Morning amazing human! ☀️

Recently, i’ve been spending a lot of time with my Dad. On Wednesdays during lunch, he’ll drive up to San Francisco and bring dumplings + meat pies (北京燒餅). We’ll sprawl out on a picnic blanket at the nearby park and just chat about life between mouthfuls of carbohydrate bliss.

It wasn’t always this idyllic, as I was quite the rebellious teenager growing up. But especially recently, I’ve been more intentional with my time. I’ve also noticed that my dad has become more intentional with me - using our meetings as a medium to pass on life lessons. Lately, he’s been focused on publishing research in philosophical semantics - the study of language, and how their compositions shape our minds + world views. Naturally, his life lessons have been colored by this aperture.

Here are some tidbits that I’d love to share with you all:

Linguistics can shed light onto historic values and attitudes of a culture.

Philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, believed that the purpose of life was to achieve Eudaimonia, not happiness.

Eudaimonia is the deep sense of satisfaction one gets when one grows as a human being.

Labeling something as “Good” or “Bad” ignores the shades of grey in between.

"塞翁失马，焉知非福."

A farmer owned a horse. One day, the horse ran away. The neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away! What terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe. We will see.”

A few days later, the horse returned bringing with it a pack of wild horses. The neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse returned and brought several horses home with him! What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe. We will see.”

A week later, the farmer’s son was attempting to tame the wild hoses and a horse kicked him, breaking the son's leg. The neighbors exclaimed, “Your son broke his leg! What terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe. We will see.”

A few weeks later, soldiers marched through town recruiting all of the young men for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son since he only had one working leg. The neighbors exclaimed, “Your boy was spared. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe. We will see.”

☝️one take

Imagine if doctors prescribed you video games to improve your mental health?

Today’s one take features games that help us with our emotional health. Scientific studies show that playing video games can change how our brains perform, and even their structure. As a virtually simulated bubble, they enable us to exercise skills that can then be brought in our real lives.

Last week EndeavorRX by Akili became the first-ever FDA-approved prescription video game!

Designed by a team of neuroscientists and tech designers, the game is used to treat children aged 8 to 12 with ADHD. Players steer a flying craft through an obstacle course, avoiding fire pits or mines, while collecting targets. Using algorithms, the game adapts in real-time to personalize for difficulty level. Akili eventually hopes to develop video games that could treat a range of mental health disorders, from depression to Alzheimer’s.

Goodville is another clinically tested app that seeks to treat and prevent the early stages of depression. Founded in 2019, the company recently raised a small pre-seed of $100K to continue development. Though similar to Farmville, the game has a few aims that are distinctive to treating depression:

Goodville poster

On the other side of the spectrum, #SelfCare by TRU LUV is a “game” with an ethos that runs counter to gamification. TRU LUV hopes to mitigate the anxiety producing effects of traditional video games by producing games that help you feel calm and connected.. because dying in games is stressful, yo.

In #SelfCare, the premise is to literally chill TF out in bed all day. Surely, a universal fantasy and counterpoint to the societal pressures of constant productivity.

Unlike traditional mobile video games that up the challenge as you advance, the game begins disorderly and awkward, but becomes more orderly and satisfying as you progress in your self-care routine.

The more time you spend on #SelfCare, the more tasks and options you unlock to expand your self-care practice. I.e. you can awaken your dozing cat, do a tarot card reading, or water a plant.

Even typing that just made me feel more relaxed.

Another VR game called DEEP is taking self-care to another level (pun intended, ha…). As a therapeutic biofeedback video game, it’s leveraging an expensive technique that’s been around for decades and making it reasonably priced and interesting.

Biofeedback is a self‐regulation technique, first developed in the 1970s, that displays to folks in real-time how modifying physique capabilities, like respiration, can have an effect on their psychological state. Lately, the improved accuracy of wearable sensors and the maturation of virtual-reality platforms has enriched biofeedback’s accessibility and lowered its cost.

After donning ones Oculus rift + a special handheld controller, DEEP is controlled by breathing as you explore beautiful and mysterious undersea worlds. Along the way, the game teaches you yogic breathing techniques that can help relieve stress.

I’m super inspired by the premise of video games, whether on our phones or headsets, becoming the next frontier for developing human mental fortitude. In the absence of means or access to a mental health professional, technology has the potential to alleviate our dependencies on the middle man (office leasers / in-person therapists) and bring therapeutic benefit straight to the consumer.

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