The Score

 The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game, by C. Thi Nguyen, © 2026, 368 pgs.

Fascinating topic but was ultimately unsatisfying for me, despite a glowing blurb from Steve Wozniak on the cover. Nguyen, a philosophy professor, dives into his philosophy of games, breaking down scoring structures into a concept he calls "The Four Horsemen of Bureaucracy," which are Rules, Scale, Parts, and Control. These, he posits, are the key components in games but are also found in many disciplines in work and life. A basic example is the shoe cobbler versus a worker in a shoe factory. One is an artisan and craftsman, the other is a cog in a machine, doing a basic task in exchange for consistent work. Everyday we operate in a world of these kinds of rules in exchange for something for value, but with games it's different. When we play games, we operate in someone else's structure, but doing so creates a sense of 'play.' This sense makes a game fun--even if the game is not that good. Nguyen tacitly argues that we should approach other systems of control in a similar fashion--as a playground for ideas and learning. Ultimately, while there are a lot of good ideas here (and I think this is a great book for the non-philosophy-minded reader), Nguyen fails to land on a solid ending. What he really ends up doing is describing economics and the dangers of capitalism writ large. And even though the subtitle of the book is "how to stop playing someone else's game," he openly admits that he as no answer. I get what he's trying to say, but I wanted him to at least land on a conclusion, even if it was a challenging one. He was too indecisive, too afraid to tell the reader what to think, lest he be contributing to the same structures he's attempting to dismantle. Ending the book with a choose-your-own-adventure style ending only made it feel listless.