Games and Problems (How to Solve Any Problem)

As I mentioned last week, I really like games.

If you enjoy playing games, you learn that is possible to solve just about any new kind of problem. In a new game, you learn a set of rules with obstacles designed to challenge you as you try to achieve the object of the game. By agreeing to play the new game, you are forced to invent, out of nothing, a strategy to achieve the object of the game.

Because they are games, there’s an inherent lightness to the exercise. The more I play games, the less I care about whether I win or lose. You devise a strategy, you test the strategy, and then either it succeeds or it does not. And then you do it again.

Also, the more I play games, the more I realize that this is the same thing that needs to be done to solve any real-life problem. You devise a strategy, you test the strategy, and then you iterate if it doesn’t work.

The only games that we always lose are the games that we don’t bother to play. Or, stated another way, the only problems that we never solve are the ones where we either never devise a strategy or we give up before we devise a successful strategy.

And, by playing these real-life games with the light attitude of someone playing a board game, it helps to reduce or remove the stigma or shame associated with the many inevitable situations where our strategies don’t immediately succeed.