Tanner Humanities Center

UPDATE: This event will be held at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive. 

Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen analyzes the effects of games and scoring systems on human values and behavior. In his new book published by Penguin, The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, Nguyen shows how different forms of games and play—from video games and sports to cooking or gardening—can enhance human development and meaning. He contrasts this potential with the growing role of metrics and rankings in workplaces, schools, governments, and everyday decision-making. These systems, he argues, can make us outsource our values and interests to external authorities. In developing ideas like value capture and the gamification of modern life, he invites audiences to consider when scores and metrics can be rewarding, or alienating.

Nguyen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah. He is the author of Games: Agency as Art, published by Oxford University Press, and an editor at Aesthetics for Birds.

Recent reviews of The Score:

• The New York Times — Jennifer Szalai, “Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore”
• The Washington Post — Becca Rothfeld, “A philosopher’s case for living playfully without keeping score” 
• The Guardian — Tim Clare, “A brilliant warning about the gamification of everyday life” 
• The New Yorker — Joshua Rothman, “Is Life a Game?” 

See also:

• “Why We Call Things ‘Porn’” — C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams, The New York Times 
• “Are We Measuring Our Lives in All the Wrong Ways?” — The Ezra Klein Show 
• “Appreciating the Art and Agency of Gameplay” — Jonathan Bastian, Life Examined, KCRW 
• “How to Win at Real Life” — Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez, The Atlantic 

For class visits or large group bookings, please contact us at tanner-humanities@utah.edu for special ticketing. 

Views expressed in Tanner Humanities Center events do not represent the official position of the Center or the University of Utah.

Join our mailing list for more updates about Tanner Humanities Center events and programming.