6 December 2011
source: playalterego.com
This game occupied me for much longer than it should have, especially at such a late point in the semester. Generally, these life simulations, anything from Kudos, to The Sims to a 15 minute demo of New York Nights, always seem to have this effect on me. I guess I’m just fascinated by the idea of modelling life on a bunch of numbers, even though it’s way more fine-grained than that. Still, Alter Ego’s intrinsic traits seem to work really well (though whether you could max out intellect in your teenage years is to question). That it’s still relevant 30 years later is an obvious indicator of its accuracy. I really do look at talented people in terms of Gladwell’s hours of deliberate practice and relationships in terms of Covey’s trust bank, but I dunno… is it really right to base things like love and friendships in any sort of numerical form? But that’s me being evasive and thinking about game systems, avoiding writing about my actual life. And the overall feeling about life that I get from Alter Ego is regret…

This game occupied me for much longer than it should have, especially at such a late point in the semester. Generally, these life simulations, anything from Kudos, to The Sims to a 15 minute demo of New York Nights, always seem to have this effect on me.

I guess I’m just fascinated by the idea of modelling life on a bunch of numbers, even though it’s way more fine-grained than that. Still, Alter Ego’s intrinsic traits seem to work really well (though whether you could max out intellect in your teenage years is to question). That it’s still relevant 30 years later is an obvious indicator of its accuracy.

I really do look at talented people in terms of Gladwell’s hours of deliberate practice and relationships in terms of Covey’s trust bank, but I dunno… is it really right to base things like love and friendships in any sort of numerical form?

But that’s me being evasive and thinking about game systems, avoiding writing about my actual life. And the overall feeling about life that I get from Alter Ego is regret…

My next post will be better.

http://xn--7od.net/notes/13815666619/2DMjRviu2
10 April 2011
“
Divorced people who suffer depression and complain of cognitive dysfunction may be expressing the loss of their external memory systems. They once were able to discuss their experiences to reach a shared understanding…. They once could count on access to a wide range of storage in their partner, and this, too, is gone…. The loss of transactive memory feels like losing a part of one’s own mind
— Daniel Wegner, conceptualiser of transactive memory

My next post will be better.

http://xn--7od.net/notes/4485512706/2DMjRviu2
10 April 2011
I finished reading The Tipping Point today. I enjoyed it, although I’m not quite satisfied for some reason. Maybe I missed something, but I’m not sure there’s much underlying theory to the Tipping Point, and it’s more like a collection of stories than anything informative or useful. (The Conclusion chapter attunes to Rory Sutherland’s TED talk, but doesn’t much match the book.) That’s not to say it’s still fascinating and Gladwell has a wonderful way of boiling down fairly complex stories in an understandable and still detailed way. All of the stories are relevant and interesting explanations that really start to make me think about why things are the way they are. There are many topics that I want to follow up on, but deep down, I know I’ve given up on the pursuit of knowing everything. Stuff like adoption curves and company sociology is interesting as a talking point, but I’m not sure I’d actually want to learn anthropology/psychology/sociology/management/behavioural economics properly. Might read The Nurture Assumption next, it seems to have influenced a lot of Gladwell’s work.

I finished reading The Tipping Point today. I enjoyed it, although I’m not quite satisfied for some reason.

Maybe I missed something, but I’m not sure there’s much underlying theory to the Tipping Point, and it’s more like a collection of stories than anything informative or useful. (The Conclusion chapter attunes to Rory Sutherland’s TED talk, but doesn’t much match the book.)

That’s not to say it’s still fascinating and Gladwell has a wonderful way of boiling down fairly complex stories in an understandable and still detailed way. All of the stories are relevant and interesting explanations that really start to make me think about why things are the way they are.

There are many topics that I want to follow up on, but deep down, I know I’ve given up on the pursuit of knowing everything. Stuff like adoption curves and company sociology is interesting as a talking point, but I’m not sure I’d actually want to learn anthropology/psychology/sociology/management/behavioural economics properly.

Might read The Nurture Assumption next, it seems to have influenced a lot of Gladwell’s work.

My next post will be better.

http://xn--7od.net/notes/4484946988/2DMjRviu2