Recap #4: Life is a good game
Life, games, and my life
Housekeeping: I’ve added the option to subscribe to help brew me a coffee at home (coffee shops are so inflated rn). All my writings will be free (as long as you read it when they launch), and subscribing gives you access to previous my writing. New becomes old when new launches kapeesh?
Games
I spent a good week and a half trying to pass time playing games. While the voices in my head are sometimes my worst critics, lazy, unmotivating, wasting time, sometimes in life that’s all you can do. Especially when recovering from surgery.
As someone who’s spent the majority of their childhood playing games, I can’t help but apply the same concepts. Healthy foods become health potions, working out increases strength stats, and challenges life presents in front of you become quests with varying rewards depending on the difficulty. Life is simply the world’s largest MMORPG game we have yet to realize.
Professor Marcus Du Sautoy at Oxford University defines games through these traits:
Freedom - ability to express agency & free will
Outside of life - parallel to the space and time around us, independent from life
Uncertainty - not knowing who’s going to win
Unproductive - doesn’t contribute back to real life, and should be just for the fun of it
Rules - Boundaries and ways the game should be played
Make-believe - imagining things that appear to be attractive or exciting, but are not real
If you question what is “real life” and come from a background of Christianity and belief in the afterlife, the “real world” just becomes a simulation and we all wake up taking off our VR headsets once we hit the end of the road. If I were to re-edit Marcus Du Sautoy’s definition to apply to life as a game, these would be the traits:
Freedom - ability to express agency & free will
Full of life - Being you and doing you
Uncertainty - no definition of how to win
Unproductive - no progress can be taken with you when you die
Rules - Within the limits of physics and maybe some boundaries collectively decided by players
Make-believe - Things that are attractive or exciting based on value and are real
It’s also said that games should have the right amount of challenge. If the game is too easy, we quickly finish playing, get bored, and never play again. Meanwhile, if the game is too hard, people give up and feel less motivated after each failed attempt. You can take this same concept and apply it to complain about different groups of players, the next generation, celebrities, and trust fund kids. It’s ok, I do it too.
I find the uncertainty in life very appealing. There’s no definition of how to win. It reminds me of Minecraft, a game made up of blocks, creatures, and community. You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours. In Minecraft, the player decides what the objective of the game is. Winning may look like speed-running the ender dragon, crafting the strongest sword, building the most efficient farm, or collecting as many rare diamonds as possible. While Minecraft and life may have a similar uncertain objective, it’s ultimately decided by the player, yet players in life seem to think otherwise. You can blame it on capitalism which probably plays a part, but perhaps we‘ve reached a point of groupthink where everyone’s goal should be to acquire and maintain some level of wealth. Arguments can be made that players whose sole goal is to acquire as many diamonds may have ruined the game's economy, perhaps you may have discovered your next quest line or maybe even a raid boss. Life is a good game and I hope to play with you soon.
Update
Moved Meatbox Jerky from a startup to a project - I love eating it as much as you do, doing it as a company as some financial and production challenges. I’ll revisit with more capital in the future
Novus is 150 members strong - we build, co-work and demo. It’s nice to build a community of do-ers. Feel free to come out if you’re also building.
Shardul and I have been learning more about mining, forestry and carbon capturing. I’ve personally spent about 100 hours diving deep into ocean alkalinity enhancement, enhanced rock weathering, biochar, and exploring opportunities for disruption in those sectors.
Helping Planetary (voluntarily) locate excess magnesium at water treatment plants
Had a great time in South Korea. I haven’t been back in 17 years so it was really refreshing to catch up with old family and see how much Korea has changed. From time to time I wondered how my life would have been if my immigrant family stayed there.
Contracts dried up I’m going broke, will be looking for jobs.
Recovering from a small surgery. Fixed my deviated septum and I can breathe a little better
Asks
Job hunting! Looking for jobs in Product/Operations/Growth roles in startups (ideally Chief of Staff)
Looking to talk to more people in climate, mining or forestry. If you have a contact, I’d love to chat
Learning coding. Would appreciate any pointers. At the moment, python looks like the way to learn.
Gratitude
First of all, thank you for reading and making it this far!
Thank you Sav and Shardul for providing space for Novus!
My lovely gf who reminds me that everything is ok :p
Thanks to Manveer who’s my partner in crime in building out Novus\
Two photos to end it off
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you around.
- Lv 24 Warrior, Leejoo ;)