Manageable difficulty. Short Essay
Easy to play, hard to master.
People keep playing video games even though they are losing all the time. To be honest, as a gamer myself, I can not grasp why I keep playing -- until recently.
The addictive facet of video games is not the game itself - but the variety and complexity of manageable difficulties the game offers.
In other words, the gamemaker made it easy to play, but hard to master.
What if.. it's too much to handle?
Simple: we will lose interest. Over-challenged will result in inability to acquire the short-term dopamine flood. We won't play the game anymore.
Make it too simple and we will be under-challenged. If it's too easy, we also lose interest.
One of the key points to stay excited for life, in whatever areas, is to create goals for ourselves with manageable difficulties. Make it easy to play along, but hard to master.
Leaning towards pediatrics, neurology, and surgery,yesterday I encountered a neurosurgery case and challenged myself with fun-yet-daring task:
Introduce myself to the neurosurgeon in 5 seconds; I must ask to observe his operation before he introduced himself back. Talking to surgeons: keep it brief, short, straight to the point.
Prepare, don't predict.
The point of precision is to prepare, not predict. Options that I foresee to happen or not happen becomes readable, and thus, dictate my decision based on my ratio - which has been honed by my latticework of mental models.
Prepare for an emotional response from yourself, then put it aside.
It is only reasonable that manageable difficulty followed by manageable disappointment.
Short-term pain bring the most long-term gain.
Play it easy, but strive to master it.
By the way, the neurosurgeon complied and allow me to observe the procedure. Unfortunately, the surgery is postponed to tomorrow and I have to come to the theatre on Sunday.
Well, life doesn't always work out the way we imagine it to be. The outcome of the above is the essence. He complied; I come. All hell can break lose today or tomorrow, but I will be there. 9 am sharp.