The Right Amount of "Challenge" In IT & Gaming

boyko.at.netqos writes "In an essay entitled 'An Epiphany I Had While Playing Pac-Man,' the author talks about how smart people need to find a certain amount of intellectual challenge from day to day. If they don't find it in their workplace, they'll end up playing complex, 'smart' games, like Civilization IV or Chess — and if they do find it in their workplace, they're more likely to sit down with a nice game of Pac-Man, Katamari Damacy, or Peggle. Quoting: 'When I look back on my life, and I compare the times in my life when I was playing simple games compared to the times in my life when I was playing complex ones, a pattern emerges. The more complexity and mental stimulation I was getting from other activities — usually my day job at the time — the less I needed mental stimulation in my free time. Conversely, in times when I was working boring jobs, I'd be playing games that required a lot of thinking and mental gymnastics.' The author then goes on to speculate that some IT workers might subconsciously be giving themselves more challenges by choosing to deal with difficult problems, rather than performing simple (but boring) preventative maintenance and proactive network management."

Comments

Re:Among Other Things, 'Anecdote' Comes to Mind

[Smidge207]

Hate to break this to you little girl but, especially in this new Industrial Age, playing World of Warcraft "while working a fairly complex job as a developer for a Fortune 500 company" just isn't going to cut it. This is just the way it is.

My boss, like many others (even yours), seems to think that by being my employer, he dictates what I work, where I live, what I eat, who I can associate with, even if that means I neglect my family and health. In fact, I lost an arm in one of the Java Virtual Machines a few years ago and you didn't see me trying to fight the system, because I know how hard it is. Don't like it? Leave and don't come back. Seriously, eldavajohn, leave and turn on the dark on your way out. And turn in your badge, too, little girl.

The laws in place to protect against such things are way too mild and useless. Someone can fire you for being maimed in their own machinery or assaulted by their own managers you can even get fired for refusing to have sex with your manager and then get fired for getting pregnant if you do! Sure it isn't legal, but the trouble you have to go through to fight it, then what you get in return for doing so is horribly skewed.

WoW? Bah. Where is your Level 17 Wizard now, fucker? The only solution, my dear eldavajohn, is to find another job. Don't bother forming a union with others - strikes have never worked and never will. Don't bother protesting, or trying to raise awareness by getting your story out.

Don't try the courts - they are just a horrific waste of time stacked against you. And especially don't bother voting - except with your feet to another employer. What? You can't leave because nobody will hire a child who has already run away from a factory?

"I'm getting drunk with my friends playing Wii Sports or Rock Band." Oh...great. You can't leave because you don't have the money to go looking for another Wii or PS3 because you're employed 17 hours a day just to eat? Well, child, the best you can do is be resigned to your life of virtual slavery, complaining to yourself that the system just doesn't work for you. It may not be right. It may not be fair. That IS how it is.

So fuck YOU, sir!