(Note: This article was written by guest columnist Christina Arrostudo)

I used to start just about every day at my PC, playing Solitaire by random shuffle, until I either won a game or had to give up._ After hundreds of tries, with a win rate of 13 percent, my goal came to be to reach 14 percent. It was slow going._ Some days were better than others-the first or second game magically aligning for a win, the 34th game bumping up against running for the bus-but I kept at it. All I’d learned over the past decade about early brain development had piqued my interest about brains in general, and I knew that just about the best thing for staying sharp is some kind of mental challenge.
Last year, I evolved away from my PC and my MS Surface to an iPad. I had a new boss who used one, so I wanted to know my way around the iPad for professional purposes. My most fundamental learning came early and hasn’t changed: Im way less productive and having way more fun.
For example, I found a “daily challenge” Solitaire game on the iPad that offered much less in the way of frustration than my former random shuffling._ This game was WINNABLE EVERY DAY; and that, I did, almost every day in a short sitting._ If not successful on the first try, I learned to toggle back and back to my likely alternative, such as choosing the 8 of Spades rather than the 8 of Clubs. Sometimes, but not so often as to be annoying, the game was unwinnable by skill and required surrendering logic to random moves that sooner or later generated success._ Rarely, I’d have to leave the game for another day and go back and back until it finally yielded, not to my skill but rather to my persistence.
Meanwhile, my “real” work suffered as never before, due to the lack of utility and fun factor of the iPad._ There was no mouse, so it is endlessly challenging to move around in a document. There is no Apple equivalent to MS Office, and the version for iPads, while resembling my beloved programs, has none of the supporting utility of a hard drive to save and send._ My email disappears (into a “Cloud?) after three or four days, so I have an empty inbox-out of sight, out of mind, out of luck off you wanted me to answer that. (Yes, I know there are new ways around these issues;can’t I at least get credit for trying the iPad first?) And the screen is so litte. Please don’t celebrate that it’s bigger than a smartphone! It’s smaller, so much so than the actual television we hooked up to the PC, that the pure joy of writing is stunted.
This must be how those minis making the illuminated Manuscripts felt when the printing press was invented, and the fact that they were right will not stop the march of time-and progress. So, enough lamenting._ I’m writing this because I sat down at the PC this morning and even after l0 months, my fingers clicked on the Solitaire game icon before my brain even engaged.
As soon as I started playing, my mind double-clicked on this difference between the two experiences and I wondered is it more fun or fulfilling to play randomly or for a sure win? How much of that is the technology versus the game itself?
Then I leapt to that thing about productivity and the sheer joy of work. What have I gained or lost?
Finally, an even bigger leap: how much of my life has become about instant (or at least, quicker and easier) gratification versus hard work, persistence and quality? To the extent that life has sped up, how much of what I’m losing is okay? And, just in case it matters, am I even giving_ brain that workout it deserves?P.S. I won my random game on the second try. 2366 games played, 354 wins.
14.96 percent. I’m getting there.

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