Happy Tuesday!

Recently, Facebook (well, now Meta) reminded me of my Tetris Era.

Across a few years in middle school, I played 30+ mins of Tetris Battle every day.

I don’t actively play Tetris anymore, but I always use “Tetris” as a verb:

“I’ll Tetris my calendar (events) and get back to you.”

Life is actually very similar to Tetris. Today, I’ll be delving into:

• The Game Pieces of Life
• How Scoring Works
• Possible Game Strategies
• Where Gameplay Difficulty Comes From
• How to Build a Gameplay that Works for You

♟️ The Game Pieces of Life

There are 7 game pieces in Tetris: I, O, T, S, Z, J, and L.

Likewise, most of our life’s activities fall into 7 categories:

1. Relationships (e.g. social, familial, and romantic)
2. Responsibilities (e.g. household chores)
3. Rest (e.g. sleep and meditation)
4. Entertainment
5. Nutrition
6. Exercise
7. Work

Of course, some activities fall into more than one category.

• Watching a movie is a form of Entertainment.
• If you watch a movie with your friends, it’ll fall under the Relationships category too.

💯 How Scoring Works

The pieces are dropped one by one in the middle of the console.

You have the freedom to place the current piece wherever you want, until the piece touches a horizontal surface. You can also rotate the piece unlimited times.

For most versions of Tetris, you can also “hold” a piece in inventory for later use or swap.

You earn points whenever you fill a row.

The game ends when your stacked pieces touch the top of the console.

For some games, you can also score combos by:

• Clearing more rows in one go
• Clearing rows in quick succession

I see a lot of similarities with real life:

• Moving pieces around = Allocating your resources
• Holding a piece in inventory = Saving for emergencies
• Stacked pieces touching the top of the console = Overwhelm

🗺️ Possible Game Strategies

Through 300+ hours of gameplay and observing my opponents, I discovered 4 characteristics of gameplay strategies:

📚 Clearing VS Stacking

With the clearing strategy, you focus on clearing rows as soon as possible. The ample empty spaces protect you against unfavorable pieces.

You can also stack the pieces for a while to:

• Clear multiple rows in one go
• Earn combos and multipliers

For me, the stacking strategy reminds me of effort compounding.

For your efforts to compound, you need to:

• Architect where your resources (pieces) go
• Accumulate enough pieces
• Be patient in reaping your rewards

📃 Narrow VS Flexible Layouts

To create a narrow layout, you stack your pieces such that there’s only one column of free space.

• Downside: you can only clear rows with the I piece.
• If the I piece doesn’t arrive in time, you’ll have to change your strategy.

Flexible layouts have 2 or more columns of free space. This gives you more freedom about how to clear your rows.

Likewise, your plans should allow for some flexibility in execution.

Otherwise, you’ll become dependent on waiting for the “right” conditions to appear (i.e. the I piece).

If the “right” conditions don’t appear in time, you’ll have to take emergency measures to keep playing the game.

🫓 Even VS Uneven Layouts

Striving for an “even” layout—something with a perfectly flat surface—throws you off-guard when you encounter S or Z pieces.

However, creating too many jagged edges—an “uneven” layout—also makes it difficult to accommodate O pieces.

If you’re too insistent on a routine, a tiny unexpected event can derail your day.

If you’re too spontaneous, you’ll find it difficult to accommodate the must-dos.

♾️ Finite VS Infinite

You can choose to play finite games:

Games that end once you reach an outcome.

For example, you can try to:

• Beat your opponent
• Beat someone else’s hiscore

You can also play infinite games:

Games that don’t have a clear win/loss, so you can keep playing forever.

For example, you can play with the intention of:

• Finding the best Tetris strategy in a 2-player game
• Finding the best colors and user interfaces for long-duration gameplay

Where Gameplay Difficulty Comes From

The difficulty of the game changes with:

🧐 Knowledge of upcoming pieces

Some versions of Tetris show you your next 2-3 pieces. You can then plan ahead by eyeing these pieces with your peripheral vision.

Others reveal nothing at all, and you get blindsided by an unfavorable piece.

We can’t predict the future. We don’t have 100% control of our queue.

But we do know what events are coming up—for example, a work presentation.

You can prepare for them by queuing the pieces you need to create a favorable layout:

♟️ The pieces you’re dealt with

Sometimes your luck runs thin.

• You get pieces that make it difficult for you to stack.
• You can’t immediately clear your rows, either.

In this scenario, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

• Swap the pieces in your queue so that it becomes favorable again
• Consult others on how they got out of similar situations

🏃‍♀️ Speed of the drop

If the pieces move faster, you have less time to react before they touch a horizontal surface.

This makes you more prone to misplacing game pieces.

Personally, I start panicking when this happens, leading to more mistakes.

I often lose the game when I don’t calm myself down in time to remedy the situation.

How to Build a Gameplay that Works for You

1. Decide what strategy you want to use

• Do you want to play the infinite game, or a series of finite games?
• Do you prefer stacking or clearing?

2. Reduce your gameplay difficulty

⚖️ Strive for a neutral and flexible layout

• Have a good mix of routine and spontaneity
• Have enough flexibility in your implementation to take advantage of unexpected opportunities

🎨 Queue as many favorable pieces as possible

This requires you to:

1. Survey your current console layout
2. Anticipate what’s coming up in your queue
3. Compare (1) and (2) to determine what pieces are favorable
4. Create those favorable pieces and insert them into your queue

🏃‍♀️ Calibrate the speed at which the pieces drop

Find a pace that works for you—not overwhelming, but not boring either.