Side quests, or deviating from the plan to achieve a plan
In which we use Star Wars to talk about plans, serendipity and the value of taking the less used paths
Gaming, like real life, is all about making choices and sometimes those choices lead you to unexpected destinations. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I’m going to use a well-known example from popular culture1 to talk about the difference between sticking to a plan vs. taking diversions which… can be interesting.
For context: RPGs (Role Playing Games) are a popular genre of computer game and the goal of these games is to make your character (the in-game version of yourself) as powerful, experienced and rich as possible within the context of the game, solving puzzles, defeating opponents, and making the world safer. The game unfolds like a book or a movie, your character becoming mightier and wiser through the course of the game. This concept was pioneered by paper based games like Dungeons & Dragons and was assimilated2 by the video game industry.
In the context of Star Wars, young Luke Skywalker starts A New Hope3 as a level 0 Jedi (i.e. no Jedi power or skills, basically a goofy, whiny kid who is a really good pilot for no apparent reason) and by the end of Return of the Jedi he’s become a level 204 Jedi Knight, able to use the Force in weird and wonderful ways, plus he’s got mad lightsaber skills. And then afterward he became a Jedi Master who could do even more amazing stuff.
Luke became powerful with the Force through a combination of main quests and side quests. Main quest refers to his training with Yoda plus the canon adventures of Luke and his allies during the “original” Star Wars Trilogy. He followed the path set before him by George Lucas and his writers, going from step to step to grow his abilities. This is the destiny that was planned for Luke and there was no way it would not occur.
But sometimes side quests are where the interesting things happen. A side quest is an event where you step off the “official path” of what you’re supposed to be doing and you do something else instead: find a lost sword, take out5 the local Orc bully, rescue a lost dog, etc. Side quests can be rewarding but usually won’t allow you to win the overall game. Quite often they are distractions that can get you killed or wounded, but they can earn you extra coin that you use for training, better equipment, and so on.
You could argue that most of The Empire Strikes Back is one of Luke Skywalker’s side quests, although it greatly impacts his development as a Jedi going forward and it shapes the remainder of that Star Wars trilogy. Luke was supposed to keep training with Yoda on Dagobah until he was “ready”. He certainly got better at using the Force but his training wasn’t complete. As a result, he was defeated by Darth Vader in battle, lost his hand and nearly died. Luckily for Luke, he was rescued, he finished his training and eventually defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor in the next movie.6
Like many other characters and heroes, Luke would have taken many missions or side quests to help protect the galaxy, which would have helped him become a better Jedi. The same is true for any RPG. The side quests help you get better over time and in turn fuel your ability to complete your main quest, whatever that is. Hopefully you don’t lose a hand in the process.
You might be wondering where I’m going with this. You probably didn’t expect to get a condensed history of Star Wars in this newsletter.7 However, it’s a useful way to look at this topic as I shift perspective back to our world.
By profession I’m a project manager and I understand the difference between main quest vs. side quest very well in that context. The main quest is your project plan:
what you need to accomplish (the scope of work to be done)
who you need to do the work
how much time and money do you have to get the job done
how good does it have to be
I am programmed8 to detest side quests in the context of projects. You need to start at point A and follow the pre-determined path to the end. If Star Wars was my project, a Rebel Alliance budget officer would have hidden the keys to the X-wing fighter until Luke was well and truly trained and forms were signed in triplicate by Yoda. There would be no risky side quest to fight Darth Vader.9
Or would there?
Sometimes you want the project to go perfectly, per specification or there are significant consequences to this. You want a hydroelectric dam to be build to specifications or else:
people may die
people may not get electricity
Same with building a bridge, a jet liner or a space station - bad work means disaster, so you need to stay on the main quest.
But sometimes the side quests lead to interesting discoveries:
The company that created Twitter was originally building a podcast application and as a “side quest” they built an SMS messaging system. When iTunes announced podcast support, Odeo had to pivot and do something else. Twitter is the evolution of that original messaging system, which, for better or worse, continues to shape bits of our world today. It may be how you found this post! The side quest led to the main quest of Twitter.
The adhesive used to make Post It notes was a failed product until someone combined it with the ability to stick pieces of paper together but also made it easy to separate them.
Side quests provide the opportunity for serendipity: the accidental discoveries that can lead to great and wonderful things. Finding a bargain book that changes your way of thinking is a great example of a side quest, as is learning public speaking, taking up running or learning to draw. The side quest can be a diversion that serves to give you a temporary break from the rest of your life or it can be used to make a foundation to build upon and take your life in a new direction.
I said that as a project manager I’m not a fan of side quests: they wind up taking time, effort and money that detracts from the defined scope of a project. But as a person who does enjoy exploration and diversion, I recognize that going astray is sometimes the thing you need to do. I also realize that sometimes progress may be blocked for various reasons (wars, politics, pandemics, supply chain issues, etc.) and therefore you may need to take a creative side quest to get to where you need to be. Luke Skywalker wasn’t supposed to face Darth Vader before he was ready. His side quest almost killed him but in the end it taught him valuable lessons that made him a better Jedi: training, emotional control and planning10 make the difference.
I think we need to make time for the occasional side quest, within whatever level of tolerance we can support. Repetition makes perfect but perfection can be defined by how you choose to measure your results and how you allow yourself to achieve them. Without accidental or unplanned discoveries you limit the breadth of your knowledge and experience.
Are side quests a waste of time? They can be. But, with boundaries and preparation, they might just be the best way to complete your main quest. So don’t be afraid to occasionally go left instead of right when you have the luxury to do so, you never know what you might find.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, lightsaber practice starts in 10 minutes.
OK, geek popular culture, most of us can’t avoid popular culture even if we don’t actually consume it. It’s one of the hidden tariffs of the Internet.
It was futile to resist.
Or Star Wars, as many of us knew it for decades.
Who really knows if Jedi even have levels, this is just for sake of argument.
Yes, in some contexts this could mean dating.
It was a contractual obligation.
Confidentially, neither did I.
See we all get computer chips implanted… wait, I’ve said too much already.
Also, time and cost: flying to Dagobah is always by a private charter and they’re NOT cheap.
Project managers are required to cheer during the Return of the Jedi scene when R2-D2 flings Luke’s lightsaber to him in the nick of time in the Tatooine desert: now that’s a plan coming together