Reality is broken, but I made a game to fix it.

[@christopherbudnick]

I've posted some of the notes I used to create this game, video, and my analysis of my favorite games here as a public post that anyone can view: www.patreon.com/posts/106895530 - I was going to just leave this as a comment but I wanted to give a longer [and more transparent] insight to what my notes might look like for a video before I start making it. (There's also kind of a dumb easter egg in this video too, and whoever finds it first will get something equally ridiculous.) Inspiration that also didn't make it into the video includes the Oblique Strategies deck created by Brian Eno + Peter Schmidt, Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, and 'Punished by Rewards' by Alfie Kohn.

[@marenrobison6202]

This inspired me to make my own "quest" system to enhance my to-do list. The best idea I've had for it so far is to have a string of numbers 1-31 for every month and to track with symbols of different lengths if I've done things that need to be done in intervals- for example, I think that I should be showering every-other day, so my symbol for showering is as wide as two days. I want to start flossing every 3 days (baby steps) so that one's three days wide. Ideally this will lead to obvious gaps in the satisfying pattern when I slack off.

[@Felix-pc3lv]

Please please make a video going on depth about the deck of cards, I couldn't totally grasp it and it would be nice if you showed us your strategies. Thanks for this video, as always.

[@Killer_Space_2726-GCP]

Man, the youtube algorithm blessed me today. This is a very, very interesting way of going about things, and it really clicked! I will take the advice given here and start implementing it myself, even if I don't go all-out on the game aspect. I have small children, odds are high it'd get trashed.

[@magnuswinther9019]

Thanks for the term "non-goals". I'll bookmark it in my brain and use it when I want to define future projects. I can then ask myself not just "am I moving towards my goals, or how can I move towards them?" but also "am I moving towards any of my non-goals and how can I divert from them?".

[@bluupadoop]

This is such a wholesome idea, hope this gamifying life thing goes well for you. Keep on keeping on brother.

[@lordkelvin1]

A friend sent me this because this is exactly the type of thing I would make and he was right. Super wholesome video! Love the camera quality and editing too

[@mxss115]

I’m a lifelong gamer, but around a year or so ago, I started seeing my life as a play through of one of my earliest games, RuneScape. Every time I’m practicing my hobbies or honing skills, I just tell myself I’m grinding to get to that IRL skill to level 99. It’s definitely encouraged me to at least try and do a small amount of practice/learning/productiveness every day, and every time I master a technique, I just think of it as a level up.

[@HeroModeGame]

I think you’re a great speaker. I was inspired in many ways by this video and your approach to different things in life as an experiment and a game.

[@magnuswinther9019]

From what you said about decisions and how you focus on the options I think you should read Rittel's Paradox of Rationality from his text On the Planning Crisis, where he describes the idea of Wicked Problems, foundational to the fields of design, systems theory and planning. A short summary, by me: Rationality defined as thinking before you act, evaluating every possible action and consequence. To simplify, the four paradoxes go like this; 1. You can never begin to be rational, because the act of analyzing actions is an action with cost and benefit itself, and should therefore be analyzed as an option as well before you act or analyze the actions. This is a recursive loop. 2. If you hva begun to be rational you can never stop, because you must evaluate every possible consequence, and for every consequence there are consequences and so on. It's a fractal. 3. The further you get in the future the less important your first actions become, because more variables are at play and causality gets muddy. Which action you should take to begin with becomes less conseqential and the exercise of analysis becomes wasteful. 4. Creating a model for understanding analysis and evaluation of actions and consequences is impossible, because it would have to contain itself. It would influences how we analyze and evaluate and would therefore need to be included in the model, wich is impossible. Conclusion: You can never actually be rational in this way, yet you must act. Therefore you should not waste time on complete analysis and evaluation of every possibility. Take action in what appears to be the most desirable direction and deal with the consequences as they come. You can't make a perfect plan. It's pointless, but when you know that you can allocate your resources more effectively.

[@elisalikesbread]

This was really cool! i also used to be into productivity youtube, so hearing your approach is really interesting. The stuff about intrinsic motivation and rewards reminds of a video essay about grading i watched a while back, I'm looking forward to what you make next

[@danalytical7433]

Hey man, I've just found your channel and I really dig it. Been wondering what else you get up to other than this and zines? Whenever I find a cool creator I want to really understand what makes them tick, and especially how they make a living when it's not on KZbin. Thanks Christopher and keep up the good work!

[@corystewart7886]

Awesome video! Thank you for sharing this. Life and fulfillment is the most complicated game humanity has. This had me thinking about the game series Civilization and it's upside down pyramid of decision which allows for meaningful choices that start off simple but grow up into many branches of choice. It seems like a similar idea to the strategy deck system where you start off with a project that has a (kind of) blank slate and implement daily pushes toward a goal using those strategies that will end up interacting with each other, over time accumulating into the complex work itself. Have only watched through once though so I could be misinterpreting. Any who, have a good day and keep making stuff! 😃

[@karvie]

Kinda wanna try a version of this

[@imogen-lee]

I adore your videos

[@TrendyWebAltar]

OH hold up. I'm very much interested in this extending Walter Benjamin project you're talking about. I too have a very odd fixation with him.

[@WaltF42]

Great video man

[@Zach_Films]

The pressure from your friends and family to quit playing Dota makes me sad. Whilst they may have had some point, they’re treating you like a drug addict. Ripping something somebody loves out of their hands because you assume it isn’t good for them (or you’re ashamed to be associated with it) is not a decision that should be taken lightly. You’re clearly a thoughtful and creative person who loves videogames, perhaps you should just build videogames without this strange layer of abstraction that requires to you apply the thing you love to aspects of your life that your friends and family find palatable.

[@jequanamousse4280]

None of us know how the people in his life approached him on this. The way he described it made it sound almost polite, so while it is good to enjoy what you love, obsession is real, and being taken away from people by the thing you love to do is never good.

[@Zach_Films]

@@jequanamousse4280 That's a fair point, two sides of the same coin I guess. I read "my wife didn't want to be married to a gamer" and "being hard to explain at parties" as indications that the people who pulled him away from games didn't really understand the value of them. Most people who enjoy videogames know what it's like for a friend or loved one to perceive gaming as a waste of time because they don't understand it, and I got those feelings from how this situation was described.