Intentional handicaps

Pako Forever is a car chase simulator game where players ‘run from the cops’ and must avoid hitting anything—cops that appear out of nowhere, parked cars, trees, signs, flaming soccer balls--or it’s game over.

It’s a fresh take on the classic car chase game and surprisingly hard to beat/last more than a few seconds. For reference: I’ve been playing the game for a few weeks, and have never lasted more than 40 seconds.

Alas. In a fit of frustration, I recently tried to see how far I could go using just one hand—limiting myself to making only right turns. Somehow I lasted a little under 60 seconds— far longer than I’d ever managed to go with both hands.

And, who knew that if I spent a week not applying to jobs the old-fashioned way—instead, resorting to networking and outreach and cold calls—I’d get more responses and more offers (and I’d actually enjoy the process of job hunting enough to keep at it).

The lesson: sometimes, limiting your ‘power to choose’ can improve your performance. There’s no guarantee. But it’s a worthwhile avenue to consider when it feels like you’ve exhausted all your options.

Because, sometimes, you might just need fewer.