Daniel's notes on 10,000 Hours Of Play

The NPC: Non-Playable Character Every role-playing game is riddled with NPCs. They are programmed, predictable, and stagnant characters in an RPG that consistently serve a specific function: sell the hero items (such as weapons or potions), provide hints (when the plot demands it), exchange gossipy conversations, or just take up space in the game world so that it looks busy and vibrant for the Hero. A lot of people in our society live like NPCs. They passively do the same activities every single day, complain about their school, work, and other people, spend many of their waking hours watching TV (and yes, even playing games!), and have no bigger vision for their lives.

The Hero In contrast to NPCs, the Hero of an RPG is never stagnant. The Hero must travel to new places, slay more monsters, obtain new abilities, form new alliances, conquer new quests, and perhaps even save the world. As the protagonist of the game, the Hero is on a journey of discovering and accomplishing epic missions.

In real life, a Hero learns new skills, meets new people, gets into positions of opportunity, achieves new accomplishments, builds their family with nurturing love, strategically invests their money and resources, and continuously grows as an individual and a professional toward a greater goal - the objective of their game.

You see, just like in fictional stories, real-life OP Heroes often start with fairly uneventful or passive lives until something unexpected and paradigm-shattering happens. So, what if the turmoil engulfing our world - pandemics, devastating wars, and the economic downturn - are collectively serving as our own call to adventure? Even though we like being comfortable and don't like things to change, it's important to remember that big shocks to the system can lead to legendary accomplishments in one's life.

Step 1: Choose Your Game (Mission) The first step to becoming a hero in your own game is to identify your mission in life. In video games, the hero always has a clear objective to achieve. In real life, you need to define your mission, which should be something that excites you and gives your life purpose. It could be a career goal, a personal ambition, a cause you believe in, or anything that makes you feel alive.

Take some time to think about what you want to achieve in life. Don't be afraid to dream big and go beyond what you think is possible. Whether it's solving climate change or being a better parent, the game you choose must be meaningful enough to dedicate thousands of hours to play, master, and achieve.

Step 2: Know Your Attributes (Talents) In video games, characters have natural attributes such as strength, agility, or intelligence. In real life, your attributes are your talents and natural abilities. Knowing your attributes can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses in order to select your role as well as develop a plan to enhance your skills.

Talents and attributes are different than skills and abilities. Talents are traits you are born with whereas attributes can only be acquired over years of life experiences. On the other hand, skills and abilities can simply be acquired by taking a class, reading a book, or going through some form of short-term training. More often than not, an attribute such as perseverance only comes with experiencing much hardship and cannot be obtained by simple learning sessions.

Step 3: Select Your Role (Specialty) In video games, players can choose to be a warrior, wizard, archer, or a myriad of other characters. In real life, your role is defined by your profession, identity, or your "side hustle." Ideally, your role should align with your mission and attributes. Take some time to consider your role. What do you want to be known for? What profession or activity aligns with your mission and attributes? Knowing your role is key to making good career and personal decisions.

Step 4: Enhance Your Skills (Craft) In video games, players can earn skill points and spend them to learn new spells or abilities. In real life, you can enhance your abilities and craft by taking classes, reading books, doing jobs/in-ternships/projects, and developing your personal and professional skills. Once you identify the skills you have and the ones you need to acquire to achieve your goals and become the strongest player on your "Earth server," you can craft a strategic action plan to develop those skills.

Step 5: Build Your Alliance (Network) In video games, players at higher levels can help those at lower levels gain experience quickly. In real life, your network can help you gain knowledge, skills, and opportunities. In your life game, you want to surround yourself with friends who are not only playing the same game but also bring complementary skills to the table. Additionally, having mentors can accelerate your progress by helping you gain knowledge quickly and unlocking opportunities that would otherwise be inaccessible to low-level players.

Step 6: Achieve Your Quests (Milestones) In video games, quests help players progress through the game by recovering a lost sword, raising a "champion chocobo" (a fantasy species in Final Fantasy), or unlocking a new skill. In real life, quests help you progress in life: start a company, get your Ph.D., find a mentor, buy a home, or start a family. These quests allow you to acquire the skills you need to tackle even harder quests, while also growing chemistry with your allies.

Jobs possessed an array of qualities that contributed to his success. These included experience sensitivity, which granted him the ability to envision how consumers would interact with and feel about his products; innovative thinking, which inspired him to conceive products that made users feel intelligent and fulfilled; and persuasive communications, which enabled him to effectively convey his visionary ideas. Additionally, his confrontational proactivity, which allowed him to challenge and push people beyond their limits, combined with his persuasive communications attribute both contributed to his famous reality distortion field- the ability to convince anyone that something seemingly impossible was actually possible and needed to be executed.

Throughout his professional life, Steve Jobs held various roles: as an entrepreneur, co-founding Apple and NeXT Computers; as an innovative technologist, overseeing groundbreaking products like the iMac and iPhone; as a captivating storyteller, mesmerizing audiences with his keynote presentations; and as a highly effective CEO of Apple and Chairman of Pixar. Under his leadership, Apple became a global powerhouse, while Pixar became the first 3D animation studio to achieve worldwide recognition with the massive success of its first film, Toy Story.

• Step 4: Enhance Your Skills (Craft): Over the years, Steve Jobs continued to level up his skills as an entrepreneur and innovator - including marketing, branding, product design, user experience, public speaking, negotiations, management, and synthesizing technologies. He continuously improved his attention to detail in user experiences, making product design and presentation the company's hallmark. This dedication to crafting products as experiences, from unboxing to first use, became integral to Jobs' skillset and success. All these skills came together to drive his culture-changing product launches across multiple companies, as well as his sale of Pixar to Disney for $7.4 billion.