I played LinkedIn Queens during a whole year
770 words (~5 mins read)
For the past 365 days, I have completed the daily puzzle offered in LinkedIn Queens. No exceptions, although I do have two "freezes" if I would ever skip a day. It's not a great accomplishment and it barely qualifies as bragging, but it does give me an excuse to write this blog post. I posted on LinkedIn a few months back when Queens itself turned one year old. And now it's my uninterrupted streak that turns one year old. So let's talk a bit about games and professional careers!
Games matter in professional settings
I have been a gamer my whole life. I vaguely remember picking up a NES controller at age 2 and enjoying making Super Mario jump around according to my button smashing. In particular, I'm a sucker for strategy games, whether in physical or digital form. I will highlight, in no particular order, the following games that are close and dear to my heart: StarCraft, Pokémon, Magic: the Gathering, Heroes of Might and Magic, and (plain old) chess.
I admit that these games and others have often been a time sink during my life, and game addiction is something to be mindful of. But at the same time, these games shaped my preferences for problem solving, improving via competition, and even tech. I was into programming since before I learned how to code. By creating custom maps in StarCraft and modding triggers and configurations, I was unconsciously learning to code and script. Years later, when I learned to code in Java, the programming patterns resonated strongly within me. Many others have similarly reported that games got them into programming, or they learned to program by creating games, or both.
Short games like LinkedIn Queens have many benefits
Games can often be temptations, distractions, and procrastination black holes when there's more important stuff to do. You don't need to ask me whether I would prefer playing a Magic: the Gathering booster draft or debugging a software app with a stack trace that's longer than the Constitution. And that's why short games like LinkedIn Queens can actually hit a sweet spot:
- Rarely does a Queens session take me more than 5 minutes to complete
- There is only one puzzle per day, so once you complete one, you can't start the next until the next day (contrary to addictive online games which never end and try to keep you in at all costs)
- It scratches my itch to solve a puzzle and awakens my mind to solve other problems
- By checking the Leaderboard I see who else is playing the game, and I have even started conversations with connections I hadn't talked to in years with this silly game as an excuse
- It's fun to share your results with friends and family (I share them daily with my wife and a Discord server of similar-minded nerds)
- It forces me to open LinkedIn daily. This honestly is more in LinkedIn's benefit than mine, but I do have all LinkedIn notifications silenced and no LinkedIn email reaches me, so it's good to log in every day because that way I won't miss any DMs by recruiters or connections.
I could go on and on, but short games have existed for a long time and the benefits are quite well-known at this point. Traditionally we got crosswords, word searches, chess puzzles, etc in physical newspapers. And in recent times we've had games like Wordle from New York Times. LinkedIn has jumped into this trend recently, and they're continuing to add games, so they're probably having the desired effect on their platform.
Be mindful of how much time you spend with games
Honestly, I'm not the best example for this counsel, but DO be careful with not letting games distract you too much from your important work. Just like with salt, a sprinkle of it on your food will make it taste so much better. But put too much salt and the food will be ruined (as well as your health!). LinkedIn has lots of games at its disposal but I currently only play Queens and Mini-Sudoku. I am usually done with both of them in under 5 minutes, so I know they won't distract me too much. I used to play Wordle before, but I stopped because sometimes it could take me up to 15 minutes to figure out the solution (I just don't like to give up or cheat...). It's a shame because I do like word puzzles and language games.
What is your pet puzzle game you play daily? Reach out to me on social media and let's talk about it!