The principles for completing Portal or its successor, Portal 2 are simple, and can be applied to the problems in our lives. So what makes us a good Portal 2 player and a good solution solver in consequence?
Inferring from my Portal playing experience, there are three simple rules (I don’t like these “recommendation lists”, please forgive me):
- Be aware of the goal. Try to locate where you need to go next. Without a clear goal, iterating through through the number of options is confusing and slows you down.
- Know the environment in detail. Once you get a rough understanding where your goal might be located, you need to get completely aware of the environment. Understanding your surroundings is the key in achieving the steps that are required to reach the goal. You need to feed your subconscious mind all the details, so that it can combine its features and develops ideas about how to proceed.
- If you get stuck, do seemingly stupid things. Sometimes thinking or following a clear strategy is not the answer. Critical features may be hidden or can only be found by actions that look counter productive at first. Even if you think you know all the details of the environment, try to begin moving around in creative ways.
Regarding the problem solving principles above, Portal 2 is the most distilled game I’ve ever played. Another one – given you like racing games – is Trackmania, the RPG genre. I love them both and it and I think that everyone should play them, independent of age, sex, religion or whatever. These games can change your mind in a few hours by attracting you to solve a countless number of problems and reflecting about it.