W. Eric Martin: The Last Lecture, and Project 30

Randy Pausch, a professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, died on July 25, 2008 after living for two years with pancreatic cancer. Pausch spent most of his career working on virtual reality systems – as well as ways to make it easier for people to learn how to program computers, such as the Alice educational software package – but he’ll most likely be remembered for “The Last Lecture,” a talk he gave in September 2007.

His lecture, called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” covered the lessons he had learned while doing just that. In case you’re not one of the 5.6 million people (as of August 1, 2008) who have watched “The Last Lecture,” I’d suggest putting my column on hold for 76 minutes in order to check out the video below:

While Pausch’s talk delves into Carnegie Mellon matters a bit much, overall he put together a great presentation that has touched a lot of people. Sure, we’ve heard those lessons before – work hard, be prepared, don’t bail, be good at something as it makes you valuable – but that doesn’t mean the lessons are without value, and Pausch brings them to life with an appealing presentation. For some reason that I can’t fathom, all of the thoughts that bubbled up after watching that lecture have led to an undertaking that I’m calling Project 30.

One Month, One Mission

As I’ve mentioned more than once, my goal for writing about games and running Boardgame News isn’t to champion a particular game or genre, but to push the cause of game-playing in general, to push games to the forefront of entertainment options. That goal is why I carry games with me no matter where I go. You never know when an opportunity to play (and introduce others to new games) will introduce itself.

But rather than stumble along in a haphazard manner while trying to spread the word, why not attach numbers to the effort? As Pausch notes, your goals have to be specific, both to focus your attention and to let you know whether or not you achieved them. “Teaching people new games” is too general, as with more typical resolutions along the lines of “losing weight” or “earning more money.” You need a finish line to cross, a clock to put a deadline at your heels – all of which brings us to Project 30, which involves teaching thirty people thirty games in the next thirty days.

So what qualifies as success under the terms of the Project? Thirty days is the easy part – they’ll pass whether I want them to or not. As for the other numbers, I need to teach thirty people a new game while also teaching thirty new games to at least one person. If, for example, I teach Game X to thirty people who have never played it before, that satisfies half the goal – but I still need to teach 29 other games to people who haven’t played them before. Some game sessions will count for both categories, and some sessions will involve friends who would be learning new games from me even without the Project. By choosing a goal of thirty, however, I should be forced to go out of my way to meet new people and get new games on the table, without feeling that the goal is impossible to achieve.

Now, I’ll admit that Project 30 is something of a lightweight, a fluffy project with few (if any) long-term implications, but given how much time I can waste when acting without a goal, better to have some project guiding me than none at all. If nothing else, working on the Project should prepare me to review more games, as with today’s take on Octego. Results on Project 30 in four weeks: tick, tick, tick…

Have a project of your own that you’re working on? Post a comment below and give the rest of us ideas for for the future.

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Comments:

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I applaud you for the effort. Project 30 will probably not be as lightweight as you state. Like the hypothetical butterfly flapping it’s wings in some far off jungle, your efforts will likely have far reaching affects. Keep up the good work! Posted by Bobby Doran on Aug 2, 2008 at 12:53 AM | #

I have already stated one: getting someone that has the ear of game publishers to ask them to consider and approach the topic of a lexicon of universal game symbols. I don’t know what the status of my “ask the publishers” email is, but I haven’t heard anything in months. One avid person on BGG and many designers at BGDF isn’t enough. The publishers themselves are the only ones that can make it happen. It will make games both easier to teach and learn… making such 30-30-30 projects easier goals. As said before, individual artistic spins on said symbols will more than make up for the lack for any loss to sameness. We already see the clock for length on many Rio Grande products (great idea), the sized rest room meeples for ages (applause) and a couple of variations for number of players on the outside of the box. If we all recognize this as a niche hobby that we want to grow, why not create a set of symbols for all the things in games so that they can be easier gateways for new people? Electronic games have warning labels that are uniform and that helps customers may purchase choices. Even if we only tackled the symbols for age, duration, and number of players this concept would be a success in my viewpoint… but many people, especially as they get older do not want to learn anything new (this is true for many people I know). If there is a familiarity, then such learning isn’t that hard and people can more easily learn new games. Mr. Martin, let’s get these companies to help themselves by making their products more accessible to the world. Ask the publishers to discuss the benefits of a universal symbol system. Thanks for the great articles and great site, William Baldwin Posted by William Baldwin on Aug 2, 2008 at 01:11 PM | #

Thanks for the note, William! “Ask the Publishers” flamed out due to (1) a lack of questions, (2) publishers opting out, and (3) the amount of time needed to do the section. I’ll keep your idea in mind for future columns and articles. Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Aug 2, 2008 at 01:20 PM | #

Sounds quite challenging.  I wish you luck.  My own boardgame playing only rarely tops out above 30 so that would be quite an agressive goal for me.  (However, since much of my playing is teaching new games to folks, many of the games played could count toward such a goal.) I await hearing how your experiment goes!  (It is the perfect time for me to challenge myself for a similar number goal… with GenCon and school starting all in August I may have a shot at teaching myself/learning 30 new games in the next 4 1/2 weeks...) Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Aug 3, 2008 at 04:52 PM | #

Randy Pausch is definitely worth watching.  As an alumnus who only overlapped with his tenure by a couple years I still found a huge resonance in his specific Carnegie Mellon references, but at the least they need to be understood in the context that his lecture was there first, and the rest of the world later. As to your project, I think it sounds quite wonderful and ambitious.  By no means ‘fluffy’.  It will take dedication.  You may find you need to try several times before you achieve the goal, that alone makes it impressive to me.  I hope you find it rewarding to pursue. Posted by Brian Leet on Aug 3, 2008 at 10:13 PM | #

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