What's the Point?

Englishالعربية Deutsch Español Français हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia 日本語 한국어 Português Русский 中文

Mental HealthBooks & LiteratureVideo & Computer GamesComputing/Software

Transcript

00:00:00The other day I was reclining on the couch playing God of War 2018 on the PS5.

00:00:04I'm a few hours into the game and I find myself at a crossroads, literally and metaphorically.

00:00:08I could choose to row my boat left and progress the main storyline, or I could choose to row my boat

00:00:14right and do a side quest that seems interesting but that wouldn't really progress the main story.

00:00:18I notice that my default thought process is "we've got to go left because that'll get us moving

00:00:22through the storyline faster", but then I stop and notice that thought. I think "hmm, that's

00:00:27interesting, I'm playing a video game here, so why do I feel the need to play it efficiently?

00:00:32Why does my first thought go to "what's the fastest way to progress the game?" and after some thinking

00:00:36I land on the question "what's actually the point of playing this video game?" and the answer comes

00:00:40pretty quickly. Obviously the point is to simply enjoy the journey of playing it. There is no

00:00:44cosmic significance to my playing God of War. It's not an exercise in self-improvement. The points or

00:00:49levels that I earn in the game have less than zero impact on my life. It's simply an arbitrary video

00:00:53game that I'm playing at an arbitrary difficulty level purely for the purposes of passing the time

00:00:58and doing something enjoyable. So I decide to turn right and take the more scenic route doing the side

00:01:03quest that has no bearing on the main storyline, but enjoying myself with the attitude of leaning

00:01:07back, relaxing, and enjoying the challenge of this arbitrary video game. The following morning I'm in

00:01:12the office with the team and I'm working on some designs for our new productivity app and I find

00:01:16myself feeling a tad on edge with how little time I've got available to work on it. I've just got a

00:01:21few hours of deep work before the next meeting and then it's lunch time and then my afternoon's packed

00:01:25with the gym followed by a couple of more meetings with the dev team and I find myself approaching

00:01:28these designs with an air of franticness. An air of feeling like I'm running out of time and therefore

00:01:33I've got to make progress on this quickly. But then I remember the feeling when playing God of War. The

00:01:37feeling of trying to do things efficiently. So I asked myself that question again. What's actually

00:01:42the point of us building this productivity app? Sure if the app does well it'll mean more money

00:01:46for the business and it would be cool to be building an app that lots of people around the world use and

00:01:50it helps them manage their time and achieve their goals. But in the grand scheme of things

00:01:53a few decades from now if not way sooner the app will be completely forgotten. A few more decades

00:01:58from now me and our entire team will be dead and no one will particularly care about this random app

00:02:03that we spent a few years building on planet earth. This app that I'm spending all this time and energy

00:02:07working on actually has zero cosmic significance. So what's the point? Well I realized that much like

00:02:12a video game the point is primarily to enjoy the experience of building the thing. If we build it

00:02:17well it'll hopefully have a little more impact on our lives than literally spending those hours

00:02:21playing more video games. But honestly not that much more on a cosmic scale. In many ways the

00:02:25journey of building an app is much like the journey of playing a video game. It's an arbitrary goal

00:02:30with an arbitrary level of difficulty played for the primary purpose of building something cool

00:02:34and enjoying the journey of building it. So then I think huh if the point of building this app is

00:02:39actually primarily to enjoy the journey of building this app what if I approached it like I approached

00:02:44playing God of War? What if instead of approaching it with an attitude of franticness or stress I

00:02:48instead take a breath I lean back I relax and I try to remember that building the app is an arbitrary

00:02:53video game where the primary goal is to simply enjoy the challenge. And you know what I have a

00:02:58pretty good time. For the next few hours I get my study with me Spotify playlist playing through my

00:03:01headphones. I take breaks every now and then to get a coffee and while approaching it in this relaxed

00:03:05fashion I make a lot of progress and I come up with a bunch of cool new ideas and I have a pretty good

00:03:10time. The very first chapter of my book Feel Good Productivity is titled Play. The whole thesis of

00:03:15the entire book is that when we approach our work in the spirit of play we actually become more

00:03:19productive more creative and less stressed. And on top of that the work ends up generating rather

00:03:24than draining our energy. But even though I've written that chapter and I've seen firsthand the

00:03:28benefits of taking a more playful approach to work I still find myself defaulting to the mode of this

00:03:33is a serious thing that needs to be done quickly and productively and efficiently. Over time I think

00:03:38I've gotten a bit better at catching myself when I do this and then trying to deliberately switch over

00:03:42to play mode but it still isn't my default setting. I'd love for it to be so that my approach to

00:03:46practically every goal or project in work or in life is to treat it with an attitude of lightness

00:03:51ease and sincerity rather than heaviness and seriousness. Zooming out even more I have found

00:03:56myself wondering this what if every goal we're working towards in our work our health our

00:04:00relationships our home life what if all those goals are merely arbitrary video games played on an

00:04:05arbitrary level of difficulty where the primary purpose is in fact to enjoy the journey of playing

00:04:09them what if the journey is in fact the destination. And after all that we've landed on a classic cliche

00:04:14thank you for watching see you next time.

Key Takeaway

Approaching work projects and life goals as arbitrary video games played for enjoyment increases productivity and creativity while replacing anxiety with energy.

Highlights

Treating work tasks like video game side quests reduces stress and increases the generation of creative ideas.
The first chapter of the book Feel Good Productivity establishes that a playful spirit makes work generate energy rather than drain it.
Approaching work with an attitude of play directly increases productivity and creativity while reducing stress levels.
Shifting focus from timeline efficiency to the enjoyment of the process allows a person to maintain progress during deep work blocks.

Timeline

The Efficiency Trap in Video Games and Work

The default human thought process prioritizes efficiency and speed even during purely recreational activities like video games.
Choosing an alternative, non-essential path in a game or project facilitates relaxation and personal enjoyment.

An experience playing God of War 2018 on the PS5 highlights the automatic urge to progress through the main storyline as fast as possible. Pausing to evaluate this impulse reveals that video game levels have zero impact on real life, making the journey the only true purpose. Choosing the scenic route of a side quest creates a shift toward a relaxed, mindful attitude.

The Cosmic Insignificance of Professional Tasks

Franticness and stress arise from the perception of running out of time during daily work schedules.
A long-term perspective reveals that commercial products and their creators hold zero cosmic significance after a few decades.

Designing a new productivity app under a tight schedule of meetings and gym sessions induces a state of panic. Reframing the project shows that the app will eventually be forgotten and the entire development team will be dead. Realizing that building an app carries the same cosmic weight as playing a video game shifts the priority back to enjoying the construction process.

The Productivity Benefits of Play

A playful framework allows individuals to maintain high progress and generate cool new ideas while remaining relaxed.
Deliberately switching from a serious mindset to a mode of lightness, ease, and sincerity prevents energy depletion.

Pairing a relaxed attitude with a Spotify study playlist and coffee breaks yields significant design progress without the accompaniment of stress. The book Feel Good Productivity validates this outcome through its opening chapter, titled Play, which outlines how a playful approach alters human energy dynamics. Actively catching the default mode of heaviness allows a person to reframe all life goals as arbitrary games where the journey serves as the actual destination.

Community Posts

No posts yet. Be the first to write about this video!

Write about this video