A builder builds, and a builder can build many things: a product or service, a team, a company, an essay, a song, a friendship, a home, a family, a body of knowledge, culture, a skillset.
Looking at the builder’s mindset that way reminded me of James Carse’s fabulous “Finite and Infinite Games”[1]:
By measuring our lives in terms of “building it”, we create a framing that allows us to play our life as the infinite game it really is. And in the course of playing, we have the freedom to engage - or not - in all the many finite plays we are confronted with.
Ideally, we engage in all of this with the infinite players mindset.
Looking at it this way also posits that building - in the essence of the builders mindset proposed by you, is inherently playful. That’s a perspective I really like.
[1]: Carse, James P. Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. Ballantine Books, 1986.
Gena, great article! As relevant to someone building a life in chapter 3, some might describe post retirement, as someone in chapter 1, more at the beginning.
Yes- one resource I had half a mind to link to in the article (but didn’t find a good spot for) is this fantastic talk by philosopher Ruth Chang, called “How to make hard choices”: https://youtu.be/8GQZuzIdeQQ?si=93dZH4AGG1BpbQSa . Beyond that, I would also just emphasize that any decision tends to be better than no decision at all, and that a lot more decisions are “2-way doors” than we tend to appreciate.
Looking at the builder’s mindset that way reminded me of James Carse’s fabulous “Finite and Infinite Games”[1]:
By measuring our lives in terms of “building it”, we create a framing that allows us to play our life as the infinite game it really is. And in the course of playing, we have the freedom to engage - or not - in all the many finite plays we are confronted with.
Ideally, we engage in all of this with the infinite players mindset.
Looking at it this way also posits that building - in the essence of the builders mindset proposed by you, is inherently playful. That’s a perspective I really like.
[1]: Carse, James P. Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility. Ballantine Books, 1986.
Gena, great article! As relevant to someone building a life in chapter 3, some might describe post retirement, as someone in chapter 1, more at the beginning.
Love the reframing on building life as a whole.
How can one identify when we are building for a local maximum (e.g. a career or job), to the detriment of life as a whole?
Seems as though the main problem people experience is “losing the forest for the trees”, correct?
Yes- one resource I had half a mind to link to in the article (but didn’t find a good spot for) is this fantastic talk by philosopher Ruth Chang, called “How to make hard choices”: https://youtu.be/8GQZuzIdeQQ?si=93dZH4AGG1BpbQSa . Beyond that, I would also just emphasize that any decision tends to be better than no decision at all, and that a lot more decisions are “2-way doors” than we tend to appreciate.