I found the simulation game fun and interesting at the beginning then I found myself getting really frustrated because I would be failing and by the time I tried to change it, it was too late. I also found that my corn yield was low or I did not have enough transportation fees for the cotton, which were two circumstances that I was not expecting to happen. After I failed the game about three times, I realized that I was making the mistakes that I had literally just learned about in the podcast and in the Dorner reading. I was being reactive, not proactive, to all of the problems that came my way. Maybe this is just a design flaw in the game because you do things like set how much corn you want to farm and then they give you the problem, but still I would wait to fully address the problem. I would try to push the limits of the crops and my family members to see if i could make it to the next session and have the money to send them to the hospital or to switch to cotton. However, this strategy never worked and I realized just how reactive and lazy I was being.
This homework assignment really got me thinking about systemic work and how I kept on trying to change a million big in the simulator when I should have been “redefining” them in little but crucial ways. Further, I also realized that things are not going to change over night or after one session of the simulation. It is interesting how I could not even understand that after the reading and the podcast until I had to put this kind of thinking into action. I am really interested in the criminal justice system and how as a system it is operating in an extremely flawed way. If we want to mend or fix or injustices it is going to take a long time and little important wins to truly fix it. In the podcast when Bezio said that change has to be looked at in a 10 year range, I was a little discouraged because it sounds really daunting. However, it is the only way to get real change done without cutting corners and doing it little by little. It is a good mentality for going through life by taking things a little at a time and not letting your emotions cloud too much of your thinking or rationale (which i do a lot).
Most of the decisions that I made during my simulation were definitely reactive, and that probably set me back a little bit. However, I also believe it’s really hard to be proactive because there are so many things to be proactive about, and then every single one of them has consequences. I think that you just have to find that balance (which is apparently super hard).
I had the same experience where I was being reactive in the beginning, but as the game went on I realized that I had to be proactive in my decisions. However, even when I was being proactive and preparing for the future, unexpected and uncontrollable events still occurred. It didn’t matter how much water I collected or crops I farmed, all of sudden I’m short on everything. Maybe I am just bad at playing the game, or it’s structured that way to show that sometimes even after you do everything, it’s still not enough.
I also agree that looking at change in a 10 year range can be pretty scary, especially when it feels like we need things to change now and have no time to waste. I feel this way about gun control and climate change. I feel like by the time we get around to change, too many lives will have been lost and too much of our planet will have been destroyed, where the damage is irreversible. Right now, I guess we can only fight with little baby steps.