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A review by tentacuddles
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson
2.0
Poorly argued, poorly researched, with questionable observations, but a nugget of something interesting. Vaguely entertaining. I say this as a life long gamer and defender of interactive media (and with a degree in psych).
Many, many observations built on premises that start with 'we all know everyone thinks this, but actually' with the possibility of a quote being thrown in sporaticly. I read half before needing to walk away, most every page being marked up in red pen.
To give you the gist, let's examine one of the big early ideas; and it is an attempt to reconcetalize games as not being about instant gratification, but delayed gratification; that is, they teach people to work towards a long term goal without any reward; ie, grinding for some high level.
The problem is, this fundamentally misunderstands how gaming systems operate; they *are* instant gratification, because you get xp every time. You get a small gold reward every time. You have a clear indicator as to the progress you are making, with a clear goal that is to met at the end of that goal; which very, very rarely mimics real life. The book is rife with misconceptions like this that feel more like 'gotcha!' than they do 'I have a different take on this thing.
Is it abysmall garbage? No. Is it worth reading if your very interested in the material and some hot takes?
...sure? This book feels like the literally equivalent of browsing reddit.
Many, many observations built on premises that start with 'we all know everyone thinks this, but actually' with the possibility of a quote being thrown in sporaticly. I read half before needing to walk away, most every page being marked up in red pen.
To give you the gist, let's examine one of the big early ideas; and it is an attempt to reconcetalize games as not being about instant gratification, but delayed gratification; that is, they teach people to work towards a long term goal without any reward; ie, grinding for some high level.
The problem is, this fundamentally misunderstands how gaming systems operate; they *are* instant gratification, because you get xp every time. You get a small gold reward every time. You have a clear indicator as to the progress you are making, with a clear goal that is to met at the end of that goal; which very, very rarely mimics real life. The book is rife with misconceptions like this that feel more like 'gotcha!' than they do 'I have a different take on this thing.
Is it abysmall garbage? No. Is it worth reading if your very interested in the material and some hot takes?
...sure? This book feels like the literally equivalent of browsing reddit.