Life: The First Few Levels
Learning from the superior pedagogy of computer games.
There was a time when the best-selling computer games came with thick, spiral bound manuals. Just the keyboard commands alone required a double page, full-color chart. Only after the instruction manuals were memorized should players feel prepared to jump into some challenging scenarios.
But over time, computer games evolved to phase out instructional manuals. They were both ruinously expensive and were something that no one wanted.
Today’s education system resembles the old computer game instruction manuals, with education’s WELTs (workbooks, essays, lectures, and tests). Thus, the goal, in order to move forward, may not be to “improve the manuals” but to replace them.
Computer games, even the most complicated ones, instead create “the first few levels” to prepare players for those challenging scenarios ahead.
If we similarly wanted to replace our old WELT Education approach with a program designed to be “the first few levels” of life, what can we learn from computer games?
Some of the key beats of the player/learner experience are as follows:
You are a hero: Through narrative or actions, you learn that you are a hero, and are there to impact the world.
Immediately solve some simple challenges: These first, simple challenges are enticing, and almost impossible to fail with experimentation. They are foundational skills. And success is fun.
Failure is part of the game: Failure costs you a bit of time and resources, but not more than that. You can always fully recover from failure. The concept of an indelible failure does not exist. As in science, every success is the result of a handful (or more) failures.
Introduction to a mentor: You find a mentor who sets up the next challenges and points out features of the interface, showing you how you can help yourself.
You can make progress just by putting in some time: In the first few minutes of doing things, you realize you are earning experience points for the time you are putting in. This is one pillar of growth mindset: praise effort not (just) results. Experience points can then be spent to make yourself more powerful.
Challenges: You are given bigger and more complex challenges. These challenges are optional. You can dive right in, wait to do them, or ignore them completely. So they entice and empower.
All of this is accomplished in less than an hour.
The approach is magical. It is rigorous. It works. Is there a catch? Just one.
The content itself has to be authentic examples of possible future experiences. And as Yossarian might say, “That's some catch.”
The content has to align with life.
In our current education system, this happens—un peu—at grad schools.
We can change that. Let’s spend less childhood time on studying the instructional manuals and lot more time on playing examples of life’s “First Few Levels.”