Thirteen reflections for StartUps from playing Slither.io with my kids during COVID-19 times..
By: Himanshu Ardawatia
Tags: Covid 19, Slitherio, Quality Time With Kids, Startups, Inspiration

Now, an adult talking about a game apparently for kids might sound strange. However, during the COVID-19 times of late winter, early spring 2020, some new things have come into my day as I work from home like many others. During these times, there are many restrictions. However, it is always better to look at the silver lining. In my case, like many others, one of the silver lining is that I get to spend more time with my kids. As a consequence, I get to do much more with them which otherwise may not be possible. One of things that I got introduced to by them is a game app called slither.io. After my initial apprehension it has now become a part of our almost daily evening routine.

Slither.io is a multi-player game where you start with a small snake/worm, navigate it around so it can eat blobs to grow, kill other worms/snakes and eat them and grow further and get higher scores. We play it together, talk about things & our progress through the game like running commentary and let out instinctive loud sighs when our slithery worm/snake dies and then start over again from the beginning with a tiny snake.This goes on for about 30–45 minutes unless we get carried away with the urge for “one last time”!

While the game is simple and kiddish, I found that there are many lessons that can be learned while playing it. Here are thirteen reflection points from slither.io which I thought could well apply to startups:

Small does have it’s advantages. In slither.io you start small like you do as a start up. Of course there is scope to grow in different ways. While small means you are vulnerable due to limited size, being small allows you to be agile, change direction & course quickly and many a times go unnoticed as you pass under the radar of predatory big ones. Being mindful and aware of your size and capabilities is very important. Taking calculated risks for big rewards. In the game, you grow and increase your score and rank by eating blobs that keep appearing on the canvas. You can spend your time doing that safely but some small, medium or big sized snake could kill you swiftly if you are not attentive enough or they get the better of you. Another way to grow is to take fast decisive actions, kill others, and eat their debris — or eat debris of snakes which are already killed by someone. This approach involves taking risks and you could crash into another and die. However, this also brings big rewards as you gain many more points and growth this way in lesser amount of time. So best approach is to take calculated risks. Small ones can take on the big guns. In the beginning, whenever we saw much bigger snakes, we would just move away fearfully without even trying. Over time, we realised that it is possible to take on big guns in the domain if you effectively and efficiently capitalise on your niche, expertise and capabilities. Big ones and infact all competitors have their own inertia, insecurities, and distractions and if you don’t try, you may never get them. When we tried a few times we could kill big snakes and eat their debris and grow bigger faster. So knowing your place is important but using your key advantages to your benefit to take on big players in the domain can bring great results. Here killing is used as a metaphor and could imply competing & taking over, attracting attention and gaining investment etc. Being ambitious is great but being greedy can be fatal. Sometimes when you see large debris of a dead snake, the instinct is to rush and gobble it all up to grow fast. However, there are many like you who are rushing to the spot to eat. Likelihood is that many crash into each other and die. The more tactical and cautious ones remain. As a startup you are looking for investments and run fast to gain funds everywhere. However, it is important that you are cautious about the investment — what it involves, what is the context, and overall how good it will be for you as a company and team. A large but bad / risky investment can be fatal. Different approach based on your size. Small can go fast, be agile and pivot quickly while bigger ones can easily wrap around smaller ones. So approach should be suited to your size — if you try to wrap and overtake others as a small snake, you can’t possibly do it and you exhaust yourself. Perhaps you lose control and collapse. Copying larger ones with their approach may be ineffective for your context — if not completely detrimental. Choose you battles. As you grow and gain more experience in the game, you may have many chances to take on and potentially eat up small and potentially big snakes. However, you have to choose if you want to expend your energy and time for following very small ones and gaining very few points by killing & eating them or use your resources to take on the ones which can get you more returns and growth. A startup may come across different possibilites in various directions but being decisive and making tradeoffs is critical to move forward. You might want to lose or disregard some opportunities to gain some — possibly more lucrative ones in the longer term. Going fast has it’s consequences. In slither.io, if you go fast, you lose points and size. In startups if you try to grow very fast, you could lose resources fast, and possibly burnout.. Find resources and grab them. Every business is out there to make it for themselves. So eat when you have opportunity otherwise someone else will. Planning and strategising for the long term may be futile. While vision is extremely important, longer term strategies based on your current realities may bring discontent and disappointment. Tactics have their own place in the game. In slither.io, we never know what is lurking around away from your view on the canvas and what could happen, who all could be around to jump on to things in your space — to your detriment. There is much more than what you can see. Life is full of uncertainties and startups have to deal with many of those. For example, nobody every expected a new situation like that created by COVID-19 to bring things to a standstill not just in one place or domain but almost everywhere. As a startup, vision is important and being aware of overall context and space is more important and fruitful than trying to figure out very long term strategies. Be mindful of others’ capabilities. In slither.io everyone starts small. This includes the very experienced players. So while you may have gained some growth and points, those small ones which have big experience behind them could cut you to place. Partnerships can be game changers but you need to be aware of your domain and possibilities. Something very crucial for startups is building partnerships & collaboration for growth. In slither.io we did not get to use any collaboration possibility due to our limited knowledge about servers and who were the others in the domain. Being aware of and knowing their domain very well, knowing possibilities and who others could be playing in their domain and taking action towards collaboration can be very fruitful for startups. Practise and trials makes you better. That applies to everything in life — not just slither.io or startups. Just enjoy and have fun. There are many uncertainties and things can be chaotic in your ecosystem. You may lose and die in the game but you can always re-start — as you can do with startups (most of the times). There is no point with stress and anxiety. There are many people in the same boat.

So these were my thirteen reflections and I am quite sure one could draw reflections and inspiration for startups from many other domains, and facets of life. Feel free to share your thoughts, send feedback and share around.