A Flow Free tell all...

   After watching criminal minds and Sherlock Holmes I started to get very nervous around people (mostly physiatrists, crazy old ladies and anyone with a penetrating gaze). I felt as though they could discover my secrets just by observing my actions. But now I’ve uncovered the truth. You don’t have to be gifted to ‘know’ things; you just have to be observant. So lately I’ve been keeping my eyes open. My latest discovery was made on a Monday morning over breakfast.

   My dad and I have obsession with Games section in the android market. Our latest fad is Flow Free. Every morning we spend a good amount of time building pipes. It’s a basically just a battle to see who can finish the most levels in the least amount of moves over some freshly brewed coffee.

   Yesterday, instead of focusing on my own screen I peered over at my dad’s. I observed his playing strategy and saw that it differed from mine. He would spend a great deal of time staring at the screen and muttering about how he can’t move something there or it’ll block something somewhere. He basically considered all his options and played out the consequences in his head before actually making a move.

    I on the other hand, looked at the board once then started to move pipes around here and there until I found the correct path. My strategy was trial and error. If something didn’t fit I’d just start over.

    I thought about it for a while and realized that our playing strategy reflected greatly on our life strategy and attitudes as well. I concluded that it must be maturity must be the reason behind our varied strategies.

   My dad being an older person has experience from trial and error so now he knows how to navigate the minefield. He knows he doesn’t have the energy like before to bounce back easily from error. So he sticks to the safety net provided from thinking before acting.

     Although I am just starting out and I’ve got my whole life ahead of me to make mistakes and learn from them.  I have the time and energy to start over and bounce back from a set back, I can leap over hurdles (metaphorically speaking of course, jumping hurdles was proven to be my weakness at a rather embarrassing track meet). So I take a risk and go with trial and error.