When I was 9 years old, I played a game with friends called “The Prickle or The Green”.
This simple game has some surprising learnings about the art of decision making. Here’s how it worked.
Two competitors stand at the front side of a house (think farm house with a wide amount of space surrounding it).
One of the competitors kicks a rugby ball over the roof from the front yard to the back yard.
As soon as the ball is kicked, the competitors race around the house, and the first person to collect the ball gains a point. The game is repeated until one person reaches 5 points. At this point, they win the match.
Now, this game may seem a little lame, until you learn that this particular house, on this particular farm, had two ways to get from the front yard to the back yard: the Prickle or the Green.
The Prickle was the faster route, but you needed to contend with, you guessed it, prickles or small thorns.
However, the Green, despite being an easy run across the lush grass, required the runner to cover a much larger distance.
The trade-off looked like this.
If you were fast, the Green was generally your best bet. At the very least, it was the pain-free path.
However, if speed wasn’t on your side, the Prickle gave you a shot at winning, but you’d need to endure the prickles that would cover your feet.
It’s was a simple game, with a simple trade-off, and that’s why it’s an interesting model for thinking through decisions.
Here are some of the lessons from the game that apply in broader contexts:
- Before you begin, size your opponent, task, or challenge; have a clear idea of what it is you’re up against
- Assess the probability of winning with a given strategy (the Prickle or the Green)
- Once you’ve picked a strategy, you need to commit. Turning around and going back is certain failure, so you need to see it out until the end and adjust your tactics in the next game
- No pathway forward guarantees success. You either take the long and safe road, or the thorny, fast route. Both have their risks.
We’re often faced with trade-offs that can be boiled down to two competing alternatives; much similar to the Prickle or the Green.