Finite & Infinite Ambition
Which games drive you?
Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.
— James Carse, Finite & Infinite Games
Even if you haven't read the book, you've probably brushed up against the idea of finite & infinite games. Finite games are situations that are bounded with rules, goals, and clear conditions for how to win — they're designed to be won or lost. Infinite games, in contrast, are open-ended and boundless. They exist for their own sake, with no finish line, just an ever-deepening flow of play and unfolding.
We probably wouldn't lose too much fidelity by mapping this concept onto the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Finite games reflect the left hemisphere’s focus on control, order, and legibility. Infinite games align with the right hemisphere’s embrace of flow, connection, and possibility.
We live in a culture that obviously and overwhelmingly privileges finite games, measuring success by goals achieved, metrics conquered, and accolades won. Infinite games get some lip service, but usually only when they’re seen as side-doors to improving finite outcomes. The infinite is tolerated only as long as it helps us win the finite. No surprise, then, that when we hear the word “ambition,” it’s almost always tied to finite games.
Living the Largest Story
Finite ambition is the ambition we all know. We describe people as ambitious when they're driven towards power, money, fame, approval, or control. Finitely ambitious people are laser-focused on specific, legible victories, and they know what it will look like when they've played the game well.
Make a list of all the people who regularly get called ambitious, whether in the news, on twitter, in your hometown, wherever else. They may have very little in common; some of them may want to go into business, others politics, others sports or engineering or even arts. What they'll all share in common is that they’re climbing ladders with well-defined rungs, aimed at goals others can tally and admire. (Even the "disruptor" types, though they may shake up how they go about the pursuit of power or approval, the basic drive is the same.)
Infinite ambition is another beast, another angel entirely. It involves a wholehearted devotion to what Bill Plotkin calls "the largest story we're capable of living." It’s not about what we want, but about what Reality wants from us. Infinite ambition listens for the world’s call and dives headlong into Mystery, moment by moment, unfolding something vast and alive. When you begin living with infinite ambition, you often have no idea how things will look in six months, a year, a decade.
In Finite & Infinite Games, Carse says "To be serious is to press for a specified conclusion. To be playful is to allow for possibility whatever the cost to oneself." Infinite ambition thrives when deep play and deep seriousness are unified — when we set up shop in that space beneath and above daily life where we can both earnestly engage with the world around us, and loosen up to take less seriously the rules, boundaries, and just-so-stories that box us into finite paths.
I've described possible approaches for infinite ambition in my writing on metis and deep aliveness, and I've more poetically pointed at my own deep ambition in "A Prayer" — but I can't really provide a road map to find yours.
Not only can no one else tell you your own infinite ambition — I don't even think anyone can fully tell themselves their own infinite ambition. You can feel it, you can acquaint yourself with the experience of it — but if you try to put it into words, you lose almost everything essential about it. The clearer the words, the less they truly express.
What you can do is sense the places where your life contracts around finite games. Find the fears, anxieties, and cravings that tether you to their small, rigid frame. Let go of them. At the same time: open your awareness; deepen into your body, your heart, your sense of possibility. And stay there. Let what comes, come. Watch what stirs you.
The Costs, the Rewards
There are different advantages and costs to each approach.
Finite ambition fits neatly into our existing culture, so it’s no surprise that it's generally rewarded with stability, approval, and control. Whether you’re in finance, academia, or starting a business, finite ambition gives you a clear roadmap. Maximize the metrics that matter, whether that's money, publications, reach, or something else. You know what’s expected, and you can focus on achieving it. (No guarantees of course — obviously some people are better than others at playing each game, and not everyone can win.)
The costs of finite ambition are similarly easy to spot: how many times have you heard someone say "I achieved everything I was supposed to, and somehow I still feel empty"? There's a direct tradeoff between aliveness on the one hand, and things like stability, predictability, and control on the other. Narrow goals narrow your view of reality, which narrows the possibilities for the surprises and serendipities that make life feel alive. The more tightly you grip control, the more you lose touch with what your soul wants out of life — as opposed to what your ego, your culture, or your wounds want.
The price of infinite ambition is also not difficult to guess, given the cultural discomfort with infinite games. Some of the most ambitious people I've ever met are creating impressive, world-shaping work — and they're very often barely getting by. Recognition, when it comes, is often niche, spreading only if someone else takes on the task of amplifying their voice. Infinite ambition is no fast track to comfort or acclaim.
But the rewards! I've been lucky enough to guide and watch people as they’ve stepped into their own infinite ambitions — dedicating themselves to the biggest story the world is asking of them — and every time it's an inspiration. When you unshackle yourself from finite games and tune in to the soul’s call, the world comes alive. Reality begins to lay out a path before you, step by step, coaxing you to go further and further, to hone what wants to be born through you. Joy, play, and meaning infuse your work, your relationships, your day to day life. Anxieties about "meaning" and "purpose" start to dissolve.
Most importantly, infinite ambition draws you into service. You're not doing things for yourself or your small circle of concerns — you're here to serve, to immerse yourself in the flow state that comes with putting something into the world that the world needs. You're answering a call that’s larger than you. You're tending the world as it is, and helping it transform into something new.
Like any dichotomy, there's obviously no hard and fast line to draw between finite and infinite games or finite and infinite ambition. An infinite game can include hundreds of finite games; finite games can act as ladders or training wheels to guide you into infinite games; and infinite games, over time, can harden into finite ones if we’re not careful.
But the more acquainted you become with the feel of each, the better you can navigate. Recognizing the constrictions of finite ambition can help you unshackle yourself, and sensing the expansiveness of infinite ambition can guide you toward the places where the world is asking you to step into it more fully.
If you like my essays, and would like a guided tour through some of my favorites, pick up my essay collection, We’re Here to Renew the Sacred.
Why is there nobody else out there like you? Good for you, bad for the rest of us.