In Praise of Addictive Games

I have always secretly envied people who can spend hours on end solving crossword puzzles, playing chess, solitaire, Free Cell or Sudoku. There has got to be a tremendous sense of joy when people get absorbed in a game like that, and forget about the outside world. It is even better if the passion transforms into a mild addiction for then there is always an escape from our worldly woes.

Last year, on an international Delta flight, I got introduced to the game of Mahjong for the first time. To a lay person, this will look like a boring game of matching tiles or cards. But the game is much more interesting than that. The tiles are stacked in various different shapes and the idea is to remove all the tiles in the fastest possible time. It combines a common sense approach with some analysis, strategy and an iota of probability theory. Since it was a touch screen on that Delta flight, I borrowed a pen from by wife and started to play the game by matching all the similar tiles. I must have played fifty games straight on that flight. I lost many of them and won a few.

As I was playing the game, the lady in the front seat got up and looked around all over trying to locate that "annoying tapping sound." I realized quickly that it must have been my pen tapping against the screen. She asked me to cease immediately as it bothered her quite a bit.

I stayed quiet for a while but couldn't resist the itch. This time, I borrowed a pencil from my wife and started to play the game by gently taping on the screen with the eraser side so it would muffle the sound. I played it all the way till touch down. The fifteen-hour flight suddenly seemed like a domestic flight of not more than two hours!

It is nearly a year since I played the first game, but I still average atleast 10 games a week. I believe there was a lady in China who got a blood clot in her leg because she sat in the chair and played for over twenty hours non-stop.

A simple version of this game in the shape of a "turtle" is available in Yahoo! games. But the one I like the best is in the shape of a fortress. See if you locate one and play it for a while. I am sure you will like it.

Happy Planet Index

I read recently that Costa Rica is the happiest place on earth! I was quite surprised by the fact and explored further to find out why. It turns out that there is an index to measure happiness on earth. The way it works is that it measures the happiness of a country in terms of both longevity and vitality of its population along with a measure of how little that nation adversely impacts the environment to achieve that happiness. It is an interesting concept and the idea is worth incorporating in our own lives.

Nic Marks, the founder of Happy Planet Index, also talks about his findings in a TED Talk.

According to his research, the five important things to do to be happy are as follows:

1. Connect (with other people)
2. Be Active
3. Take Notice (be aware of things happening around you)
4. Keep Learning, and
5. Give

(click on the picture to hear the complete talk).













And as for Costa Rica, it turns out they have completed eliminated the military and have used the money to invest in health and education instead. Tourism is one of their most thriving industries and their population is quite well educated and is occupied in waging peace instead of war!

How well do you manage your energy?

This last Tuesday, I came back from work and played with my kids, mowed the lawn and then went out shopping with my family. I stayed awake till 11:00 p.m. and watched a movie on Netflix. This is quite unusual for me. Typically, I am beat after my 50-mile commute each way and have very little energy left at the end of the day.

I started to think about Tuesday a little bit more and discovered that I had managed to conserve my energy well that day. I had a good night's sleep, had an interesting problem to engage my mind at work and went out to eat with my colleagues and had a good time discussing about the fun things that we did this summer.

The next day, I got a twitter message from CNN Money about the need to take a break at lunch hour and make a concerted effort to manage our energy at work. I then visited the website titled the Energy Project and learned that managing energy is even more important than managing time in this day and age. I took the quiz and found out that I had an imminent energy crisis as I scored 13/20. (less than 5 is required to be fully energized). I plan to implement some of their suggestions and benefit from them. See if you can find out how to improve your energy efficiency.