Recently, I have downloaded a game called 'Dots' on my iPad. My idea to use this app was - it's a one min. game, that I can play easily in the middle of work. Somehow people gets busier and more ambitious in mid-life. So, I also wanted to have a game installed on my device that I can very quickly play and get back to my work.
Later, I observed, it was never one min., that I played this game for - the average time was about 20+ min. So, once I start, I get hooked on to it for playing game-after-game. If I am very determined to play only one game of it, then also, I ended up playing 4-5 games.
Why? I tried to understand.
This is a game, that one can play in a min., so one doesn't think too much to start one more game of it as it's just a min. Further, it pulls one in competition. Say, my highest score is 186, in it - so, if I start a new game now, and I beat myself, I feel like repeating it, and 'play again' is clicked so subconsciously. If I get a new score of less then 100, I can't accept it (that I have played bad) and I want to prove it wrong in the next min. And if my score is close to 150 or so, I see a hope to get the next best score, in next try....
And I don't even realise, how many times it happens until, I force myself to end it, or get an interruption or see the time etc. Best (or worst) thing is that one gets so involved in it that one doesn't even think of noticing the time while playing.
Further, inspite of developing so much of understanding about 'how I play it', I see that I never feel satisfied after ending it. I know that it's just a game, but it makes me get engrossed into it to 'best myself'.... It is stressful.
On the other hand, I also observed sudoku - I noticed that sudoku is not stressful, as it gives me time to think, to define my moves, without the high pressure. And at the end of it, I really feel like a winner. If I have less time, I choose to play an easy game, or I can go to a medium, or hard level, depending on how much challenge, I want to take. But it doesn't make me feel like a loser - even if I make a few mistakes.. And also, it doesn't make me stuck in game-after-game situation. So I play one game, feel good and do my other tasks, then play it at some later day/point of time (whenever I feel like).
However, it is a weak logic, as one can get addicted to 'sudoku' too.. But, that would be defined by situation, and personality both - for me, sudoku is better than Dots.
Further, I thought of this famous game of 'antakshari' where one has to sing a song based on the sound the previous song (by other team) has ended with - it also conveys that mostly 'what we do, or are related to' is 'what we are trigger to do, or are left with'.
So, the moral of the analysis is that 'what we play, define who/where and how we are'.
Probably, I would add a few more games, and related logic, philosophy here soon ...
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P. S. - I want to write a blog on inertia, but not just based on my observations, but based on research.
Pl. feel free to share you stories of feeling inertia (with self or otherwise) in life with me - you may mail/mesg/DM me your experiences, which I would keep confidential and only write the moral in the blog.
Three best experiences shared, would get a free copy of my upcoming book.
Thanks in advance for contributing.
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