Of Course The Game Is Rigged. Don’t Let That Stop You

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“Of course the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you – if you don’t play you can’t win.” – Robert Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907 – 1988) was an award-winning prolific science fiction writer and an awardee of NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal, NASA’s highest honor for a non-government employee.

Before he became a published author, he finished a degree in Naval Engineering and served in the US Navy. This early experiences served as a useful inspiration for his social sci-fi stories that he started writing to pay his debts. When the 2nd World War broke, he worked as an aeronautical engineer at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania. The war however urged him to write on more political topics mirroring the present condition of the society. Afterwards, he experimented with movie-making and won an Academy Award for special effects in the film “Destination Moon” for which he had written the story.

He was called the “dean of science fiction writers” but his works about politics and philosophy was equally influential and controversial. His views range from atheism to new age, valuing individual freedom, political freedom, and sexual freedom.

The quote above is an excerpt from his book “Time Enough for Love”, published in 1973. Although belonging to a sci-fi genre, the book covers metaphysical questions making it one of his social sci-fi works. The quote has been used several times in businesses but it can be applied to life in general. Heinlein’s works presented examples of of inequality and social injustice, but most of his characters demonstrate persistence and optimism in life.

Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish philosopher in the earlier century provided a similar idea on persistence despite obstacles: “Permanence, perseverance, and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”