Playing Reality

In the journey of life, we often encounter wisdom that has the power to transform us. But it’s easy, too easy, to let these transformative insights slip away, simply because we fail to act upon them. So I began writing this guide as a personal side-quest to gather the lanterns of wisdom —- those enlightening insights from others that have illuminated my journey. And as life’s game unfolded, my own playthrough, though not without its trials, bore fruit. Friends, colleagues, even strangers began seeking these nuggets of wisdom. Their curiosity was the spark that turned this personal diary into a beacon for others.

But tread lightly. These pages were crafted for my eyes, my interpretation of the game of life. They are not universal cheat codes but rather a collection of strategies that worked for me, in my unique circumstances. Viewer discretion is not just advised, it’s essential. Forge your own path, use these principles as a compass, not a map.

This is a guide I wrote for myself, but now, it’s in your hands. Navigate wisely, and remember, this is not just about playing the game — it’s about changing it.

Table of Contents

• 0. Principles
• 1. The Investment Mindset
  • 1.1 Balancing Short-term vs Long-term, Positive vs Negative Returns
  • 1.2 Focus on Investments That Yield Long-term Dividends
  • 1.3 Embracing Protective Put Options
  • 1.4 Capitalizing on Asymmetric Risk-Reward
  • 1.5 Interchangeability of Time and Money
  • 1.6 Weighing Opportunity Cost
• 2. The Game Design Mindset
  • 2.1 The Setting of Personal Goals
  • 2.2 The Power of Instant Feedback
  • 2.3 The Conviction of Success
  • 2.4 The Power of Rewarding Progress
  • 2.5 The Power of Time Constraints
  • 2.6 The Power of Setting Rules
• 3. The Business Strategy Mindset
• 4. Changing the game

0. Principles

• Strong opinions, weakly held. Embrace different ideas — challenge them, question them, and adopt them when they prove stronger than your own.
• If you don’t work to build your dream life, someone will hire you to build theirs.
• If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.
• If you’re not the smartest person in the room, become the smartest. Ask yourself how you can learn from them, ask them for advice and become better than them. Being second is just being the first loser.
• 90% of life is just showing up. You’ll never know what opportunities you are missing out on until you’re there.
• Life waits for nobody, get up everyday and keep pushing through, no matter what.
• We suffer more in our imagianations than in reality.
• Don’t regret your past, just learn from it, and move on.
• Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised. This moment, that’s all we have. Make the most of it.
• It’s never too late to be what you might have been.
• If you can’t beat the fear, just do it scared. Nobody has life figured out, do your best and wing it like the rest of us.
• Parent yourself the way your own parents never did.
• Accept people as they are, but place them where they belong. You are the boss of your own life – hire, fire and promote.
• Never allow others to control the direction of your life.

1. The Investment Mindset

Every Action or Inaction is an Investment. Remember, you have only two resources at your disposal: time and money. Both are finite. You have merely 24 hours a day and a budget that’s not endless. Each decision you make, each action you take, is essentially an investment of these resources, with the expectation of a return, be it positive or negative. Take, for instance, the simple decision of dining out with friends. What’s the return you’re seeking? Is it the relaxation from socializing, or the opportunity to learn something new? Weigh the investment of your time and money against the potential return.

This isn’t about forgoing fun; it’s about having a clear objective, even in choices as mundane as eating out. Avoid situations where you end up wasting resources —- like an expensive meal with an annoying friend who can’t stop talking about the new Tesla they leased. For every action you take, you should constantly ask yourself is this a worthy investment?

1.1 Balancing Short-term vs Long-term, Positive vs Negative Returns

Investments don’t always yield immediate, positive returns. Their value often varies based on time. For example, an evening watching Netflix might offer short-term relaxation, but if it becomes a habit, it could lead to long-term stagnation. Conversely, relentlessly working every night might boost your career short-term, but could lead to burnout in the long-term. Striking a balance is key -— allocate time for relaxation and for work. It’s about recognizing the potential positive or negative returns of your actions and finding a harmony that suits your goals.

1.2 Focus on Investments That Yield Long-term Dividends

Some endeavors may not offer immediate returns but can be tremendously beneficial in the long run. For instance, dedicating hours to perfect a personal website, showcasing detailed projects, might not seem fruitful immediately. However, it becomes a portfolio that impresses recruiters, investors, and hiring managers in the years to come. This is a single one-time investment that pays heavy dividends over many many years. Similar long-term investments include learning new skills, attending workshops, or presenting at conferences. These actions might not show immediate results, but over time, they accumulate and pay off significantly.

1.3 Embracing Protective Put Options

Just like in financial markets, where traders use put options to minimize losses, you can apply a similar strategy in life. For instance, as I was nearing graduation, I applied to both master’s programs and job positions. The master’s program was my put option -— if I failed to land a desirable job, I could fall back on further education, preventing a worst-case scenario of starting at a less-than-ideal company. Similarly, while pursuing my passion in VR/AR, I also honed skills in iOS engineering as a safety net. The beauty of this approach is its flexibility; you can choose to exercise these put options or not based on your circumstances.

1.4 Capitalizing on Asymmetric Risk-Reward

Occasionally, you’ll encounter scenarios with minimal risk but significant potential rewards. A classic example is job applications. The downside is limited—your application might be ignored. But the upside can be tremendous, ranging from job offers to invaluable interview experience. In such scenarios, it pays to be aggressive. Consider outsourcing mundane tasks like job applications to virtual assistants. This leads us to the principle of interchaning time and money.

1.5 Interchangeability of Time and Money

Time is more precious than money. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. Sometimes, it’s prudent to spend money to save time. Many people make the mistake of trading their time for money in mundane jobs like driving Uber, not realizing they’re not developing any new skills or advancing their careers.

On the other hand, choosing to fly instead of driving to a nearby city might cost more, but it saves precious hours. The decision between flying and driving boils down to what you value more — your time or your money. Similarly, you can easilly outsource mundane tasks like job applications to virtual assistants to save time.

However, there’s an exception to this rule. If an activity brings you joy, it’s not necessarily a waste of time. For instance, I prefer taking the public transit to the airport to enjoy the scenic route, but I opt for a quicker Uber ride home after a tiring flight.

1.6 Weighing Opportunity Cost

In a world of limited resources, every decision carries an opportunity cost. This cost is the road not taken, the choice you forgo when you decide one way. It’s crucial to weigh this carefully. In making a choice, ask yourself what you’re giving up and whether the trade-off is worth it. This mindset will guide you to make more informed, strategic decisions.

2. The Game Design Mindset

Why do we play video games? At first glance, they seem illogical. Games asks us to do the same actions over and over again, each time imbuing them with a slightly different significance. Gaming is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles. You don’t find zombies lurking in your garden, yet you willingly tackle these unnecessary obstacles in ‘Plants vs Zombies’ wave after wave. You aren’t in a battlefield, yet many invest countless hours disarming virtual bombs in ‘CS:GO’. Meanwhile, our real life is filled with its own set of essential and necessary tasks, from completing assignments to fulfilling work responsibilities. Yet, often, we find ourselves prioritizing virtual, unnecessary tasks in a game over work in real-life. Why is that?

The answer lies in a simple truth – reality is boring.

The solution? Equally straightforward –- let’s redesign our reality to make it fun.

2.1 The Setting of Personal Goals

In video games, objectives are crystal clear. Take ‘PUBG’ – the goal is to be the last one standing. The path? Eliminate other players. In ‘Plants vs. Zombies’, it’s about keeping zombies at bay, achieved through strategic planting. These games offer clear, attainable goals, and every player knows exactly what needs to be done to win.

But what about real life? Often, in the real world, goals are nebulous. Many wander without a clear direction, content in their current state, or lost in the ambiguity of their aspirations. In real life, unlike in games, we don’t have predefined goals or explicit instructions.

This is where setting a personal goal becomes crucial. It’s not just about setting any goal, but one that resonates with you, that ignites your passion. In gaming, some gamers focus on kill count over accuracy, while others do the opposite. Similarly, in life, your goal should be deeply personal, be it short-term, long-term, or a dream that seems beyond reach. What matters is that it holds significance for you.

Here’s a personal example: When I was preparing for the ACT in high school, I set my sights on scoring above 32. This wasn’t for my parents or to boost my college applications, but because a friend scored 32, and I wanted to beat him. That was my only motivation. But it was a goal that meant something to me. It was personal.

That’s the crux of setting goals. Make them personal, make them yours, make them something you care about.

2.2 The Power of Instant Feedback

In gaming, each action is met with immediate feedback. Consider a battle royale game like PUBG: every successful shot, every enemy eliminated, brings you closer to victory. In Plants vs. Zombies, each strategic plant placement visibly defends your home. Even mistakes are instructive — seeing sunflowers devoured by zombies teaches a valuable lesson in strategy. This immediate feedback loop constantly informs you whether you’re on the right track.

But life doesn’t come with this built-in feedback system – we must create our own feedback mechanisms to gauge progress. Find the smallest action that will move you closer to you goal when done repeatedly, and create feedback mechanisms around it.

Take my own journey preparing for the ACT as an example. The traditional approach involves months of memorization and practice, with feedback only coming in the form of the final test score. In my case, I designed a daily feedback system. I dedicated four hours each day to mock tests, meticulously tracking scores to measure my progress.

Each day, I saw the fruits of my labor. If my score improved, it fueled my motivation. If it dipped, it drove me to work harder. This was my version of gaming — each day was a level to conquer, each improvement a victory in itself. While others might have spent their afternoons on leisure, I was steadfast in my pursuit, knowing that every step took me closer to my goal. It was akin to honing your skills in a game like CS:GO — repetitive, yes, but undeniably rewarding.

In the professional world, this might translate to seeking regular feedback from colleagues or benchmarking your weekly achievements. It’s about creating a system that continuously guides you towards your goals, just as in a game.

2.3 The Conviction of Success

In the gaming realm, success is not a matter of if, but when. This confidence stems not just from clear objectives or the consistent feedback, but from an underlying belief: game designers don’t craft unwinnable challenges. This inherent belief fuels the gamer’s confidence in eventual victory.

Contrast this with reality. Our aspirations — be it entering an Ivy League university or climbing the corporate ladder — often face uncertain outcomes. Life doesn’t assure us of success. This uncertainty can erode our belief in achieving our dreams.

Yet, consider why games captivate us, why we persist through repeated failures in level: it’s that unshakeable belief in eventual success. To translate this into reality, you must foster a similar belief. Under the feedback system you’ve established, every step, no matter how small, is progress towards your goals.

Take coding, for instance. It encapsulates this philosophy perfectly:

• Clear Goal: Designing a specific program.
• Feedback Mechanism: Every run of the program offers immediate insights into the impact of the latest code.
• Unwavering Belief: Success in programming is seen as a given; many have succeeded before, and so can you.

Achieving a coding milestone brings a rush akin to conquering a formidable boss in Dark Souls — a surge of pride and accomplishment. Yet, this triumph often leaves a void, propelling coders to seek out their next challenge. It’s this cycle of success and the pursuit of new goals that fuels what appears to be an addiction to coding.

The aforementioned three steps are the easist way to get started. Once you get the hang of it, you can also try the advanced features below.

2.4 The Power of Rewarding Progress

In the realm of video games, in addition to instant feedback for every small action, every significant milestone brings with it a significant reward. Whether it’s skill points gained upon leveling up, a treasure box discovered at the end of a dungeon, or a bounty of experience points earned from vanquishing a formidable boss, each of these moments is not just a reward but a testament to the player’s skill and progress.

Now, imagine applying this principle to our real lives. Break down your goals into tangible milestones and associate each with a meaningful reward. This could be anything from a relaxing weekend getaway to a luxurious celebration dinner. These rewards act as beacons, illuminating your journey and providing the motivation to strive for the next achievement.

This strategy of pairing immediate feedback with significant rewards for each milestone can streamline the pursuit of goals. It turns the journey into a series of victories, each step bringing its own sense of accomplishment and pleasure. By adopting this approach, reaching your goals becomes not just feasible but enjoyable.

2.5 The Power of Time Constraints

When designing games, the countdown is a powerful tool. It injects a sense of urgency and focus into the gameplay. Think of those critical moments in a Call of Duty campaign, where you have just one minute to evacuate before the bomb detonates or to stop a missile launcher. This ticking clock heightens the player’s concentration and effectiveness, turning each second into a precious resource.

Now, let’s apply this principle to real life, where it can yield remarkable results, especially when combined with rewards. During my college years, I usually finish my assignments ahead of time. I use this simple yet powerful strategy: set a fixed period, say four hours, to complete an assignment. I realized the faster I finish, the more time I have for leisure, like playing video games. This approach turns work and fun into a zero-sum game, fueling motivation to complete tasks not only quickly but also with high quality — because redoing means less leisure time.

This method of using time constraints is about making efficiency a game, where the reward is your own time. It’s about transforming pressure into productivity, urgency into achievement.

2.6 The Power of Setting Rules

In video games, many rules may seem arbitrary yet are crucial — falling into water equals instant death, landing in a haystack from any height is safe, and invisible barriers confine players to a set area. However, these rules, sometimes born from development constraints, are essential in making the game functional and enjoyable.

Now, let’s take this concept and apply it to our daily lives. Here, too, we can establish our own set of rules — ones that might seem unconventional to others but work perfectly for us. It’s about creating a personal code that guides and improves our daily lives. Envision these rules as invisible boundaries that, like in a game, you cannot breach.

One effective rule I’ve practiced is coupling a less desirable but necessary task with a more enjoyable, optional one. For example, I only allow myself gaming time after hitting the gym. Or doing a pushup every time I grab a snack. These self-imposed regulations create a system of checks and balances that promotes a healthier, more productive lifestyle.

The beauty of this approach is its flexibility. Your rules can be as unique as you are. Maybe it’s reading a few pages while waiting for code to compile, or making a new friend each week. The key is to craft rules that make sense to you, that help steer your actions towards your goals, just as game rules direct a player’s journey.

3. The Business Strategy Mindset

TBA

4. Changing the game

TBA