I'm a huge Tim Ferriss fan and have been reading his books since I was a freshman in college. As his books remain a staple in my library, I wondered if his skill hacking skills were legit.
Tim's book, "The 4-Hour Chef," provided the template for meta-learning, or how to learn something very quickly. Therefore, I wanted to test/see if I could learn to play Fortnite competitively. Ninja, the Fortnite champion, makes $500k a month. With all of these gamers streaming, playing, and new businesses capitalizing on this market, the esports industry is valued at $1.1B, with a year-on-year growth of +26.7% [Forbes].
While I had never played Fortnite before, I did play video games on my Gamecube when I was younger. To hold myself accountable, I signed up for a local tournament (100 players) in NYC, with a specific date to be ready for. This skill hack is written for those who are interested in self-development, rather than for the true fans or players of this game. While I will use my journey of learning Fortnite to illustrate my bullet-points, Tim Ferriss and Josh Kaufman's framework of learning can be applied to most topics.
Overall Takeaways:
Have a plan and learn which order is most optimal. By sequencing, I was learning each skill as I gained more experience, rather than learning all the skills at the same time.
Identify the single-point-of-failure that would cause failure and adapt that. Since I was learning each skill sequentially, I knew the mistake I made and was able to improve that skill, rather than assuming I died due to my inadequate defense or poor aim.
My novice perspective became an advantage. Fortnite was released in 2017 and by 2019 had 250M players. Since I was not an expert on this subject matter, I did not have predefined boundaries of how this game “should” be played.
My execution was straightforward. I had a notebook and pen and began to breakdown how I wanted to approach learning. As I was looking for Tim Ferriss’s book on DiSSS (Deconstruction, Selection, Sequencing, Stakes, I also stumbled across Josh Kauffman's process as well. I read their books and outlined how to learn. Here was my step-by-step approach and execution:
Step 1: Chose Fortnite as a topic.
Step 2: Outlined my plan of action.
Step 3: Read Tim Ferriss and Josh Kaufman.
Step 4: Studied how Fortnite was played.
Step 5: SWOT analysis of my own skill-set and what I can bring to the table.
Step 6: Sequencing: which skills should I learn first and what should I mainly focus on?
Step 7: Adaptive learning.
Step 8: Attended the tournament that held me accountable.
Step 1: Picked Fortnite as a topic:
Fortnite is a battle-royal game. You kill everyone in an ever-shrinking territory until there's only one person standing.
Step 2: Outlined my plan of action:
My plan was basic; I was going to read the books, follow the steps, and learn from my mistakes. I also made sure that I had enough time during the week to play and mapped out the hours in my week that I could dedicate to it. Since I had a very busy work week, I realized that I could afford roughly 10 hours. Therefore I sacrificed one whole day and pumped 10 hours of straight gaming and adaptive learning. This learning and practice happened on a Monday; I had maybe one more extra hour of practice on Tuesday. Friday was game day. I had not practiced anytime throughout the week, and I had hoped that was enough to get me to even play. The key to learning a skill was setting a fixed date where I was set to test my skill.
Step 3: Read Tim Ferriss and Josh Kaufman:
Of all of their teachings, here are their takeaways and how I strategized each of their points:
Step 4: Studied how Fortnite was played:
Professional esports players are in a dorm all day with their teams, and they have whiteboarding sessions on strategies. Seeing this imagery was very relatable to me in the startup world. This image of whiteboarding had left such a strong impression on me, and I ensured that I created a strategic battle plan. I even took inspirations from Sun Tzu's, "The Art of War".
““Know your enemy, know yourself, and you won’t fear the battle.””
I watched three videos on:
- How to play Fortnite (basics)
- How to win at Fortnite (competitive advantage)
- Mistakes to avoid in Fortnite (preventative measures)
However, since these videos had millions of views, I knew that this was the mass strategy of playing. Therefore if I wanted a competitive advantage, I had to create my own set of rules or approach this the opposite way.
Step 5: SWOT analysis of my own skill-set/ what I can bring to the table:
My main weakness: I had never played this game before;
however, the opportunity was that I could approach this game without tunnel vision or preconceived notions of how Fortnite "should" be played.
My main strength: I am very good at stealth games after playing Hitman and Splinter Cell as a kid.
My main threat: My inability to build walls, towers, or any way to defend myself.
Step 6: Sequencing: which skills should I learn first and how?
Focusing on 20% of the skill that will give me 80% of the results.
Fortnite requires a broad acumen of skills: shooting, building, resource optimization (gun types, build resources), knowledge of mapping and territory. Therefore, I broke down which skill to learn first, and I only moved onto the second skill once I felt proficient in the first skill.
1. Learn to be stealth, not be seen, and utilize your surroundings.
2. Learn how to shoot long-range. If an enemy had gotten close enough to attack me, I had already made a mistake by allowing them to get close to me. Address an enemy when they are advancing or applying stress and pressure on me, hand to hand combat.
3. Learn how to collect resources, and how to optimize which limited inventory to sacrifice or capitalize on
4. Learn how to build a wall, but did not allocate my learning bandwidth on how to build towers, a critical skill to playing Fortnite. Ninja, the Fortnite champion, is a master builder.
Step 7: Adaptive learning -- learn from your mistakes and accomplishments:
Here you can see the mistakes that I made and how I addressed them. I also marked down my advantageous decisions and invested energy in that skill or strategy for getting me closer to winning the game.
As I was playing this game, I would do really well and therefore relied on the strategies that got me to win most games. After a while, my original winning strategies were outdated, and I kept dying around 80th and 40th place. At that point, I realized I needed to create a strategy, adapt, or die.
Once I died at 18th place, I realized I was so close to first place and that I could make it. I did not even fathom the probability of winning a tournament during my practice sessions.
There you have it. I won first place during my gaming practices online.
Rather, after studying for ONE hour I came out in Fortnite #2nd place in my first match ( out of 37 players).
Friday rolled around and it was the day of the tournament. I headed to Microsoft's office in NYC and appeared as a free agent. Competitors came as either free agents or with their pre-existing teams. Since I did not have a team, I was placed with other free-agents that needed to build a squad of four players.
Our team never had the benefit of practicing together; however, I needed to make sure we had an opportunity to play a few rounds in the tournament. We huddled and created a strategic plan and a clear division of labor. The concept of each player having an assigned responsibility is not a typical gameplay strategy for Fortnite. Two players on the team were responsible for the offense; the two others were responsible for defensive decisions. We had a player specialize in long-range attacks, aggressive attacks, navigation/medic, and defense/tower building. I was responsible for commanding our navigation and providing medic to our weakened offense. Towards the end, it was only Juan (left) and myself standing, as our two other teammates perished. We adapted our strategy again; I was responsible for long-range attacks and Juan was hand to hand. Otherwise, Fortnite is typically played with four players in a squad, sharing the same roles and responsibilities.
Ya. We won first place in our tournament of 100 players. My squad of strangers was elated; we were freaking out and gripping each other with hugs.
The most important skill I learned was having a plan at all times, and adapting that plan to win. Even a plan on how to learn and which date to accomplish that by. The swift feedback-loop after each game practice became very affirming as I saw my rapid progress every 40 mins. Having a goal, a plan to follow that goal, and a swift feedback-loop became my ultimate guide to accomplishing a skill-hacking experiment. Winning was just the cherry on top. The best way for one to learn is to set a daily calendar timeline and deadline. For more resources, check out Tim Ferriss’s "The 4-Hour Chef" and Josh Kaufman’s “The First 20 Hours”.