Life is a Video Game, These Are the Cheat Codes | Highlights and Annotations by Gistr.

Life, unlike finite video games, is an infinite game where the goal is continuous self-improvement. Successes maintain the status quo, while failures foster growth. The key is to identify your unique character, choose meaningful quests (avoiding distracting side quests), establish boundaries, embrace failure, and build supportive relationships. Helping others advances your own progress, countering the negative impact of envy. Finite games, like video games, have a defined end goal and win condition. In contrast, the infinite game of life aims for continuous play and self-improvement. In finite games, winning makes you stronger; in life, failures build character. Life presents an infinite number of quests with limited abilities, requiring you to choose quests that suit your character for meaningful, prolonged engagement. music) video games give you the quests and you get to design the character., but in real life, you are given the character and you have to design the quests. again,, video games have clear conditions which you have to meet to win. most games lay these conditions out in excruciating detail,, going as far as walking you through every tiny thing you need to do to be a winner.. the fun then is in designing or adapting or choosing your character to accomplish these quests.. do you wanna be a lawless barbarian, or do you wanna be a noble sorcerer? do you wanna just break a bunch of shit?? in the game of life, there are infinite quests, yet you are limited in your abilities and knowledge.. therefore,, the goal is to find and choose the best quest to suit your character, to allow you to play the game as long and meaningfully as possible.. And this brings us to our first cheat code. (bright, subtle music) In video games, Finite Games: Games with a defined set of conditions; once met, the game concludes. Winning is achieved by fulfilling these conditions (e.g., beating a final boss). Infinite Games: Games without a predetermined end; the goal is to continue playing indefinitely. Success is measured by continuous engagement and self-improvement, not necessarily by achieving a final victory. Existential Crisis: A moment of anxiety or apprehension regarding one's existence and purpose, often occurring when previously held goals are achieved, leaving a sense of emptiness or lack of direction. Side Quests: In the context of the video, these are secondary tasks or goals that offer distractions from the main objective. While potentially fun, they can ultimately hinder progress on the primary goal. Main Quest: The central, overarching goal or objective in a game (or life), requiring focus and dedication to achieve. Self-Knowledge: Understanding one's own strengths, weaknesses, values, and inclinations. It's a crucial step in identifying meaningful goals and pursuing a fulfilling life. Character Traits: Inherent qualities and attributes of an individual that influence their actions and interactions. Boundaries: Limits or rules established to protect one's time, energy, and emotional well-being. They involve refusing to take on others' responsibilities or allow others to impose their goals. Grinding (in the context of life): The process of repeatedly facing and overcoming challenges to gain experience and improve, even if it involves repeated failures. This contrasts with the typical video game meaning of easily repeating simple tasks for quick gains. Envy Trap: A psychological state where one's progress is negatively impacted by the perceived success of others. It involves a false belief that another's success diminishes one's own. Charity Cheat Code: The counterintuitive concept that helping others achieve their goals can unexpectedly enhance one's own progress and fulfillment. This involves building alliances and goodwill. But in the game of life,, side quests are a fun distraction at best, and waste years of your life at worst..03:29in this day and age, it is incredibly easy to get sidetracked onto a bunch of useless side quests and vanity tasks that have no actual impact on the quality of your life.. a huge hack to winning the game of life then is to simply be more focused and obsessed about your main quest than other people..03:44So, the fewer side quests, the better.. in video games, side quests tend to be kinda lame and little more than glorified errands. but in real life, the side quests are generally sexy, exciting, and seductive. now, this is gonna be incredibly difficult to forego, but the more you can give up the dumb side quest, the more you'll stay on track with your main quest, leading to a happier and more fulfilling life. (bright upbeat music) choosing the right quest is arguably the biggest and most difficult component of winning the game of life. strong quests reveal character and build skills. a quest to live abroad for a year is great, because it will teach you many things about yourself, and you can develop communication skills, relationship skills, self-confidence, independence, all that good shit. bad quests though obscure your character and waste skills. an example of a bad quest is like drinking all 268 beers on tap at the lager house near your old university. it blinds you to your own character and wastes precious time, energy, and mana. another bad quest is only trying to own a fancy car. not only does this quest not build many skills, but it's likely motivated by hiding who you are from the world not revealing it. and actually, this is kind of the biggest mistake that people make when choosing a quest. they mistake someone else's quest line for their own. you owning a lamborghini is likely not your own quest line. it's the quest line of the marketers working at lamborghini, or some douchey youtuber who wants you to envy their quest line. many times in life, people will try to impose their quest lines on you in hopes that you will complete it for them. this could be your parents wanting you to go to a certain type of school, or a partner who wants you to fix their emotional problems, or a company who's just marketing their useless shit to you. do not be seduced by other people's questlines. it's easy to give in and try to chase other people's dreams because it relieves you of the responsibility of choosing your own. you cannot complete other people's quests for them, and no one else can complete your quest for you, and if people try to complete yours or if they ask you to complete theirs, it's your responsibility to tell 'em to fuck off. -no! you should learn the meaning of the word. -if you don't tell 'em no, not only will you waste your precious time and energy, but you will prevent them from advancing in their own quest, thus wasting theirs as well. your character traits, your ability to focus, and your ability to stomach failure and setback. your character traits are a given. it's your job to discover them and then leverage them. we've talked about that. your focus is based on your ability to turn down useless but exciting side quests, and enforce boundaries. the progress is really gonna be proportional to your ability to stomach failure. unlike video games, in the game of life, setbacks and failures are what make your character stronger. put another way, grinding levels in a video game means winning tons of easy battles over and over to gain experience, but grinding levels in real life means losing hard battles to gain experience. that's why. (bright upbeat music) most people hate failure because they feel judged or embarrassed in front of others. but if you can learn to enjoy failure, if you can learn to enjoy the feeling of trying something, having it not work, and then learning what to do instead, you will become unstoppable. you will progress further and faster than anyone else, and you will truly accomplish great feats like a true level 99 hero. -this is where the power lies! -all right, get ready! (bright upbeat music) -there's a final boss in a classic video game named Mike Tyson, who once said, "not everyone who hurts you is an enemy, and not everyone who helps you is a friend." it's important to realize that while on your quest, there will be many people who naturally align with your quest and many who do not.. some enemies do this because their quest and yours contradict one another, but most enemies do it simply because they envy the progress that you've made, or that you could potentially make. they falsely believe that you progressing in your quest somehow diminishes the progress that they've made in theirs. this is the envy trap.. when we see others advancing far in their quest lines, it sometimes makes us feel inadequate in our own, but this actually makes no sense.. we are different characters. we usually have no idea the sacrifices that other people have made in their quest.