years. It was a sad event, but someth<strong>in</strong>g good came out of it. He brought me back <strong>in</strong>to this terribleworld.''Later, I will ask Wildavsky about this story. Why did he <strong>in</strong>vite Stakgold to be his partner? Was itgratify<strong>in</strong>g to br<strong>in</strong>g someone of Stakgold's caliber back to bridge? In an e-mail message, Wildavskyscolds me for my sentimentalism. Kaplan-She<strong>in</strong>wold experts are hard to come by, he writes,especially ones that play well. ''Look for the selfish motive!'' he <strong>in</strong>structs.When Wildavsky gets his cards, he leans back aga<strong>in</strong>st his portable back pillow and tries to get hislegs under the stubby little table. There is a moment of study and rearrang<strong>in</strong>g of his hand. Then,with a decisive <strong>in</strong>ner nod, he sits up, gently arch<strong>in</strong>g his head and neck forward. Bidd<strong>in</strong>g beg<strong>in</strong>s, butit is silent -- each player <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g his bid or his pass by pull<strong>in</strong>g the appropriate lam<strong>in</strong>ated card froma little box mounted to his right. Each player shows his bid card -- one spade, say, or two no-trumpor pass -- then places it face up on the table. There are perhaps two-dozen tables <strong>in</strong> this sectionedoffbit of ballroom, and for the course of the tournament, the room is full of the airy shuffl<strong>in</strong>g of bidcards, punctuated by the puff of an asthma <strong>in</strong>haler, a call for the card caddy or one partner quietlychastis<strong>in</strong>g another <strong>in</strong> between games. Wildavsky and Doub are play<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st Michael Polowanand the Hackett tw<strong>in</strong> -- Jason, it turns out.All is go<strong>in</strong>g smoothly until Hackett pulls out the stop card, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g he is go<strong>in</strong>g to skip a level ofbidd<strong>in</strong>g. Wildavsky waits 10 seconds and then shows his pass card. He does this because he knowsthe rules, and the rules say he has to wait 10 seconds. But Hackett th<strong>in</strong>ks that Wildavsky waited toolong, and he raises his hand to call the director.<strong>Bridge</strong> is at once gentlemanly self-polic<strong>in</strong>g and deeply suspicious. You can't sigh funny or scratchyour nose or wait a second too long, or else you risk be<strong>in</strong>g accused of send<strong>in</strong>g ''unauthorized<strong>in</strong>formation'' to your partner. You must aspire to an even, expressionless tempo -- a k<strong>in</strong>d ofrobotism that, at later levels, is enhanced by screens that prevent partners from see<strong>in</strong>g one another,requir<strong>in</strong>g them to pass their bids through a small hole, like secret messages between prisoners <strong>in</strong>adjo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g cells.The director comes over. The players hunch and whisper their recollections of what happened, aquick Rashomon of silent seconds counted, who did what when. F<strong>in</strong>ally the director determ<strong>in</strong>es thedelay will not affect the outcome. Wildavsky and Doub end up w<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g the session, help<strong>in</strong>g theirteam to a net ga<strong>in</strong> of 37 International Match Po<strong>in</strong>ts.Some people get angry when the director is called on them. But Wildavsky doesn't seem to m<strong>in</strong>d atall. That's exactly what should happen, he tells me later. It is when people are afraid to call thedirector that the system doesn't work.And Wildavsky likes systems -- especially, it seems, if they are somewhat antique, like Kaplan-She<strong>in</strong>wold, or a little counter<strong>in</strong>tuitive, like extreme programm<strong>in</strong>g, which boosts efficiency byhav<strong>in</strong>g two programmers work the same problem at once. (''That's someth<strong>in</strong>g of a tough sell tomanagement,'' he says.) And he seems to like systems that are clear and f<strong>in</strong>al, even if they areoccasionally opaque to the outsider, like bridge and like Objectivism.Objectivists believe <strong>in</strong> absolute laws, whether of nature or of morality. This is <strong>Ayn</strong> <strong>Rand</strong>'s promisethat ''A is A'': up is not down, good (capitalism) is not evil (Communism), unemployment <strong>in</strong>surancepromotes unemployment, three hearts cannot be bid after three spades and selfishness trumps all.Although sometimes it doesn't. Later that even<strong>in</strong>g, Wildavsky and Doub allow their opponents tomake a three no-trump contract, and at the end of the night, they are out of the runn<strong>in</strong>g. It's not easyto watch the team take <strong>in</strong> the surprise and sadness of this unexpected defeat. There is somesullenness, some verg<strong>in</strong>g-upon-tears. But Wildavsky bobs gently from toe to toe, a little shaken butgenerally calm.
''If I played perfectly every time,'' he says, ''what would be the po<strong>in</strong>t?''Wildavsky seems to have forgotten all about the loss when I meet him later at the hotel bar.''Objectivism is a reality-based philosophy,'' he will say later. ''We realize that time only moves <strong>in</strong>one direction. Whatever is <strong>in</strong> the past is not undoable.''We run <strong>in</strong>to Wildavsky's fellow bridge players Sheri W<strong>in</strong>estock and Uday Ivatury, who arehav<strong>in</strong>g cocktails and talk<strong>in</strong>g about Objectivism. W<strong>in</strong>estock is married to Fred Gitelman, anotherObjectivist bridge player, and together they write and distribute bridge educational software throughtheir bus<strong>in</strong>ess, <strong>Bridge</strong> Base.Ivatury, meanwhile, is a computer programmer who helped found the Pipel<strong>in</strong>e with James Gleick(also a bridge player) and is not any k<strong>in</strong>d of Objectivist. In fact, Ivatury openly, smil<strong>in</strong>gly, claimsthat he is try<strong>in</strong>g to deconvert W<strong>in</strong>estock away from right-w<strong>in</strong>g fanaticism. He has been needl<strong>in</strong>gGitelman and W<strong>in</strong>estock about <strong>Bridge</strong> Base: if they're such hard-l<strong>in</strong>e capitalists, why are theygiv<strong>in</strong>g this program away?''Uday doesn't understand that selfishness is not always about money,'' W<strong>in</strong>estock says. ''The game Ilove is dy<strong>in</strong>g. If I help br<strong>in</strong>g people <strong>in</strong>to the game, that is good for me.''Wildavsky nods. ''You can do th<strong>in</strong>gs for other people so long as it's not a sacrifice.''Some weeks later, I press Wildavsky on a similar po<strong>in</strong>t: if Objectivism truly gives him an edge <strong>in</strong>bridge, why share it with the competition? He gives me two answers, both of which I th<strong>in</strong>k are true.First: ''I just decided that my philosophy is the most important th<strong>in</strong>g that makes me what I am, and itcouldn't hurt to let people know.''The second explanation: it has to do with Sept. 11 and the sense that day provoked <strong>in</strong> Wildavskythat our society is under attack, not just from collectivism with<strong>in</strong> but also from a k<strong>in</strong>d of destructivenihilism without. ''It's more clear now that the survival of Western civilization is at stake,'' he says.A more Objectivist world would be a better place for Adam Wildavsky to live, and that wouldtrump whatever advantage he might lose <strong>in</strong> bridge.At the end of the night, back at the bar, Wildavsky runs <strong>in</strong>to Michael Polowan, Jason Hackett'spartner dur<strong>in</strong>g the controversy over the 10-second delay. ''I want to give you some advice,''Wildavsky says. ''There is a rule that I don't th<strong>in</strong>k Jason understands.'' Wildavsky goes on to expla<strong>in</strong>that under A.C.B.L. rules, he was correct to wait the full 10 seconds and posits that perhaps Jasonwas mistakenly follow<strong>in</strong>g the European rules on wait<strong>in</strong>g. Polowan rolls his eyes slightly, probablyth<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g, sour grapes. But I don't th<strong>in</strong>k that's it at all. As a bridge player, as a programmer, as aphilosopher, Wildavsky is always f<strong>in</strong>e-tun<strong>in</strong>g the system. Why? Look for the selfish motive.