Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

by Michael Lewis

This was a radical notion: the game was ultimately unknowable. Merely playing a lot and memorizing the best moves only got you so far, as from one game to the next the best moves would change. “It makes it so players have to constantly adapt the strategy to things no one could have anticipated,” said Garfield. The people who were good at Magic were those who found it easy to adapt their strategies. As the best strategy was not just hard to know but unknowable, the people who were good at Magic were also comfortable making decisions while being certain that they were uncertain. Sam was good at Magic. Inside the game he interacted more easily with other people than he could outside it. Playing the game, he made his one meaningful childhood friend, a boy named Matt Nass.† Matt was as chill as a twelve-year-old boy could be. He had none of the neediness of other kids. “Given the backdrop of I don’t understand kids in the first place, neediness was a problem,” said Sam. Matt made zero social or emotional demands on him. He didn’t need Sam to generate facial expressions, or to ask him questions about himself, or really to do anything but play Magic.