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Danny O'Brien: Question on geeks and games

Danny & Merlin As you may know, Danny O’Brien and I are rumored to be working on a book for O’Reilly’s Hacks series. As we theoretically toil with this theoretical book, we’ll be lazily turning to you smart people from time to time to save our bacon. This is the first of those occasions.

Thus, Danny asks…

So one of the things that’s cropping up in the research is that geeks hate boredom more than other people: indeed, more than life itself. The whole “rather gnaw your own arm off??? is frightening close to reality here.

Given the choice between a fractionally tedious task that will save hours of effort, and something capitivating and challenging, we’ll bunk off the former.

I don’t know yet whether that’s not something that’s applicable to other people. But I am interested in linking this up with another bit of anecdata, which is that geeks often enjoy thought games and puzzles.

So, here’s my question: when you have a regular, mind-crushingly dull task to do, do you have a little game you play with yourself to make it easier? If so, what is it?

(Merlin reminds me to include the canonical Simpsons reference in this discussion:)

Bart makes a game of it Principal Skinner: Oh, licking envelopes can be fun! All you have to do is make a game of it.

Bart: What kind of game?

Principal Skinner: Well, for example, you could see how many you could lick in an hour, then try to break that record.

Bart: Sounds like a pretty crappy game to me.

Principal Skinner: Yes, well… Get started.

cft's picture

One of the most tedious...

One of the most tedious tasks I have to do is review chemistry analysis logs for errors, and initial the bottom. Even if I just initial without even looking at them, it's a PITA (not to mention embarassing when I miss gross errors).

To make it more fun, I challenge myself to find an error, no matter how miniscule or inconsequential. Then I amuse myself by writing a huge harangue on the "corrections required" sheet, complete with fictitious explanation about the catastrophes that could have happened had I not caught this. Side benefit - the chemists enjoy reading their "errors" to each other, and actually fix significant errors much faster instead of ignoring them.

You would think it takes longer, but since I'm having fun instead of thinking about how I'd rather poke my own eyes out, it goes faster in both apparent time and, surprisingly, real time.

 
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