Jonathan Blow on the Problem Solving Mindset

[@jomohogames]

Thanks for sifting through all the material and uncovering those gems.

[@4.0.4]

I think this isn't just about so-called "entrepreneurship". Having a problem-solving mindset helped me so much throughout my life that it's like a superpower.

[@flip4119]

In the modern day, it basically is.

[@raychrash5139]

I don't know if it falls under the same category, but it's insane how many people give up on some problems just because it's not their "job/speciality" or because they dont know the solution from their experience, it's not about knowing the solution, but to learn how to find it.

[@VivekBoseShree]

Could you also put either a link to the Twitch VOD or the date uploaded, with a timestamp? Would be super helpful.

[@BlowFan]

I haven't been doing this because VODs get deleted at some point which would kill the links. Right? Anyway, here's the link: www.twitch.tv/videos/448285685?filter=archives&sort=1h2m34s

[@VivekBoseShree]

@@BlowFan Yep, you're absolutely right. Most ideal would be upload date and timestamp, because there are 3rd party youtube sites that archive his VODs. But this is amazing. Love your work.

[@romaingauthier2653]

Quite à propos, the message in this clip is what The Witness made me realise about myself.

[@aussenseitermagazin]

I am not a dev, but whenever I hear him speak, it reminds me of all the issues I had with many developers (besides a very chosen few) as a hobby game designer. You'd think 'This won't work' is a pretty funny thing to say for a programmer.

[@user-ov5nd1fb7s]

The first question you should ask is "Should this be done?". If you reach a conclusion that it should be done, then start thinking about how to do it. Don't just jump at every thing.

[@sensereference2227]

This video is a great example of survivorship bias. JB is only looking at the people who succeeded with that mindset but not the ones that had this mindset and still failed. It's clear he isn't really looking at the failed cases because his go-to example of what this looks like is a meteor landing on someone's house when, in reality, there are much more realistic and common scenarios to look at. For instance, some people have gotten themselves into catastrophic financial situations by taking out too many loans to fund their business because they thought they would be able to solve the problems keeping it from taking off instead of cutting their losses earlier. They take out mortgages on their homes, invest their savings, and then end up losing both when things don't work out. JB underestimates the risk because he's only looking at the small fraction that made it and not the whole picture.

[@KANJICODER]

Even Warren Buffet admits he got lucky. He has a good talk where he says that if you did gambler's ruin with coin flipping and interviewed the winner they would brag about how they have some type of superior coin flipping strategy. Just because you are successful doesn't mean you really know the reasons why.

[@mov4736]

Not really. JB is quite right tbh. you say: "For instance, some people have gotten themselves into catastrophic financial situations by taking out too many loans to fund their business because they thought they would be able to solve the problems keeping it from taking off instead of cutting their losses earlier. They take out mortgages on their homes, invest their savings, and then end up losing both when things don't work out. " I agree, many people have done that. However, I would say "no body told them to" and I don't mean that in a condescending sense. I have seen a good chunk of people betting their homes on "Let's make Bioshock but as an MMO and in space" with peanuts as capital. Not only is it hard to make something of that scale without millions of $$ but also time and competition. Quite frankly, just go on reddit and you will a lot of "I spent 3-5 years on this game and took out loans. Yet I only made 200$. What did I do wrong???". You look at their game and you see: No interesting art (usually generic low poly or pixel art), bland colors, badly designed steam page, average music, no hook, no interesting story/mechanic, 0 marketing, brings nothing unique to the table, charges 30$. Is there an element of luck involved? Absolutely. You can do everything right and sometimes fail. However, having the ability to judge risks and picking your challenges reduces it a great deal (but it never becomes 0 though). Part of that is solving the right problem. Listen to TimCorey's podcast about problem solving, he goes over that in the context of traditional software. The gist of it being: "If you spend 10 years developing some crazy advanced app but it doesn't solve my needs, I don't care about it". Likewise, in games, our needs as gamers are to feel entertained. If your game doesn't entertain me, it failed. Look at Dark Souls, it was a major success for "from software". Now, look at how many indie studios blatantly attempted to copy it. I'm not referring to inspired, difficult, or sequels. I'm referring to "Let's replicate darksouls but with our own characters" type of deal. This type of thinking is usually done with newer and smaller indie teams looking to cash in on a popular game theme. Likewise look at how many blatant pokemon rip-offs there are. I'm not referring to fan games or original games in the same genre like SMT or youkai watch. I'm referring to games that steal the designs (like making a red pikachu look-alike as mascot to avoid copyright) and having pretty much the EXACT same mechanics. Same thing happened with Hollow Knight, Cuphead, etc. Naturally, 99.9% of those fail to generate any meaningful money. AAA can get away with remaking the same games because they spend millions on marketing & generating hype + they have their own fanboys. Indie can't really compete in that regard. "Why would I pay 25$ to play your game that looks unpolished when I can pay 30$ to play the original pioneer?". Indies typically compete on originality and twists, if you can't make an interesting twist in mechanics, you will most likely fail. You have an idea for something really interesting? Save some cash, apply to funds, pitch to publishers, crowdfund, etc. There are a million ways to get funding in richer countries, especially in the US and Canada. However, NEVER NEVER NEVER (thrice for emphasis) bet the shelter and livelihood of your family on a "maybe". I'm not trying to gatekeep entrepreneurship but I do think that some people are better off not trying when they don't have enough financially literacy to see it through. As such, most of the people who made it, made it due to a combination of luck, connections, problem solving, and risk assessment. You can't really control the first two.

[@Leonhart_93]

You fail a lot either way. Very few are lucky to succeed in their first shot, and then they won't have learned as much and will still be susceptible in the future. The normal pathway probably looks like lot of failures before successes. I guess you could say that you should also plan that you will fail initially. Like in software development, it's nothing but losses and realizing how much you don't know for at least the first 10 years.

[@mav45678]

Let's not ignore the differences in biology between people. Most people, even the very smart ones, can realistically focus on code for 20-30 hours a week, which means they're sep up to lose against people who are equally smart, but who are also blessed with unusually high resistance to mental fatigue (John Carmack works 60 hour weeks for example).

[@mav45678]

@vvlmm For a smaller niche, maybe. The "problem" with coding is that we're all competing on a global arena where generally the best solution wins, while all the rest of the contenders get nothing or close to it. And the sexier and bigger arenas (like making VR tech for example) are filled with people like Carmack where mere mortals don't have much of a chance. Consequently, the opportunities that the normies are left with is boring stuff like some niche SaaS for businesses. Or, just make your money in a corp job, retire early and have fun with software then.

[@johngibson4874]

Ability grows with effort. I dont see why someone who struggles to focus 20-30 hours on code cant build the ability to focus for longer or spend time developing other abilities, doing research etc.

[@k.o.b8730]

@@johngibson4874 Right. It seems the "problem solving mindset" can be applied here as well. If you feel like you can't focus on some kind of work long enough every week to be successful long term, then you should start thinking about how to solve that. It's just problem solving all the way down I guess.

[@kevinscales]

@@mav45678 What's wrong with succeeding in a smaller niche? If you know it is really impossible for you to compete in a bigger arena then the answer is simple. You get to decide what success is to you.

[@mav45678]

@@kevinscales How many niches in software are there? Let's be generous and say 100,000. Assuming there are 10 milion developers in the world (likely more), you should still be in the top 1% of ability, luck, connections etc. to make it.

[@sheridanrathbun]

There are other limiters to achieving success besides having the right mindset. For every successful programmer patting themselves on the back for being intelligent enough to succeed, there are 100 more who haven't got their chance for one economic reason or another. It would be refreshing if more successful developers could put a lens on the issues they don't have to deal with anymore, rather than simply giving pep-talks and humble-bragging about their past achievements. The myth of the intelligent entrepreneur whose success was a foregone conclusion needs to die.

[@4.0.4]

That's just a multiplier. Intelligence and thinking will get you into a better position relative to your current one. If you keep doing this for an entire life, you can in fact get pretty far from any starting point; maybe that means you start making a game at 60 years old or something (or you don't, and just raise kids that have a better chance) - life's not fair, sure, but we can't just lament being born poor, that changes nothing.

[@divinefavour1289]

@@4.0.4 any books you can recommend?

[@ZantierTasa]

@Sheridan There can be other things keeping you from success, sure, but that doesn't discount what he's saying. Do you think what he says in the clip is intended to be a complete list of everything you need to be successful? Like.... he's given a lot of talks, and talks plenty on stream. He has certainly mentioned that you can learn everything for free without needing to go to college.

[@KANJICODER]

It's true. For example when I was working full time at Five Guys I did not have mental energy to program after work. Once I was there for a month I started doing 3 hour prep shifts in the morning. Just enough work to make me know how much I hated it and could be programming, but not so much work as to be unable to think when I clocked out. Some people are stuck in a "losing position" in the game of life. For example if I knocked up some girl and had to pay child support I'd probably have no odds for success as I'd probably have to go back to full time enterprise software development.

[@BenjaminBlodgettDev]

Something about this clip. I replay it but I cant hardly pay attention to what he is saying and it feels like one of those clips from a long stream where he is in that moment inconcisely schizo ranting. I dont even know what he is trying to say.