Mark Manson's "Life is a Video Game" analogy - and the "cheats"

[excreationist]

For me, these is the most influential set of ideas I've come across in my life. I also like how these fit into a single web page. Mark Manson is the author of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" which I found pretty interesting. I like how he includes some humour.

Life Is a Video Game—Here Are the Cheat Codes

Welcome, Player One, to a strategy guide for the game known as Life.

markmanson.net

Some of the highlights:

You will face unexpected challenges and long periods of frustration. You will often struggle with self-doubt, feel overwhelmed by helplessness and loss

So when those things happen I now think to myself that it is normal.

If at any point, Life runs out of problems to give us, then as players, we will unconsciously invent problems for ourselves

I can especially identify with that because multiple times I've stopped worrying and have become manic and unconsciously created problems for myself causing my unbalanced happiness/contentment to end.

There are five levels in life:

Level 1 – Find food; find a bed to sleep in at night
Level 2 – Know you’re not going to die
Level 3 – Find your people
Level 4 – Do something that’s important and valuable to both yourself and others
Level 5 – Create a legacy

Recently my goal has been to create a legacy (with a video game). I became disappointed with my attempt but then I realised that I hadn't really achieved level 4 first - at the moment I've been a casual cleaner (either 3.5 hours a week or no shifts for weeks). Then recently I got some high paying computer work and then felt I'm ready to start to attempt level 5.
I find the following surprising about his description of level 3 - "most people suck".

Solutions are actions and pursuits that resolve a problem preventing it from continuing or happening again in the future. Distractions are actions or pursuits designed to either make the Player unaware of the problem’s existence or to dull the pain the problem may be causing.

So lately I can sense whether some things aren't really achieving much but it can be hard to stop them when I've started to watch the YouTube video, etc.

The more each Solution or Distraction is used, the easier and more automatic it will be in the future

It goes on to 5 "cheats":

CHEAT #1: I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS

CHEAT #2: WRITE THIS **** DOWN

CHEAT #3: STOP ****ING COMPLAINING

CHEAT #4: STOP FANTASIZING

CHEAT #5: SHARE YOUR SHAME

The 5 "cheats" are more difficult to agree with but maybe I'll eventually agree with all of them.

I literally think that life is a kind of video game and I'm not sure how literally Mark Manson believes it. Mark Manson definitely does not believe the following part:

Entering these cheat codes is easy: just press Tab at the View Screen to access your Mind’s Eye. The Mind’s Eye is where you actively observe yourself and choose what to think about. From there, just type in the cheats below at the “Brain” prompt and hit ENTER.

So the web page said:

Life Is a Video Game—Here Are the Cheat Codes
Welcome, Player One, to a strategy guide for the game known as Life.

The wording is similar to the title of my work "Cheating in the Game of Life"


About this:

In 2008 I was in a creative writing class for people with mental illnesses. I wrote poems, made a comic, and wrote a true story that is mainly about an event earlier in my life where I later was hospitalised. Then it also covers my suicide attempt.
I initially was trying to hypnotise people who were reading my posts but I ended up hypnotising myself and eventually became catatonic.

At the time I believed that I was in a computer game a bit like the Matrix.

The early part of the web page is similar to the beginning of the M. Scott Peck book, The Road Less Traveled:

Excerpts From The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

A while back a colleague's comments encouraged me to revisit the book, The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck.

capacity-building.com

“Life is difficult…This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see the truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

About the purpose of problems:

Problems are what keep us occupied and give our lives meaning

......This steady barrage of unexpected problems gives the player a sense that she lacks control over her own Life, when in fact, the purpose of Life is not to control what happens to you, but rather control and choose higher level reactions to what happens to you.

So anyway the focus is on how well his ideas apply to life rather than whether it is literally a video game.

 

[excreationist]

So in the analogy life has 5 levels of problems that should be overcome with "solutions" rather than turning to "distractions".