What Super Mario, Core Strength & Storytelling Have In Common
They all have a very specific leveling system with rewards
I grew up playing Super Mario - the fictional Italian plumber (allora :)). In the game, Mario must race through the Mushroom Kingdom and save Princess Toadstool (later Princess Peach) from Bowser. Mario jumps, runs, and walks across each level. The worlds are full of enemies and platforms, and open holes.
The game had 32 levels across eight worlds and five bonus worlds.
There was a clear path to follow - jump, run, walk across each level.
It was straightforward to know what to do next.
I had high motivation to play the game, found the effort to be easy enough and every time I finished all my assignments, as a reward, I’d play the game. I never aimed for perfection (i.e., reach 32 levels in one shot). All I used to aim for was to do better than the previous time (i.e., if I had crossed level 3 the previous time, I aimed to finish level 4).
What’s Super Mario got to do with Core Strength?
Before the pandemic, I used to travel frequently and thoroughly enjoyed every single trip - Early morning flights, redeye flights, short-medium-longhaul flights. 100,000+ miles in Economy class travel almost every year.
Good news. Bad news. Good news was that I thoroughly enjoyed being on the move and the overall experience. Bad news - lowerback pain. As much as I was trying to workout regularly, my lowerback pain felt like it was reaching the chronic stage.
My initial approach was to do core strength training 3 days a week. On days when I was highly motivated (imagining the elusive 6-pack abs), I could hold a plank for a couple minutes without a break. But on days, when my motivation level was low, I couldn’t hold a plank even for 30 seconds :( Plank hold was hard. Very hard.
One of my friends (Tony Defazio) came to the rescue. He suggested a system very similar to the Super Mario game. The system involved:
A plan that involved multiple levels of plank hold (start with 30 seconds and keep leveling up until you’re able to hold a plan for 5 minutes)
Daily practice (had to consistently build the core strength “muscle”)
Rewards and milestones (celebrate everytime when I move to the next level)
This system worked like a charm. It never aimed at perfection (e.g., 6-pack abs in a month) but aimed at becoming better every single day. I follow this system to this day. Here’s a video of me holding 5 6 mins of plank (extended plank x3, elblow plank x1, side plank x2):
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being severe), my lower back pain used to be a solid 10 is now under 2.
What Super Mario and Core Strength and Technology Storytelling Have In Common?
In my previous posts, I’ve attempted to emphazie the need, value and impact of storytelling for high-tech software - https://keshavsundaresh.substack.com/archive.
But in order to go from presenting data, information, software features to presenting information with emotion will require each one of us to have:
A system that involves multiple levels of progression - with a breakdown of going from presenting information to sharing understanding/knowledge with emotion. Storytelling is a muscle that we can nurture and grow.
A system that we can practice reguarly and consistently regardless of the motivation wobble.
A system that celebrates every milestone as you level up your storytelling skills.
Until Next Time,
Keshav :)