00:00:00 - Introduction

Welcome to episode one of The World According to, a podcast that digs into how amazing people have come to view the world in their own fascinating ways.

In this episode, I had the great pleasure of talking with Josh Whitkin, a legend of game design, the most playfully connected father I've ever had the fortune to witness in action, and a man with a great heart for friendship. 

With his characteristic gift for generous self-reflection in full display, we explore education, game design, note-taking, choosing a last name, soccer, rainy days, and so much more.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Welcome to the world according to Josh Whitkin!

00:01:00 - Jenkite or Whitkin

• Merging last names
• Witkovich -> White -> Whitkin

00:03:20 - The hallmark of a good decision

• "The only way you ever know you made a good decision is if you forget about it after you 'bought it.'"
• "I see erasing things from my life as a reward."

00:04:55 - Note taking

• Primary tool: Evernote on the phone
• "It feels great once I get it written down. It's a release."
• "I'm totally confident that my subconscious will bring it back at the right time and place. I don't review."
• "When I'm writing notes, I'm sure to scatter keywords in that I think might be useful later."
• "I simulate my future self forgetting; what would I be frantically clawing for to get this idea back?"

00:07:50 - Conversation with your future self

• "Notes are the first sentence in a conversation with my future self."
• "When I was a teen, my future self was this crazy dude. He was like superman. Mainly he did amazing, terrific things."
• "I might have peaked at age 48. My speed is slower—but my skill is higher, my strategy is higher. It's not an absolute and depressing slide into worse and worse every year. There is some trade off there."
• "I have this temptation to compress all of me down into one curve."

00:12:00 - Growing up in the Oregon rain

• "I started in the forests of Oregon."
• "Raised by my dad in a survivalist ten foot by twenty foot shed in the pouring Oregon coastal rain."
• "I am traumatically scarred by rain."
• "Rain is the physical representation of isolation and discomfort."
• "Nine months of Oregon winters were me inside."
• "It was me, my brother, and my dad for pretty much my whole childhood."
• "I rebuilt model cars, tore them down, built them again, over and over."
• "I read everything in the house. I checked out my limit on the bookmobile which came through every two weeks."

00:14:30 - Early book influences

• "Nancy Drew was the shit."
• Clan of the Cave Bear
• (Clan of the Care Bear)
• The Hobbit, over and over.
• "I have many versions of the hobbits and the dragons in my mind. Like when you ask a kid to draw a dragon when they're 3, when they're 6, when they're 9, they're 12."

00:18:25 - Dreams

• "My dreams are so literal."
• "In my dreams the meaning is so crystal clear."
• A dream about sprinting full speed. "I realized that if I leaned down and used my front legs I could just turbo . . . Chunks of earth flew behind me from all four limbs. It was amazing. I'll never forget that."

00:20:30 - High School in Eugene, OR

• "Graduating eighth grade was a class of two. Then in ninth grade it was a class of a thousand."
• "I was so ready to leave my tiny grade school."
• "I felt simultaneously smart and insecure."
• "I was really excited to see how I...