There's a good point there, if you can get through the awful writing that it's wrapped in. It's just too easy to play a video game or read a blog post instead

There's a good point there, if you can get through the awful writing that it's wrapped in. It's just too easy to play a video game or read a blog post instead of write code. And in the short run it's more fun (if this isn't you, count yourself lucky). Three hours later you realize you've completely wasted an evening. I have a friend who has natural musical talent. After watching him whip up on Guitar Hero, we talked about getting together to play actual guitar sometime. Maybe we will, maybe we won't, but I am quite sure we'll play GH again. The lure of fake gratification and fake accomplishment is awfully hard to resist for a lot of us. It is a problem and worth talking about. Also I think we'll be able to figure out better ways of managing a world full of shiny fake rewards as we get more used to it.