Tetris
I'm not entirely sure how common it is for professional book editors to have MBAs, but I have one.
While obviously I use the knowledge from my MBA coursework to run my business, there's something very specific I learned in business school that I think about every single day.
The Tetris Effect
In 2000, researchers at the Harvard Medical School's Department of Psychiatry conducted a study. For three consecutive days, 27 participants were paid to play Tetris nonstop for multiple hours.
The weird thing that happened, though, was that for days after the study was over, some participants dreamt that blocks were falling from the sky. Others reported that even in their waking hours, they could only see the world in terms of Tetris shapes.
"Walking through the aisles at the local Acme... I notice how perfectly one set of cereal boxes would fit in with the gap on the row below it. Running doggedly around the track at the Y, bored out of my mind, I find myself focusing on the brick wall and calculating which direction I'd have to rotate those slightly darker bricks a few feet lower down the wall," writes one Tetris addict in the Philadephia City Paper.
When people play Tetris for an extended period of time, they form a cognitive pattern that causes them to see Tetris shapes everywhere they look. They've literally rewired their brains.
This phenomenon is known as the Tetris Effect.
But it doesn't just apply to Tetris.
What it means
When I was in the Army, I was trained as an analyst. I spent my days looking through thousands of lines of data, scanning for outliers. I trained my brain to ignore everything but problems. I became very good at it.
Now, I'm a book editor. All day, every day, I'm looking for problems. I spend all my time analyzing pieces of text, searching for errors and mistakes. And more often than not, I find them.
Not everyone can do these kinds of tasks. They require a trained eye, and not everyone has a talent for it. With that said, I've developed a strong ability to scan for negatives.
I can point out all those misplaced commas, typos, overused words, repetitive phrases, misaligned books, specks of dust, out-of-place hairs...
If there's something negative to be found, you'd best believe I'm going to find it.
I once asked a close friend what his first impression of me was. Immediately and without hesitation, he replied, "I thought you complained a lot."
Oof.
Like the Tetris players who couldn't stop viewing the world in terms of blocks, I'd become so good at finding problems at work, that I couldn't help but find them everywhere else too.
And I know I'm not the only one who does this.
We've all been to restaurants with people who receive perfectly cooked food, and then proceed to complain about the service. We've all met (had?) parents who only ever noticed the C's on report cards, while ignoring all the A's. We all know someone who will complain about the sun while sitting on the beach.
Don't get me wrong, finding something to complain about is, in fact, what makes me very good at my job. But sometimes it makes me a less-than-stellar person.
I'm not always the best at compartmentalizing work and life. I think I'm particularly susceptible to the Tetris Effect because I work from home, too. The lines between work and life blur sometimes, and my brain's problem-identifying activities aren't always easy to shut down.
Positive Tetris Effect
So yeah, it's maybe not great news to learn that being a good book editor means I've trained my brain to be pessimistic and constantly looking for negatives.
BUT.
There's a positive side to this.
It means we can train our brains.
I've trained my brain to look for problems, so of course all it finds are problems. But what if I train my brain to focus on the positive too? Will I start to see positive things too?
YES.
I started keeping a gratitude journal after I learned about the Tetris Effect when I was in business school, and I can definitively say that my outlook on life is infinitely more positive than it used to be. Every day, I make a conscious effort to identify things in my life that are going well and that I'm grateful for.
When I first started, it was actually really hard to do. For one, I was a broke college kid whose significant other lived 10 hours away, and I was struggling through business school. So admittedly, life was harder then.
Still, though, I had plenty of good things going on in my life too. But when I tried to sit and think about them and write them down, it took a while for me to come up with something other than "I'm grateful for my friends. I'm grateful for my family."
Now, though? When I think of the things I'm grateful for, the answers pour out of me. They are unending. Today, I'm grateful I was able to sleep in. I'm grateful that I had the forethought to prep meals for this week. I'm grateful I could play a board game with my wife before she went to bed. I'm grateful my dog is cuddling with me as I write this. I'm grateful I could talk to my dad for a while.
When I think negatively about things in my life, I try to make a conscious effort to also name something positive that is related to the negative.
For example, I went to a Muay Thai class this week. I'm sore as hell right now, and it's making me pretty miserable.
But I'm so grateful that I have a body that is capable of something as intense as martial arts. I'm grateful my body can heal itself. I'm grateful for the knowledge that this soreness will pass, and that next time I work out, it won't be as bad.
The Tetris Effect can work in our favor, if we put in the work. The more positive thinking we do, the more positives we'll start to see everywhere.
I'm going to be honest and tell you this takes time. Playing Tetris once isn't enough to power the Tetris Effect. Making a real effort to practice gratitude daily and being intentional about it will lead to results, though.
If you recognize this phenomenon at work in your life, I highly encourage you to start keeping a gratitude journal. Write down three specific things each day that you're grateful for, and see if you begin to notice your worldview start to shift.
I'm grateful for you, dear reader.
With Gratitude,
D
Sources and Further Reading
Stickgold, R., Malia, A., Maguire, D., Roddenberry, D., & O'Connor, M. (2000). Replaying the game: Hypnagogic images in normals and amnesiacs. Science, 290, 350-353
Earling, A. (March 21-28, 1996). The Tetris effect: Do computer games fry your brain? Philadelphia City Paper.
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor