Last week was the crescendo event of the 2025 FIRST Robotics season. Nearly 50,000 people from 160 countries converged on Houston, Texas for the World Championship. It was an exhausting week of problem-solving competition that saw tears of joy and defeat. For our family, the season started in the fall of 2024 as an after-school sport for my son Owen. While this may not be the most productive time of the day for a group of 8 middle school boys, the timeslot nonetheless worked for everyone. Over the course of four months the boys learned robotics, perseverance and navigating negative team dynamics.<\/p>\n
In January 12 regional teams gathered to compete in the FIRST Lego League (a division for younger youth) regional competition. Owen\u2019s team, the Gummy Sharks, placed second with a score of 270 out of a possible 640. While not an impressive score, it was enough to qualify them for the State Competition. A month later the team started the 6-hour drive to Montana State University\u2019s Norm Asbjornson Hall to compete with 35 teams from around Montana. However, a blizzard shut down the interstate, preventing nearly one-third of the teams from competing. Due to the \u2018act of God\u2019, the organizers put the names of the top qualifiers into a lottery drawing for the opportunity to represent Montana at the World Competition. The host drew a piece of paper out of a box and read \u201cGummy\u2026\u201d, Not expecting there was a chance it would be our team I thought \u201cWOW, there are two teams with the word Gummy in their name\u201d, then he said \u201cSharks\u201d and the boys erupted!<\/p>\n
When the team left for Texas last week, the boys unanimously believed they could win the championship despite their robots’ maximum scoring potential of 270 points. It was a full week of watching competition during the day and reading Clear Thinking<\/em> by Shane Parrish in the evenings. The timing of this brought a unique insight into Parrish\u2019s work, mainly that the Enemies of Clear Thinking<\/em> don\u2019t know an age.<\/p>\n Emotion<\/strong> Ego Social Inertia <\/p>\n As I waited for the plane in Houston, I walked up and down the concourse, contemplating Parrish\u2019s thoughts on learning from our decisions.<\/p>\n Scoring in the bottom 5% is not the outcome that anyone wants. Yet the process\u2026the process of learning and clear thinking\u2014is invaluable and knows no age.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results<\/em> (Penguin, 2023), 15.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em> (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017).<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Parrish, Clear Thinking<\/em>, 17.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Parrish, 17.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Parrish, 24.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>, First Edition (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013).<\/p>\n
\nThe boys had worked diligently to get where they were. Yet they were faced with emotional pressures that were new to them: early morning call times, late bedtimes, hunger from irregular schedules, constant distraction from thousands of other kids, and rushing from place to place in a new environment. For the first time, they faced many classic emotions that can easily stop us from performing at our best.[1]<\/a> (In hindsight, it would have been good to do some mental exercises to prepare them for what was coming.[2]<\/a>)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>\u201cWinning\u201d the State Competition had poured unfounded gasoline on the ego burning inside them. With little to no consideration given to the fact that they had been chosen by lottery to represent Montana, their ego had tempted them into thinking they were more than they were.[3]<\/a> Parrish was correct with the analysis that ego, when left unchecked, \u201ccan turn confidence to overconfidence\u201d.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The night before they were to give oral presentations on their robot, they rehearsed in the hotel. During the mock Q\/A time a parent asked, \u201cWhy did you not incorporate photo sensors into your robot?\u201d A boy answered confidently, \u201cWe asked another team about them, and they said it did not work because the competition board was two dark for the sensor to work.\u201d Parrish identifies this fallacy and notes, \u201cwhen everyone else is doing something, it\u2019s easy to rationalize doing it too.\u201d[5]<\/a> The teams System 1 thinking had allowed a heuristic shortcut to circumvent an opportunity to tackle a difficult challenge that could have earned them additional points on the gameboard.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>As the boys observed the other robots made by their peers, they began to realize the simplicity of their robot. Instead of working to change and improve their initial design, they chose the easy route of keeping their very first iteration, a decision that requires almost no effort.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n