When I was in junior high, I played a game called Magic: The Gathering with a few of my friends. If you’re not familiar, it’s a card game that pits two people against each other in a battle of monsters, magic, and legendary heroes. Each game was different, and it was a good excuse to get together with the guys for a few hours of conversation and good-natured competition.
I stopped playing once I entered high school, and gave my cards away to a younger friend a few years later. Looking back, however, I’m amazed at how much I learned from such a seemingly frivolous past-time…
Statistics
Each player’s deck had to contain at least 60 cards, with 7 cards drawn at the beginning, then 1 additional card each turn. Certain cards (like land, which provided necessary resources) were critical to have in your hand at various points in the game, so learning how to construct a good deck involved mastering intermediate-level statistics. Playing well required mentally comparing which cards had been drawn vs. how many of each card was in the deck and calculating odds, which quickly helped me develop a better working sense of probability.
Combinatorial Effects
Some cards naturally amplified the effect of others, so constructing your deck well meant understanding every card available and how it could potentially interact with others. Particularly effective combinations could be executed with a little planning and foresight, which would be devastating to your opponent. Entire strategies developed around certain combinations, and understanding second-order effects was the best way to take advantage of them, either by using the combo or disrupting your opponent in mid-execution. Understanding combinatorial effects is the first step in understanding even more complex processes – how they work, how they interact, and how to make them better.
Scenario Planning
Each player starts with 20 “life points,” and the objective of the game is to reduce the other player’s total to zero by attacking with monsters and spells. As the game developed, you were forced to plan moves several rounds into the future. What was your opponent doing? What cards would they likely have in their deck? Should you tap your resources now to launch an offensive, or hold back and disrupt your opponent? The game could play out in any number of ways, so every turn required reconstructing the possible scenarios before choosing the most appropriate action. The more I played, the stronger my intuition became about what was important and what to do next – the primary benefit of experience.
Competitive Strategy
Organized tournaments were regularly held at the regional and national level, and the results were posted online, alongside the complete contents of each winning deck. Dominant strategies quickly evolved, with certain types of decks winning consistently. In response, new decks would be constructed to beat them, altering the balance of power. Many players based their deck designs off of the dominant decks, so keeping track of the competition was the best way to ensure you won games. One of my proudest moments in competition was beating a dominant deck in a local tournament with a brand-new strategy that exploited a weakness in the design, which wasn’t possible without studying how it worked.
Change
New card sets with novel abilities were coming out all the time, so staying competitive meant constantly tracking what was new. Each new set release altered the balance of the environment, which required constantly testing new options for viability via iteration. Just like any fast-moving business environment, becoming complacent or failing to learn new things made defeat inevitable. Even though the fundamental rules haven’t changed, there’s no way I could walk into a tournament today and win. Against an 11 year old who has mastered the new environment, I’d have no chance. The faster you learn, the better you can handle inevitable change.
Calm
Close matches could get intense, and a single wrong decision could cost you the game. Staying calm and keeping emotions in check often won matches against a less composed rival. I once lost a tournament in the final rounds by getting too excited and completely overlooking an available option that would have won the game. Losses like that are great learning experience, and I’m glad I learned the lesson playing a card game vs. running a business.
Learning by Accident
Those are deep lessons to take away from what looks like a silly card game. Here’s the kicker: they’re all abilities I later used to develop new products for a Fortune 50 company, and use to this day when making business decisions. I wasn’t trying to learn, but by paying attention, I developed skills I’ll use for the rest of my life.
What are some of the things you’ve played around with over the course of your life? What did you learn from them?
(Photo Copyright: Wizards of the Coast. Bonus points to whoever guesses the name of the card this image appeared on.)
{ 19 comments }
Josh,
For me it was during high school when I ran track my one season and also two seasons of wrestling. In track I learned resilience, and how much I possessed. I ran 800m and 1600m and while not especially built for either. It was pure pain at times, I’d never pushed my body in that way. But I did not let myself quit, and eventually improved my own times. In wrestling I learned that preparation can be EVERYTHING, no matter how things looked on the surface, i.e. someone looked ripped and in-shape. Everything came out on the mat.
//A.J.
What a great game that was… I had two huge folders filled with cards. Although I have to admit that I played til mid-high school (yeah, I was a dork, and looking back, I’m glad).
The thing is that that game was a true mental challenge. And I’m going far beyond the game itself. I remember a lot of popular decks that were used by many people, but I went for a three-peat by building my own. That’s another lesson that game taught me: go with your instincts. And boy, it was fun…
I played in middle school too. Fun times. Lots of money too.
Still trying to figure out how to put my first person shooters(FPS), Diablo-like games, and Starcraft skills to use in the business world.
If I remember correctly that looks like a picture from the Jester’s Cap. I think I quit after Ice Age was introduced.
For me, it’s sports. Specifically, endurance sports, like marathons and triathlons. They have taught me how to focus and push through mental and physical barriers.
Hey Josh – another great blog post. My brother and I used to charge home from school to play Dungeons & Dragons, Chess, Strat-o-Matic baseball, and later in life Cosmic Encounters. These games, among many others, taught countless life lessons that apply directly to life, and business. As a parent, I love playing games with my daughter for the reasons you posted. Structured game playing should be part of the public school curriculum.
Josh, that was awesome post. You only confirmed that some games, if used correctly, can be very helpful in learning skills which you can later use for a business.
In my youth I was hooked up on fps, strategy and rpg games. Looking back at FPS (first person shooter), I played counter-strike. I have gather a team of 5 and then we competed in various tournaments around country. Basically the idea was that you start either Counter-Strike (saving 2 bomb spots) or Terrorist (planting bomb). It’s attack vs. defence and vice verse.
Playing this game involved leadership, because you have to use clear and brief language to communicate with team-players. Strategic planning was a big part of game as we had to know our enemies, what’s their playing styles, what are their usual tactics in usual maps. In game we had to make quick decisions based on circumstances, how to trick your opponents to do something in order to make your move. It involves a lot of psychology as you have put yourself in their shoes in think what would they do in situation that they are now to determine which next actions you should take.
Actually I could write separate articles for each game I played and what I leaned from it.
Hoo – Jester’s Cap is close, but not quite.
There goes to show that with the right mindset and a dash of brilliance we can gather and employ everything we learn and experience. And games are, by far, the best of the best ways to learn.
In my case, I love RPGs and Strategic games, but have played across the board as well. They all have left me with a rather nifty ability to catch on things quickly, determine problems and work out quick solutions. Oh, and change is welcomed always, not feared as in other cases.
Another great source of teaching for me has been martial arts. When you are able to remain calm in combat, controlling your breath and moving by instinct, then there’s very little a business can throw your way that may stress you. And then you can apply everything else you’ve learnt.
So, never stop playing. Never stop reading. Never stop practicing what you like. You will be happier and, believe it or not, better at business too.
TinEye tells me the image is the “Jester’s Sombrero”.
This goes right back to your post “Learning by Playing”. Anything you enjoy you will do longer without coercion than something you don’t enjoy. Hopefully that enjoyable activity has some potential for teaching valuable life lessons.
I’m trying to help my son enjoy his math homework right now. By putting the math concepts in terms of games, he can keep focus for longer periods of time and hopefully retain more of the lesson.
I loved reading as a kid. For me reading anything was akin to “screwing around”. It certainly helped me through school and in business now. Nowadays my screwing around consists of various “brain games” on the web. While not directly correlated to my business (affordable housing development), the games do help me focus for longer periods, memorize numbers and concepts easier, and look for innovative solutions to all the inevitable problems we are constantly faced with.
Good post! Thanks!
Jeff – correct! Good use of available tools.
I agree on reading – it’s nice that one of the primary skills I use to do my job doesn’t register as “work”. Makes conducting large-scale research much easier.
The game is still doing very well, and a lot of great thinkers still play professionally. Just because you’re a grown up shouldn’t mean you stop playing. We all need to kick back and smile once and a while!
At 57, I still feel I am learning a lot of lessons that I should have learned much earlier in life. I am finally exercising for the first time in my life–having completed week 8 of “Couch-to-5K in 9 weeks” from http://www.coolrunning.com, using Robert Ullrey’s setup. It’s a great feeling, and I am hoping to make it at some point to a full marathon. Also, one remaining life goal is to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in a season (2,165 miles, which could be done in 7 months at 10 miles/day). I have done some 3 and 5 day trips on it already, but right now the issue is timing and finances.
I build my own home, a dream home–round (actually 20-sided) with a million-$ view, but am looking at selling it to get out of debt. That is a choice to go for emotional peace over the turmoil of the rat race. I have a small business, but it is more self-employment, as I have not been very savvy…but I am working on that, still learning! I have been successful in marriage–the 1st of 25 years (my wife died 8 days past the 25-year mark) and now 10 years into the 2nd…In my younger years I once said, “Life is not a 50-yard dash–it’s a 500-mile race.”
I try to learn from reading and listening…and I love stories of extreme accomplishments and what people learn from them:
–Jon Krakauer’s story of the 1996 disaster climbing Everest (a book called THIN ICE);
– Cliff Young’s story of running across Australia at age 61 (check it out on http://www.my-inspirational-quotes.com/inspirational-stories/cliff-young-a-farmer-who-inspires-a-nation/)
–Frank McKinney’s 4th run of the 135-mile Badlands ultramarathon in Death Valley this past July and what he learned from it (http://www.frank-mckinney.com/franks_blog.asp). This is a guy who builds $29 million mansions, $10/s.f. house in Haiti through his own foundation, CARING HOUSE PROJECT, and writes books about what he learns (MAKE IT BIG: 49 principles, the 49th being “there are always new principles to learn,” and a fantasy book, DEAD FRED, FLYING LUNCHBOXES AND THE GOOD LUCK CIRCLE, of insights gleaned from walking his 9-year old daughter and her friend to school)
I’m learning in quiet ways about focus and simplicity and what really matters in life. I’m learning to be glad I’m me, where I am and who I am at the point I am at. Life itself is a game, and I am enjoying it more and more.
Thanks, Josh, for letting us learn from your experiences and memories!
One thing too this article reminded me of:
Animals learn from playing as cubs, etc., skills necessary for survival and thriving in life!
Yeah it’s the jester’s sombrero. I think it’s one from those funny unglued cards they release back then. I stopped playing since it’s really expensive to obtain cards because I was just a grade school student just saving some of my allowance just to buy cards.
Regarding the constant change in the game well yeah if you can’t actually adjust to the new environment you’ll actually lose to younger ones who has adopted and mastered it.
Didn’t thought that the card game can be compared to business. Great post! Thanks a lot!
Sometimes games may look very childish stuff – this is far from the truth!
As a teenager and even today I occasionally play strategic PC games like ‘Command & Conquer’ and also RISIKO (non-PC) with my friends!
In first one you often must set-up a plan, and also envision the attack – however you must always stay alert from unforeseen actions of your enemy – especially when you play against human not PC!
However, the second game is a real challenge, because:
You are often challenged by ‘fate’ and natural resources that ‘world’ provides you with (at the start of the game your tanks are placed based on card-deck) and you must start with what you have toward achieving your goals!
You must be flexible to expand or evacuate based on your current situation (as you or your enemy loses or wins territories)
You must plan ahead your strategy without being obvious (everybody sees what everybody is trying to do)
You must negotiate skillfully now and then with your enemy as temporary ally (so that you loose less – when you are or not-so-powerful, or in not-so-good position)
You must constantly monitor and control the enemy and your resources (as soon you start to think that you are omnipotent – your resources start to vanish and your enemy starts to grow)
All these game lessons are pretty close to what happens to business world!
Josh,
Did you also write a book called “Personal MBA”?
I thought a friend recommended that book, written by you, and couldn’t find it. ..but Maybe this website is what my friend was referring to, not a book?
Thanks,
Cindy
Yes, it’s amazing how much you learn from playing games. There’s a very interesting TED video on the importance of play in learning. Also, see my blog post on the similarities of Championship manager and the Bloomberg Terminal: http://blog.francishemingway.com/post/48601166/has-it-ever-struck-you-the-similarities-between
Hey!
Thanks for such a great post. I would also like to share a free mindmapping tool at the following site:
http://www.happytillidie.com/?p=37
Couldn’t get your contact form to work. I need to send you the PDF of my upcoming magazine, if you’re interested send me a reply via my gmail. It’s a magazine about surviving and thriving in the modern world.
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