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I think conditioned reinforcers can actually be beneficial for pursing long-term goals. Let's say someone's purpose in life is to have a positive impact on the

by wuj 2y ago

I think conditioned reinforcers can actually be beneficial for pursing long-term goals. Let's say someone's purpose in life is to have a positive impact on the world, metrics such as audience reached provide a tangible interface for this abstract goal. Similar to using your credit card, gamification mechanisms like chasing metrics lets you experience the rewards of your efforts prematurely, which motivates you to work harder to achieve more. And this whole loop can be part of a positive-sum game too. Metrics is a straightforward way to demonstrate how you can achieve your sense of purpose. When you share your strategy on maximizing those metrics, you incentivize and guide others to start their own journeys. If what you did inspire even one person to start acting, you've already added value to the system.

pixl97 2y ago
>“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.” I think a huge part of gamification in the modern age is quite often a large number of the goal are not being chosen for your benefit, but to your detriment instead. This becomes problematic when gamification is part of a system that you can't opt out of and/or may not understand the metrics of well. Think back the the early to middle facebook days. They gamified getting other people to sign up for facebook/facebook games by making a meta game where you get useful items in game by sending out those invites. We're always taught 'actual' games are fun and have little side effects. Dangerous games were we sell our soul to the devil or some other negative consequence have been relegated to fairy tales. And because of this general line of thought that games are harmless we've been pushing more and more potentially dangerous actions into games, such as mass information gathering by companies, and what is effectively gambling in kids games. So, yea, we play games in the first place because they give us positive feelings, but just blindingly accepting any game as good is dangerous because it will bypass our internal safety checks on if doing something is a bad idea.

by wuj 2y ago

pixl97 2y ago

>“Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.” I think a huge part of gamification in the modern age is quite often a large number of the goal are not being chosen for your benefit, but to your detriment instead. This becomes problematic when gamification is part of a system that you can't opt out of and/or may not understand the metrics of well. Think back the the early to middle facebook days. They gamified getting other people to sign up for facebook/facebook games by making a meta game where you get useful items in game by sending out those invites. We're always taught 'actual' games are fun and have little side effects. Dangerous games were we sell our soul to the devil or some other negative consequence have been relegated to fairy tales. And because of this general line of thought that games are harmless we've been pushing more and more potentially dangerous actions into games, such as mass information gathering by companies, and what is effectively gambling in kids games. So, yea, we play games in the first place because they give us positive feelings, but just blindingly accepting any game as good is dangerous because it will bypass our internal safety checks on if doing something is a bad idea.