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Thanks for this. I was hoping someone would cover the obvious: games are fun! Why is that we feel the need to justify fun? Isn't fun (a form of happiness) what

by eludwig 10y ago

Thanks for this. I was hoping someone would cover the obvious: games are fun! Why is that we feel the need to justify fun? Isn't fun (a form of happiness) what we are all striving to be able to have more of?

dvtv75 10y ago
Sometimes we feel the need to justify fun because it takes away from otherwise productive time we would have had. In the past year, I've racked up more than 400 hours playing RimWorld, well over two weeks just playing that. I'm sure I could have found something more useful and interesting to do than that.
- meheleventyone 10y ago
  I think considering this as a zero sum exchange is pretty unhealthy. Different activities have very different trade offs. Why is lesuire time considered unproductive? Does everything need to obviously contribute to something you feel is productive? Can lesuire activities contribute to productivity? Personally I think spending time playing games, reading, watching tv and other activities are essential to remaining productive. Not least because they are all interesting input to consider things in different ways. But also because they give me space.
jessriedel 10y ago
> Isn't fun (a form of happiness) what we are all striving to be able to have more of? No, we are not all striving to have more happiness (although some people surely are). So long as you don't circularly define happiness as "that feeling you get when you accomplish your goals", then most people have at least some goals besides happiness, and some of us explicitly advocate that many or most goals should not be happiness related.
- eludwig 10y ago
  Fair enough. "All" was a poor choice of words. I would be the last (more hyperbole) person to tell anyone how to live their life. Also, I failed to mention why I replied to the parent post: the mention of moderation. I think if you are listening to how you're feeling, you can (one can) tell when a life strategy isn't working. The important things in life will make their demands known.
yestoallthat 10y ago
Games are fun, until some dude in Path of Exile hands out free items because he'll delete his account after his wife divorced him for playing 24/7. And such.

by eludwig 10y ago

dvtv75 10y ago

Sometimes we feel the need to justify fun because it takes away from otherwise productive time we would have had. In the past year, I've racked up more than 400 hours playing RimWorld, well over two weeks just playing that. I'm sure I could have found something more useful and interesting to do than that.

meheleventyone 10y ago
I think considering this as a zero sum exchange is pretty unhealthy. Different activities have very different trade offs. Why is lesuire time considered unproductive? Does everything need to obviously contribute to something you feel is productive? Can lesuire activities contribute to productivity? Personally I think spending time playing games, reading, watching tv and other activities are essential to remaining productive. Not least because they are all interesting input to consider things in different ways. But also because they give me space.

jessriedel 10y ago

> Isn't fun (a form of happiness) what we are all striving to be able to have more of? No, we are not all striving to have more happiness (although some people surely are). So long as you don't circularly define happiness as "that feeling you get when you accomplish your goals", then most people have at least some goals besides happiness, and some of us explicitly advocate that many or most goals should not be happiness related.

eludwig 10y ago
Fair enough. "All" was a poor choice of words. I would be the last (more hyperbole) person to tell anyone how to live their life. Also, I failed to mention why I replied to the parent post: the mention of moderation. I think if you are listening to how you're feeling, you can (one can) tell when a life strategy isn't working. The important things in life will make their demands known.

yestoallthat 10y ago

Games are fun, until some dude in Path of Exile hands out free items because he'll delete his account after his wife divorced him for playing 24/7. And such.