May 29th, Sunday.

It was time for the monthly learning of failure experiences again.

Comparatively speaking, Pei Qian’s expectations for Qiu Hong’s course were stronger than his expectations for He An’s course.

After all, the latter required a detour—a reverse operation to be applied, and nobody knew whether the reverse operation would work or not; while the former could be directly applied according to the failure experiences.

However, in the last course, Pei Qian didn’t feel like he gained anything. Instead, Qiu Hong considered him a kindred spirit.

This was quite frustrating.

Qiu Hong had spent half the day talking about failures caused by project management problems. Everything he said was particularly correct, but Pei Qian couldn’t apply any of it!

He could only hope that today’s lecture would provide some truly useful failure experiences.

Qiu Hong arrived at the coffee shop on time and warmly shook hands with “Ma Yang.”

“Mr. Ma! How has your company’s project management improved over the past month?”

Pei Qian: “…”

Improved?

If it improved any more, I’d be finished!

Pei Qian coughed lightly twice: “I benefited greatly from the last course, but time is limited. Let’s get straight to the point.”

Qiu Hong nodded: “Yes, yes, let’s get straight to the point.”

The two sat down, and the waiter brought coffee.

Qiu Hong took a sip of coffee and said, “Mr. Ma, what I’m going to talk about today is also a very crucial failure factor. Among all game startup companies, the number of teams that fail due to this factor is not small!”

Hearing this, Pei Qian immediately became attentive.

A failure experience with such universal applicability?

I’d better listen carefully!

Qiu Hong deliberately created suspense, paused for a moment, and then said: “This failure factor is… the boss’s or other external forces’ random interference!”

Pei Qian: “?”

Qiu Hong didn’t notice “Ma Yang’s” bewildered expression. He had already completely fallen into his previous state of pouring his heart out: “This factor, just talking about it, brings tears to my eyes.”

“Most people who enter the gaming industry have a relatively simple dream before joining: to create something fun for players. Even if it’s a pay-to-win game for big spenders to splurge on, as long as they’re happy paying, our efforts won’t have been in vain.”

“But this society isn’t that simple, because games can’t be made by just one person. Working means facing all kinds of office politics, having to choose sides, maintaining good relationships with others—otherwise, you won’t get resources, and you can’t make good projects no matter how great they are.”

“As an implementation designer, you have to listen to the feature designer, right? As a feature designer, you have to listen to the lead designer, right? When you finally become a lead designer, you still have to listen to the producer, right? If you become a producer yourself, you still have to listen to the investors, right?”

“Even if you become an investor, you still have to listen to the market and the money, because you don’t want your money to go down the drain!”

“Look, you may have ideas, but you can’t guarantee that the people you command will align with your ideas!”

“This thing is external interference. Think about it: a perfectly good idea gets modified once by the producer, once by the boss, then once again by the investors, and just before release, the distributor demands another change… With all these modifications, you can’t even recognize what it is anymore.”

Pei Qian listened silently, his expression bewildered.

It sounds like a very beautiful prospect.

I wish someone would boss me around and mess up the projects…

However, there was no one above Mr. Pei to boss him around; he had complete authority.

In fact, Mr. Pei often bossed his subordinates around.

But the problem was, despite all his meddling, these games hadn’t failed!

Instead, the more he directed, the more successful they became. How could he explain that?

Could it be that his way of meddling was wrong?

Pei Qian coughed lightly twice: “Um, I have a question. Mr. Qiu, about what you said, ‘the boss’s meddling leads to project failure,’ could you explain specifically how this meddling works?”

Qiu Hong looked surprised: “Mr. Ma, does this need explanation? You can imagine it with just a bit of creative thinking!”

“For example, you know perfectly well what games are popular now, but the boss insists on doing the opposite; you know what players like, but the boss insists on going against them; design plans that don’t exist in the market, the boss suddenly demands you come up with one…”

Pei Qian fell silent again.

Isn’t this exactly what I’ve been doing?

So my money-losing approach seems to be correct?

How come the results are completely the opposite of what I expected?

This isn’t working; this is completely a method I’ve already tried. I need to quickly stop Qiu Hong before he continues.

Pei Qian felt he couldn’t waste precious time on this topic anymore and hurriedly said: “Hmm, I completely understand. This factor indeed easily leads to failure! But this experience doesn’t quite apply to me. Could we switch to another one?”

Qiu Hong was stunned: “Doesn’t apply? Mr. Ma, you mean you don’t encounter this problem?”

“Indeed, Mr. Ma, your direct superior is Mr. Pei. Mr. Pei himself is a top-tier game producer, so you don’t face the possibility of failure due to being directed by superiors.”

“No worries, Mr. Ma, I’ve already considered this point, so this was just an appetizer. I’ve prepared other content for later.”

Pei Qian was very pleased.

Great, I almost thought this lesson was wasted again!

Qiu Hong continued: “So, the next crucial failure factor is not being able to discover the talent you want! Mr. Ma, this should be applicable to you, right?”

Pei Qian strongly agreed: “Yes, I’m very troubled by this point!”

Qiu Hong smiled slightly and continued: “A boss certainly can’t take on all tasks himself; that would definitely be exhausting and ineffective. At this point, you need to find people in charge of your various business operations.”

“This differs from project management. Project management is about how to utilize talent, while what we’re discussing now is how to discover talent! Relatively speaking, discovering talent is a bit more advanced.”

“Many failed projects fail because the leader’s judgment of people is poor. They’re deceived by smooth-talking fraudsters, entrust them with important responsibilities, but these people lack actual capabilities.”

Pei Qian nodded vigorously: “So, where are these fraudsters?”

Qiu Hong didn’t know how to respond for a moment: “Uh… hidden among the vast sea of people.”

Pei Qian asked: “Theoretically, the number of fraudsters should be quite substantial, right?”

Qiu Hong thought for a moment: “Who knows? No one’s done a data survey on this. But I think there should be a decent number. Most entrepreneurs probably encounter one or two fraudsters when starting a business, right?”

Pei Qian was speechless.

So you’re saying my luck is bad?

Still not usable; this point still doesn’t apply, since I really have no talent for identifying fraudsters. Zhang Wang is the best example of that.

Pei Qian coughed lightly twice: “Um, Mr. Qiu, this doesn’t seem to help me much either…”

Qiu Hong was stunned: “Uh… no problem, Mr. Ma, let me switch to another one.”

“I may not have many success experiences, but I have plenty of failure experiences!”

Pei Qian: “…”

Why did he suddenly feel a strange sense of kindred spirits?

Qiu Hong thought for a moment: “Then next, let me talk about the concept of ‘common sense bias’!”

Pei Qian nodded, feeling that this theory seemed quite sophisticated and should be helpful to him!

Qiu Hong explained: “In gaming companies, we often hear things like: ‘The boss is an idiot who doesn’t understand anything, I’m quitting,’ or ‘The newly hired designer is too stupid, I’ve already fired them,’ and so on.”

“These conversations happen in many gaming companies, even with very similar tones. So why do people in the gaming circle always feel that others don’t understand anything?”

“An experienced lead designer and a producer who can secure investments should both be industry insiders. If they both say the other ‘doesn’t understand anything,’ then who actually doesn’t understand?”

“This is ‘common sense bias,’ meaning everyone’s common sense is different. You and I might consider the same thing, but what I consider common sense and what you consider common sense aren’t the same thing, so we both feel the other person completely doesn’t understand.”

“For example, regarding ‘copycat games,’ for investors or bosses, these are already verified successful experiences, so why not make them? But for most practitioners, something that others have already done to death has no future.”

“Of course, this is just a simple example. In actual work, this ‘common sense bias’ becomes more serious and affects every aspect of game development and company operations, ultimately causing the project’s development to completely deviate from initial expectations.”

Pei Qian blinked in confusion.

Isn’t this exactly what I’m experiencing?

A kindred spirit!

Pei Qian grasped Qiu Hong’s hand: “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly how I feel! I’m very troubled by this!”

“So, how exactly should this ‘common sense bias’ be resolved?”

Qiu Hong smiled: “Well, it’s simple to say but difficult to do. It’s about establishing good communication between both parties.”

“The root of ‘common sense bias’ is the mutual inability to understand each other. As long as good communication can be achieved, helping the other person understand your true thoughts and forming a unified direction of thought, the problem of ‘common sense bias’ can be solved to some extent.”

Pei Qian: “…”

His enthusiasm was once again dampened.

How is this another solution I absolutely cannot implement!

Good communication, helping others understand my true thoughts? I wish I could, but the system doesn’t allow it!

I can’t let others know I’m deliberately losing money!

Even worse, my employees seem to have formed some kind of unified force, but in exactly the opposite direction from mine…

Pei Qian instantly deflated. Today he had learned three failure experiences, which could be considered quite fruitful.

However… he couldn’t use any of them!

Qiu Hong looked at his watch; today’s course was almost over. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Phew, Mr. Ma’s requirements are high.

If I hadn’t prepared thoroughly before coming, and if I didn’t have a wealth of failure experiences, today’s course might not have proceeded smoothly.

What is this bittersweet feeling…

Good, good, the course was successfully completed!

Seeing Mr. Ma lowering his head in thought, he must be very inspired, right?

Pei Qian raised his head: “Mr. Qiu, I have one last question. Suppose, just suppose, these three problems were no longer problems. What would happen then?”

Qiu Hong was stunned, then smiled: “Well, congratulations to Mr. Ma, you could make money while lying down!”

“Do whatever you want to do without being randomly commanded by anyone; select only talented people who can each handle their responsibilities; employees without common sense bias, thinking and working together in the same direction…”

“If you don’t succeed, who will?”

Pei Qian: “…”

These words cut deep.

He came to learn from failure failures, but after learning from them, he felt even more desperate!