Klaus Teuber died this week. His career began in dental hygiene, but by its end he’d designed one of the world’s most influential board games, The Settlers of Catan. I learned it about 20 years ago from a college buddy, and right away fell in love with its balance of strategy and luck. Enough of the former to make it interesting, enough of the latter to appeal to a broad audience. It also requires deft handling of social dynamics through alliances, trades, and the occasional threat.

It’s hard to overstate the influence this game has had on my life. Quick games of Catan formed early bonds between myself and my wife during the stress of having young kids. When we moved to San Diego it was a vehicle to make new friends in an unfamiliar area. And it’s been a staple of family game night since my children were in middle school (I still remember exactly where we were when we taught them to play for the first time). The above photo is from a game played just last night (I’m green, and I won with 4 cities and longest road).

I once read that a typical person will have a direct influence on 10,000 others over the course of a lifetime. No idea if that’s true (or what “typical person” could even mean), but the point remains that whatever influence we each have, it’s likely larger than we think. Certainly Klaus Teuber had no idea that his game would affect me and my family so positively. But I’m thankful nonetheless.

When I die, it won’t really matter what systems or organizations I’ve built, but it will matter how those systems and organizations have influenced the people involved, and promoted human flourishing more broadly. My tools are technology, but they’re not the goal.