10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons
Throughout my 20s and 30s, I played D&D and other fantasy role playing games at least once a week. Doing so did more than teach me the rules of combat or proper behavior in a dragon's lair. I gained several skills that truly did help me in my career.
Note that by "Dungeons & Dragons," I don't mean necessarily the very structured fantasy world made famous by Gary Gygax. I played in standard D&D and other created-worlds (such as Harn), but mainly I played in independently-created universes, at the whim of a particular dungeonmaster (DM).
I got real jobs as a result of playing D&D, one of them directly. One DM hired both my husband and me after we'd played in his universe for five months, because D&D is a great way to find out how someone solves problems and copes with stress. However, in this post I'm not talking about people-networking but rather gaming skills that map to real life. After coming up with a short list on my own, I asked the three primary DMs in my life for their suggestions. I'm grateful to Bill, Ivan, and (especially) Steve for their help. Which probably is an outgrowth of the first lesson....
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
On Twitter now
dungeons and dragons
Powered by Twitter
Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly
claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century
pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?
jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith
mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
Super!
Absolutely loved your post and the parallel you've drawn to corporate lessons. I work with a fantasy cricket portal and we might be interested in people who could write interesting content for us. Do you play fantasy sports and if so would something like this be of interest to you?drop me an email, if you would want to explore this further.
Until then, keep blogging!
RPG and Techs
This is one of the reasons that RPGers also make good techs. I have learned over the years that people that enjoyed playing Thieves in D&D tend to make the best tech's especially ones that can sniff ways around traps and such in games(even though the roll comes up nothing found). Just goes to add evidence that the game we played as kids, teenagers and such weren't a waste of time.maybe missing some others
maybe missing some others along the lines of:if you going to shiv them up, make sure they dont see it coming. That has to apply to business.
Always stand to the side of a dragon, never behind or infront.
gaining 3 wish's is virtually always a recipe for doom.
Im sure contracts have never been more complicated than the wording of some wishs. If you can beat a DM with the wording of these you will go far as a lawyer.
There must be some young rules layers out there that have gone it philosophy after discussing planar travel late into the night