Welcome, this is the Magic color Blue. Five weeks ago, Mark Rosewater, the author of Making Magic, began a five-column series called "My Words," which he hopes to complete this year. He is allowing each color a full article to talk with all of you directly to allow us the opportunity to explain our philosophy. This series is based on a similar series on Mark's podcast Drive to Work. You can find those episodes here. I hope you will find those episodes and today's article informative.

I believe every person is born as a blank slate, what Aristotle referred to as the "tabula rasa." The core idea of this is that individuals are born free of any mental content. Who you are, what you can be, what you can do—that is all left to potential. Who you will become is shaped by many things: the people you interact with, the knowledge you learn, the experiences you have, and the tools and technologies to which you have access. But more important than any of those things is your own internal drive. The person who you become will be driven by who you want to be. This is the core of what I believe.

There are a lot of ramifications that come from this idea. First, if you want to become the best version of yourself, that requires a lot of knowledge. Throughout your life, you will be making a myriad of choices that dictate who you become. How do you make the right decision each time? You arm yourself with the necessary information to make those choices. This means education is key. I believe that a person's foremost goal should be to learn as much as they can as early as they can. The idiom "knowledge is power" has a lot of truth in it.

Let me explain it like this. Let's say you're interested in driving to a vacation destination. How can you have the best vacation? Well, you'll want to do research. First, figure out how far you're willing to drive, determine the driving radius, then create a list of all the potential vacation sites. Rank them through some objective means, then study the top candidates. Ultimately, pick the one that best matches your interests. Yes, this will take work, but it will increase the chances that you'll have the optimal vacation.

In contrast, you could just get in your car and start driving, allowing chance to determine your path. What are the odds that this leads to you finding the optimal vacation site? Miniscule. Maybe, you'll find that site if you're lucky. But, statistically speaking, your odds are low. And if you do this every time you take a vacation, the law of averages will ensure a high rate of failure.

This is how most people live their lives. They make key decisions on a whim, not taking the time to understand the ramifications of the choices they're making, always acting without thinking first. That's why I'm a big advocate of not rushing decisions. It's better to take your time to understand all the ramifications of your choices, so when you finally do decide, you're making the best long-term decision for yourself.

Yes, this means slowing down, but there are a lot of advantages to taking your time to understand what you're doing. Doing something correctly affects the rest of your life. I could just take the first job that offers me a position or marry the first person who shows an interest in me, but will that lead to my best life? Don't I want a job that challenges and satisfies me and a partner that best complements who I am? Living your best life takes work, but I promise that it pays off in the long run.

Before I move on to my next point, I do want to stress that knowledge takes many forms. Knowledge can be a formal education, where you seek out the best teachers who challenge you to learn and grow. Knowledge can come from reading, listening, and watching. Most knowledge has been recorded in some form, be it in words, sounds, or images. Find it, absorb it, learn from it. Let each thing you learn inspire new questions that will send you to new sources. Knowledge is about communicating with other people. Everyone you meet will know things that you don't or may be an expert in areas that you aren't. Talk to them. Allow them to share their knowledge and wisdom. All of this is a lifelong task. You will never know everything, but you can always learn more.

So, it's important for a person to prioritize gaining knowledge. But you also want to undergo as many experiences as you can. It's one thing to know something, but it's a different thing to experience it. You can read endless books on chemistry, but you won't really understand it until you get into a laboratory and start doing your own experiments. If your quest is to become the best version of yourself, you'll need these lived experiences. This is partly to understand what you enjoy and what interests you but also to understand what you dislike and what you don't want to pursue. Nothing will give you a sense of newness like experience.

What else should you consider? Technology and tools are very important. There are many things that are beyond your capabilities, but that doesn't mean you're unable to do them. It just means you might need help. Let's say you open a book and the words are blurry. Do you give up reading? No, you get glasses. Tools and technology allow you to access things you normally couldn't, further your education, and increase the opportunities available to you. This means that it's important to understand which tools and technologies are available, and that is an ever-changing list as technology adapts and people invent new things.

How do we create a world where everyone is free to reach their own potential? The answer, again, is knowledge. We must create the tools that allow knowledge to be collected and shared. We must create the means by which we teach people knowledge. We also must prioritize creating all the various tools that will enable each of those two endeavors. This is a complex task.

First and foremost, we must instill in the populace a comprehensive understanding of our goals. For people to find their potential, we must teach them that such a thing exists. This idea has to be one of the first things we teach children. You can be whoever you want to be. We then must explain that such a thing requires a lot of work, but that the payoff for that work is enormous. The greatest reward in life is living up to your own potential.

Next, we need to have an amazing educational system that strives to help individuals reach their goals. This will start with a core curriculum that spells out all the different key decisions they will have to make along with the various possibilities of those decisions.

We will then create tools for the necessary research. We need to have depositories of knowledge that are deep and accessible. Once we have that, we have to educate everyone on what tools exist and how best to use them to access that information.

This will also require tools that help people learn what they can and wish to pursue. For example, we want to have resources for a person to study chemistry, but we also need the means for each person to learn about what chemistry is so that they can understand if it is an area they wish to explore more.

This isn't just an investment in tools and technology but in people. There is no higher calling in our society than teaching others. Spreading of knowledge is the central pillar of our society. The people who help spread that knowledge must be revered. We want the people who are the best at spreading knowledge and helping others learn to feel encouraged to do so. A society can only be as strong as the people who teach that society.

It's also important to understand that this optimization is not limited to individuals. You should strive to be the best person you can be, but you should also strive to have the best family, the best community, and the best society. Part of being the best person you can be is being part of something larger than yourself. Just like we need tools to enable individual improvement, we also need tools for larger groups and society.

Creating the type of society that I want also requires a certain mindset. The key to finding your ultimate potential is the creation of a society that values efficiency over expediency. The society must prioritize intellect over emotion, understand the importance of taking your time to do something right, and account for all the variables. We can have a perfect society, but perfection comes with a lot of work.

Let's talk about the other Magic colors. I'll start with one of my allies, White. White shares my desire for optimization, especially on a societal level. White is an amazing motivator. White understands that the key to influencing people is to provide them with information and teach them the ramifications of their decisions. White also understands the value of long-term thinking. It's not afraid to take its time and strategize for the best outcome, even if that will require a lot of tiny steps along the way. White, like me, is willing to put in the work to get the outcome it wants.

White is much more focused on the outcome of the group over the individual. While White is amazing at communicating, it favors a strong, singular message over a more complex one. I want everyone to find their own unique path, while White sends everyone down the same path. I understand that there's a lot of power in simplicity of message, but it limits individuals' potential.

That's my main gripe with White's approach. White is so focused on making an optimized society that it overlooks each individual's ability to shine. A big part of what makes a society great is its ability to recognize that a combination of different skills can come together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. At times, you have to spend more resources on certain individuals than others. White is unwilling to do that. White's insistence on treating every individual the same comes at a cost, one I think constrains individuals and society.

Next, let's talk about Black, my other ally. Black is the Magic color that most agrees with me on the importance of personal choice. The individual is free to choose who they are and their path in life. Black and I don't believe in destiny or the idea that things outside of your control dictate your life. I'm more focused on identity (who you are), and Black is more focused on one's personal role (what you're able to do), but the two intersect.

We also agree that part of succeeding is taking advantage of the knowledge you have that others don't. Because I believe knowledge is power, I understand that part of winning a fight is having a better understanding than your opponent about what elements of the conflict matter. That means subterfuge and misdirection are often key to victory. Black has more of an "I'll do whatever I have to do to win" attitude, but we both believe there's power in wielding knowledge as a weapon.

While Black and I both want individuals to optimize their own abilities, Black is willing to do things that I am not. Part of my vision for society includes allowing each person to shine and creating a society where the individuals work together. Black is more than happy to allow some individuals to shine at the expense of others. That is not something I am willing to do.

My biggest problem with Black is their recklessness. Black's desire for power often encourages them to take risks, albeit calculated ones. Those can result in Black not reaching its full potential and succumbing to its worst vices.

With my allies out of the way, let's get to my enemies. First up is the color Red. As I explained above, the key to successfully finding your potential is careful thought and long-term thinking. You need to use your intellect to examine each choice that comes your way, slowly walking through every option, weighing its pros and cons. Red has none of that. Red is all about emotions, snap decisions, and short-term thinking. Red not only throws away its potential with every decision it makes, but they seem to revel in the chaos. Red is the embodiment of carelessness, a dangerous force that can undo all of my hard work.

The scary part of Red is that it taps into the visceral part of a person that's incapable of employing logic. Emotions are faster and louder than thoughts. That mindset lulls you into doing things that you never would if you took just a moment to think about them. In a moment, you can take actions that can have lifelong consequences. That's the danger of recklessness. It might take years to reach the pinnacle of your potential, but you can destroy that work in seconds.

I do appreciate that Red is very creative. An important part of living an intellectual life is understanding that the correct decision isn't always the obvious one. Sometimes the most important element of a problem hides out of view. You have to be willing to change your perspective to find it. Red is careless and reckless, but that disconnected state allows them to access these tangential ideas in a way I'm honestly impressed by.

That brings us to my other enemy color, Green. Our conflict is one as old as time: nature versus nurture. Green believes that you're beholden to your genes, that who you are is based on the innate qualities you were born with. Green does not believe in a blank slate. You enter the world with the identity you will have, and your job is to accept it without complaint. There's no alternative. That's the antithesis of what I believe. Green doesn't believe in the concept of choice. They feel you have no say in who you get to be.

Green is basically against everything I believe in. Like Red, Green has a disdain for intellect. Green is all about instinct, about creatures acting based on the natural impulses they were born with. Green hates artifice. They consider anything that isn't natural to be an abomination to be destroyed. Left unchecked, they would abolish all my tools and technologies. They only believe in a very narrow band of education. In Green's eyes, you should only study what was and never what could be. Green wallows in ignorance and repeats all the mistakes of the past.

One of the things I think is important is that good ideas come from every aspect of life. While I don't believe in simply repeating what came before, I do recognize that nature has a lot of good ideas, that evolution as a force is a positive one. It's the one area where I do see eye to eye with Green. Natural evolution does allow better ideas to win out, and there's a lot we can learn by studying that.

This brings us to my strengths and weaknesses. My greatest strength is obviously my knowledge. I simply know more things than the other Magic colors. This grants me several advantages. First off, I can see and understand systems in a way the other Magic colors can't. It's the reason I'm able to counter spells, something none of the other Magic colors do with my proficiency. I have a nuanced understanding of casting spells. I can fight it at a base level that the other Magic colors can't.

My knowledge also gives me access to more ideas at a faster and stronger rate than any other color. This allows me, over time, to build up resources that can deal with any threat. Give me enough time, and I can take down any opponent, regardless of their weapons. I am the master of control.

This, of course, leads to my greatest weakness. I need time to process. My process is about being thorough, but it isn't about being quick. If an opponent is too aggressive, I can get overwhelmed. Also, my magic is more reactive in nature, which can cause problems when my opponent is being less direct in their attack. Basically, when my opponent fights on my terms, I will dominate. But many foes don't do that. When I'm fighting against someone who's taking shortcuts, I can get in trouble.

Each color will explain why their way is the best way. Each of the other colors, though, will talk about how doing what they want will be good for you. I'm here to say that I want you to become the best version of yourself. All I ask is that you allow yourself the time and attention to truly understand who you are and what you need. Once you do, I want to provide you with the education, experiences, tools, technologies, and time to allow you to reach that potential. I'm not asking you to do something for me. I want you to do something for yourself.

Thank you for coming here today and listening to what I have to say.

One last thing. Mark is interested in gathering data (bless his heart) about your interest in what I had to say today. You can email him or contact him through any of his social media accounts (Bluesky, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, and X) with feedback on this article or your thoughts on me, the color Blue.

Until then, take the time to learn about who you are and what you truly need to thrive.