Life is a game, this is your strategy guide • Hacker News Board

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#141

Post by crux » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:30 PM UTC

erikb wrote: post #139

crux wrote: post #130

This is a charming article. But it's somewhat sad to read. Because it operates on the nearly universal assumption that life is a game, or a battle, or a scavenger hunt—and the way to win is to maintain a high 'state' and get lots of 'achievements'. The reason this gaming terminology is so appealing to us is that it overlays nicely on the way we already think about life: you're constantly making some grade or another;…

Sorry, I couldn't find the alternative in your approach. Please reformulate for me what approach to life do you actually suggest. I'm really interested to see another point of view. My last years were mainly spent from switching to just living life to the style mentioned in the article and just everything feels so much better since. I am happy to go to work in the morning. I am happy to write my thesis. I am sometime…

Sure. The one liner is: spend as much of your free time and energy focusing on giving and helping others rather than enriching yourself.

Find ways to delight in the well-being and success of others—all others, everybody you know, everybody in the world. And when you feel that you aren't getting your fair share, that you'll miss out—take a long, long pause, really feel into that emotion, and see if self-centered thinking ends up getting you more of what makes you happy or not.

Mind: this is incredibly difficult. It's nobody's fault if they can't or don't do this. Almost every single meme and conditioned habit that's in you and the culture you live in works against this pattern.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#142

Post by gcv » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:32 PM UTC

crux wrote: post #130

This is a charming article. But it's somewhat sad to read. Because it operates on the nearly universal assumption that life is a game, or a battle, or a scavenger hunt—and the way to win is to maintain a high 'state' and get lots of 'achievements'. The reason this gaming terminology is so appealing to us is that it overlays nicely on the way we already think about life: you're constantly making some grade or another;…

Be the change you want to see, and all that — right?

The metaphor in the article does not preclude non-egoistic play, it just suggests a another set of skills in the game: Diplomacy, Activism, Community Organization, Macroeconomics, History. Good-aligned players get Charity and Education skills. Evil-aligned players get Politics and Manipulation. Perhaps players have an additional statistic tracking Influence, and some will care more about it than others. Some statistics improve in groups.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#143

Post by thezoid » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:34 PM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #14

oliveremberton wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I did agonise over that part at the time I wrote it. I couldn't think of a more inclusive alternative, and chose something a little comedic on purpose ('ladies man') in the hope it wouldn't be taken too seriously. Open to suggestions.

Suggestion: ignore whiners like this who petition for 'manhole covers' to be renamed 'personhole covers'.

Or you know... just name them to something generic like "sewer access point covers"

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#144

Post by DennisP » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:41 PM UTC

crux wrote: post #141

erikb wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I couldn't find the alternative in your approach. Please reformulate for me what approach to life do you actually suggest. I'm really interested to see another point of view. My last years were mainly spent from switching to just living life to the style mentioned in the article and just everything feels so much better since. I am happy to go to work in the morning. I am happy to write my thesis. I am sometime…

Sure. The one liner is: spend as much of your free time and energy focusing on giving and helping others rather than enriching yourself. Find ways to delight in the well-being and success of others—all others, everybody you know, everybody in the world. And when you feel that you aren't getting your fair share, that you'll miss out—take a long, long pause, really feel into that emotion, and see if self-centered think…

That approach seems compatible with the article's main points. For example, if you drain your energy by not taking care of yourself, you'll likely end up sitting around watching TV instead of helping people.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#145

Post by nilkn » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:41 PM UTC

> It’s almost impossible to get rich working for someone else.

A very minor nitpick, but this has been proven false so many times. If "rich" means $1M+ during the mid-life period (I think this qualifies as rich if you are willing to live outside of major cities), plenty of people have accumulated that level of wealth by working for others. Go work for a big tech company, save/invest all your bonuses (of which there will be many), and save/invest a good portion of your salary, and you could potentially be a millionaire in only 10 years (for a programmer with just a bachelor's degree, that could translate to early to mid 30s).

If "rich" means $10M+, then that is indeed quite a bit harder to do (unless we're talking about age 65+, in which case the above person will easily achieve it). It can still be done by joining the right pre-IPO company, working on Wall Street as a trader (admittedly, a very demanding career--but not "impossible"), achieving partnership at a major law firm, or working your way up the corporate ladder (Satya was making $8M/year before being promoted to CEO).

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#146

Post by coldtea » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:54 PM UTC

guizzy wrote: post #126

girvo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh crap. Imagine BuzzFeed but for ancient philosophers and classic literature. Awesome.

You won't BELIEVE what this vagrant philosopher said to the king of Macedon!

King of Macedon: "What can I do for you, o wise hobo?" Philosopher: "Well, you could move over. You block my sun".

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#147

Post by coldtea » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:56 PM UTC

merrua wrote: post #49

onion2k wrote: post #22

Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1]. Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right. [1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy…

Seneca and Aristotle were building off information already passed on to them so its probably older than that.

Aristotle (and Seneca but especially Aristotle) meticulously mentioned their sources. They had tons of original and unprecedented thoughts besides those anyway.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#148

Post by avenger123 » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 4:57 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #22

Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1]. Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right. [1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy…

William Irvine's book - http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic-ebook/dp...

is a great summary of Seneca and Aristotle's stoic perspectives. It's not a long book and gives a nice overview of the highlights of stoicism.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#149

Post by ptmx » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 5:07 PM UTC

DennisP wrote: post #144

crux wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. The one liner is: spend as much of your free time and energy focusing on giving and helping others rather than enriching yourself. Find ways to delight in the well-being and success of others—all others, everybody you know, everybody in the world. And when you feel that you aren't getting your fair share, that you'll miss out—take a long, long pause, really feel into that emotion, and see if self-centered think…

That approach seems compatible with the article's main points. For example, if you drain your energy by not taking care of yourself, you'll likely end up sitting around watching TV instead of helping people.

I agree that it's compatible, and further that taking care of yourself is crucial to being able to effectively help others. The author might agree too, but in that case it's rather peculiar that everything in the article has an egoistic bent to it. Even if it wasn't the author's intention, I think it's worth pointing out that any mention of altruistic behavior is conspicuously absent from the article.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#150

Post by valtron » Wed, Feb 05, 2014, 5:21 PM UTC

crux wrote: post #130

This is a charming article. But it's somewhat sad to read. Because it operates on the nearly universal assumption that life is a game, or a battle, or a scavenger hunt—and the way to win is to maintain a high 'state' and get lots of 'achievements'. The reason this gaming terminology is so appealing to us is that it overlays nicely on the way we already think about life: you're constantly making some grade or another;…

It depends on the rules of the game.

Maybe the rules of life are competitive: you can only increase your score at someone else's expense. The score is either 0-1 or 1-0. (Maybe you're both starving but only have enough food to sustain one person.)

Or maybe they're cooperative: you can both achieve a >= score if you combine resources/knowledge/what-have-you. The score is 3-3 for cooperating or 1-1 for playing independently. (Take insurance, for example.)

In reality, the game is a complex mixture of these two extremes.