by Hill Harper
Let me put it this way: In order to design games, you’ll have to know quite a bit about programming. And it’s important to blueprint your approach to this because all the information could be overwhelming. Start simple and get more and more complex as you learn more and more. Also, it would be ideal if you could get “jump-started” by somebody who already knows some basic stuff about this. According to the discussion I read, even thirty minutes of “jump-starting” might be enough.
To figure out the best way for you to start, I had to wade through a lot of information based on stuff I don’t know jack shit about. It brought me to the conclusion that the very best way for you to begin might be by trying some of the activities on another site called Computer Science Unplugged (CSUnplugged.org). Computer Science Unplugged has a very cool collection of free learning activities that teach computer science through games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons, and lots of running around to simulate actual programming. The activities are meant to introduce students to basic programming concepts like binary numbers, algorithms, and data compression—without too many technical details to distract them. CSUnplugged.org even features a book called Computer Science Unplugged, containing twelve of the most-used activities.4 I had the people in my office print it out for me so that I could check it out. Although it’s written from the point of view of a teacher of these activities, even I could understand every word. And I can assure you, Brotha, I’m no mathematical or computer genius!
Anyway, that’s why the envelope with this letter is so thick. I stuck the whole 105-page book in there! If there’s any grief about the number of books you can have at one time, like there was in the other facility, well, you just tell them it’s a long letter! Ha ha.
If you get through that book and want to keep going, check out the puzzles from TopCoder, a company that administers computer-programming contests. Somebody else in the discussion on StackExchange.com recommended them as well for learning programming without a computer. To get hold of some of those puzzles, I had to call up a homie who’s a programmer and is registered with the TopCoder.com website, which runs competitive coding “tournaments” with cash prizes. He went to the high school section of the site and downloaded some of the best puzzles. I stuck those in the envelope, too, though I couldn’t make head or tails out of ’em. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about next.
AMBITION GRIT NEVER QUIT
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
—Milton Berle
Now let’s have some fun. Ever watch the Memphis Grizzlies play basketball? My boy, Dana “DD” Davis (RIP) used to work for them. He would have me come to as many of their games as I could and I even met with the players to talk about a lot of the things you and I have been writing about. The Grizzlies got a saying about their approach to things: “Grit and Grind!” With that in mind, I’ve included a little test for you to take. Don’t panic. This test isn’t about what you know. It’s a measure of your grit and grind. The test below is my own creation, but it’s inspired by a short scale meant to measure “grit” that a professor, Angela Duckworth, developed with a few other students when she was still getting her doctorate.5
I hope this little assessment test will prep you for the hard work ahead and help you set goals and figure out which mental “muscles” need the most work. Take the test, and then ask one of the dudes inside who you feel you can trust to answer the same questions about you. Tell him to be completely honest in his assessment, not “try to be harsh” or “try to be nice,” just real and honest. Keep the scores a secret until both of you have had a chance to complete the assessment. If both your scores are close—within a couple of points of each other—you have a pretty clear sense of yourself. If there are wide differences, you need to both take a critical look at how you answered the questions and discuss why the perceptions were so different. Just answer each of these ten questions as honestly as possible, keeping in mind that there are no right or wrong answers. They are simply diagnostic questions that will help you shape how you approach the future. Don’t judge your answers; just be honest about how you access yourself. It is from this honest assessment that we will build a plan for success. So the more honest and open you are the better.
Are you ready? Good. Remember to choose only one answer for each question, and keep in mind that the answers are not always arranged in the same order. So read them carefully. When you’re done, add up all the points and divide by 10. The maximum score on this scale is 5 (“BUSTIN’ WITH GRIT!”), and the lowest score on this scale is 1 (“GET A GRIP!”).
1.I get totally into a new project at first, but usually chuck it in favor of another.
1. That’s me to a T.
2. I’m mostly like that, but not always.
3. That’s kind of like me.
4. I’m just a little bit like that.
5. No way! That’s not me at all!
2.Criticize me while I’m trying to accomplish something, and I’ll toss it in your lap and say, “You do it!”
1. That’s me to a T.
2. I’m mostly like that, but not always.
3. That’s kind of like me.
4. I’m just a little bit like that.
5. No way! That’s not me at all!
3.I’ve acquired several valuable skills that took months to perfect.
1. You must be thinking of somebody else.
2. Maybe one.
3. I’ve done that two or three times in my life.
4. I’ve got several skills like that.
5. That describes me to a T.
4.I’ve left a lot of unfinished stuff behind me.
1. That’s me to a T.
2. I’m mostly like that, but not always.
3. That’s kind of like me.
4. I’m just a little bit like that.
5. No way! That’s not me at all!
5.When I want to accomplish something, I really dig in, focus, and work at it.
1. You must be thinking of somebody else.
2. Maybe one or two times in my life.
3. I’ve been known to do that several times in my life.
4. Most of the time, that’s true.
5. That describes me to a T.
6.When the going gets rough, I bail. (Have you ever quit something when it got hard?)
1. That’s me to a T.
2. I’m mostly like that, but not always.
3. That’s kind of like me.
4. I’m just a little bit like that.
5. No way! That’s not me at all!
7.No matter how into a project I am in the beginning, it often gets boring as time passes.
1. That’s me to a T.
2. I’m mostly like that, but not always.
3. That’s kind of like me.
4. I’m just a little bit like that.
5. No way! That’s not me at all!
8.I choose my tasks by favoring those that take the shortest time to complete.
1. That’s me to a T.
2. I’m mostly like that, but not always.
3. That’s kind of like me.
4. I’m just a little bit like that.
5. No way! That’s not me at all!
9.I consider myself a hard worker. (I got a fire in my belly and I work hard like that.)
1. You must be thinking of somebody else.
2. Not usually.
3. Sometimes.
4. Most of the time.
5. That describes me to a T.
10.When I set a goal for myself, no difficulty can make me give it up.
1. You must be thinking of somebody else.
2. Not usually.
3. Sometimes that’s the case.
4. Most of the time.
5.
That describes me to a T.
Now, add up all the numbers that correspond with your answers and then divide that number by 10 (or another way to do it is to just move a decimal point over—so if the total added-up score was 27, then your Grit and Grind scale score would be 2.7). Make sense?
Now that you’ve established where you fall in terms of grit and grind, it’s time to get to work and shore up those areas where you’re weak and build on those areas in which you show strength. I want you to use this score to help figure out how much work you have to do in building up your muscles of resolve, determination, and sustained effort in the face of obstacles. We know that throughout our lives we will always hit obstacles; the most important thing is how we react to them. Studies show that hard work, especially in the face of obstacles, has been the primary factor that separates those who tend to win consistently versus those who tend to lose, or worse still, quit. Having “Grit” and being able to “Grind” are two of the most useful skills you can add to your toolkit of success for the rest of your life. So how do we build them up? How can we get to a 5 on the scale?
Just like any muscle, the way we build up our grit and grind is that we have to exercise it daily. The harder we work in planning out each day and sticking to that plan, no matter what distractions or obstacles come up, the more we are building our grit and grind muscle. If we add a few more minutes of reading, meditation, exercise, prayer, or homework of any kind, we are exercising our grit and grind muscle. If we work on our mind-set/attitude and begin to channel any anger or fear into just focusing more on the task at hand and working harder on completing a given task, we are building our grit and grind muscle. Every time we complete a task that “we really don’t feel like doing,” we are increasing our grit and grind muscle.
I want your grit and grind muscles to be so big that you become a damn grit and grind bodybuilder. I want people to consider you a grit and grind Olympic champion. But I’ll be honest, man, sometimes I’m not sure whether you want it. I hope it’s not the case that I want you to be a king, but you want to remain a foot soldier. Because to be a king it takes king-level grit and grind. And you can do it. And, by far, the most beautiful thing about grit and grind is that it’s available to everyone and anyone. It’s not about how much money you had growing up, what race, what gender, what quality school, family life or anything—grit and grind is an equal opportunity employer. It’s open to anyone who is willing to put in the work! And the question I have is—are you? Are you willing to put in a level of hard work and perseverance through obstacles that the next time you or anyone fills out that assessment about you, it comes back a 5 all the way? Come on. For the rest of our lives—let’s Grit! Let’s Grind!
Much love,
Hill
P.S. Do you like boxing? As I was about to send off this letter I heard a quote from the Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali, that I think has a particular relevance to our situation:
Champions are made from something they have deep inside them, a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Ali was not the champion, but an 8-to-1 underdog against Sonny Liston when he said this, and people thought he was crazy. You know the rest.
Let’s choose to be champions, Brotha.
AMBITION AND GRIT
LETTER 32
FEAR
Over you is the greatest enemy a man can have and that is fear. I know some of you are afraid to listen to the truth—you have been raised on fear and lies. But I am going to preach to you the truth until you are free of that fear.
—Malcolm X
Dear Brotha,
You surprised me again. Everything was going so well. Your blueprint is in shape, you got weekly meetings of your “U of P” going on, and your library is growing. I’m proud of you. But on the phone you said some things that took me aback a little. A lot of times right before we are going to have a breakthrough, our fears and doubts pop up, trying to drag us back to our old lives—just like old friends often try to drag us back to our old way of doing things.
Change always brings about fear, but our job is to acknowledge it and move on. In a completely different way, I’m experiencing the fear and uncertainty of change myself. For the past nine years, I’ve had the security of playing Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on CSI: NY. It’s been a great job and one that I’m proud of. But as this season ended, a voice inside me said, “It’s time to move on.”
The idea of leaving my “safe job” scared me. What if no one else would hire me? A voice of fear and doubt ran through my head. But I acknowledged it and decided to move on anyway. Am I afraid? Yes. Do I still have my bills and employees to pay? Yes. Am I going to move through the fear? Yes. But now you’re telling me that you’re “tired as fuck” and that you’re quitting the auto mechanic technical training course because you want a straight path to your dream of being a video game designer.
Change always brings about fear, but our job is to acknowledge it and move on.
I don’t get it. What led up to this? You’re not a quitter. Level with me. What kinds of frustration have you been dealing with? Does it have anything to do with those programming/design puzzles and activities I sent you? Whatever it is, you haven’t been sharing it with me, and that sign of distrust saddens me. You can tell me anything, man. That’s what a real friend is for.
MICRO-QUITS
There’s a term I made up called micro-quitting. It refers to the fact that most of us don’t make huge decisions all at once that take us off our path. No, most of us make all these little debilitating decisions that ultimately lead us to a place we never wanted to be. Every time we fail to do whatever we can to keep us in the race, to keep us chasing our dreams, we are micro-quitting.
Micro-quits are the small surrenders, the little ways in which we whisper, “No more.” Taken individually, they don’t seem like much. But over time, these micro-quits add up, and they impact both how you see yourself and how others see you. In some cases, micro-quitting is a skill that we’ve developed for our own protection. If we didn’t quit, we might have to deal with things that subconsciously we don’t want to face, so we take the easy way out and walk away. Often this reaction occurs because the challenge we face is an old one, and we just can’t believe it’s raised its ugly head again. The truth is, most big issues recur. Even the small problems come back in different forms.
The big issue that recurs for me is my fear of losing my acting job and not getting a new one. But in this case, I have some good news: I’ll be going away for a bit to start a new job. Yes, overcoming the fear and leaving CSI: NY made me available to join another successful show called Covert Affairs. I’ll be heading down to Medellín, Colombia, to being shooting season four. Yes, God is good, and stepping out on faith works! (When you combine it with a good audition! Ha ha.)
While I’m away, keep maintaining your Locked-Up Library, your technical training, and your programming puzzles. You’re embarking on a great journey. It will be hard; it takes a lot of reflection and difficult work, but it will lead to a fuller, happier you. Don’t forget that I love you, fam.
Peace,
Hill
P.S. The Honorable Michael Steele, a politician, political analyst, and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has something to say about taking responsibility for ourselves and not quitting on ourselves. Here’s his letter.
Dear Brother,
Young Black men are often told that because of their current circumstances and the difficulties they experience, the outcome of their lives is already predetermined. That their choices are far fewer than those of any other group of men in this country. You will either go the way of drugs and crime, or you’ll go through the local cemetery. I heard that a lot as a young man growing up in Washington, DC, and I had to reconcile that against wh
at my heart was saying and what I felt to be true for me.
The first words that I want to say are, “Don’t let this one mistake define the rest of your life.” We all make mistakes; we all stumble, we all fall, and every experience is a teaching moment in which you realize you have choices that you can make going forward. If you listen to people who tell you that your choices are fewer and fewer with each mistake you make—that your opportunities decrease every time you fall—then you’ll never be incentivized to get up. You’ll never be motivated to turn that corner in your life that sets you in a new direction and puts you on a different course.
As lieutenant governor of Maryland, often I visited the Baltimore City Detention Center and looked into the eyes of thirteen-to-seventeen-year-old African-American males. I wanted them to know that this mistake, whatever landed them in these circumstances for however much time they had to spend there, would not define the rest of their lives. You are more powerful and empowered than you are made to believe. You have opportunities that you can and should explore for yourself. These are not just words; it’s not a pipe dream; it’s real. But oftentimes our society and sometimes our own community puts blinders on us that lessen our ability to see those opportunities. And you can fall into the trap of believing that your options are fewer and your opportunities are less important, therefore condemning you to a life in prison, a life on drugs, a life of poor education, before you’re thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old.
My words to you, as you sit here contemplating the clock on the wall and looking at the time passing, are “Take control of that time. Find ways to improve your life, even in this dark circumstance of being in prison.” So when the next minute is about to tick by, you’ll realize, “That is one more minute I have to do something for me.” The next hour is getting ready to tick by, and you realize, “That’s one more hour that I have to do something that will change my circumstances. While I’m here in prison, I will work to improve and put myself in a better position.”
