Scored by C Thi Nguyen: 4 star rating

We track our steps, our sleep, our kids' grades, and our work goals, but have we let the metrics change our values?

In the yearIn the Domesday Book of C Thi Nguyen in 1086, English surveyors measured land by the "hide", which was the area the average family needed to support themselves.A useful measure, obviously, but you need local knowledge to use it.Some areas are more productive than others, so how much land, exactly, does the average British household need?It could be 40 acres, or 60, or 120.

There is no problem if decisions are taken at the local level.But as the centralization of authority begins, units such as "Licks" disappear, replaced by standardized measures that are easy to record and implement.Local knowledge is forgotten.Over-centralization becomes - and it has only developed in our modern times - a big problem.

The score is part debate, part philosophical inquiry.Nguyen's argument is essentially that, in the interest of objectivity and non-bias, our government has turned metrics into goals and created rules around them.The result is that our civic life has become an apparently efficient but essentially moral game (not to mention an inevitable one).Nguyen is a philosopher and a lover of board games, video games, technology-based games, and Hugh-Ewing; in other words, he understands the usefulness of rules.But, he writes, in an effort to make life smoother and more logical, we allow metrics to distort our values.

For example, he mentions early on a pastor who was assigned to fulfill a baptism quota and found that he neglected the pastoral needs of the rest of his flock. At least pastors work in an environment where problems are reported. Most of us are so obsessed with our annual goals at work, the number of likes we get on social media, the number of steps logged on our fitness equipment, that the external metrics are triggered without even realizing it.and it replaces our core values. I have 1,000 friends and I walked 10,000 steps today. Thanks to that, I became healthy and popular.

Not surprisingly, academia is far from immune. Nguyen maintains that the U.S. university rankingsNews & World Report no longer celebrates academic distinction. This is because test takers entrust their reasoning to US News algorithms. Do you want to fight for social justice or make a fortune on Wall Street?Either way, you'll be applying to the same law school: the one at the top of your list.

Worse examples followed.For example, there is a US Department of State metric called TIP (Trafficking in Persons) that measures the effectiveness of policies to reduce modern slavery and specifically sex trafficking.We know that slavery thrived in very poor areas.But if a country succeeds in reducing environmental poverty and, as a result, sex trafficking, then TIP reporting metrics show failure—as the number of people sentenced declines.As Nguyen explains.It is true that this measure “encourages countries to continue to stop sex trafficking so that more traffickers can be punished.”

Linguyen's deepest insight lies in clear vision: in Wordsworth's words, "Our intrusive mind wrongly shapes the beautiful forms of things."Games do just that, providing a refreshing escape — for a few minutes or a few hours — from the ambiguity of the real world.On the other hand, the game of real life surrounds us all, with no end in sight.

So how do you escape the gamified world?Read more books!Take the violin!Stick it where you can!This doesn't sound like much of a calling to me, and I'm not sure Nguyen's heart is in the battle.Individuals can reclaim their agency - and this book helps them do so by abandoning their self-powered rhetoric of "objective" metrics.

Early on, Nguyen said, “I had all these theories about the game.A clear and simple scoring system is the magic ingredient that opens the door to a great world of gameplay.And I have a whole theory about units of measurement.where a clear and simple rating system undermines what really matters.” This book is well positioned.But if I have one criticism of this absorbing and entertaining book, Nguyen adheres closely to the rules of his genre as follows, like every other "famous thinker" on the shelf.He couldn't help but share his personal journey to enlightenment.If you've ever read The Very Hungry Caterpillar for children, you know how many young readers like to reread it. For me, Nguyen is the Eric Carle of philosophy, if you can control his subject relatively quickly.His constant thoughtfulness can prove daunting.

But don't throw it away.Even the book is a type of game where we "set goals to achieve the desired battle".It's about going the long way, a certain way, using a certain method.If we really want to understand our citizenry—not just jot down a few talking points—we need to read the score.We will discover that Nguyen masterfully planned this long journey.

The score was published by Allen Lane for £ 25. To order your copy, call 0330 173 0523 or visit Books