The Homecoming Game

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“I see my life as a Game. I call it The Beautiful Game, and it’s made up of a myriad life-games.“

“What is the most important life-game?“

“Many people claim to have achieved ‘enlightenment’, some kind of profound insight into the nature of reality. I haven’t, so I don’t know what they’re talking about.

But we’ve all had many ‘mini-enlightenments’ throughout our life, blessed moments when our most beautiful self shines through. I like to think of that precious state of being as Home.

Home is in your own heart.

The most important life-game is The Homecoming Game. The never-ending game of finding your way back to yourself.“

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The Game of Wisdom

The most important games are life-games – games that make you a better human being.

The highest-order life-game is the Game of Wisdom.

Both games and wisdom are essentially about solving problems.

Games: solving game problems
Wisdom: solving fundamental life problems (FLP)

FLP are orders of magnitude more important than game problems (and infinitely more rewarding to solve).

Playing Magic (the Gathering) while not playing Magic

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“I love Magic the Gathering. It’s been part of my life for 20 years now.“

“If so, how come you no longer play it?“

“I don’t… and I do.

I’ve deconstructed the game and identified what I love about it. I’ve distilled it to two principles: modularity and synergy.

Modularity: Magic is a modular game like Lego, made up of numerous interlocking pieces.

Synergy: Some pieces when combined are more powerful than the individual pieces (an instance of emergence); in Magic’s terminology, this is called a “combo”. The joy of the game for me is discovering hidden synergies.

In identifying the principles, I have transcended the game. 

Language, for instance, is a modular structure, like Magic. Just like playing Magic, I love playing with language to discover hidden synergies.

I’m now playing Magic while not playing Magic.”

On Practicing Gratitude

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“At the end of the day, express gratitude for three things.“

“Why only at the end of the day?
And why three?

To me, telling someone to express gratitude only once a day sounds like telling someone to brush only one tooth. The goal is to express gratitude as much as possible throughout the day. You can practice gratitude anywhere, at any time.

Like… now.

To me, three here sounds like an arbitrary number – aesthetic, but meaningless. The goal is to experience the feeling of gratitude. Express gratitude for as many things as necessary until you feel grateful. Everything beyond that can have an amplifying, ’emotional flooding’ effect.“

Perpetual Motion Machine 2

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“I want to never be sedentary for longer than 15-20 minutes. So I take a little movement break every 15-20 minutes.”

“Why the interval?”

“15 is the floor, 20 is the ceiling. So it’s a 5-minute buffer.”

“Does taking breaks so often not take you out of Flow?”

“A sub-skill of Flow is getting into the state as quickly as possible.

It also depends on the activity. Creative Flow – my favorite kind – is both the on and the off. It’s an oscillation. The magic happens during the off, not the on.”

On understanding

Each of us lives in a micro reality.

Reality is too complex for us to grasp. We’re like ants trying to understand the vast realm that is their little corner of the backyard.

So we simplify reality, put it into little linguistic boxes, and proudly declare it known.

But our understanding is like the crude drawings of a child. Two people arguing about the world are like two children bickering over whose drawing is bestest.

Moments of Grace

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What is life-art?“

“Think of listening to a song you love. The first few times, it’s breathtaking. Then it gradually fades until it disappears. I call this, one of the small tragedies of life.

As a child, the entire world is breathtaking. Then it gradually fades until it disappears. This is the compounded effect of a myriad small tragedies.

The purpose of art is to make the invisible visible again.

I call those precious moments when you can see the breathtaking beauty of the world, moments of grace.

I call life-art (among other things) the practice of consistently creating moments of grace.“

The Hourly Reset

Pentru un azi care maine va fi un ieri indepartat. (Erika Erdos)

Translation (from Romanian): For a today that tomorrow will be a yesterday far gone.

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Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“Every day, the day before feels like a long time ago. I call this, The Daily Reset.“

“What if you also had an Hourly Reset?

At the beginning of every hour, let go of the past hour, regardless of how it went, prepare for the hour ahead, and recommit to being your best self.“

Journaling Optimization

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“What if your journal had a table of contents?

Journaling in essence is preserving aspects of your history. The items of the table of contents clarify the aspects you deem worth preserving.“

“I love the idea.“

“What would the table of contents of your journal look like?“

“So far, like this:

Experiences Journal – resource experiences
– Beautiful Experiences
– Storyworthy Moments – experiences I can tell a story about
– Turnarounds – situations where I beautifully recovered balance

Learning Journal
– Optimization Journal – life optimization, but not only
– Implementation Journal – you grow through the ideas you implement, not those you read

Ideas Journal – I love playing with ideas

…

“

“How might you implement it?“

“I keep my journal in Logseq [<link]. I can create a template for it.

Whenever I write something in the journal, I can add it within the corresponding category.“

Tree-Climbing Snacks

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“I love climbing trees. One of my favorite pastimes during my Parkour walk [<link; short read] is what I call tree-climbing snacks.“

“What are those?“

“It’s a little game I invented for myself. The rules are simple:

Pick a tree.

Pick a branch at height. The goal is to climb and touch that branch.

Bonus points if…

– you don’t take the same route if you’ve climbed the tree before

– you don’t take the easiest route

– you spend a few breaths at height until your heart normalizes – expand your awareness for a beautiful little Zen moment

– you come down on a different route

“