1) For many things I want to do, I don’t know exactly how valuable they are.
Imagine a student who wants to learn programming—they may have an idea about “average programmer salary”, but they don’t know whether they are going to be better or worse than the average, and how much time will it take them to get there. How should they calculate a value of a lesson? Does learning two programming languages have twice as high value as one of them? Or is the second one superfluous because at any given time they are likely to only use one? Or is the second one an insurance against scenarios where “something goes wrong with one specific programming language”? Generally, learning any new skill has this kind of problems.
2) What about “maintenance” tasks? Things that need to be done regularly, such as washing dishes or vacuuming one’s room, that don’t bring something new, but rather avoid losing deterioration of one’s state.
In some situation, the maintenance cost could be subtracted from the things that requires the maintenance. For example, if washing the dishes is 10 points, and having a food cooked is 100 points, I should actually only give myself 90 points when cooking lunch. (The math is same, but either we can imagine it as “cooking = food + dirty dishes = 100 + (-10) = 90”, or we could treat washing the dishes as the last stage of the “cooking lunch” project.) But for things like vacuuming the room, it is difficult to point out what exactly creates the debt. Maybe we could simplify some things as “daily costs of living (at given quality)”, which means that every morning I would get automatically a few negative points for things getting worse without maintenance.
The post presents an interesting framework for personal improvement, but I believe we can enhance it by reconsidering two key aspects:
What Works in the Original System
The author effectively demonstrates how gamification can transform mundane tasks into engaging challenges by:
Assigning point values to activities
Creating a progress system similar to video games
Building consistent habits through regular engagement
Proposed Improvements
1. Eliminating Negative Scoring
The current system subtracts points for undesirable behaviors, but I propose a philosophical shift: nothing should have negative value. Just as darkness is merely the absence of light, “bad” behaviors simply contribute less value rather than negative value.
Benefits of this approach:
Avoids punishment-based motivation which can be discouraging
Creates a purely growth-oriented mindset
Aligns with positive psychology principles
Implementation: Assign very low (but still positive) point values to less beneficial activities while giving significantly higher values to highly beneficial ones. The relative difference remains motivating.
2. Dynamic Confidence-Based XP System
I propose that experience points should be gained when the system identifies variables that impact progress with higher confidence levels.
How it works:
The system tracks correlations between your activities and measurable outcomes
When it discovers a strong correlation (high confidence), you gain XP
This rewards you for finding what truly works for your specific situation
Points become personalized and evidence-based rather than predetermined
This creates a self-improving system where your actions continuously refine your understanding of what works for you personally.
By implementing these two improvements, we create a more psychologically sound and adaptive gamification system that evolves with you rather than imposing fixed external values.
I think a better term to use is to “prioritize” rather than gamify.
I also think there are better ways to do tasks when taking into account different situations. Making a more simple meal might mean less effort and less time washing your dishes. Using disposable ones is also possible if you value your time more than the ever increasing total money spent on it. I’d argue that daily tasks are the most easiest to optimize as you will inevitably get more practice and you’ll see how can stuff be done better.
Sounds exciting, but I see at least two problems:
1) For many things I want to do, I don’t know exactly how valuable they are.
Imagine a student who wants to learn programming—they may have an idea about “average programmer salary”, but they don’t know whether they are going to be better or worse than the average, and how much time will it take them to get there. How should they calculate a value of a lesson? Does learning two programming languages have twice as high value as one of them? Or is the second one superfluous because at any given time they are likely to only use one? Or is the second one an insurance against scenarios where “something goes wrong with one specific programming language”? Generally, learning any new skill has this kind of problems.
2) What about “maintenance” tasks? Things that need to be done regularly, such as washing dishes or vacuuming one’s room, that don’t bring something new, but rather avoid losing deterioration of one’s state.
In some situation, the maintenance cost could be subtracted from the things that requires the maintenance. For example, if washing the dishes is 10 points, and having a food cooked is 100 points, I should actually only give myself 90 points when cooking lunch. (The math is same, but either we can imagine it as “cooking = food + dirty dishes = 100 + (-10) = 90”, or we could treat washing the dishes as the last stage of the “cooking lunch” project.) But for things like vacuuming the room, it is difficult to point out what exactly creates the debt. Maybe we could simplify some things as “daily costs of living (at given quality)”, which means that every morning I would get automatically a few negative points for things getting worse without maintenance.
The post presents an interesting framework for personal improvement, but I believe we can enhance it by reconsidering two key aspects:
What Works in the Original System
The author effectively demonstrates how gamification can transform mundane tasks into engaging challenges by:
Assigning point values to activities
Creating a progress system similar to video games
Building consistent habits through regular engagement
Proposed Improvements
1. Eliminating Negative Scoring
The current system subtracts points for undesirable behaviors, but I propose a philosophical shift: nothing should have negative value. Just as darkness is merely the absence of light, “bad” behaviors simply contribute less value rather than negative value.
Benefits of this approach:
Avoids punishment-based motivation which can be discouraging
Creates a purely growth-oriented mindset
Aligns with positive psychology principles
Implementation: Assign very low (but still positive) point values to less beneficial activities while giving significantly higher values to highly beneficial ones. The relative difference remains motivating.
2. Dynamic Confidence-Based XP System
I propose that experience points should be gained when the system identifies variables that impact progress with higher confidence levels.
How it works:
The system tracks correlations between your activities and measurable outcomes
When it discovers a strong correlation (high confidence), you gain XP
This rewards you for finding what truly works for your specific situation
Points become personalized and evidence-based rather than predetermined
This creates a self-improving system where your actions continuously refine your understanding of what works for you personally.
By implementing these two improvements, we create a more psychologically sound and adaptive gamification system that evolves with you rather than imposing fixed external values.
I think a better term to use is to “prioritize” rather than gamify.
I also think there are better ways to do tasks when taking into account different situations. Making a more simple meal might mean less effort and less time washing your dishes. Using disposable ones is also possible if you value your time more than the ever increasing total money spent on it. I’d argue that daily tasks are the most easiest to optimize as you will inevitably get more practice and you’ll see how can stuff be done better.