{"id":4305,"date":"2012-01-31T03:01:27","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T19:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2024-03-02T15:07:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T15:07:40","slug":"no-chain-no-gain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2012\/01\/31\/no-chain-no-gain\/","title":{"rendered":"no chain, no gain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/ryu-piano.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4306\" title=\"ryu-piano\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/ryu-piano.jpg?resize=770%2C963\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"963\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/ryu-piano.jpg?w=804&amp;ssl=1 804w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/ryu-piano.jpg?resize=240%2C300&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/ryu-piano.jpg?resize=768%2C960&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Original title: Gamification, the power of chains and combos)<\/p>\n<p>Chains and combos are strings of actions or events that flow smoothly from one into another. Once initiated (in fighting games), we&#8217;re looking at a series of attacks that cannot be interrupted. They are impressive to behold, because they typically require a level of skill and finesse to deliver. Commands have to be executed with precision, in perfect time. It takes practice to develop the ability to execute them on demand- but it&#8217;s not something drab and mundane, for it takes presence of mind to find opportunities to utilize them appropriately in the heat of battle. As an art and a science, it&#8217;s remarkably like music.<\/p>\n<p><em>Here&#8217;s a video of Justin Wong- a professional fighting gamer- demonstrating his awesomeness. Enjoy!<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4-bd1xgFnZM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><strong>Chains and combos are powerful.<\/strong> The combination of individual elements precipitates a whole that is substantially greater than the sum of its parts. Going back to music- consider an individual note on a piano, independent of context. Anybody can play that, even non-musicians. But then consider that same note, utilized artfully in a melodic passage. That&#8217;s musicianship. The better the musician, the more beautiful the chains.<\/p>\n<p>This blog post that you are reading is not exempt from this rule- it exists in tandem with its peers. Each word exists within a chain of others, forming sentences. Each sentence exists within a chain of others, forming paragraphs. And so on. As I become a better writer through focused practice and a harmonic cycle of action and reflection, the elegance of my chains should develop- and my readers should find themselves led from post to post, the way good writers and directors have us at the edge of our seats.(2024: interesting to revisit this now and see that I would now talk about this in terms of threads, hyperlinks)<\/p>\n<p>While we intuitively understand the power of chains and combos- we know it when we see it- most of us don&#8217;t consciously utilize them much. I think this is because we&#8217;re not biologically wired to do so- our caveman brains tend to work more direct, simplistic ways. A good chain always seems magical, because we don&#8217;t see the amount of effort put into it. We might look at an athlete or dancer training, but we don&#8217;t quite appreciate the endless immensity of their cumulative effort. If we did, Michelangelo noted, it wouldn&#8217;t seem quite as magical.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So what are the chains that we could be building?<\/strong> If actions are individual notes, most of my life has been spent slamming my head against the keyboard of Life&#8217;s piano. Not very musical. Managing one&#8217;s life- or relationships, or teams, or finances, or business- management in any sense- is about making music. And lately, I&#8217;ve noticed certain motifs and melodies emerging from the chaos.<\/p>\n<p>My fitness routine is one poignant example. 5 weeks into my pushups routine, and I find myself experiencing strength gains that I haven&#8217;t gotten from months of working out aimlessly in the gym. If we break it down into the minutes, it&#8217;s even more telling- I spend less than 10 to 20 minutes actually doing these pushups- 3 times a week, for 5 weeks running- that&#8217;s a total of barely 4 hours of actual exercise. In contrast, I used to spend about an hour in the gym every 3 days for several months- that&#8217;s 11 hours in 5 weeks. 4 hours of focused practice has gotten me further than 11 hours of non-focused practice, because it&#8217;s a more effective chain, a more melodic passage.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking you need to &#8220;put in more hours of exercise&#8221; is like thinking you need to play more notes, write more words, use more paint. And think about it- I could have spent those other 7 hours writing, or practicing music, or spending time with my girlfriend. I won&#8217;t become Mozart if I bash my head on my piano for 10,000 hours. It&#8217;s focused, conscientious practice that counts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And there are profound philosophical implications.<\/strong> We ourselves are individuals made up of many elements- of notes and colours that make up the music of our characters and personalities. Individually, we might be unimpressive toots or squeaks. But together, we make up the grandest of symphonies.<\/p>\n<p><em>PS: I wanted this blog post itself to be an embodiment of the virtue I&#8217;m trying to extol here. So I was focused on writing. I didn&#8217;t allow myself any distractions online. The rough draft for the post was initiated on pen and paper while I was at work, and the rest of the post was generated in notepad, without the distraction of the internet. And the whole piece was completed in under an hour. It&#8217;s beautiful. I&#8217;ve completed a substantial piece of writing, AND I can now justifiably enjoy wasting some time online.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>TL;DR:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No chain, no gain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Original title: Gamification, the power of chains and combos) Chains and combos are strings of actions or events that flow smoothly from one into another. Once initiated (in fighting games), we&#8217;re looking at a series of attacks that cannot be interrupted. They are impressive to behold, because they typically require&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[181],"class_list":["post-4305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections","tag-gamification"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/ryu-piano.jpg?fit=804%2C1005&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-17r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14065,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions\/14065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}