Rules lawyer. Cardflopper. Board gamer. Once. Proprietor of Spielipinas Games and Hobbies. 1/3 of Besh and Brod/Besh and Brodcast on Youtube. Ocknarf on bsky.
Games have hidden dimensions that aren't often talked about.
One thing I noticed about Magic the Gathering pros which i wonder if still holds true - a lot of them don't pay attention to their timing at all.
I would often get very strong reads on what someone did or didn't have based on the timing of their play.
This reverses at the top-top levels.
I once saw Jon Finkel (one of the goats) draw a card that protected his creature from a removal spell, then pass the turn. On his opponent's turn - the creature was removed. Jon didn't even blink, he instantly binned it - he had already made the decision not to save it beforehand.
A more personal story is me against Antoine Ruel (another goat) - we had a very complicated board state, low on time, and were both playing very fast.
Out of nowhere he suddenly played a removal spell, attacked me with 13 creatures, and played a pump spell on the unblocked one to hit me for exactly lethal damage when I was at 15 life.
He had done all the calculations in his head without giving it away, and so it caught me completely by surprise.
The timing dimension exists in poker as well, and not many people who aren't elite are aware and know how to use it.
The lower the stakes you play the more information people give away. And even the guys who try to have "same timing for everything" tend to give away quite a lot on the occasions when they accidentally forget.
You have no idea how true this post is.
My Dress Up Darling has shaped how I interact with people for the last several years. Marin's opinions about how you should support other people's hobbies and how people who would mock you for your hobbies are not worth your time helped me come out of my shell and even start dating again.
But even before then, I had characters like Naruto teaching me to never give up even when faced with great adversity. Even Ash Ketchum helped me as a child. He never stopped trying to become a Pokemon Master even after failing so many times.
I would not be the person I am today without anime.