Bizzz Book + Podcast Club

Open to entrepreneurs, leaders and straight-up biz nerds, this monthly club discusses business books and podcasts that inspire, educate, and spark curiosity about various aspects of entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation.

Participants engage in thoughtful conversations, share insights, and connect in supportive community to learn from each other’s experiences and apply new knowledge to their own ventures.

“There are at least two kinds of games,” states philosopher James Carse. “One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.”

Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, which is when they end.

But infinite games are more mysterious. Their object is not winning, but ensuring the continuation of play. The rules may change, the boundaries may change, even the participants may change — as long as the game is never allowed to come to an end.

Carse, a longtime NYU professor of history and literature of religion, surveys our world — from the finite games of the playing field and playing board to the infinite games found in culture and religion — leaving all we think we know illuminated and transformed. Along the way, he finds new ways of understanding everything, from how an actress portrays a role to how we engage in sex, from the nature of evil to the nature of science.

Finite games, he shows, may offer wealth and status, power and glory, but infinite games offer something far more subtle and far grander.

Carse has written a book rich in insight and aphorism.

No time to read the book? Watch “The Infinite Game with Dr. James Carse” on A Bit of Optimism podcast with Simon Sinek.

Facilitated byMichael F. Schein and hosted by Beahive. Non-members welcome.

Space is limited and free registration is required.

Host or Publisher Beahive