Good morning, John.
I am a little bit shocked by how much I like jigsaw puzzles.
Like, you have noticed that I am a little bit obsessed with productivity.
We can go ahead and say it. Sometimes it’s unhealthy.
I tie my self worth to my output, and then often I tie what I imagine to be
my output to external validation from an audience, or in economic terms,
or other imperfect surrogates for the magnitude of “impact,” whatever that is.
A jigsaw puzzle has none of that.
If there is something that has less impact on the world
than re-assembling an image of a wintertime scene, I can’t really think of it.
But jigsaw puzzles trick my mind into thinking that it matters
without any of the responsibility of it actually mattering.
And that allows me to - get this - relax and also spend time with friends and family.
And there are lots of different things I like about puzzles.
I like how it feels like you get to know every puzzle and they’re all just a little bit different.
And sometimes they’re very different!
And the tricks you develop on one puzzle might not work for another.
And in these ways, doing a puzzle is like solving any problem.
No two problems are the same,
but as you get the feel of the shape of a problem, you get better and better at addressing it.
Puzzles also have the advantage of being finite, and so you know when you’re done solving it,
which is something that real world problems tend to not have, unfortunately.
I am unlike a lot of puzzle people who I know in that taking the puzzle apart is actually my favorite part.
I just love watching the complete order of a puzzle being almost instantly reverted to complete disorder.
And not because I like love chaos and destruction.
Like a little bit I do. But mos - but here’s the thing.
I love seeing how hard it is to build something and how easy it is to destroy it.
Now, that might not sound like a good thought, but I think it actually is.
Because if it is much easier to destroy than build - this is mathematically true so you can’t really deny it -
then everything that remains built, every problem that gets solved, every disease that gets cured,
everything that just works remains that way only because of human action.
Only because of billions of people placing puzzle pieces every day, carefully, and thoughtfully.
Obviously, during the Project for Awesome, we are focused on problems.
And the puzzles we’re solving here are not puzzles that have the luxury of not mattering.
So, we have to look a lot at the problems, and they can feel very heavy.
But they need to be looked at, and they need to be understood.
And we need to support, the master puzzle-solvers out there
who understand the unique shape of each one of these things.
Like the people who work at Partners in Health and Save the Children,
the charities the Project for Awesome is supporting in its first half.
The puzzle of healthcare isn’t simple anywhere,
but these organizations help communities build more robust healthcare, decrease illness,
they provide stability, and they make the world a better place.
Everyone who supports the Project for Awesome by making a video, supporting a charity,
joining us on the livestream, or getting some perks at projectforawesome.com/donate…
You are helping put puzzle pieces down where they most need to be.
The problems of the world can feel like a weight, but they can also feel like a puzzle that,
yes, we’re never gonna finish, but that brings a better world with every piece we lay.
And the Project for Awesome, by the way, begins shortly at noon eastern time!
And you can join us for 48 hours
of fun and fundraising and silliness and thoughtfulness at projectforawesome.com/live.
John, I will see you on the livestream!
Go to projectforawesome.com/donate to find our Indiegogo. There are so many cool perks!
And you can get them now and ONLY during the Project for Awesome.