Each Trial is a strategy a real species uses, turned into something you can run yourself in about ten minutes. Each card says what to do and why it helps.
Trials drawn from real behaviour
What each Trial asks you to do, and what it does for you. Reading a Trial needs no account. 3,017 Trials across 2,325 species. Showing 721–780.
Choose a real span of at least ten years other than your own age, such as the years since you moved to your town or since you started a skill or hobby, and draw a large clam shell outline on paper with its hinge at the top. Starting from the hinge, draw one curved growth band for each year, making the first bands wide and each later band narrower until the last are packed tightly at the edge, and number every fifth band.
Why it helps
A calm drawing that turns your own years into something you can see at a glance.
1Lay a hose in an S and push a sock past both bends
2Try a straight spoon first
3Bend a hanger to the curve and draw it out
The Trial
Lay a detached vacuum-cleaner hose or wide flexible hose on the floor in an S shape and push a small rolled sock past both bends with a broom handle. First try to reach it with a straight wooden spoon, then bend a wire coat hanger into a curve that follows the hose and slowly draw the sock ball back out.
Why it helps
A gentle dexterity puzzle that rewards patience over force.
Cut six coin-sized dots from yellow paper or sticky notes. Mark each with a different pattern: one left plain, one with dark spots only, one with a red ring, one with red patches, one with a red-and-black mix and one of your own design, with no faces, then lay them in a row.
Why it helps
A playful bit of design that shows how variety can hide a whole group.
Find the one element of something of yours that sits at the wrong angle to everything else, the odd heading, the inconsistent name, the one different format, and bring it into line today.
Why it helps
One element at the wrong angle makes your whole thing look careless however good the rest is. Bringing just that into line takes minutes and changes how all of it reads.
Take something you normally do in interrupted sips, the reading, the reply, the call, and do the whole of it in one continuous go today without breaking off once.
Why it helps
Doing something in interrupted sips means you pay the re-entry cost every time and it stretches across your day. One continuous draw finishes it in a fraction of the total.
Take something you have been nudging at with a small precise effort and put real weight behind it today: block an hour, bring the right person, commit the budget. Same tool, much more mass.
Why it helps
Nudging at something repeatedly with small efforts is why it has not moved and you think the approach is wrong. The same approach with real weight behind it usually shifts it first try.
Take the scattered version of a task, the loose receipts, the messages across four apps, the half-finished notes, and spend the first part of the attempt gathering it all into one place before doing any of it. Only once it is together, do it in one pass.
Why it helps
Doing scattered things where they lie means you pay the setup cost over and over. Herding them into one place first feels like a delay and then the whole job takes a fraction of the time.
From one good vantage today, commit to whatever opportunity actually appears rather than the kind you had in mind, and take it without hesitating.
Why it helps
Holding out from a good position for the kind of opportunity you pictured means watching real ones go past. Taking what appears is what the vantage was for.
Find one convention you are following that this particular context does not actually reward, and drop it today, replacing it with something that fits here.
Why it helps
Carrying a convention into a context that does not reward it costs you effort and signals that you have not read the room. Dropping it frees the effort and fits better.
For a stretch today that you cannot fix or leave, deliberately drop your output rate instead of fighting it: do the minimum, decline everything optional, lower the standard on purpose. Say out loud when it ends.
Why it helps
Fighting a stretch you cannot change burns the reserves you will need afterwards. Deliberately dropping your rate with a stated end point gets you through intact instead of wrecked.
Name one precaution you take that buys you nothing in this particular situation: the extra check nobody reads, the quiet mode nobody needs, the tidy-up before a job that makes mess. Drop it, then do the task without it.
Why it helps
You keep paying for a habit that was useful somewhere else. Naming the one that buys nothing here and dropping it frees up the effort for the thing that actually decides the outcome.
Shut one thing down completely today for a stated period rather than running it at reduced capacity, and state what will restart it.
Why it helps
Running something at half capacity through a bad season costs you most of what full running would and returns almost nothing. A real shutdown with a restart condition costs you nothing.
2Drop in peas one at a time, croaking loudly each time
3Get all twenty in before it drains to the hole
The Trial
Over a sink, poke one hole in the side wall of a paper cup about two centimetres above the base, well above where the peas will settle, then do a test fill and widen the hole until the water falls from the brim to the hole in about twenty seconds; the pool counts as dry once the water is down to the hole. Refill it to the brim and start dropping twenty dried peas in one by one, giving a loud croak with every pea.
Why it helps
A frantic, noisy twenty-second race that is genuinely hard to win.
Identify the one capability of yours that only matters when conditions are bad. Use it today on something genuinely hard rather than on the easy work in front of you.
Why it helps
Spending good conditions on easy work leaves you unsure which of your abilities actually holds up when things get hard. Testing the hard-conditions one now means you know what you have before you need it.
Ask someone who agrees to join in to sit across a table from you with their hands flat on it and their eyes closed. Agree nothing in advance. Tap one short rhythm on the tabletop with your fingertips, quietly enough that it is felt more than heard. They tap back the rhythm they felt. Do it three times.
Why it helps
Loud is not the only way to reach someone. Sending a quiet signal through the right channel, and seeing it arrive intact, shows you how much carries when you choose how it travels.
Send one recurring signal today from the same fixed place you will always send it from, and tell people that is its address.
Why it helps
A signal arriving from somewhere different each time makes people hunt for it and miss some of yours. A fixed address means they always know where to look.
Agree a short drummed pattern with someone in another room and send it through the wall, floor or a table so they act on it. No voices, no phones, no appearing round the door.
Why it helps
You end up with a signal that works through a closed door, which is more useful than it sounds.
With whoever shares your work or home, state a shared boundary out loud together to the people around you today rather than each mentioning it separately.
Why it helps
A boundary mentioned by one of you separately reads as a personal preference and gets tested. Both of you saying it together reads as the rule and it stops being questioned.
Choose one leafy houseplant that has not been wiped for at least a month and pick a starting leaf. Holding a light-coloured damp cloth up to the camera first, work around the plant in one full circle, wiping each leaf gently top and bottom and removing any dead leaves or debris from the soil surface, until you are back where you started.
Why it helps
A healthier plant and a quietly satisfying bit of care.
Find one thing you care about that you have been cleaning or maintaining the wrong way - a wool coat, a leather item, a keyboard, a cast-iron pan. Look up the dry method for it and do that instead today: brush it, powder it, wipe it, oil it. No water anywhere near it.
Why it helps
Cleaning delicate things the way you clean everything else is how you slowly destroy them and then replace them. Ten minutes learning the dry method saves the thing you already own.
Take one collaboration where you have become a part rather than a whole. Today, restore your own complete version of the work end to end, and keep the connection to the others at the base only.
Why it helps
Becoming a part rather than a whole in a collaboration means you cannot function if it ends, and everyone knows it. Keeping your own complete version lets you join things without becoming dependent on them.
Add to one store of trust today with something genuinely useful, and draw nothing from it, noting the ratio of what you have added to what you have drawn.
Why it helps
Drawing on people's trust more often than you add to it means it is gone precisely when you need it most. Keeping the ratio honest is what keeps it available.
Deliberately make two of your information sources asymmetric today, positioned differently rather than matched, and use the difference.
Why it helps
Two matched sources tell you the same thing twice and you still cannot place it. Making them deliberately asymmetric adds a dimension you did not have.
Lay a stretchy child's sock flat beside an orange and check with a ruler that the unstretched opening is narrower than the orange is wide. Slowly work the opening wider with your fingers and ease the whole orange down inside, then ease it back out and let the sock spring back.
Why it helps
A slow, satisfying stretching puzzle with a genuinely surprising result.
While things are going well this week, put something aside specifically for a hard stretch: money moved, meals frozen, a task done early, a favour banked. Do it today and label what it is for.
Why it helps
Good weeks feel like your reward, so nothing gets stored and the bad week arrives empty. One deliberate reserve put aside while things are fine makes the hard stretch survivable rather than damaging.
Find one situation you normally avoid because it catches people. Go in today with a stated exit condition, take only the specific thing you went for, and leave the moment you have it.
Why it helps
Avoiding situations entirely because they catch people means you never touch the things they have caught. A stated exit condition lets you go in, take the one thing, and get out intact.
Prepare and eat a small meal or snack made only from one plant type you already have, such as basil, spinach, lettuce, or apple slices. Take each leaf or slice one at a time for about twelve minutes, finishing that host before adding any other food.
Why it helps
You practice specialist focus by finishing one resource fully before switching.
Identify one short window today when something you need is abundant, and take far more than you need from it in that window rather than a daily sensible amount. Then stop and live off what you took.
Why it helps
Taking a sensible daily amount from something that will not last leaves you short when it ends. Loading up while it is abundant means the lean months cost you nothing.
Sit at a table with a bowl of ten grapes and set a phone to record audio and video. Take and eat all ten, one at a time, so slowly and carefully that no rustle, clink or chew can be heard.
Why it helps
A calm, oddly focusing snack that slows you right down.
Instead of looking for new input today, process what has already accumulated where you are, the unread pile or the unsorted material, and work through a measured amount of it.
Why it helps
Looking for new input while material piles up where you are means you own a lot and have used none of it. Processing a measured amount of the pile is where the value you already paid for is.
Identify something abundant around you that everyone avoids for one specific reason, then solve that reason rather than avoiding it too: the format, the tool, the permission, the skill. Take some of it today.
Why it helps
Abundant things sit untouched because of one specific obstacle, not because they are worthless. Solving that obstacle once gives you a supply nobody is competing for.
Eat one ingredient today that you normally ignore entirely, as a real part of a meal rather than a token taste, and treat it as a genuine option from now on.
Why it helps
Ignoring most of what is available means your options collapse whenever the usual thing is gone. Actually eating one of them widens what you can live on.
Take the leftover nobody else wanted, the data after the headline, the unread appendix, the remains of the project, and extract the useful part from it. Work it properly rather than skimming.
Why it helps
What everyone else discarded is the only material nobody is competing over, and it usually still holds most of the value. Learning to open it gives you findings other people cannot get.
Take the part of one resource today that others discard, and use it properly rather than taking the part everyone is after.
Why it helps
Competing for the part everyone wants means paying the full price for a share. Taking what they throw away gets you something free and nobody notices you have it.
Identify the one specific thing that makes an abundant nearby resource unusable to everyone, solve just that today, and take some of the resource.
Why it helps
An abundant resource nobody uses usually has exactly one obstacle in front of it, not many. Solving that single thing gives you a supply with no competition at all.
Find the thing around you everyone treats as unusable waste, the broken item, the dead data, the unreadable file, the awkward offcut, and get actual value out of it. Not tidying it away, using it. Show the waste and what you got from it.
Why it helps
You compete for inputs everyone wants and ignore the pile nobody will touch. Learning to get value from the written-off supply gives you a cheap source with no competition for it.
Find the tough thing growing back after a mess that everyone keeps stepping around, the half-fixed process, the unresolved thread, the deferred decision, and deal with that one specifically today.
Why it helps
Everyone handles the easy regrowth and steps around the tough bit, which is the bit that eventually takes over your whole week. Dealing with that one thing is what stops it coming back.
Take the protection for one thing today from something you were already doing, and make it visible rather than adding a separate safeguard.
Why it helps
Adding a separate safeguard for everything means more to maintain than the thing itself. Taking it from what you already do and showing it costs you nothing extra.
Use one resource today in its unready state that everyone else is waiting to mature, and state what the finished version would have cost you to wait for.
Why it helps
Waiting for the ready version means you compete for it with everyone and go without until then. The unready version is uncontested and usually does the job.
Show the thing everyone around you avoids: the unloved job, the ignored shelf, the unfashionable tool, the empty hour nobody books. Say out loud why people skip it. Then do it or use it, and show what you got for zero competition.
Why it helps
Competing for the crowded prize costs you the most for the least. Taking what other people find distasteful gets you an abundant supply that nobody will fight you over.
Take on one low-value thing today that nobody else wants to deal with, and build or borrow the specific capability that makes it workable for you.
Why it helps
Competing for the rich resources means your result depends on beating better-equipped people. A poor one with no queue is yours, and the equipment is cheap.
Name one task or opportunity everyone around you avoids because it is unpleasant or awkward. Take a real piece of it today, and leave the popular work to the people competing for it.
Why it helps
Competing for the work everyone wants means you fight hard for a normal share. Taking the thing nobody will touch gives you the whole supply and almost no competition for it.
Meet one need today from within the place you are already safe, and refuse the trip out that you would normally make for it.
Why it helps
Leaving your safe setup to get something means the trip is where things go wrong, every time. Meeting the need from inside it costs you a smaller version and nothing else.
Take something of yours that has stopped working, an old setup, a dead draft, a broken arrangement, and take it apart, keeping every usable piece. Then build the replacement using those pieces. Show the teardown pile and the new version.
Why it helps
You either keep limping along with the broken version or start from nothing. Stripping it for parts first means the rebuild is cheap, which is what makes rebuilding often rather than rarely possible.
Draw a chalk strip three metres long and a hand wide on dry, smooth paving, and lay yoga mats or a folded blanket runner directly beside it, leaving the strip itself uncovered. Wearing elbow pads or a thick sweatshirt, lie on the mats and pull yourself along on your forearms with legs relaxed, sweeping a damp cloth side to side across the strip just ahead of your shoulder until it is wiped away.
Why it helps
A real core workout disguised as a very odd cleaning job.
Release one thing today only once it can survive unattended, accepting that you will produce far fewer of them.
Why it helps
Releasing things before they can survive alone means spending months nursing them and losing most anyway. Fewer, released ready, costs you less overall.
Fill a basin or sink with water. A helper tips fifteen plastic bottle caps onto the surface at once; within three seconds of them landing you make one single wide scoop with a large sieve or colander. Do three rounds, aiming for ten in one scoop.
Why it helps
A quick, splashy game about acting decisively on a brief chance.
Surround one problem with others today and raise the pressure collectively, stopping just short of what any of you cannot sustain.
Why it helps
Facing something that kills you individually means losing however hard you try. Surrounding it together raises the pressure past what it survives and not past what you do.
Cut a small fish from tissue paper, draw a coin-sized target circle on it, lay it flat on a table and trace its outline in pencil around it. Roll a sheet of paper into a wide cone with a pencil-sized hole at the tip, lower it mouth-down over the fish so gently that the fish does not shift, then push a pencil through the tip hole once to make a single dot.
Why it helps
A calm, focused test of slow hands and aim that rewards patience over speed.
