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Obsession: Way of The Infinite Player

Obsession: Way of The Infinite Player

(The Goal Is To Keep Playing)

Priscilla [Player 2]
April 23, 2023

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[Welcome Screen: Today we talk about obsession: way of the infinite player. Without further ado—grab your portal gun. I'll catch you on the other side.]

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The Infinite Player

I've always admired people who are extreme in their field. People who are obsessed with their craft.

I'm obsessed with people who are obsessed.

For them, it's not about winning. It's about playing the game. It's about the journey. It's about the process. And anyone who's "made it big" will tell you that.

Although, for most people who have some goal in mind, it's not what they want to hear. That's why most people quit. They aren't doing it for the love of it; they are doing it because they're trying to get something out of it.

"The man who loves walking will walk further than the man who loves the destination."

— Sal Di Stefano

The people who are obsessed are playing infinite games. Those who are average are playing finite games.

Let's break it down.

Finite games: known players, fixed rules and an agreed up objective.

For example, basketball is a finite game because it has fixed rules and an agreed upon objective—score the most points in 4 quarters. There are winners and losers.

Infinite game: known and unknown players, the rules are changeable, and the objective is to keep playing the game.

In an infinite game, players drop out when they run out of the will or resources to keep playing. They get replaced. New players enter the game.

Business, for example, is an infinite game.

The infinite player is the one whose goal is solely to keep playing the game.

The finite player is playing to win.

I'd argue that even though basketball is a finite game, they are players within the game that are finite players and those who are infinite players.

And not even just with basketball, but in life. The infinite player is absolutely obsessed with their craft, with their work.

But it's rare.

Most players play finite games. They have some arbitrary goal. That’s cool. What do they do when they hit their goal?

They stop. They slow down. They’ve made it.

It’s the reason Kobe knew he could crush in the NBA.

"It was easy to size other players up in the NBA. I found that a lot of guys played for financial stability. Once they got that financial stability the passion, the work ethic, and the obsessiveness was gone.

Once I saw that I thought, this is going to be like taking candy from a baby. No wonder Michael Jordan wins all these fucking championships."

— Kobe Bryant

I always found this story interesting because getting into the NBA is no easy feat. But even at the highest level of the game, there are levels of different players.

When I came to the realization that even at the highest level there are people who slow down because they've 'made it', I realized if you want to stay ahead you just need to keep playing intensely. It's really that simple.

From the Michael Jordan biography:

"Jordan had been surprised to learn how lazy many of his Olympic teammates were about practice, how they were deceiving themselves about what the game required."

This is also interesting to me. The other guys already made the Olympic team, which is, again, no small feat. Still, there is a player that is infinitely obsessed with going beyond.

It parallels this story told by Chris Bosh at his Hall of Fame speech (which was pointed out on The Founders Podcast on Michael Jordan) :

“It was 2008, the Redeem Team was formed. We were in Vegas for the start of training camp and we’re getting ready for the Olympics in Beijing. I wanted to establish myself as a young leader on the team by waking up bright and early [on] day one. So the goal was to be the first one at breakfast. I set my alarm, I make sure I’m up by sunrise, I get out of bed, I put on my gear and I head downstairs…but when I get there, Kobe is already there with ice packs on his knees, drenched in sweat."

“It took me a minute to figure it out, but this guy was not only awake before me, he had already worked out. He had just played in the Finals days earlier, meanwhile I've been off for months and I was still exhausted. What he did that day was incomprehensible to me...that dedication he had only days after falling short of an NBA championship, that taught me something I have never forgotten: legends aren’t defined by their successes, they are defined by how they bounce back from their failures.”

— Chris Bosh

The infinite player doesn’t care about winning. They are obsessed with the game itself. The goal is to keep playing the game.

Obsession = Play

And they don't work hard either. For them, it doesn't feel like work.

Here's Michael Jordan's take on it:

"To this day, I don't enjoy working. I enjoy playing, and figuring out how to connect playing with business. To me, that's my niche. People talk about my work ethic as a player, but they don't understand. What appeared to be hard work to others was simply playing for me."

— Michael Jordan

When you're obsessed with something, working is effortless. You are in flow.

John D. Rockefeller penned this poem on work and play:

“I was early taught to work as well as play,

My life has been one long, happy holiday;

Full of work and full of play-

I dropped the worry on the way-

And God was good to me every day.”

See a connection here?

Find what you love and the work feels like play.

There's an Infinite Player in Everyone

I believe everyone has an infinite player in them. Something they're obsessed with. Some people just haven't found it yet. You gotta try many thing different things and sometimes you gotta try the same thing more than once until it grabs ahold of you and you fall in love with it and nothing else matters but you and your obsession.

I've been following Danny Miranda since the beginning of the year. This kid is obsessed with building his podcast.

Why does he keep going? Because he loves having conversations with people.

We all have it in us.

I'm sure some people already know what it is, but they fear looking extreme to those around them. It's your life and you only have one shot at playing this character. Might as well make the most of it.

Zach writes straight up poetry. I remember the first time I read this the line, "But deep inside, they're waiting, craving for the game to start."

It struck me like a baseball bat.

It's how I feel at work. I'm just waiting to come home and create. I have fallen for writing. I enjoy exploring ideas, finding connections, and writing about it from my perspective. I love creating content. I lose my sense of self when I'm designing the posts for my Instagram account, or designing the thumbnail for these newsletters.

This is the way of the infinite player: obesession. It's effortless. It's playing.