Here it is if anyone wants to try it.

The set-up:

1) Assemble a group – we did it with 6 people, which I think is a good number for this. I recommend giving them a sense of what they are going to be getting themselves into before they agree to participate just to make sure the group is on board with the activities. It likely could still work well with 3 to 8 people.

It could also be done with more people divided into groups that compete with the other groups, with each group trying to be the first to achieve the goal. For instance, you could have 18 people divided into three teams of 6 people, with each group competing to be the first team to get the targeted number of points. Alternatively, you could have a fixed amount of time, and whichever group gets the most points in that amount of time wins.

2) Each participant will be working with their group (all members of that group are on the same team) to complete a series of challenges (here’s an example of a challenge sheet). There are a lot of challenges to choose from, and each challenge earns points for your team (based on the challenge’s difficulty).

3) Make sure everyone gets their own copy of the challenge sheet. I recommend printing copies of the sheet out (digital copies could work, but I don’t recommend using digital copies). If you’re using paper copies, be sure to give each person in the group a pen or pencil.

4) Make sure to also read the list of rules (below) to everyone in the group and give them a chance to ask questions if they are confused about any of the rules.

5) As a group, set a time limit and a goal and fill those in at the top of the sheet. You’ll all be working together to achieve this goal as a team. We set the goal of 73 points, and we had 3 hours before one of our team members had to leave. In the end, this was perfect as we got 74 points in 2h50m. So I think 73 points in 3 hours is a pretty reasonable (but still pretty challenging) goal. You may want to set a small (silly) group punishment for failing and a small (fun) reward if you all succeed, which is agreed on in advance.

6) Create a shared group chat for participants (e.g., via WhatsApp) and encourage the group to take photos during the event and post them in the shared group at the end (once the event is over).

7) Everyone playing should follow these rules (be sure to read them aloud to the participants and give everyone a chance to ask questions). Also, be sure to explain the goal, e.g., “for the group to get ____ points by ____ O’clock,” or “to be the group with the most points within the next ____ hours,” or whatever you decide. And it’s also best if you print out one copy of these rules for each group (in case they forget any).

The rules:

i) The goal is for your group to get as many points as you can by working together to complete the items on the list. Every time your group completes an item, it should be circled (each item can only be completed once by your group).

ii) You can only get points from each stranger (or group of strangers) once. So if you get someone to interact in a way that gets points from one of the items on the list, that same stranger can’t get you points from any other item (with the exception of the item for someone joining your team, in which case they would then be just a normal team member).

iii) Similarly, you can’t use the same activity to get points twice. For instance, if you could take the same action twice to get points from two items on the sheet, it would only count for one. And, of course, each challenge can only be completed for points a single time.

iv) Always act kindly and respectfully toward strangers and prioritize not making other people uncomfortable.

v) Don’t break the law, and don’t put anyone in your group in physical danger.

vi) Don’t tell people you interact with that you are doing a scavenger hunt (unless the task specifically says to tell them). Telling them you’re doing a scavenger hunt makes it too easy.

vii) You can do the challenge items in any order, and you don’t need to get them all to win (your score will be the sum of the point values for the items that your group completed). When you complete an item, circle the number of points for that item in the “Points for completing” column to indicate you’ve completed it (and earned those points). The more difficult items award more points.

Here’s a link to the challenge sheet we used.

This piece was first written on July 28, 2024, and first appeared on my website on September 26, 2024.

A. FOCUS

1. Attention: focus on every detail of the experience much more intently than normal.

Ex: with each bite, notice as much as you can about the flavor and texture

Ex: try to hear every distinct instrument in the music as it comes in and fades out

2. Savoring: try to extend and enhance enjoyable moments by using “metacognition” – become aware of how much you’re enjoying the thing and how great you feel it is, even as you’re experiencing it.

Ex: remind yourself what an awesome conversation this is that you’re having right now and how deeply connected you feel to your friend

Ex: notice what a cozy moment it is curled up on the couch under that blanket, and relish the fact that it is so cozy

B. COMPANY

3. Collaboration: team up with a person you really like and work together on that activity as a team.

Ex: join forces with your roommate to make the most delicious meal you can that maximizes your joint eating preferences

Ex: Help your friend with their errands, and then have them help you with yours

4. Obsession: do it with someone who DEEPLY loves that thing.

Ex: watch a movie for the first time with a person who absolutely adores it and has seen it ten times

Ex: have someone who is obsessed with bouldering give you your first lesson.

C. GAMES

5. Gamification: turn the activity into a game.

Ex: compete with others (or your own past record) and see how quickly you can complete a boring but necessary/useful task

Ex: use a system like habitica (https://bit.ly/3tzCwoh) to give yourself rewards/upgrades for doing things you know you should be doing anyway

6. Adventure: turn the activity into an adventure. You need (i) a well-chosen team that is up for anything, (ii) a goal that is challenging enough that the team could fail at it, and (iii) a setup that will (safely and consensually) push the boundaries or comfort zones of the group, or that has a substantial perception of risk but without any substantial danger (see Jon Levy’s The 2 AM Principle for great ideas about how to turn things into an adventure: https://amzn.to/39T9JmV).

Ex: you and your band of friends must make five new friends tonight and convince them all to go somewhere fun with you

Ex: you (a programmer) and your friends (a designer and a psychologist) have given yourself six weeks to create a new (simple) digital product of some kind and launch it, with the goal of getting 500 people to try it – if you get 500 users you’ve won, regardless of what happens after that

D. FRAMING

7. Novelty: find a way to do or experience that thing in a way you haven’t done so before.

Ex: instead of hanging out with friends on zoom, try it in VR or on http://gather.town

Ex: try eating your popcorn with chopsticks – “It’s like eating popcorn for the first time.” (as in Rob Smith’s cool study https://bit.ly/3cQFQpo)

8. Re-pricing: imagine that you spent $1000 on this experience and that it is rightly considered the very best of its kind in the world. Try to engage with the experience from that perspective.

Ex: imagine this is the most expensive glass of cranberry juice ever purchased, and drink it with tiny, tentative sips as you analyze the experience like a wine connoisseur

Ex: imagine that you paid $1000 to have this hour hanging out with your dog. What would you spend that hour doing? Okay, well, do it!

This piece was first written on February 7, 2021, and first appeared on this site on August 5, 2022.

I think one of the big choices to be made in life (once basic needs are well met) is whether to try to optimize more for a life of stability or for a life of acceleration. There is a tension between these two types of lives because they imply making different decisions in many realms.

From what I can tell, the significant majority of people on this planet (even among those who have their basic needs already well met) seek a life that is more one of stability than one of acceleration. And I think that, to many, stability epitomizes most elements of what it means to live “the good life”: forge friendships you can keep for decades, find work you can be a master of, meet a life partner with compatible goals and values, buy a house you will live in indefinitely, spend your free time doing the hobbies you love most, etc.

Yet, in some social circles I encounter in New York and San Francisco, the presumption seems to be that acceleration is the obviously superior goal.

So which do you seek more: stability or acceleration?

Optimizing for stability may involve things like…

(1) hobbies: figuring out what you enjoy doing most and doing those things whenever you have time,

(2) friendship: figuring out who you like being around and turning that group into your permanent circle that you spend almost all your social time with,

(3) work: getting skilled at some type of work that provides the lifestyle you want and doing that thing you’ve mastered day after day,

(4) risk: avoiding substantial risks, even if they have high expected value, or avoiding situations that seem very difficult or that provoke anxiety,

(5) romance: finding a reliable partner who shares most of your values and long term goals,

(6) beliefs: being skeptical of bizarre or wacky ideas, especially if they contradict your deeply held beliefs or challenge what has worked well for you,

(7) location: finding the place you want to be and putting down permanent roots,

(8) behavior: developing habits that work well for you and making them permanent,

(9) self-improvement: working on the behaviors or traits you have that increase instability in your life, for instance, those that cause conflict with people you care about or that make you unhappy in your current situation,

(10) mindset: treating your values as relatively static (i.e., you value what you value), your talent level as relatively fixed (i.e., fixed rather than growth mindset), mistakes as something you should seek to minimize, your optimization procedure as seeking something “good” rather than spending more time attempting to find “the best” (i.e., “satisficing” instead of maximizing), “exploitation” (as opposed to exploration – “exploitation” in this context doesn’t refer to exploiting people but refers to going with the best things you’ve found so far), and

A focus on stability may also be associated with: conservativeness (“if we’ve always done it this way and it’s worked for us, why change things?”), older age (“I’ve already explored enough”), and coming from a region/upbringing with economic or structural instability (e.g., “I want the stability I never had”).

On the other hand, optimizing for acceleration may involve things like…

(1) hobbies: regularly trying new activities, including ones that you don’t predict you’ll enjoy much, or doing hobbies that cause perpetual learning,

(2) friendship: regularly making new friends and interacting with people that are different from the ones you already know,

(3) work: switching jobs or pushing to get promoted whenever your work feels too routine or easy, or when it feels like you’re not pushed right to the edge of your ability,

(4) risk: periodically taking significant risks when you think the expected value is high, or throwing yourself into situations that are very difficult or anxiety-provoking when you believe they will make you better in the long-run,

(5) romance: finding a partner that challenges you to become a better version of yourself, or to do things outside of your comfort zone, or that you can learn a lot from,

(6) beliefs: taking bizarre or wacky-seeming ideas seriously before deciding whether to reject them (at least, when they come from sources you have respect for), even when they challenge your basic premises or lifestyle,

(7) location: exploring many different places to live (e.g., countries or regions) and environments to live in (e.g., alone/with groups, around different subcultures),

(8) behavior: regularly discarding old routines and trying on new ones to see if they have benefits, or resisting making routines at all,

(9) self-improvement: pushing yourself to always learn new things and to work on the behaviors or mental habits you have that may be limiting your potential, and

(10) mindset: thinking of your values as continually evolving, believing you can improve yourself in nearly any capacity if you work hard enough (i.e., growth mindset), treating mistakes are an opportunity to learn and as a positive sign that you are trying things that are sufficiently hard, and believing you should strive to do the very best you can and to be the very best you can be.

A focus on acceleration may also be associated with: liberalness (“we should be open to and learn from the ideas and practices of those who are very different from us”), younger age (“I want to explore all that’s out there”), and coming from a region/upbringing of abundance (e.g., “I want something even better than what I had”).

Note that acceleration is not necessarily exponential. In many cases, especially when trying to accelerate an area that you’ve already spent a lot of time working on, improvements will be slow and linear (whereas acceleration may be rapid in areas where you’ve done relatively little optimization before).

Some life choices cause an interesting mix of focus on stability and acceleration. For instance, having children is, I think, very much an action that drives acceleration: it annihilates routines, carries significant risk, speeds up maturity, and challenges you to be a better, more selfless person. On the other hand, once you have a child, there is pressure to seek stability for the sake of that child. So perhaps it is a choice that produces a focus on acceleration in the short term but on stability in the long term.

Of course, you can seek stability in some areas (e.g., romance) while seeking acceleration in others (e.g., work), but I think as a simple, compressed model, it can be useful at times to view stability and acceleration as existing along a continuum.

Some people seek neither stability nor acceleration, but I don’t think it is terribly common to seek neither of these for a large proportion of life. Counterexamples, though, would include hedonists focussed on maximizing their pleasure and a subset of people with long-term severe depression who have stopped actively seeking any improvements to their life (perhaps due to “learned helplessness”).

The idea of stability vs. acceleration is related to (and includes in it) the idea of an “exploration vs. exploitation” tradeoff (discussed in the machine learning literature, and more recently, in a self-improvement context). However, I intend this concept to be much more general, as it also encompasses ideas like risk aversion, openness to ideas that challenge your lifestyle, and how you choose to direct your self-improvement efforts.

I don’t think that either stability or acceleration is “better” than the other. Where you should ideally fall on the spectrum right now depends heavily on what you value, as well as your life circumstances and opportunities. You may choose to emphasize stability at one point in your life and acceleration during another, or you may be caught right in the middle, trying to strike a balance between the two (even as they tend to be in tension against each other).