My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students.

Gamers always believe that an epic win is possible and that it's always worth trying and trying now.

When we play a game, we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we're more likely to reach out to others for help.

Reality is broken and we need to make it work more like a game.

There is no problem that doesn't have some underlying need for more optimism, stamina, resilience and collaboration. And games are, I believe, the best platform we have for providing that.

When we play games, our brains respond differently to stress and obstacles. We're better able to control our attention and ignore distractions.

I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, but I realized I had set out to do the wrong things

What's really amazing about games is how they change our emotional response to challenges

If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion … you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you're facing.

My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.

Compared with games, reality is disconnected.

In the greatest sorrow, we shall find the grace of joy.

Lying in small doses makes a good storyteller great.

It is far better to be deceived than undeceived by those whom we tenderly love.

It is important to monitor your mind constantly. This is particularly important if you are studying with an enlightened teacher, because you are absorbing tremendous power from the teacher.

Our prisons and our jails are now our mental health institutions.

There's over a billion people on this planet that don't have access to clean drinking water.

You exist if and only if you are free to do things without a visible objective, with no justification and, above all, outside the dictatorship of someone else's narrative.

I feel that when we leave here I think it's just another transition and whatever it is I hope I'm prepared for it.

Hoping they bury me with ammunition, weed, and shells. Just in case.

Every day, I walk with my dog - summer, winter (it gets -20 F in Saint Paul), rain or shine. The nicer the day, of course, the longer the walk.