Clash Royale, My Misspent Youth, And Playing The Wrong Game (Stop Buying Domain Names)

About 9 years ago or so, the exact origins were lost in the fog of digital war, my twin brother Todd said “Hey, I’m playing this game on my phone called Clash Royale and it’s free.  Super fun.”  It was indeed super fun.  My danger rib did tickle a little bit on the “free” part but I impetuously ignored it as I am wont to do.  Bad call. As my dad used to gruffly say: “Nothing is free”. 

Clash Royale is one of those games that uses a business model of pay to win, or pay to go faster.  You can buy gold, gems, or cards that make your ‘deck’ more powerful.  When you want to play, you are matched with someone who has the same ranking as you.  You win, your ranking goes up.  You lose, it goes down.

It is like competitive chess in that way.  I was on the chess team in high school and sometimes that was more competitive than football (which I also played).  The company that is responsible for the game has made over $3 billion from player payments since launch.  $3 billion!  They have used a decent size chunk of that money to make the game more addictive than heroin.

Early on I decided I liked the game, was going to get to the master arena tiers (10,000+ points) and spend as little money as possible in doing so.  I made good on both of those goals, accumulating 11,150 points while making it into the master’s tier and spending less than $50 total on the journey.  7,831 victories later, here we are:

Did it take me 9 years to do this? No. When I realized the game was a complete waste of time I deleted it from my phone for years and years and years. Then, every once in a while my brother, the only other clan member of OC Valients, would challenge me to a duel or show me his progress. Then I would play for another chunk of time and then rage quit once more. More years would pass. Then about six months ago Todd tricked me into loading the game once more. Tricked me!!!!! Enough was enough. I focused and got the job done. Victorious but stupid.

One of my talents is game theory.  I am elite at it.  When used for good, it is very lucrative.  When used for ill it sends me down rabbit holes that are a bad idea for all involved.  In order to handle this talent the key is to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, or know when to walk away metaphorically as Kenny Rogers used to say.

Close The Universe Or Explore Forever (AKA Stop Buying Domain Names)

The edge that creative people and entrepreneurs have against the masses is idea generation.  If you can’t generate ideas then you are stuck with what is.  In the case of your average person that is a cubicle, set hours, and forced team meetings with a witness at HR every two quarters or so.  There are three inherent problems with this gift, however.  

First, as we have discussed in past messages, most ideas are really dumb.  Oh, they sound good.  Like, who wouldn’t want to buy soap carved in the shape of an ancient narwhal horn that has a rough sponge attached to the end of it that is called the “Narloofa”?

(Gesundheit!)

Second, if you happen to stumble upon a good idea in the understory and are able to bring it back to your village, it could be too early for the world.  Leonardo da Vinci invented the helicopter, parachute, tank, machine gun, and submarine but he never saw any of these ideas come to life because the tech of his time was not there to support them.  There are tons of examples of early internet businesses that turned out to be unicorns for people later down the road as the medium matured.  Unfortunately, you don’t get paid residuals on a failed idea that pays off for someone else later.

The third challenge is that IF you get a great idea and IF it is possible to create with traction in the current market, the squirrely brain of the creative professional makes it almost impossible to commit to the idea for long enough to bring it into existence.  Birth is a messy affair.  Nothing wins right out of the gate.  Nothing.  You have to push through the inevitable trials and tribulations before nature gives up her secrets.  

To do this,  you must pause the very mechanism that gave you the idea (your creative brain) and commit to the idea above all the other possible ideas out there.  This is hard to do because potential ideas exist in the fantasy world, which is always more seductive than reality.  It is scary to commit to an idea in lieu of the potential of a better one but it must be done lest you find yourself wandering in the ether forever.

How then to know when to commit to an idea?  There are signposts to look for.  They are not guarantees of success, but rather indicators that you are on the right path.  Enough at least that you can stop buying domain names for the foreseeable future.  The good news is that unlike ideas, these signposts already exist in the world.

If The Idea Fits You Must Submit (For You: Music > Math)

Your type A arbitrage types select their businesses by looking at “the metrics”.  They crave predictability more than anything else and numbers are the most predictive thing in this world.  Regardless of what Big Brother tells you, 2 + 2 is indeed 4 every time.  There is no thrill in the hunt for these people.  Only the inevitability of the kill because of superior technology and an understanding of the patterns of the prey.  Deciding on what business models to go all in on is simply a matter of getting enough data.

A good number of people get rich with this approach.

The challenge for creative brained people that do not have conscientious or analytical genes in abundance is that if you choose this method, you put yourself at a disadvantage.  This is because you are competing against people that are in their natural state, while you are a pretender in that world.  

I lived this because I tried to play the legal game for 20 years in the most competitive market in the country (Los Angeles).  I was good at some things as a lawyer, great at others, and terrible at key skills I needed to be able to scale my firm.  This meant that although I made money, I was always confused as to why my less “smart” peers were outpacing me.  I was playing the wrong game.

Know thyself is not a platitude.  It is a business strategy.

So, although we must blunt our creative edge from time to time, lest we risk wandering forever, it still must be used to figure out the way forward.  When you are deciding to spend your time on either self-producing a creative project, or an entrepreneurial attempt (funded by your writing as a service business), the way to settle on an idea to commit to is to look at your natural preferences. 

Like everyone else, you have preferences.  Over time you act on these preferences by making choices.  These choices, for better or for worse, create the world in which you live.  Unless you are a masochist, the purpose of these choices is to create comfort.  When you are comfortable by definition there is not a lot of mental adversity to overcome, unlike when you are trying to play someone else's game. 

If you have a few competing ideas that you are trying to decide between, pick the one that is closest to the “halo” of your life.  This is how I went all in on Era Electrolytes, an unflavored electrolyte powder for people over 30.  I started jujitsu at 51 and I don’t need my electrolytes to taste like fruity pebbles.  I am not pretending to like the idea.  I live it. 

This heuristic is also helpful when you are building your writing as a service business as for who to ghostwrite for and on what topics.  It’s also why my time pretending to be a “Female Los Angeles Vegan Influencer” was short-lived even though we were having some success.  Pretending too far afield takes too much creative capital that can be used more efficiently in other places.  Remember, your creativity is your edge. Don’t waste it. 

Taking the “preferences” approach also prevents all sorts of mental gymnastics when you are being forced to pretend to be interested in the local laundromat business you just bought, or whatever other business opportunity people are trying to sell you on.  If you don’t know where to start, begin by looking at your current preferences. Eventually you will hit on something that will work for you.

(This is when people start to call you lucky by the way.)

Invest your time into your life, not into an ‘opportunity’.  When you play that game, everyone is on your turf and the “unfair” edges start to tilt in your favor.

Don’t wait around for inspiration. Get into the fight, just make sure it is a battlefield of your choosing. 

Irregular Means Irregular

If you haven’t noticed, this newsletter comes out inconsistently.  This is by design.  I get to it when I get to it.  If you want to hear from me on these topics on a much more regular basis (daily-ish), you can follow me on X/Twitter here: UnderstoryBard

More in a bit . . . Wade, The Understory Bard

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