How To Academy Podcast C. Thi Nguyen - How to Stop Playing Someone Else's Game
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Mar 13, 2026 
C. Thi Nguyen, philosopher and author who studies games and scoring systems, explains why games are an art of process. He explores how scoring reshapes desires and how metrics from institutions steal nuance. Short takes cover why gameplay beauty lives in action, how quantification travels at the cost of context, and ways to resist gameifying our lives.
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Early Memory Playing Colossal Caves
- C. Thi Nguyen's first vivid computer game memory is playing Colossal Caves on a cast-off Intel mainframe in his father's garage.
- He remembers vividly imagining dungeon spaces via the primitive text parser, showing early deep engagement with games.
Goals Differ From Purposes
- Distinguish goals from purposes: scoring systems make goals explicit but can diverge from underlying purposes.
- Example: Kantian contrast — goal of winning at cards vs purpose of having fun; scoring fixes aim but may undermine broader aims.
Scoring Narrows What We Value
- Scoring systems narrow what people aim for by making evaluation precise and comparable.
- Skateboarding's move to Olympic scoring shifted focus from style and coolness to height and flips because those are easier to count.
