I was aware of Exploration vs Exploitation in regards to A.I. but never really thought of it in regards to living someone's life, so thanks for that. If I neve

I was aware of Exploration vs Exploitation in regards to A.I. but never really thought of it in regards to living someone's life, so thanks for that. If I never did any exploration, then I would have only ever been a writer. I didn't decide to pursue computer science until after putting together a personal website and programming games on my calculator while bored in class. And if I never explored, I wouldn't have had any career in video games. While it was how I initially started learning proper programming, I wasn't seriously considering that as a career for. And if I never explored, I wouldn't have gotten into designing board games, which is basically just system design but a lot more fun. And to get your games signed, you have to go to conventions and talk to publishers, so I got used to traveling and getting more into that too. At least before the pandemic. Or learning languages, or playing tennis, or hiking, or learning musical instruments, or drawing, or making electronic music, or cooking, or photography. And within those fields, without exploration, I wouldn't have gotten recognition for multiple different game designs, and I wouldn't be writing humorous fiction, and I wouldn't have come up with two new game designs (and a total overhaul for another design) that got me really excited. College, at least in the US, seem almost designed to facilitate that exploration. The general education requirements let you have some exposure to other fields, and you can choose to further explore the field by taking more classes or even change your major if you wish. I think some people forget that it's important to do that after they finish college sometimes, and get stuck in a rut in life. I am probably overdue for a new different hobby, myself. I did take an ESL tutoring course just before the pandemic, but the pandemic hit before I got assigned a student, so that's on hold. It was really interesting to discover how to teach someone that can't speak your language very well, though, and I think I can use those techniques for other things, like my game designs. Probably my biggest problem is getting to a point where I can say something is finished and move on to the next thing. Because of my background in games, I want to make my game designs very polished, and get them developed by a publisher, and whatnot, but that process takes a lot of work and a lot of time to find a publisher for your designs. Like I still only have one game signed, not even released, after 3 years of pitching, meanwhile I have about 60 playable prototypes, about 15 of those polished to the point where they almost could be finished products. Like I created art, wrote rules, sell sheets, videos, etc...not professional art, but some publishers have said "I would publish the game with that art" to a couple of the games, so apparently not terrible. I might try going the Kickstarter or crowd-sale or route at some point, but that's a whole extra level of effort that I'm not sure I'm ready for.