Life lessons from Bejeweled

Posted on Friday, Feb 26, 2010

[]1The game Bejeweled is deceptively simple and VERY addicting. It is the single app on my iPhone that probably gets the most use, second only to my email inbox and calendar. Easy to learn, but tough to get good at, I’ve discovered that there are lessons in life that can be learned from playing this game.

Focus on what’s in front of you

It’s really easy to get distracted by the “multiplier” jewels in the game, and waste valuable seconds trying to figure out a way to match up colors to activate them. The problem is, by doing so, you miss easy opportunities to move the game along in other areas of the board, and chances are, clearing other jewels will eventually get the multipliers activated. Outside of the game, this holds true too – always be aware of the attractive goals, but pay more attention to what you can do now – and the pretty shiny will take care of itself.

Work from the bottom

Your chances at multipliers are increased by the more jewels that clear in one move. Clearing jewels at the bottom of the board will cause longer drops, which have a greater chance of firing off bigger chain reactions. This extends to non-game tasks too – dig down to the root of an issue, and it will have positive repercussions higher up in the chain.

Use two hands

This really only applies to the iPhone version of the game, where you can make moves with both hands at once, increasing the amount of jewel swapping you can do at any given time. Efficiency is key in a game of speed, and it’s key in the game of life as well – working efficiently saves time and allows more energy to be focused on the things that are important to you.

Start early

One trick that most players might be aware of is that Bejeweled will let you get in a good two-three moves before the game even starts. While the starting countdown is still running, a quick player can swap several jewels, and might even triggers some power gems before the minute timer is running. Plan to start activities and projects before their planned time when it makes sense to do so, and you’ll literally be ahead of the game.

Defriend anyone who is better than you

One of the “strategy” suggestions from a lot of Bejeweled tip sights is to simply delete better players from your Facebook friends list. This is definitely easier than getting better at the game. One might say the lesson to be learned here is “only compete on a field where you’re the best”.

But I disagree with this tip. I think it’s amazing when I discover friends of mine who have scores that double or treble my highest effort. These competitors give me something to shoot for. And I carry this over to my professional life as well – the best job I ever had was the one where I worked with people who were smarter and more talented that I was. You can’t get inspired to excel without surrounding yourself by people who are excellent.

When I first came up with the idea for this post, it was intended as a joke – but as I thought through it more, I saw the actual value in some of the ways that a simple game can reflect upon larger things. We all want to improve at something – and maybe the first place we start is by scoring over 300,000 points in Bejeweled. But the challenge is taking the same energy and focus and applying it to something more tangible.

Unless you are a professional Bejeweled player. In which case, I have nothing to teach you.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

comments powered by Disqus