Gamifying Yourself

We can apply the same principles consumer tech, marketers, and other establishments inflict without going Full Kaczynski.

From the time we are very young, the world we inhabit shapes us in a thousand million ways. 

Some are subtle like a glance from an authority figure while others are blunt like a school bell or a jingle that permeates our cochleae.

We are fully aware of how some of these external cues shape our attitudes and behaviors, while others sneak up on us.

When we look in the mirror on this first day of the year, the person we see is an amalgam of genetics, the world we’ve inhabited since birth, and the ways we’ve responded to it.

To a degree, we have been acted upon, gamified by our environment.

Since before the invention of Asteroids, this gamification has accelerated alongside Moore's Law and it hit hyperspace around 2004 when Zuckerberg launched Facebook, and the influence of intentional external reinforcements began to infiltrate personality development more than ever before.

We’re getting gamified by all the traditional sources plus Google, TickTock, Meta, Snapchat, Apple etc who manipulate our dopamine receptors at scale for profit.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to acquiesce, pulled around by these cunning behaviorist bastards like a dog getting leash trained.

We can take our feedback loops back.

Gamifying Yourself

The processes I mention above regarding how external cues help to shape who we are reminds me of how video game makers hook us in.

Here are a couple examples of the mechanics they employ.

Early Success - Did you ever notice how level one of almost every game is so easy? 

Game makers do this to give you a nice early success. You and your brain love the feeling of it and so you want to repeat it. They are engaging the pleasure receptors in your brain with the feeling of a win.

Intermittent Reinforcement - This just means that when failures get mixed in with successes, the successes become that much more powerful in terms of keeping you engaged.

So when you beat level one, then fail level two, you just want to play again that much more.

And when you tweet something that gets few likes, it plays more of a part in the insidious addictive feedback loop than you realize.

We do not have to remain beholden to the game mechanics other parties envelope us with like the iron hand in a velvet glove.

We can apply the same principles consumer tech, marketers, and other establishments inflict without going Full Kaczynski.

Some Tips to Get You Started 

Begin at Level One - Whatever journey you are embarking on, whatever mountain you are about to climb, start with something that you feel confident you can do. Easy level one.

So if you are going to run a marathon, start with jogging a mile if that’s where you are.

Reward Yourself - You can do this by taking conscious note of the benefits you are deriving from your actions.

If you wake up from a good night’s sleep after practicing good sleep hygiene, take note of how you feel. Write it down in a Google Docs or somewhere.

You want to be aware of the reward for the behavior you’ve initiated like a Like, a Retweet, or an @ Reply.

Follow Failures with Success - If you get stuck at a failure level, back up and do something easy again. This is like going back to level one in a game after you’ve lost. This is intermittent reinforcement.

We can take back control of our brains and today is a good day to begin.