Shuffling Minds, Building Decks: Strategy, Self, and the Stories We Choose
From Balatro to Self-Authorship: What Are You Playing Toward?
Opening Thought: The Game Inside the Game
“The deck is yours — but do you know how to play it?”
This week I found myself hitting a strange wall of feeling like it is all a lot of moving parts in the changes of August. My website was hacked. My AC was broken for four days. My principal certification courses restarted with a mountain of repetitive work.
And yet I found myself completely obsessed with a card game.
Balatro is the first game I’ve installed on my phone in years. It’s a roguelike poker deckbuilder that turns strategy into storytelling. I’ve spent evenings watching YouTube strategy breakdowns, scrolling Reddit threads, screenshotting cards to try new ideas just like my kids who I have poked fun at time and time again.
Question: When was the last time you got curious enough to learn for fun?
Balatro helped me remember: engagement isn’t about ease. It’s about a challenge that feels meaningful.
It made me think about this concept of how do we tell a different story? One where AI isn’t about fear, but agency?
We learn when we care. We strategize when we’re curious. We show up when it matters to us.
AI Updates & Reflections
HBR’s Top 10 GenAI Use Cases 2024–2025
Read: Harvard Business Review AI Use Case Shift
2024: Generating ideas, companionship, search
2025: Therapy, organizing life, finding purpose
Harvard Business Review’s GenAI Use Chart
From “Generating Ideas” in 2024 to “Therapy/Companionship” and “Finding Purpose” in 2025 and how fast our AI needs evolve. Use the chart to spark conversations about what skills we’re actually teaching.
Let that sink in: Organizing life and finding purpose are new AI categories. These are the topics that sparked lots of convo for educators this past week and don’t even get me started about the #1 use of therapy and companionship. This is a SIGNAL amongst all the AI noise.
What are we really using these tools for?
AI as Personal Companion
Nearly 3 in 4 teens have used AI companions
ScienceAlert confirms they use it for flirting, chatting, escaping thinking
NPR explores emotional risks
Futurism warns: they’re using AI to “get out of thinking”
So what can we get into instead?
Below are the resources I have been sharing and process with schools in my workshops this past week and weeks ahead.
Digital Literacy + the AI Conversation Shift
AI This Week: Updates, Tools, and Tensions
ChatGPT 5 Jumping Game
Ask ChatGPT to create a jumping game, and it will. With an interactive HUD and sound. Wild.
Google’s New Gemini Tools for Back to School
Study guides, flashcard generation, annotated readings all from a single uploaded document.
Temporary Chats + Privacy Controls
Private-mode chatting is now possible with Gemini. Quiet conversations for curious minds.
NotebookLM’s New Video Overview Feature
Upload a document → Click Video Overview → Get a narrated, AI-generated slideshow in seconds. I shared my example in the newsletter last week, but worth mentioning again.
Prompting Framework from Andreas Horn
Build better prompts using CIFCT: Context, Instructions, Format, Constraints, Tone.
WonderTools Prompt List
Try these structured prompts to level up your AI experiments. Excellent for teachers and tinkerers.
Balatro & The Joy of Strategic Play
Why am I spending hours studying card builds and watching Balatro videos?
Because it sparks learning. And I’m not alone.
This week I realized I’ve become like my students:
Watching gameplay
Reading subreddits
Feeding screenshots into ChatGPT for strategy
Feeling joyfully obsessed because I cannot figure out how win or in this case make a run!
What if school felt like this?
What game do you love enough to want to learn more?
Play Balatro or any game that re-engages your spirit.
Threads to Think On
“A Word to My Students” – Alan Jacobs
A powerful open letter to students tempted to use AI to cheat. Some questions to consider:
Why are we tempted to avoid our own thinking?
What story do we tell ourselves about shortcuts?
How can we redesign assignments so students want to think?
How Do We Tell a Different Story? – Secrets of Adulthood
A newsletter on framing our work through stories worth sharing — and why that matters more than ever.
From the Real World: Flatland Cavalry + the Power of Showing Up
This week I almost skipped the concert.
No AC. No sleep. Too much work.
But I made myself go see Flatland Cavalry which was the final show from my “Summer of Live Music” experiment.
It was magic. The set design, the energy, the way they invited us into a story with sound and it reminded me why we need art that pulls us out of ourselves.
Sometimes joy has to be scheduled. Then it takes care of the rest.
Don’t Let AI Turn Learning into Spectating
In Maria Popova’s reflection on Brian Eno and carnival, she explores what makes a carnival truly alive. Eno writes:
Carnival is good when the number of participants isn’t grossly outweighed by the number of spectators. Carnival is good when many of the `spectators’ are actually also joining in (dancing and singing along). Carnival is good when the participants exhibit a range of skills from the absolutely minimal to the absolutely astonishing (the first being an invitation not to be intimidated — “Hey! I could do that!” — and the second an invitation to be amazed). Carnival is good when people of all ages, sexes, races, shapes, sizes, beauties, inclinations, and professions are involved. Carnival is good when there’s too much to look at and everything’s mixed up and you have to sort it all out for yourself.
This isn’t just about music or Mardi Gras, it’s about learning.
AI is becoming part of the carnival that bright, noisy, powerful, and everywhere. But if we only sit back and let it think for us, we risk becoming spectators of our own lives and minds.
It’s not that AI is bad, it’s that passivity is.
The real danger isn’t that AI gives us answers — it’s that we stop asking our own questions.
So: write the messy first draft. Ask the off-topic question. Build something just to see if you can. Jump into the carnival not just to watch, but to dance.
Stay weird. Stay thoughtful. Stay in the game.
Digital Challenge: Experiment Like a Player
Feeling stuck in your AI practice? Try these bold prompt structures from Wonder Tools:
“Show me 3 radically different ways to _____.”
“What would this look like from a child’s perspective? From a futurist’s? From a historian’s?”
“Give me results in the voice of ___ (a character or thinker you admire).”
“If I only had 5 minutes, what’s the simplest way to learn this?”
AI doesn’t get better with longer prompts, it gets better with braver ones.
Want a different kind of reset?
Try playing Balatro the strategic deck-building game that mirrors the joy of iterating and optimizing your ideas.
Or dust off an old game from your childhood and consider what did it teach you then that you still carry now?
Self-Authorship Analog Challenge: Create Your 10 Cards for Life Deck
Self-authorship is the ability to define your own beliefs, values, and direction instead of inheriting them from school, society, or status updates.
Challenge:
Grab paper and draw 10 cards like a personal deck.
Label each card with one principle you want to live by. (Example: “Ask Before Answering,” “Wander Daily,” “Finish What Matters.”)
Optional: Use this [AI prompt] to create digital art for each card:
Create a card design in tarot style for a deck called “10 Cards for Life.” Each card should represent a personal value or principle (e.g., Curiosity, Courage, Play). Include icons, a symbolic image, and the title.
Shuffle the deck. Reflect on the card that surfaces.
This deck is your strategy not just for a game, but for a season of life.
Here is one I am currently drafting. Keep in mind this in beta mode as I am working on something cooler I hope to share in the future. And yes it shows an Ace and King as I said…..beta
This card reminds me of the feeling I get when I’m fully immersed at a concert singing along with strangers, swaying with the rhythm, lost in the synergy of the moment. When I hold this card, it means stop reaching for your phone, stop planning the next thing, and start noticing what’s right here.
Being Present is about syncing up with the now. It’s not passive, it’s alive, active, and connected. You feel the crowd, the music, the air and for once, your to-do list vanishes.
Card Attributes:
Mental Clarity
Emotional Synergy
Timeless Attention
Use this card when your brain drifts into multitasking or future worry. It’s a cue to ground yourself. Ask: What’s beautiful about this moment I might miss if I rush through it?
In the game of life, BEING PRESENT is the combo card that powers every other value.
Closing Reflection
“We don’t control the cards we’re dealt, but we can choose how we play.”
Find the story. Stay curious. And don’t forget to press Play.
— Aaron (Coffeechug)
www.coffeeforthebrain.com