So I heard one of the main traits really successful and innovative people have is the ability to see the big picture.
Meaning you haven’t just mastered one skill, but you can zoom out and look at the whole hedge maze from above.
Sometimes l feel like I’m looking through a dark room with just a flashlight. I can only see what’s in the little circle. But I know there’s a lot more there. I just don’t know how to broaden the little circle.
But then I started playing chess. Chess lets you broaden the little circle.
If you lose at chess again and again and again, it trains your brain to see the big picture, to see all the little things that are all happening at the same time, to accurately predict and plan for what is going to happen next, to ensure your survival and success in the imperfect real world, instead of just your own head.
On board? Well, chess.com is totally goddamn free. I don’t work for them or anything. But go there. Hit “play computer.” Play each bot (they have faces) again and again and again until you can beat them without the hints. And then go on to the next hardest one. (But use the hints to teach yourself.)
The intermediate bot “Nelson” is extremely aggressive and it took me weeks to beat him without any hints, me losing sometimes three games a day. (I didn’t know it before, but chess games can be super short, like only five minutes.)
It’s still very difficult for me to beat Nelson, but I can now do it, and now I find myself thinking slightly different in real life.
Here’s me with a magnetic chess board I got.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan