We learn through games.

Janet Piaget discovered that children 4-5 could learn the rules of a game and start playing.

His historic discovery was that these children could learn the rules of game (demonstrated by their behavior), but when he asked the kids to explain the rules they didn't know.

Consciously they didn't know the rules. Unconsciously, they did.

Piaget's experiments demonstrate that our unconscious is able to learn patterns before our conscious mind does.

All the games we play are teaching us something.

And if you've read Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse, you know that law is a game, all sports are games, religions are games, that we're always playing games.

And two of the biggest life questions to start exploring are:

1. What games am I playing?
2. What are these games teaching me?

The oldest board game known to history is the game we call Go.

Go teaches the player to think in terms of opposition. It teaches the player that territory is something you can take from another. It teaches strategy and that life produces winners and losers.

Most games teach us that the world is a place of winners and losers. That if you don't win, you lose.

In the field of mathematics called Game Theory this kind of game, one that produces winners and losers is called a Zero Sum Game.

Zero-sum games are games that are played to be brought to an end and the ending of the game produces a winner and a loser.

Fun fact, Game Theory was the mathematic model the US government used to avoid nuclear war with Russia during the cold war.

I share that to convey the weight this model of the world has had on history.

The second class of games are call Non-Zero Sum games. Also known as win-win, these are games where both players win.

Classic free trade is a win-win game. I grow corn, you grow wheat. We trade a fair amount of my corn for your wheat. We both win.

Without getting in the weeds (but the weeds are interesting), there is no formal name for what I call win-win-win games.

A win-win-win game is a win-win game that improves the field the game is played on.

The third party that wins is the environment.

For example, a farmer tells his students when he dies, his estate will hold a contest where all of his students who go on to create their own farm, the farm that the community votes as having been the most in service to the community will win the rite to his 10 million dollar estate.

All the players who play will 'win' because they will have created their own farm. The community will win because they will get a new generation of motivated farmers who help the community.

And the actual ecology of the land will improve because the teacher who taught all the farmers is a regenerative agriculturist.

Personally, I think, to do this at scale, you have to learn how to create and raise a company that produces win-win-win games.

I've created my first win-win-win prototype.

It's called The Zodiac Games.

The first game is called Virgo 1.

If you want to see what happens, and/or join the next one, find us in the Dharma Artist Collective.

Song I'm Listening on Repeat

​Stronger - Gunship Remix

Quotes I'm Enjoying

All three are from Buckminster Fuller