Wile E. Coyote, despaired, takes a bucket of paint and a brush and paints a beautiful two-bedroom house on a mountainside. He paints a beautiful coyote wife in the window, and two adorable coyote kids running around in the yard. He tries to enter this new coyote life, but it is inaccessible to him

If you read one book about games this year, make it The Score. Here’s my interview with its author, the brilliant philosopher @add-hawk.bsky.social

Games Can Save Us from the Hell of Silicon Valley Optimization

Gamification culture was a mistake.

postgame.substack.com

Mel sez: “The nice thing about daylight savings time now is that everything clicks over automatically and you don’t even need to think about it. Only the oven remembers.” ONLY THE OVEN REMEMBERS

The final live book launch event for THE SCORE is tomorrow, in NYC: a New School/NYU. I'll be in conversation with Sam Anderson, author of Boomtown - which was one of my soul-inspirations for my book. Free, but you need to register. thescorebooktalk.splashthat.com

My buddy, who loved boxing, explains his new love of tango: “It’s like cooperative boxing.”

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

If your students need a reading on purpose - especially purpose beyond the metrics school rewards - I'd highly recommend C. Thi Nguyen's, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game. @add-hawk.bsky.social, thank you for this gift of a book. Radiant and animated by joy.

Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore

nytimes.com

Always a good sign when you find yourself interrupting your reading to share a nugget with those around you. A rare thing when the author @add-hawk.bsky.social is a philosopher! Thanks to @dsquareddigest.bsky.social for alerting me. Great book!

New ETV is out for everyone! I'm joined by @add-hawk.bsky.social to discuss his new book The Score. Really fun chat on the nature of games, the challenges of society at scale, and whether the problem is bigger than just capitalism. Enjoy!

The Score with C. Thi Nguyen — Embrace The Void

My returning guest this week is C. Thi Nguyen, a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, and author of the new book The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game .  We discuss t...

voidpod.com

just had the idea "richard scarry tarot deck" and im utterly sick that it doesn't appear to already be a thing

It’s book release day! I’m back on social media! I feel slightly awkward about it because part of the book is about how social media transforms your motivations for communication! But honestly writing a book is lonely, weird basement-work, and now I want to talk to people about this weird jank.

Never, in a million kabillion years, when I decided to say "screw it" to mainstream philosophy and started writing about the philosophy of games, could I have imagined that this road would take me down to having the goddamn NY Times profile me and my new book. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/b...

Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore

nytimes.com

new paper by Sean Westwood: With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

OK: I have a new favorite topic to teach in intro philosophy classes: lottocracy. Literally half my class followed me back to my office because they *couldn't stop talking about it.* Lottocracy is the argument that elections don't work, and that the best way democracy is through lottery.

You sweat in your basement for years writing a book, working that nobody will ever read it - or that they will think you are a complete raving idiot, but then you read an astonishing, soul-warming, got-everything review like this and suddenly you feel like your whole life is not actually a waste.

Tim Clare@timclare.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I have a new review in @theguardian.com today, & contrived to write it in such a way they illustrated it with Mario Odyssey. Very happy. It's of C Thi Nguyen's new nonfiction The Score - an excellent game-related book that... well, just read the review: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

I needed to start the new year with this conversation with the remarkable philosopher C. Thi Nguyen (@add-hawk.bsky.social) about scoring systems; outsourcing values; and the game that you — and me — shouldn't be playing: youtu.be/7AdbePyGS2M?...

Why Data Doesn't Always Win, with a Philosopher of Art | PTFO

YouTube video by PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT

youtu.be

“In THE SCORE, @add-hawk.bsky.social combines an enthusiast celebration of games’ inner workings with a lament for the power of metrics to flatten our lives & capture our values. He helps us see how games transform instincts into something beautiful.” @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

How Keeping Score Makes Games Fun and Life Worse

A new book contrasts the meditative joy of games with the way metrics capture what we value, and how we judge ourselves.

bloomberg.com

“I want to talk about the part of philosophy writing that comes after the argument… the very specific work involved in infusing your writing with energy and life” — C. Thi Nguyen (@add-hawk.bsky.social) at Daily Nous on the creative craft of writing philosophy.

Beyond Argument: The Creative Craft of Philosophy Writing (guest post) - Daily Nous

"I want to talk about the part about the part of philosophy writing that comes after the argument part: the bit where you work on expressing your idea clearly, delicately, even personally. I want to t...

dailynous.com