The Adventure of Living: Navigating Life’s Infinite Game
Show notes from an awesome YouTube video
All the opportunities I left unexplored, all the moments where my weaknesses held me back like an anchor, all the time when the world knocked me down like nine pins — these have shaped who I am today.
Now, let’s rewind and explore all the countless paths my life could have taken if I had chosen things differently. Imagine having the chance to witness each of these paths every time I close my eyes and dream.
This idea came to me after watching a short clip on Instagram based on the movie “Mr. Nobody.
Of course, The Algorithm figured out the waters in which I was fishing. (Incidentally, I’m also studying Probability nowadays 🤔.
So, it suggested this awesome YouTube video.
This video is the work of Mr. Elson who runs the YouTube channel Modern Intuitionist
In the first section of the video — Elson starts with different perspectives on life — such as:
Shakespeare’s Stage Metaphor (1500s) — Shakespeare described life as a stage where individuals play roles.
Bronte’s Battle Metaphor (1800s) — Charlotte Bronte viewed life as a battle or a struggle to endure.
Churchill’s Test Metaphor (1900s) — Winston Churchill saw life as a test or trial, a challenging experience.
…before advising us to consider Life as a Game. He quotes filmmaker Jonathan Chu who advocates viewing life as an open-world video game.
…the infinite possibilities that open up to you when you imagine your life as an open world video game something you play for the joy and the love of it. With one simple shift in thinking you can completely change the experience of your life. The world becomes your game map and wherever you decide to go whatever challenges you’re facing now you can choose to approach it with a sense of play…
He also quotes this scene from Rick and Morty:
…it’s a funny and thought-provoking scene because it raises an important
question how you would approach your life if you knew it was a game. Would it give you a greater sense of play or would you play it safe in one small corner of the game..
Then he quotes a real-life survival story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates illustrates applying a gaming mindset in life-threatening situations.
He also quotes Lawrence Gonzalez the author of the book Deep Survival:
…countless survivors have reported the same thing by developing a pattern and then fixing on nothing but making the pattern perfect they were able to get out of seemingly impossible situations…
In the next section of his video he exhorts us to gamify our life as:
…when you reframe the problems in your life as a game it gives you the resilience to keep on going even in the most desperate situations…
He also quotes Alan Watts to support that we are looking forward to challenges — that is what all of us are seeking. Alan Watts’ thought experiment highlights the human need for unpredictable experiences.
So then, let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream, and that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time, or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive.
And after several nights, of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say ‘Well, that was pretty great. But now let’s have a surprise. Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control. Where something is going happen to me that I don’t know what it’s going to be.’ And you would dig that and come out of that and say ‘Wow, that was a close shave, wasn’t it?’ And then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream.
And finally, you would dream where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today. That would be within the infinite multiplicity of the choices you would have.
Finally, Elson asks us to accept challenges as:
…those moments when you step to the edge of what you think are your limits
when you genuinely aren’t sure if you’ll succeed or not those are the moments you’re living most intensely. What you were truly meant to do it’s where the universe offers its most powerful lessons…
Summing all of the above, here is an interesting perspective for you and me to consider:
Consider life as a game (an adventure) and rest assured that the path that you have chosen is the right path as this path has meaning too. But be flexible and agile to choose an alternate path also. And overall be kind to yourself by acknowledging the complexities and uncertainties of human existence.
Hope you had as much fun reading this, as I had while typing this 🌸
