My wife and I love playing board games and we try to play atleast once every other day.
We have stopped buying new games to our collection for some time now. But we bucked that trend last week on our visit to our favorite board game store in Oxford. We bought a new game called Harmonies. It has multiple board game mechanics but one part is also managing resources to build specific patterns to earn points.
Now, the mechanics of resource management games are simple—use your resources to trade, buy cards, or gain points. You can either:
- Buy smaller assets early and use them to build momentum, or
- Accumulate resources patiently to make a big move later.
I like to play any game fast paced. So in every game, I try to just spend my resources as and when I get to get small assets. I call this the “Momentum Investor”. While this might put me in the backfoot in terms of resources at hand during the early game, the smaller assets normally pays off in the late game as I would be able to leverage them instead of collecting resources.
My wife on the other hand is a “Vault Strategist“ (”Hoarder Queen” if I decide to sledge in-game). She would have a big target in mind and patiently collects all the resources that is needed to buy that asset outright. She is not distracted by the urge to spend on four different assets but stays true to her plan.
It normally feels like she is behind so much in the game but once she has the resources available for her big move, turns the game upside down.
Since Harmonies was a new game to us, we had absolutely no idea of what strategies we could use and play the game and we were playing only with our instincts.
And at the end of the first 2 games that we played, I noticed the exact same pattern.
Our natural instincts dictated how we play even when their was no learned strategy.
I played the “Momentum Investor” and she played the “Vault Strategist”.
And the truth is, we carry our board game personalities in real life too.
Take our presence on social media. She’s all in on YouTube. She makes short-form content consistently, with the belief that even entertainment should offer one small learning. She’s patient, committed, and plays the long game.
Me on the other hand, like to experiment with multiple platforms. I’m curious with learning the benefits, try different formats, test the algorithm, study the audience base of different platforms and just try it out.
I want to understand by doing. Of course there are some long-term moves like this Newsletter. But I still test out other platforms.
(Recently, I’m testing out Substack as I like the community feel of it. Do subscribe for more shorter thoughts and also the opportunity to interact if interested).
This is just how I operate. I’m not someone who waits for the perfect opportunity or have the perfect product to start something.
I start, I observe and I iterate. All I want is momentum.
I’m at peace as long as I have momentum.
But this peace isn’t random. It comes from understanding myself. It comes from knowing my beliefs, values, biases, and the causes I care about.
Because whether in games or life, our choices aren’t random. They are already made subconsciously.
The goal is not to make the choice. The choice is already made.
Our job is figure out why we made the choice in the first place.
That’s the closest we can get to finding meaning & purpose in our life - Knowing ourselves.
