Book Club: The Score by C. Thi Nguyen

Andy, Anthony, and Parker tackle C. Thi Nguyen’s The Score (penguin.co.uk/books/457380/the-score-by-nguyen…) in their fourth episode of “Book Club (luckypaper.co//podcast/tag/book-club).” Nguyen’s book compares how metrics apply to and effect games and social structures. He argues that while metrics are a defining construct that allow games to exist and be fun, when applied to social situations and optimized they are often destructive. Our hosts discuss this theses and other arguments presented in the book.
Discussed in this episode:
• The Score (penguin.co.uk/books/457380/the-score-by-nguyen…) by C. Thi Nguyen
• Merlin Bird I.D App (merlinbirds.org)
• Episode 206: The Joy of Gaming with Richard Garfield (luckypaper.co/podcast/206-the-joy-of-gaming-wi…)
• Games and the Art of Agency (pgrim.org/philosophersannual/39articles/nguyen…) by C. Thi Nguyen
• A Pattern Language (patternlanguage.com) by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein
• How to do Nothing (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600671/how-to-do-…) by Jenny Odell
• End Times Fascism (penguin.co.uk/books/480399/end-times-fascism-b…) by by Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor
• The Nerd Reich (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nerd_Reich) by Gil Durán
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You can find the hosts’ Cubes on Cube Cobra:
• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube (cubecobra.com/cube/overview/andymangold)
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube (cubecobra.com/cube/overview/regular)
You can find both your hosts in the MTG Cube Talk Discord (discord.gg/WyEeGABT8P). Send in questions to the show at mail@luckypaper.co or our p.o. box:
Lucky Paper
PO Box 4855
Baltimore, MD 21211
Musical production by DJ James Nasty (facebook.com/jamesnasty).
Timestamps
• 0:00 - Intro
• 5;30 - Birds and Value Capture
• 15:35 - Stakes and Metrics
• 19:24 - Andy Doesn’t Like Books
• 23:40 - The Art of Decision Making
• 32:27 - How to Stop Playing Someone Elses Game
• 38:12 - Lecturing
• 46:05 - Neologisms
• 53:54 - Cube Design and Events
• 1:02:28 - Big Tech