this is the real secret of life
to be completely engaged in the
here-and-now and instead of calling it
work realize it’s play Alan Watts life
is a game this is a mindset it has been
a fundamental teaching of countless
philosophers and artists poets spiritual
leaders politicians and I don’t doubt
for a second that many of us here at
some point or another have shared the
same attitude towards life life is a
game but what exactly do we mean by this
but the term game has actually been
under pretty serious philosophical
debate for hundreds of years I know that
we all probably have an idea about what
games are but the more we investigate it
the more we see just how elusive a
definition of this term can be let us
start by thinking of all the different
ways we tend to use the term game there
are of course traditional games that
we’re all familiar with like Monopoly
and chess there are also games for
education there are simulation games
games for change games for health life
games there are augmented reality games
alternate reality games we sometimes
call the system a game you know you just
have to suck it up and play the game
what exactly do we mean by this Winston
Churchill actually frequently referred
to war as a game what did he mean
there’s the entire study of game theory
which has very little to do with games
in the traditional sense and much more
to do with rather serious issues like
international diplomacy economics and
war when we try and think about the
common thread linking together all of
these seemingly disparate activities
it’s actually pretty difficult to
identify because not all games take
place on a field or on a board or on a
table not all games use dice or cards or
tokens games don’t all involve chance
they don’t all require us to have skill
games aren’t even all competitive we
often think of this
we think of games but actually there’s
an entire branch of games called
cooperative games we probably played
charades or maybe Dungeons & Dragons and
we know that some games have no winner
have no loser but everyone is working
together towards some common goal so no
not all games are competitive not all
games are even fun and there’s an entire
field of games called games that aren’t
fun which use the power of gameplay to
explore ideas like mmm sexual harassment
and infant mortality in fact when we say
put your game face on we don’t mean to
have more fun we need to have less fun
to take the game more seriously so if
games are not all fun if games are not
all competitive what do we mean when we
use the term game what elements are
common to all games well maybe we could
start here how about rules and an
objective could we save it all games
involve rules and an objective yeah okay
so maybe at its simplest point we could
say that a game is a set of rules
defining the process of attaining and
objective okay okay okay
but um but we actually know that almost
all of the activities we engage in
everyday involve rules and objectives
you know driving to work and following
the rules of the road way baking a cake
and following the recipe so what is it
really that sets games apart from every
other part of our life
put simply what separates games from
everything else is that the objective of
a game is considered to be unimportant
it’s considered to be immaterial inert
outside of the game world isn’t it funny
that we pretend we pretend that it
really matters how many pins we knock
down when we’re bowling or how close to
the bullseye we’re able to get in a game
of darts this objective is taken very
seriously within the game world but is
considered to be unimportant outside of
the game world that’s a little closer
okay uh but we actually know that there
are many games that do substantially
affect the real world I mean think about
games that are used in educational
settings they engage the students so
much more and these do substantially
affect the real world think about the
simulation games that are used by
soldiers or airline pilots or mmm
surgeons these games significantly
impact the real world there have been
dozens of other Ted and TEDx talks given
on the power of games to help cultivate
creativity to help teach team-building
skills and leadership and one TED talker
argued to help bring about world peace
so it’s not really fair to say that a
game doesn’t affect reality this seems a
bit like a paradox that the game’s
objective is unimportant but the game
itself is important right it doesn’t
really matter if you can discard your
hand first but it is important that
we’re bonding with our friends that were
relaxing this is the real-world benefit
and you see here this paradox this is
the fundamental reason why games are so
misunderstood and why a definition of
game is so elusive you see in games we
actually find two different kinds of
objectives most activities have one
objective in games we find – in games we
see the game world objective now this
subjective is stated very clearly as the
way you win the game something like yeah
discard in your hand or crossing the
finish line first
during your opponent’s king we know that
in the game world it’s taken very
seriously but outside of the game world
it doesn’t really matter and we use all
of our intellectual strategy all of our
intellectual strength all of our
physical strength to reach this goal as
quickly as efficiently and as directly
as possible
now contrast this with the second
objective in games we find the
real-world objective now this objective
is actually not found in the rulebook it
is not how you win the game something
like having fun with your friends or
bonding with them or relaxing or
educating yourself about some topic this
is not how you win the game
it’s not required to win it’s not
considered within the game worlds but it
is considered to be important outside of
the game world and is in fact the reason
we play so we can say then that a game
is a set of rules defining the process
of attaining and objective that this
objective is considered to be very
important within the game world but is
considered ultimately unimportant
outside of the game world and this
process indirectly yields unspoken
real-world benefits okay so this
objective this definition this actually
takes into account all of the many
varied ways we tend to use the term game
but the question I’m really left with
here is why what why do we do this why
do we take this indirect route if we
want to bond with our friends if we want
to educate ourselves why not pursue
these real-world goals directly why do
we take this indirect route and the
reason is something called the law of
reversed
effort you’ve probably experienced this
in your own life before that sometimes
the harder and more diligently we work
towards some objective the less likely
we are to achieve it think of sleep for
instance if you’re lying in bed and
you’re thinking I have to fall asleep I
have to fall asleep I have to fall
asleep you’re probably not going to fall
asleep
it’s much more effective for us to
remove our focus from falling asleep
remove that objective and put our focus
on some other objectives some other
process counting invisible sheep in our
head or counting our breath right we
could say the same of happiness if we
try and force ourselves to be happy
we’re gonna feel kind of miserable on
the inside the same goes with fun if you
try and force yourself to have fun even
when playing a game if you’re forcing
the fun on someone else the less fun
you’re going to have the less fun other
people are going to have creativity
works in the same way if you force
creativity you’ll end up with writer’s
block we could say the same of
friendship and finding romantic partners
if you sit them down and say hi let me
tell you everything about myself and you
tell me everything about yourself and
we’ll become friends it’s a little
creepy right it’s much more effective if
we involve ourselves in some other
process we don’t even mention the fact
that we’re trying to make friends that
will scare them off we involve ourselves
in some other process like fishing or
bowling or playing cards or eating
dinner or drinking alcohol we do
something else and along the way
indirectly we end up making friends or
we end up finding a partner we could say
the same thing about getting an erection
that the more we try and force an
erection the more leads to dysfunction
and also if we’re lying in bed and
thinking oh I have to orgasm I have to
orgasm it’s probably not going to happen
we need to remove our focus away from
the erection away from the orgasm and on
to some other process some other
objective like our partner or some
fantasy we have playing in our mind or
some roleplay we’re in the middle of so
we could say put it all together that a
game is a set of rules defining the
process of attaining an objective that
this objective is considered to be
important in the game world that we kind
of pretend it’s important but we know
that in the real world it is unimportant
we can say that this process indirectly
yields unspoken real
benefits like friendship like relaxation
like fun like education and that these
games are played primarily to overcome
the difficulties and consequences of
pursuing certain real-world goals
directly if we try to have fun if and
try and educate ourselves to directly
it’ll get scared off okay so this
definition now lets us know what the
great poets and sages meant when they
told us to play life as a game well what
would it mean to play life is a game
first it would mean that ultimately the
difference between a game and a non game
has much more to do with a mindset than
the actual activity and we can begin to
cultivate this mindset first by
recognizing that the objective of our
life and the objective of the activities
that make up our life are ultimately
inconsequential outside of this game
world I don’t think that anyone would
disagree here it doesn’t really matter
how much money you make or how big your
house is it doesn’t really matter what
your job is or how successful you are it
doesn’t really matter the effect that
you have on this little game world of
ours the play life is a game would also
mean to accept that the rules in this
game world are equally inconsequential
that it doesn’t really matter if you use
an Oxford comma it doesn’t really matter
if you comb your hair or if you tuck in
your shirt if you brush your teeth at
night it doesn’t really matter if you
obey the law the laws of this little
game world were in let me be clear here
though the great sages and poets they
were not advising Anarchy they were not
telling us to see life is a game and
then to throw away the game to quit to
be a spoil sport for everyone else and
to knock the Monopoly board over No
they advised us to be fully engaged in
the game to pursue our objectives
fierceful e to play by the rules
diligently to meet our obstacles
courageously because ultimately we will
play the game anyway even though we are
able to recognize it as a game because
it’s not about the objectives it’s about
the journey
and these objectives these rules these
obstacles this competition
they provide the framework for this
journey for this experience for this
adventure called life that we are all
going on together to play the game of
life means to recognize that we are all
playing a role and that others are
playing roles too and we can play these
roles very seriously within the world of
this game while recognizing that
underneath of this mask there we are a
part of something so much bigger than
just this role the most beautiful part
of any game comes at the very end when
the two opposing sides come together and
meet in the middle
for handshake and this ritual symbolizes
that the competition existed only within
the world of the game and that
regardless of who won or who lost we are
really all equals and that we are really
in this together we all want genuine
connections with other human beings and
there really is so much love radiating
between all of us but so often we let
the games that we play get in the way
identifying with these roles we play
separates us taking this competition too
seriously it blinds us to play life as a
game needs to see through the veil to
see
the illusions and to recognize that we are really in this together thank