You Matter
You Matter
Game Over?
Suzie Bichovsky-Thomas • Aug 10, 2014
“Not the orange L. The blue backwards L. THE BLUE L!”
This is the dialogue in my head as I play Tetris. I never get the blue L when I want it and, after waiting, I inevitably settle for using the straight line from the hold box. Naturally, the blue L shows up in the queue one move later.
I’ve been playing Tetris so much that I see new ways to load the dishwasher, pack a car, and- as I stare at your face- I can figure out which tetromino best fits between your eyebrows. Seeing imaginary tetrominos
floating in the air is enough of a red flag for me to know…it is time to delete the app.
Before I do, what have I learned?
- It’s OK to make mistakes. I like to build up rows of pieces eight high and leave space on the left for two long pieces to slide in. Scoring the back to back Tetris is gratifying. Sometimes, I make a mistake and place a piece where I don’t want it. I end up blocking the path of the best piece. Instead of panicking and sabotaging my game (hello, quick pull down of every piece to come!), I look for ways to work around the mistake, clearing the path for my original intention. Other times, I figure out that the mistake’s a good thing. It opens up a path I did not see. Messy can be good.
- Remember the low scores. The game is a fan of tracking my high score but not my low one. Whether I get a really high score in one game or several low scores that build up in multiple games, my grand total goes up, I earn fake coins, and I can buy new music for the game (that I play in silence). The low score reminds me to think about what happened. Was I playing while sleepy? Was I watching TV and playing at the same time? How does my attention impact my performance? Accountability .
- Michelle and David are not my barometer for success. I still don’t understand if Michelle and Steve are computer personalities or real people piped in. As I play, their scores appear and, as my score increases, so do their scores. Are we collaborating? Does my success contribute to their success? Or, is keeping their score higher than mine supposed to entice me to try harder? It doesn’t. I would be much more invested in the scores of others if I knew that my success impacted them and their success impacted me. How cool would it be to see a screen shot of their most risky and successful moves? Transparency .
- I need a menu of options. I can pause the game and resume at any time. If I don’t like how things are going, I can restart the whole thing. Help option? I haven’t gone there- feels like cheating. There’s a shadow function that shows you where your piece will land. Someone told me that was cheating. Shut your face! It’s a support. A frame. The trajectory is clear. If I know where I’m going, I don’t need to start all over again. Clarity .
- It’s all about perception. “Life’s a bowl of cherries; sometimes, it’s the pits.” “Life gives you lemons; make lemonade.” How about: “You can wish for a one cube piece but it’s not gonna happen.” Sometimes, the game gets away from me. Each level is faster than the one before it. It’s inevitable that I am going to make a wrong move if I keep up at this pace. I know there’s no way out so I start to pull down the pieces as fast as I can. Game over. I get frustrated but I remind myself that I get a do over. I get to pick if I start again at level 1 and slowly build up or dive back in at a frantic 10. I always start back at 1, take a breath, and slow down. Connect with breath.
- Purple is the best! OK, purple has always been my favorite color. In the Tetris world, the purple piece is the most flexible in my mind. I see all of its potential and viewpoints. It’s a nice substitute for the red or green Z’s when I need it. I can see how the purple tetronimo is going to impact the board. I control where I place it and any fallout. Impact .
Embrace the messy, accountability, transparency, clarity, connect with breath, impact. These learnings from an app are applicable to many avenues of my life- career, home, family, friends. Nothing is perfect. I’m accountable for my actions. If I expect transparency and support from others, I must be clear with my intentions. Slow down, breathe, and think before I act or react. (Or, post or text or message or comment!) Always consider my impact on others- the real, the possible, and the perceived.
Tetris may be game over for me but that leaves space for other things. Like connection. Reflection. And… Pac-Man .
There’s something about being outside surrounded or embraced by nature.
What’s a nature element that really speaks to you?
It could be the moment you notice the dark green of a treetop touching the vibrant blue of the sky.
I’m awful at business growth, meaning- I don’t post when algorithms say I should. I don’t “buy” likes or followers or traffic to my site. I post all things related to burnout prevention on Fridays which used to be one of the worst days to do so.
I got a phone call on Wednesday night with a funeral date for a family member that passed in March.
During that conversation, we once again explored the path of origin. The surviving spouse got it from work (the area was an epicenter of contagion before we all knew what’s going on). The workplace was a school. It spread like wildfire (again, before anyone knew what it was).
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