Create Not Expections

Time has gotten away from me and my game is lying in it's file being neglected but hopefully for not much longer.  Life demands my attention, my life in particular but also a number of other lives.  The great news is that my son will be going to his (and our) first choice for a college, and my daughter will be going to her first choice for a high school.  And, my older daughter had a great trip to California.  And, I have read much even if I have not been posting.  And, I have been working on parts of my game even if I have put that on these pages.  And, that is just the big stuff.

My older daughter wanted me to read some of the Dao Jing, which we found as we decluttered her room a week ago.  I found this:

    it is hard to handle
    a cup filled to the brim

    and better to know
    when to stop pouring

    no matter how much you sharpen the blade
    it will still go dull

    impossible to protect
    a house packed full of precious stuff

    money and success
    bring their own faliure

    knowing when the thing is done
    is knowing the dao

Reading this simultaneously took my breath away and gave me a sense of great peace.  It is about balance and just like the yin and yang it is not about a winner.  How counter to the way I live my life and how I am surrounded.  Words so simple but so hard.

So, I come back to this journey I am on.

I am designing a game because that is what I want and am meant to do.

I want to learn from this process so I can do it again, and I can walk into problems or situations and apply what I learned.  I am not a corporate success or a guru or someone who knows everything about the world.  But, I do have a gift or a set of talents and am going to share them, use them to make situations more workable or to help people transform.

I return to ReWork (Jason Fried and Davide Heinemeier Hansson) and find:
"A lot of people get off on solving problems with complicated solutions.  Flexing your intellectual muscles can be intoxicating.  Then you start looking for another big challenge that gives you that same rush, regardless of whether it's a good idea or not.
   A better idea:  Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimal effort.  Judo solutions are all about getting the most out of doing the least." p.112

Very counter-intuitive and probably downright unAmerican but I like it.

"When you overthink at the wrong moment, you cut yourself off from the wisdom of your emotions, which are much better at assessing actual preferences.  You lose the ability to know what you really want.  And then you choose the worst strawberry jam." (p. 143, How We Decide  Jonah Lehrer)

I think my breathing has slowed way down and I am almost smiling a gentle smile.

"To put something in the world that was not there before, you have to be able to see that which others before you have overlooked.  Both creativity and play involve appreciating paradox and the unexpected." (George Vaillant)

So back to the game, and where I am being led.  I have tried to make sense of my circuitous path
and make it look like a ladder or something that resembles success.  In doing this I have learned to judge others, not appreciate different perspectives and feel disappointed when things don't turn out the way I'm expecting.  Time for a paradigm change I think.  My circuitous path is mine, and I just have to find my people who I know will appreciate it.  But, I have been meeting lots of interesting people along the way, too.  Yin and Yang.

Maybe I should close with good, old Harlan (The Naked Roommate)  "Tip #1...Don't create too many expectations.  You might think that you know what will happen in college, but really you don't."  (p. 31) Doesn't that apply to lots of things?  But, hey, even if you shouldn't have a lot of expectations don't you want to get a high score on the "travel the campus" game?  Who knew the bus was going to be late when you needed to make a copy to take to class and your alarm didn't go off....