My Mind Wanders

Simulating Life

Why are people so fascinated with computer games? Novels? TV shows? Stories? Gossip? What can these all have in common? All these pursuits provide a person with a compact simulation of life. "What happened to person X when they did such and such? Why, they lived happily ever after or were miserable failures." They provide valuable information to you on how other people fared when they tried particular strategies.

I personally prefer games, novels and gossip. They have different, but related value to me. I like to play strategy games - like Civilization, Pharoah and Age of Empires. These games have taught me many strategies that I use in every day life. From Civ, I learned that democracies don't tolerate long, unsuccessful wars. True, isn't it? I've learned that you have to address problems early, or they will bite you later. I've learned to balance my attention. I've learned that you have to have a strong advantage over your rival before you take them on and that you need to have good defenses to stay at peace.

I've read at least a 1000 books of fiction. I treasure many of these and appreciate all of them on one level. The author has shared a life with me in the pages of each book. In many cases, many lives. From these I have learned the wisdom of many lives. It's hard to imagine what kind of person I would be without reading.

From gossip, I learn more near term information. What are the people around me likely to do? Where can I get a good dinner? What strategies work in motivating your children?

In all cases, these are examples of "living life more fully" - experiencing life experiences in a compressed way. This would give a person an advantage over someone living a singular life.

People can get fooled into thinking that these simulations are real life and forget to live their own. Sure, watching TV or reading a book provides you a compact form of a life probably more interesting than your own. But, it is still not real life.

One thing I have learned over the years is that you have to be brave about living. It is important not to put things off due to indecision - or fear that things might go wrong. Life goes by more quickly than you think. People that put off marriage, career changes, or having children may find that life has passed them by. If there is something that you really want to do, do it. Don't live vicariously. Take your chances and do your best.