There’s a common, desperate joke on the ApplyingToCollege subreddit forum about how hard it is to get into top universities these days. While coming in several forms, it boils down to same plot point: to get into the likes of Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, you have to cure cancer (and even that may not be enough).
While ostensibly distant from reality, it does accurately reflect the trend of college admissions: admission rates are decreasingly low. And with parents touting left and right where their kids are going and as our culture increases pressure on students to fight for those spots in those top colleges, most students find themselves overwhelmed, questioning why it is so difficult to be a teen in the 21st century.
It’s easy to blame admissions — it’s the colleges’ faults that they are so competitive. But the problem isn’t with the admissions. In fact, it has nothing to do with it. The way most of us approach our lives, we are asking for this pressure-cooker. We’re playing the wrong type of game.
In Simon Sinek’s brilliant keynote on infinite games, he outlines the differences between the two types of games we can play: finite and infinite. In finite games, the players are known, the rules are fixed, the objective is agreed upon. This is the case in college admissions: the players are seniors across the world, the rules are that you have to take certain tests, complete certain essays, and do what the college wants you to do to get admitted, and the objective is to get into your dream college. There’s a beginning, middle, and end to the process.
In infinite games, there are known and unknown players, the rules are changeable, and the objective is to perpetuate the game. An example here would be your impact or self-improvement. Your competitors aren’t well-defined, the rules are always changing, and you want to perpetuate the systems.
When a finite player goes up against a finite player, there’s stability. The game is well-defined and the winners and losers are known. The same occurs when infinite players compete against each other — they are both trying to outlast each other and the winner is simply who outlasts the other. When an infinite player goes up against a finite player, though, the system is unstable and the infinite player will win.
Take the American Revolution, for example. Britain played a finite game. They wanted to quell the revolution and control America. But, they could never win. Why? Because America wasn’t fighting the British — they were fighting for ideals. They were fighting to guarantee those inalienable rights they set forth in the Declaration of Independence — rights we are still fighting to guarantee, today. For the British, they saw the fight as having a beginning, middle, and end. The objective was to put an end to the war. For the Americans, the fight was never ending — they were constantly fighting to improve themselves. They are still fighting, today. The United States played an infinite game, so they beat the British.
The incongruency in the way we approach college admissions is that while education is an infinite game, won by the lifelong learners, we treat it like a finite game. We see college as the end-point and college admissions as a finite game to be won. Here’s the thing, though: while Harvard has entertained some of the brightest minds, it didn’t produce them. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg would have succeeded with or without Harvard. They were produced by their desire to learn and create. While Harvard would love to play it off like they are the win-condition of the finite game of college admissions, they aren’t.
In response to a poor admissions cycle for a student, they will probably hear that “wherever you end up will be best” a few hundred times. While it’s the biggest load of bullshit ever to be conjured by parents, I think it at least attempts to move the mindsets of students in the right direction. Your dream college shouldn’t be based on the low acceptance rate, rankings, or even the architecture of the school (gasp). Your dream college should be a stepping stone in your infinite game of education — a stepping stone in improving who you are as a person.
The best institution for you isn’t where all the smart kids are going. It’s where your values will be reflected and promoted in that institution’s compass. I strongly value freedom of speech. So, I eliminated the colleges on my list that didn’t and wrote about the value of free inquiry in most of my essays. My top choice was a school renowned for its staunch support of speech. In the infinite game of living a value-driven life and of life-long learning, choosing to open myself up to colleges that supported the same values as me was a step in the right direction.
Education is an infinite game. And in the age of the 21st century, college can do less and less for you. I can take classes from all the renowned institutions on Coursera, study from some of the greatest thinkers alive on the Kindle app and YouTube. I can learn whatever I want. That’s not to say that college is unnecessary or unuseful. The relationships you build there will be invaluable to your life. It is to say, though, that there has been a delinearization of education in which learning no longer occurs in clearly defined blocks of life (elementary, middle, and high school, then college, etc.). Education happens everyday if one chooses to learn. The internet has empowered the individual to make a choice in how they spend their time and learn.
The internet has also created a system of age-independent value production. Anyone of any age can produce value to the world. No one has to permit you to go out there and create. You can speak to the masses. You can share your message across the world. This globalization provides you with new opportunities never before seen or understood by teenagers. You have power never before realized by anyone your age. It’s your responsibility to use it.
Valentin Perez put forth the idea of the serendipity vehicle: a magnet for ideas, people, and opportunities from every corner of the globe. To build your serendipity vehicle, you must share what you create. You won’t gain an audience at first. Remember, though, that’s not the goal. Because you aren’t playing a finite game, you are playing an infinite game. When playing infinite games, you cultivate an identity on your own terms. You stop looking for external validation to define who you are. You define your limits, successes, objectives, and yourself.
You have unprecedented power to play infinite games, to build yourself, and share your work. While the standards have risen exponentially so have the opportunities. To live your best life, open yourself up to those opportunities and value the pursuit of a higher ideal rather than the external validation of a college’s acceptance. You may be shaking your head at such a lofty notion. It is, in fact, impossible to reach this enlightenment. But, that’s the point. When you are playing a game where the end is impossible to reach, you are playing an infinite game, and you set yourself up for a life on your own terms.
