book is The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game. Some highlights from the episode: 01:00 How metrics can replace the values they were meant to serve 04:00 Work OKRs and the problem of measuring at scale 06:00 Why organizations rely on numbers, even when the numbers are imperfect 11:00 How accountability changes what we measure 16:00 Goals, scoring systems, and when the numbers start taking over 17:00 Can you gamify your work without becoming trapped by a score 18:00 Goals and a purpose 20:00 Striving play 22:00 Games and "unnecessary obstacles" 25:00 When scoring and competition kill the joy of an activity 34:00 Why "just enjoy the process" can actually be bad advice 38:00 What to do if a goal that once motivated you stops working 42:00 Retirement and new games to play 44:00 Process beauty: why the doing can matter more 52:00 Gamifying life 56:00 AI and getting an outcome while skipping the normal effort in getting that outcome Enjoy! For show notes and more, visit larryweeks.com
