Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #291 - Live Life Like a Gamer

Episode Date: December 25, 2015

Mark talks about important life skills people learn from gaming.

I'm pulling up my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay. Today, I'm going to be revisiting an article I wrote a couple years ago that I really liked called Live Like a Gamer. Okay, so where this started was I have a friend named Natasha who was having issues and she and I were talking. And one of the things I said to her is, I said, you know, Natasha, you're a gamer. I find it interesting that when you game, you think in a certain way. You use certain strategies.

Yet when you get to real life, you don't use those strategies. And I said, you know what? I think your life would be better served if you live like a gamer. Like, if you treated life the same way you treated games, I think you would find life to be easier for you. And it inspired me to write a whole article about this very concept, which is, I find that a lot of game players are really good at applying game rules to games, but when

they get to real life, that they don't apply those same rules. And what my take on it is, is that one of the reasons that gaming is awesome is it teaches you important life skills. But the key to that is understanding that these are important life skills and that you should use the same gaming skills in your life. So I wrote this article to talk about 10 different ways, 10 sort of different lessons that people can do that will help them, I think, just live life better.

And all of it is about embracing your gamerness. Like all these lessons are things that as gamers people do. And so I'm going to talk about what it means in a game sense, what it means in a life sense. So a little inspirational podcast for you guys today. Okay, so the first one is there's a solution. Okay, so one of the things that gamers always do is when you sit down to play a game, you don't assume, you assume it can be done.

Like when I sit down to play chess, I go, okay, there's got to be some way for me to capture my opponent's king. You know, I don't go, is it possible? Could I capture the king? No, it's like, I'm going to do this. How do I need to do this? And so when you approach a game, you approach it from the idea of,

I'm going to accomplish this task. How do I do it? But in life, what I find for a lot of people is that they have a task, and instead of saying, how can I do it? They go, can I do it? Am I capable of doing it? And the reality is there's a very different mindset when you start out with something, assuming it's doable and you're trying to figure out how, versus not sure if it can be done.

And I will say this. If you live life assuming that things can be done, that there is a solution, you will find solutions. The mere attitude of saying, how will I do this, not can I do it, will change how you function. It'll give you a more positive attitude. And the idea is there are solutions out there that if you're looking to not find a solution, it's very easy to not find a solution. The trick is you want to find a solution. And to find a solution, you need to start with the premise that there is a solution. And the funny thing is you want to find a solution. And to find a solution, you need to start with the premise that there is a solution. And the funny thing is, you would never

ever start a game like chess. No one starts a chess game and goes, I don't know, is it possible to capture the king? No, no, no. You'll never win a game of chess like that. So the first lesson is the idea of part of being a gamer is approaching the problem of

assuming it's a solvable problem, and approaching how to solve it. So in life, do the same thing. When you have a problem, don't question whether it can be done. Because you know what? When you start to question whether it can be done, you sometimes accept it can't be done. And once you accept it can't be done, well, it can't be done.

You know? Where if you accept it can be done, how do I do it? You will find solutions. That is just the way the human brain works is it is looking for what it's being told to look for. If you're being told to look for excuses, you will find excuses. If you're being told to find solutions, you'll find solutions. So don't look for excuses, look for solutions. Okay, number two, try something else. This is actually the first lesson when I was talking to Natasha

that led to this whole idea. Was she, something had happened, she had tried something and it didn't work out. And she was really unhappy about it. And I said to her, I go,

okay, well let's imagine you're playing a game and you have a strategy, you're playing magic, and you have a strategy and oh, it gets shut down, it just doesn't work, you're playing a game, and you have a strategy. You're playing Magic, and you have a strategy, and, oh, it gets shut down. It just doesn't work. You're not going to be able to do that anymore.

What do you do? And she's like, I find another solution. I go, exactly. The key to a gamer is, when one thing doesn't work, you're like, okay, okay, that didn't work. I need to find something else. You don't just go, well, I guess I can't win.

No, no, no. A gamer's always, even if your chances of winning are minute, even if there's an outside chance where the gamer dies and says, okay, if there's any possibility to win, what do I need to do to win? And I've seen some awesome, awesome games where somebody said, okay, my only route to victory is this obscure way to win, but I'm going to commit to it, and they pull it off.

And that's one of the things about gamers is you don't give up. You don't give up until you've lost. You keep trying to find another way to win, but I'm going to commit to it, and they pull it off. And that's one of the things about gamers is you don't give up. You don't give up until you've lost. You keep trying to find another way to win. And if your primary strategy doesn't work, you get a secondary strategy. If the secondary strategy doesn't work, you get a tertiary strategy. You keep looking for solutions. So in the article, I talked about a scene from one of my favorite scenes from movies, from Apollo 13. So, they're up in space, and there's some problem, and I don't even know what the problem is, but they need to solve the problem, because if the astronauts

don't solve the problem, they will die. So they go down, they're going down to NASA, and they go to the room of all these smart scientists, and they say, okay, in this box is everything they have there. If we don't solve this problem in 13 hours, they die. Go.

And the thing is, they found a solution. They go, okay, we have to find a solution. They're going to die if we don't. We have no choice. Well, we're going to figure out how this box of objects is going to save their lives because we don't have any other choice. And I feel like a lot of life is treating life like that of saying, okay, I got to find an out here.

I got to find a win. I mean, the first strategy is assuming you can win. And the second is not giving up. Keep looking for other options. Try to figure out how you can do something. So in life, like in life, what happens a lot of times is you put a lot of time and energy and try to solve something and it doesn't work.

And it's sad. I mean, it matters a lot to you. But a lot of people then kind of get depressed, like, oh, I guess I can't do it. Like, no, no, no, no. Come on. Game her up. Okay, that didn't work. What else can you do?

How else can you solve it? You know? And when you're talking about importance, like in a game, if in a game you're willing to take the utmost strategy to not give up until you've tried everything, and even if's a one percent shot you take the one percent chance and you'll do that in the game why don't you do that in real life where things matter even more you know you don't give up you keep finding other options you keep looking for what what you haven't tried yet that can work um and the funny thing is i see gamers who, in a game, like, like, Natasha was a perfect example where I've watched her play games,

she's not going to give up, she's going to find other options, yet when you get to her real life, she wasn't, you know, and that once I said that to her, I, I, it really, one of the reasons I wrote this article was, she took the, she really took the, um, the advice to heart, and she said, yeah, you're right, you're right, I'm

acting very differently now than I do when I play games. Why am I doing that? And anyway, think about that. When you are in a problem and you find yourself giving up, you're like, am I acting like a gamer? No, no, no. I'm not giving up. I'm figuring out what's the next best option. What's the next thing available to me?

You know, don't, you don't want to give up. You never want to give up. I mean, give up when you lose. Keep looking for the option. Keep trying to find a way to me. You know, don't, you don't want to give up. You never want to give up. I mean, give up when you lose. Keep looking for the option. Keep trying to find a way to win. Okay, next, losing is an opportunity. So that's another important thing you learn from gaming, which is no matter how much you game, you're going to lose. No matter how good you are, you're going to lose. You know, if you play enough games, you're going to lose. In fact, if you're a real gamer, you play a lot of games, you're going to lose a lot. But what you learn is losing is not a bad thing unto itself. You know, you want to win, the goal is to win, but by losing

there's a big advantage of understanding what losing means. Because losing is a great teaching opportunity. I talk about this all the time, that success does not teach really particularly well. Success teaches repetition. Success is, well, this worked last time, try this again. Failure teaches a lot. Because failure, you're forced to look within and go, okay, that didn't work. What do I need to do differently? I have to change my behavior.

Success doesn't make you change your behavior. Failure makes you change your behavior. And so one of the things that gamers learn is that losing is a valuable thing to embrace and understand. Not that you have to like losing. Nobody likes losing. But you have to treat losing as what it is, is a means to learn, a learning opportunity. So for example, every, but once a year, somebody writes the following magic article, which is, you want to get better at magic, here's the number one thing you need to do to get better at magic. Accept that your losses are your responsibility. It's not luck.

It's not, you know, factors outside of your control. Look at the factors under your control, and the second you realize that every time you lose, that you've done things that led to that loss, you start to say, oh, well, I can get better. But if you don't acknowledge those things, if you don't own up that you were part of the losing, then you're never going to change. If you assume that every time you lost, it's somebody else's fault or factors outside your control, you're never going to get better. If you want to get better at a game?

Own up. Figure out what you did wrong. Figure out why you lost. Well, guess what? Same for life. If something doesn't go your way, you got to figure out why. Don't just sulk that it didn't go your way. Figure out why it didn't go your way. Analyze it.

Losing is an opportunity to learn. And in life, you got to take that opportunity. You got to figure out how you can learn from it. So if something doesn't go the way you want, it's not that you can't be sad about it, but you have to ask an introspection. You have to say, okay, what did I do? And once again, assume that you did things that led to the result.

Because if you assume there are factors outside your control, you will never change. Now, by the way, I'm if you assume there are factors outside your control, you will never change. Now, by the way, I'm not saying there aren't things outside your control. In games, there are things outside your control. But the answer is, whenever you lose a game, you did something. Maybe, maybe there were factors you couldn't control, but you did something.

That if you could redo the game, you could act differently and possibly win that game. The same is true for life. When something doesn't go your way, you can think back, say, what did I do? Look at previous times, maybe that the same thing has happened, and said, is there a pattern? Is there something I'm doing?

Like, one thing I remember is, I wrote a whole article about my dating foibles. My very first topical blend article called To Err is Human. And one of the important lessons that I learned from dating is there's a long, great time where I was just not able to get a date. For those that know this article, I had this thing called the bullseye theory where I knew I was bad at it, but I'm like, okay. But an archer, if he just shoots enough arrows at a target,

he'll hit a bullseye eventually. He'll eventually go and hit it. So I decided in college that every week I was going to ask somebody out. A girl from my class or my dorm or whatever. Once a week I was going to ask somebody out. I went all freshman year and didn't get a date. And that's when I had to say to myself, okay, what's going on? If I assumed that was luck, I'm like, man, I'm unlucky.

Was anything going to change? And then I started saying, okay, something is happening here. You know, there's no, it can't just be chance that I'm not getting any yeses. And I had this introspective moment of, am I asking the right people? You know, what I realized was I was so scared of getting rejected that I asked people that I assume would reject me. Meaning I asked people that I assume would reject me. Meaning, I asked people that I only asked long shots out. I didn't ask people that I had a realistic chance at because I was scared. It's easy to say, well, this is a long shot and they say no. And you go, oh, okay. Well, I gave a long shot and said no. No, you know, I was emotionally protecting myself.

But at the same time, I wasn't allowed that opportunity to happen. So in life, you have to look at your choices that you made, look at your failures, and say, what am I doing that led to those failures? How can losing be a learning opportunity? Okay, number four. Identify what matters most. Okay. So the story I gave in the article was one day it's Thanksgiving, and my wife Laura had gotten us a very elaborate Thanksgiving centerpiece.

And in the center of it, the candles went, and then all this cool stuff. Anyway, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner my wife made. It was delicious. We're all full. We're putting the kids to bed when the fire alarm goes off. And like, oh, what's going on? So we run downstairs. My wife and I run downstairs.

And the centerpiece had caught on fire. We'd forgotten to blow out the candles. And they'd gotten low enough that they set the centerpiece on fire. And there were flames, pretty high flames, three foot, four foot high. It was located just to our table. But there's giant flames. The entire thing's on fire. So I run to the sink. I grab a pitcher giant flames. The entire thing's on the thing. So I run to the sink, I grab a pitcher of water, and I start filling up the pitcher.

Now, it takes like 30 seconds for the pitcher to fill up. And then I walk over to the fire, and I dump the water on the fire, putting it out. And Laura, after the fact it's over, said to me, I don't understand. You went to the sink, you turned it on, and you just sat there calmly for 30 seconds while the water was pouring. How could you just sit there so calmly?

And I said, well, Laura, here's what happened. I walk in. I see that's on fire. I know if the fire gets to the roof, we're in trouble. If something else catches on fire, we're in deep trouble. We need to put the fire out. Okay, what do I need to put the fire out? I need water. What's the best way to do that? There's a pitcher. I need to get as much water as possible to pour

on the fire to put the fire out. There's a pitcher that's right by the sink. That pitcher will allow me to get the most water possible to the fire. Well, that's my best course of action. And so why was I calm? It's because I figured out the best course of action and I knew I was doing the most logical, best thing I needed to be doing. That was the gamer in me, that I identified what mattered most. I go, I need to get water to get out that fire. And the fact

that I had to stand there for 30 seconds while the water was filling the pitcher, while this fire was raging, I knew that this was the best course of action. And that's one of the things that gamers do well, is when things are going on, when you're playing a game, you analyze. You go, okay, there's a lot of things I could pay attention to. What do I need to pay attention to most? And usually, the way you start understanding a game is you start to understand what about it matters most. You know, you're playing Scrabble, and you're like, oh, it's really about the vols.

The vols are the most important thing. Understanding the value of the vols and where the vols are, you know, that's your greatest opportunities will be revolving around vols. And so, not just how you can hook on, but understanding where other people can hook on to your words.

You're playing a fellow, you understand the corners are important, that the strategy is getting the corners. It's hard to flip a corner. So that the strategy is figuring out how to... Anyway, each game has a strategy you want to figure out. And part of being a good gamer is when you approach a game is going, okay, what matters? And be aware in games that things can change.

So what matters can change? This is connected to a post I'll get to in a second, a message I'll get to in a second. But anyway, you need to figure out at the moment, in the moment, what matters can change. This is connected to a post I'll get to in a second, a message I'll get to in a second. But anyway, you need to figure out at the moment, in the moment, what matters most. Well, in life, that's an awesome skill. That's a very good skill. Obviously, I used it in putting out the fire.

In any one moment, you need to understand what the priority, you need to understand what matters most. We'll get to priorities in a second. You need to understand what matters most because then you can focus your energies. If there's ten things to focus on, you can't focus on ten things as clearly as one. And so part of knowing what matters most is

being able to pick out the thing you need to focus on. Okay, which gets us to our next lesson, which is prioritize. Once you understand what matters most, then the correct gamer thing to do is prioritize the thing. Say, okay, one's the most important. There's a fire. I've got to get that fire out.

Well, priority one is getting water. Okay, well, how do I get water? I need to use the sink. Well, I need to put it in something. I need to use this picture. Because I knew put out fire and get water was most important, I prioritized what I needed to do. And that's the same for life is in a game,

once you figure out what needs to get done, you then figure out the resources you have, how do you want to use them? What do you want to focus on? And that prioritizing is a very important gaming skill of saying, everything can't matter equally. I have to understand what matters most, and then I have to do the things that matter most first. You know, I can't wait for the thing that matters.

I mean, if I understand what matters most, but I wait to do it, then I'm not making it matter most. What making it matter most means is prioritizing getting it done. And so these two things go together. You have to understand what matters most and then you have to prioritize it. You know, one of the things I always say is, you know, if you don't prioritize something, then the key to prioritizing something is actually to do it. You know, the story I used to tell is I used to travel a lot. And when I had kids, my wife said, look, I don't want you to travel so much. You have a family now. And I said, you're right. And I went and I cut down my travel. And I said, OK, you know, if I if I claim something's my priority, if I don't prioritize it, then it's not my priority. If spending time

with my kids was important, then I had to prioritize it over traveling, which was awesome, but not as awesome as being with my family. And so you need to take steps to prioritize things. You need to figure out what matters. You know, in a game, you prioritize what's going to get you what you want. Same thing in life. Figure out what you want, figure out what matters, and then prioritize the things that matter. Because if you don't prioritize the things that matter, then they don't actually matter. Okay, next. Use resource management. then they don't actually matter. Okay, next.

Use resource management. Oh, the one thing about prioritizing, by the way, real quickly, I forgot to say, is one of the reasons that I think people are able to prioritize easier in games is, and the nice thing about games, the reason games are great

for learning life skills is it's a very low threat. The threat of failure is low. Like, worst case scenario, I lose the game. Oh, well, it's just a game. There's not large consequences on it. And when you get to life, you're like, oh no, there's real consequences.

Like, oh my God, I don't want this to happen. I really am afraid of something happening. But the point is, if you're willing to prioritize when there's low sense of failure, why not when it matters? Like when it matters, it's more important that you're able to prioritize. Okay, the value of things can change. Oh no, I'm sorry. Use resource management. Use resource management. So one of the things is, the story I told here was, I go to Comic-Con every

year, San Diego Comic-Con. I've been going there for many, many years. And one of the goals that I set for myself is I wanted to limit how much I had to travel with. Because I buy a lot of things at San Diego Comic Con, and so if I don't travel light, it's hard to bring everything back. So I said, okay, I want to maximize how little I can bring. So one day I made the realization that I have a lot of t-shirts, for those who are unaware. I love t-shirts, and I wear a lot of different geeky t-shirts. So I always buy t-shirts at San Diego Comic Con. Well, I always bring shirts with me to wear at San Diego Comic Con. Well, I always bring shirts with me to wear at San Diego Comic Con. Wait a minute.

If I'm going to buy shirts, I will have the shirts I need to wear. I don't need to bring shirts. I need to just buy shirts, which I'm going to do anyway, and wear the shirts I buy. And now that's a bunch less things I have to travel with. That sort of general sense is using the

resource management out of games. One of the key things about games is an important gaming skill is understanding what resource is being used. What resource matters to this game and then figuring out how best to manage it. A lot of, like, resource management is a huge part of being a good gamer.

Of just understanding what matters. You know, in Magic it's all about understanding your mana and understanding how do I build my deck to make sure I have the right amount of mana, how do I curve it, how to build my deck so it maximizes what my resource is. You know, resource management is both figuring out how to best get your resource,

so how to make sure you put lands and have the right percentages in your deck, and how to use the resources you have, you know, curving out and making sure that your deck can take advantage of what you have mana-wise. So saying, this is what I can expect, well, let me show I maximize it at every turn. And in general, it is something just a good lesson for life, which is, look, in life you have resources.

Understand your resources. What resources do you have access to? You know, are there certain resources that would help you if you had more access to them? Can you get them? Are you able to do that? Can you take steps to do that? Well, do that. Now, if you can't get more of a certain resource, what is the limitation of that resource?

How can you best use it? All those game skills you use to maximize in a game are really valuable life lesson things. Understanding resources is just as valuable in life. Of knowing, oh, I can only get so much of this thing. Oh, that means if I want to prioritize thing A, well, I shouldn't spend that resource on thing B until thing A is taken care of. Note, by the way, these all click together.

Once you identify what matters most, you can prioritize it. Once you prioritize it, you can allocate your resources correctly to make sure that you prioritize it. These all click together. Okay, next, the value of things can change. These all click together. Okay, next. The value of things can change.

One of the jokes we often say is when you end life at higher than one life in magic, you've wasted a resource. You know, I'm talking about using your resources correctly. But another thing that makes you understand is that how you view things has to be able to shift as you move along. And that life, for example, early in the game of Magic, is a resource.

Later on, it can be a clock. Later on, if your opponent's doing damage to you, you have to think of your life as a clock and not as a resource because you have to sort of use it as a time to figure out how long before you lose. But the idea is, different things mean things at different times.

You know, when I'm trying to figure out whether to pay life for something, I've got to figure out whether or not that life, what it means. Is it a resource that I can exploit, or is it a clock that's going to determine when I lose? And early on, like, oh, it's a resource, I can use it. Later on, it's like, oh, no, no, no, I'm speeding up my opponent if I do that. I don't have the luxury right now of doing that. And one of the things about people in general is people are emotional pack rats, which means that people tend to hold on to things

that at one point in their life was important to them. But one of the things that's very valuable, that in gaming you learn how to sacrifice your pawn, or you learn how to trade things in because you'll get something for it. You understand how something that might be valuable at one point, later it can be traded or it can be used for something else. In life, the same way.

You've got to figure out when something has value and when it does not. And a lot of times, people go off habit. I needed something. It was important to me. I latched on to it. I attached important emotional significance. And then things change. And that thing that I attached so closely to isn't actually necessary anymore. And that one of the things that's really important in life

is understanding when something has value and when it doesn't. And when it doesn't, using it appropriately, being willing to let it go or trade it for something else. That part of understanding how to live life to the best is understanding that values change, and you have to always reevaluate what things are. Next, trust the math. So one of the things you learn is,

in games, some decisions need to be made with your head, and some with your heart. One of the things that your head does really well is math. Are there percentages at play? Am I rolling a die? Am I drawing a card? Am I doing something in which there is just math at play here? And one of the things you learn when you're a gamer is math doesn't lie. Don't let emotion run away from math. Trust the math. For example, if I'm playing

blackjack and, you know, the opponent has a 12 and I turn up a, I'm sorry, my opponent has, sorry, my opponent has a 16 and I turn up a two and I have 12, I'm supposed to not hit. A 12 is a low, low score, but they have a good chance of going out because they have 16 and they have to hit. And the math says I don't hit.

Even I feel lucky, even I'm like, well, I think I'll be okay. Emotionally math says, I don't hit. Even if I feel lucky, even if I'm like, well, I think I'll be okay. Emotionally, I think I'll be okay. No. Or even if every time you did it, this is the fourth time you've done it this night,

and every other time you've lost, it doesn't matter. You learn to trust the math. The math says, this is the correct play and that you learn, good gamers learn, I've got to trust the math.

Even if I keep getting burned, I go, no, no gamers learn, I got to trust the math. Even if I keep getting burned, I go, no, no, no. I can't emotionally go, well, every time recently, it hasn't gone my way. It doesn't matter. Trust the math. The same is true for life. Understand when it's an emotional decision. Understand when it's not. When it's a logical decision, when there's math on the line, you got to trust the math. And even if things don't work out for you, even if the math didn't go your way previous times, that doesn't mean anything. It doesn't actually mean the math.

The math is the math. Nothing's changing the math. And it's easy for your emotions to want to change the math or to feel a certain way about the decision. But if it's a math-based decision, it's a logical decision that's just based on, like I said, it's going to happen a certain percentage and that's what it's going to be.

You've got to trust the math on it. And gamers learn that no matter what, you trust the math. Because the math is not going to lie. And it's easy. It's very easy to be emotional and not trust math. But the gamers learn to trust it. And in life, you have to understand

when you have math moments. When you have logical moments in which emotion doesn't matter. There's times you make emotional decisions, you should make emotional decisions, but only in things where emotions help you, and not where emotion can harm you or make you make poor decisions. Next, find

value in others. So in gaming, this is what's known as a political game. A political game means that it's not just about the game itself, it's about interacting with other people. And one of the really valuable things about political games is you learn a lot of important life skills. How do I deal with other people? What do I need to do? And one of the things is understanding when you play a political game,

one of the most important things you learn as a gamer is everybody in the game has value. You can't dismiss anybody. You have to understand why they have value. Now, some people have more value to than others, and you can prioritize who's more valuable. That's fine. But the idea, you have to walk in going, everybody has value. What value does that person have to me? This is true in life. Everybody in life can be a value to you. And you have to learn it's very easy to dismiss people. It's very easy to just go, eh, whatever, they can't help me. And the reality is if you took the time to examine it or talk to them, what you'll find is everybody can help you.

Now, some people can help you more than others. Some are more valuable. I'm not saying that everybody necessarily, in the end, are who you want to help you. But everybody has value. And it's an important lesson. It's an important life lesson of realizing that there's nobody that's insignificant. Everybody, there's value to everybody and you need to understand what that value is. What you'll find a lot of time is sometimes people

that you write off actually have some of the most value and that a good gamer figures out how everybody can help them and not just the obvious people. Okay, my final lesson, I'm almost to work but I have my final lesson. Let people do favors for you.

So this is an interesting one. This is a valuable political lesson that I learned that is big enough that I made it my final lesson. I actually had nine lessons. I need a tenth one, so this wasn't my tenth one. This is a little bit of a subset of the last one, but it's an important one. So one of the things you would think is, if I

want somebody to be loyal to me, what do I need to do? And the interesting thing, the default thing is, do favors for them. That if you do favors for somebody, well then, okay, they go, oh, this person does favors for me,

I should be nice to them. And I'm not saying that to do favors for people, you should. But one of the things that actually is more useful than you doing favors for them, I'm sorry, than to do favors for people. You should. But one of the things that actually is more useful than you doing favors for them, I'm sorry, than them doing favors for, sorry, than you doing favors for them is allowing them to do favors for you.

Now, this seems backwards to a lot of people. They're like, I don't understand. Like, if I'm doing favors for them, then I'm good to have around. Why wouldn't they want me around? What's the value of me doing, of them doing favors for me? And the answer is, let's go to gaming. In the gaming world, the way that you think of people is you think of the value people have. And the people that you

value more, you put more faith in. Well, if in a game, if you do a favor for somebody, you're not somebody that owes them a favor. You now have value to them, and they're less likely to want to dismiss you because you created this value. And the interesting thing is, the way humans function is, humans very much like to be needed. And so letting people help you is interesting in that it does a couple of really cool things.

One is, it actually bonds you with that person. It makes that person value you more because they know that now that they've helped you, you have some obligation to help them so they feel closer to you. And it helps you get help. One of the things that's important about gaming in general is understanding that you don't have to do things alone,

understanding that there's other people out there, there's other things to help you. And in life, sometimes it's very easy to feel alone. And that part of what I'm saying is part of the way to bond's other people out there there's other things to help you and in life sometimes it's very easy to feel alone and that part of what I'm saying is part of the way to bond with other people is not just to do things for other people it's to let people do things for you it's okay

it's actually advantageous to have some people you owe things to that's not a negative I know some people sort of think like oh no I don't want to owe anybody anything but owing people things creates bonds creates connections you owe things to. That's not a negative. I know some people sort of think like, oh no, I don't want to owe anybody anything. But owing people things creates bonds, creates connections.

You know, it does a lot to help connect you with other people. And, and, here's an important thing, it's okay to get help. You know,

people need help. It's okay to let people help you. In fact, one of the signs of success, I read a book about sort of signs of successful people, and one of the big ones is

the willingness to let other people help you. It's a sign of very successful people that they recognize when they need help and they allow other people to give them help. That not letting anybody ever help you is not a sign of strength. A sign of strength is realizing when you need the help and getting it.

Whew! Anyway, I'm now at work. So that, my friends... So hopefully... My goal of today is to say to you, hey, hopefully if you're listening to me, probably you're a gamer, of saying, look, you've developed

all these cool gaming skills. Are you maximizing your gaming skills in your life? I think your life will be better if you make use of these valuable skills you've learned from gaming. And today was more of a thought piece than anything else. I just want you to sort of think about this.

It's not that I was trying to give you I was trying to give you a lot to chew on and examine your own life and take your own lessons and go wherever you want, whichever one you're drawn to or multiple you're drawn to. But really today, today's podcast was kind of a think piece, like my original article was. Being a gamer

is awesome. You get awesome gaming skills. Use those gaming skills. Trust me, your life will be better if you act like a gamer is awesome. You get awesome gaming skills. Use those gaming skills. Trust me. Your life will be better if you act like a gamer. Okay? Thanks for listening, guys. But I'm now parked in my car.

So we all know what that means. It means this is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic and life, it's time for me to go make magic. See you next time.