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