Life Lessons Learned in Bejeweled

My wife recently purchased a game for our iPhones: “Bejeweled 2”. It’s a great little puzzle game with 3 modes: Classic, Action, and Endless. Classic mode is all about planning ahead, trying to conserve your resources and taking as much time as is necessary to set up the ideal plays so you can continue to play without running out of options. Action mode is fast-and-furious, all about how fast you can make matches, and the game will always provide you with more opportunities as long as you can find them in time. Endless mode is a kind of combination of both, allowing you to practice as long as you like.

My wife recently purchased a game for our iPhones: “Bejeweled 2”. It’s a great little puzzle game with 3 modes: Classic, Action, and Endless. Classic mode is all about planning ahead, trying to conserve your resources and taking as much time as is necessary to set up the ideal plays so you can continue to play without running out of options. Action mode is fast-and-furious, all about how fast you can make matches, and the game will always provide you with more opportunities as long as you can find them in time. Endless mode is a kind of combination of both, allowing you to practice as long as you like.

I’ve found the Action mode to provide some profound life-lessons that have application far outside of the game world, particularly if I think about the puzzle jewels like people.

  1. Good things happen when similar things move together.
  2. Move in ways that enhance similar things moving together.
  3. Often, the best course of action isn’t the ideal move, but one that will keep you in the game long enough to get to the ideal move.
  4. Sometimes you need to make any move just to stay in the game. Sometimes that move is wrong and you get screwed out of an opportunity.
  5. Perfect matches come along rarely.
  6. You gotta stay in the game long enough to see a perfect match.. and for that, you have to be quick enough to recognize “good enough” fits that let you keep playing the game.
  7. You never know what’s coming along next. That match that may not have looked worth playing may save your bacon in a few minutes.
  8. Sometimes you have to make decisions that aren’t rational but are based on your first reaction to the problem.
  9. If you’re playing well, you make so many decisions so quickly that attempting to justify them later may prove very difficult.
  10. Your early victories set the bar for higher skill levels later.
  11. It’s possible to do better by slowing down a little bit to make sure you aren’t playing well above your skill level.
  12. It’s a great feeling to move ahead after you’ve stalled out for a while.
  13. You’re going to stall out. Just keep playing, and eventually you’ll be back in the game.

One thought on “Life Lessons Learned in Bejeweled”

  1. What I Learned From Bejeweled

    1. Bathroom time is fun time. 2. Legs fall asleep after 3 games. 3. Be careful about yelling ‘high score’ in public stall situations. 4. Be careful about public stall situations where the overhead lights are motion-activated and after 15 minutes you have to fumble in the dark using the smartphone display to find the wall-mounted motion sensor while legs are still asleep. 5. Have good charm if caught in this scenario.

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