You have to watch The Devil’s Plan on Netflix. It’s a Korean reality TV series where 10 contestants face off playing games of strategy and intelligence. It’s like Physical 100, but for smart people.
What I found particularly interesting was that it wasn’t just a game show, but there were several metagames being played throughout the series. Cedric Chin from Commoncog defines a metagame as the game above the game. For example, someone playing Magic the Gathering plays the game at two levels: 1) Battling their opponent, 2) Acquiring and adapting whenever the publisher releases new cards. Someone who attains true expertise in any arena (e.g. chess, marketing, sports, etc) has not only mastered the fundamental skills of that domain, but is often playing the metagame.
What’s interesting about The Devil’s Plan was that there was not just one metagame, but several. Here, I’ll share four levels of metagames in the series, and what they taught me about business and life (Spoilers ahead!) They are:...