Your Character Customisation Screen 🕹️

June 10, 2025

Hey there,

As the days grow hotter, and summer is already in the air, I have to start slowly changing up my wardrobe to match the temperatures — it's officially shorts season. 😎

And in doing so, I caught myself trying to change up some small things stylistically about my outfits — in these moments, it really feels like you're beginning your day as if starting a video game. You boot it up, and you have to do your character customisation, e.g. create your avatar (for the day). 🕹️

Usually, we don't view ourselves as something different each day. As I think I mentioned in a previous issue (The Ship of Theseus, e.g. Your Character), we tend to live life with a continuous sense of self, only in retrospect do we separate our character into stages, like "me in high school", "me in uni", etc. I feel like it's a psychological safeguard — we create a pretty robust and consistent sense of self (what we like, what we don't, our principles), and this is what simplifies all decision-making. Once you know "who you are", more or less, it's easy to choose what you'd do in a given scenario — if you think of yourself as a fit person, going to the gym is a fun hobby, and if you view yourself as a couch potato 🥔, you'd view it as something outside of your comfort zone.

But the issue is… most games don't let you redo your character screen every time you log in (that sounds like some terrible user experience). Life kinda does.

Every morning, you get a chance — even if it's subtle — to adjust a trait or two. One day, you might dress more sharply. Another day, you try speaking more confidently. Or you experiment with a new vibe, maybe less "NPC energy", and more "main character energy" (I know it's corny). It's not a full daily overhaul, but it is a shift.

That's where it gets tricky, tho. Because with this freedom comes pressure:

Who am I building today? What role am I playing? Which of my 'stats' should I level up — strength, focus, charisma, calmness?

And some days, honestly, I don't know. I'll sit there, coffee in hand, staring at my task list or Notion dashboard, and feel like I've got 5 different characters vying for screen time — the craftsman, the leader, the hermit, the jokester, the philosopher.

It's kind of exhausting at times, honestly.

Because every option feels valid, and every option feels incomplete. Do I double down on one "build" and become hyper-specialised? But then, I'd be missing out on the possible perks of another "character"?

I've been thinking in this direction when it comes to my career so far. I started out as a digital artist while doing my engineering degree, which already clashed quite a bit. Then, to promote my art more effectively, I had to learn how to make a website, which led me into web development territory. This later led me to find a job as a Front-end Developer, and now I also deal with some backend stuff from time to time, so I have almost fully transitioned into the "Programmer" archetype.

And still, in my day-to-day work, I find that I am most motivated and productive when it comes to designing website layouts, thinking about the User Experience and how they interact, and the psychology of it all. So, should I lean more into the "Designer" archetype?

All those questions led to a conclusion that I feel is a good guiding star, something to ground you even in moving sands:

If you find yourself questioning which path and archetype to pick, it's your very own personal challenge to find the path that combines the best of both worlds.

It's not easy, and often not straightforward. In my case, it should make me lean more into the creative side of things, while still striving to be a good programmer. Yes, I won't be the "best" coder, most probably, but do I really need to be?

So yeah, maybe the goal isn't to max out one single stat, but to build a character that feels right to play: one that's strong enough, sharp enough, creative enough… and most importantly, uniquely yours.

Every day, we get the chance to tweak the sliders just a bit. Don't waste that screen. 🕹️

Weekly Insights

• And before we realised, summer came knocking. ☀️
• It almost feels like a meme, how I was using the heater mere days ago and woke up in the night cause of being cold, to now having to run the AC non-stop to keep the temperature manageable.
• But to look at it from a more optimistic perspective, the days are long, it feels like there is time for everything, and I do try to make life more enjoyable for myself (by, for example, watching something as chill as the "Lilo & Stitch" movie, not a bad one btw). 🍿

Book Highlight: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

2 weeks ago, I picked up "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin as an audiobook — mostly because I was looking for a light(ish) read, and it sounded like something I would enjoy.

It's not a fast read, and it isn't trying to be. The book follows two childhood friends as they grow into adults and co-creators of wildly successful video games. But the story isn't really about gaming. It's about love (not of the romantic kind), ambition, art, ego, grief, and the strange ways people orbit each other across time. It explores how collaboration can be both a shelter from the storm and the storm itself, and how creation — whether a game, a life, or a friendship — is always a bit messy, a bit glitchy.

Overall, it was a nice story. One of those, where I can't say I relate to the characters all the time, and I do think that most of their issues could've been solved with more communication. But ultimately, it's not my story, and I could still root for them even with their imperfections, and I think this is the valuable bit.

Not for everyone, but maybe for someone who's felt that bittersweet ache of 'what could've been' and still chose to fight for it anyway. 7/10 from me. ✌️

Worth Watching This Week

How Your Perception is Destroying Your Motivation by HealthyGamerGG — a deep look at how the lenses you wear quietly shape what feels worth doing.

A Video for Introverts by Nathaniel Drew — a gentle, well-paced reminder that quiet doesn't equal less, especially in a loud world.

Closing Thoughts

Till next week, stay safe, stay curious, and keep kicking. ✌️