Growing up, I played a LOT of videogames. Hundreds of different ones.

I was a late millennial, and at the turn of the century I was just six years old. The internet was the Wild Wild West.

Among the many games I played, there is one I will always remember: Stick RPG.

It’s a straightforward, early 2000s RPG. Not too many things to do, but definitely enough to keep my 6-year old brain entertained.

At the root of the game you had three basic stats: Charm. Strength. Intelligence.

The more stats you had in one category, the more you could do in the game.

For example, if you had more strength, you could deal more damage in fight.

If you had more charm, you had more options when interacting with others.

The most important stat though was intelligence.

More intelligence would allow you to work better jobs, allowing you to make more money, allowing you to buy more things.

At the end of the day, the entire game was about making more money.

So what’s the first thing that I would do in the game?

I would get a skateboard (so I could move around faster), but then immediately after that spend every single day at the U of S. (University of Stick of course)

After about 30-days of learning at U of S, I finally had enough intelligence to get a high paying job.

I would then work a few days a week, which gave me enough money to do anything else I wanted in the game.

While this is not how life actually works, it made me think about what parallels there might be.

Specifically, what are the most important skills you should learn first?

Quora says adapting to change.

Common sense says communication, finances, and how to live independently.

Anything that can compound over time, is something I think that’s worth learning early on.

The most important part though, is to just keep on learning. Regardless of what you decide to learn.