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A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

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Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#121
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feel this speaks how to the social classes omnipresent in our world. We want to pretend we live in a classless society but we really don't. If you have to work for a living you're working class. Too many people these days have become corporate sympathizers trying to justify this absurd bonuses to CEOs.

Who in 2023 is under the illusion that we live in a classless society??

People differ from each other in countless particular attributes, but it's entirely a subjective and value-laden activity to select a small subset of those attributes and define a "class" against them.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#122
Much of the video game metaphor isn't unique to IT/Software/Remote work at all.

"You have a list of tasks, and some are side quests! Sometimes you work more directly with coworkers, some are more solo!"

It's almost as if video games are modeled after life and work and "quests" just naturally have a lot of structure in common. ;)

(Most of the rest of the post seems worlds away from video game similarities, though...)

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#123

Seems kinda backwards. I would say a video game is like a job but (hopefully) without the bad parts. I'm making a puzzle game, so the comparison to dev work is pretty obvious. The difference is when you play a puzzle game, you know there is a solution, and the world is crafted to make finding it as fun as possible. The real world is messy. Questions like "should we even do this at all" come up. There are edge cases,…

>> when you play a puzzle game, you know there is a solution, Not in my solitaire game. It actually shuffles the cards, dealing them rather than working backwards from a solution. I have been dealt games with no legal first move, and many more with only one or two dead-end moves. These deals have no possible solutions. Similarly, I have run across more than a few sudokus with more than one solution, meaning there is…

> Famously, what made Tetris so different was it's soviet style. There is no end let alone a solution. There is no second chance. Your mistakes just pile up until you fail.

Tetris is actually quite lenient in that regard. Mistakes are rarely fatal, you usually need to screw up pretty badly to find yourself in an unrecoverable situation. Generally, you lose by making mistakes at a higher rate than you can fix them. This is in contrast to games where you have a limited number of lives, famously a single one for Rogue, hence the term "Rogue-like".

And while Tetris have no "hard" ending, like many arcade-style games, at some point, it becomes effectively unplayable. Maybe that's what made it successful, it is an arcade game as much as it is a puzzle game.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in a such a "meaningless" pickle myself, I have never imagined that hard tasks with strict deadlines are a breeze compared to this, it slowly but surely chips away my will to live, even though on the outside it sounds wonderful

The best encouragement I have for this thought trap is to not put your career on a pedestal, and instead find the things you truly want to progress in or enjoy and focus on those. In my case, despite being a programmer, I am a creative type. I have found that I routinely need: - 1-2 hours per week playing an instrument or writing - A date with my wife that is scheduled like a meeting that I cannot ignore or cancel -…

Given how much time we (have to) spend working, I’d also recommend getting a more satisfying and meaningful job. People shouldn’t remain stuck in a bad place.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#125
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait wouldn’t a drone hitting a person or a ceiling fixture and then crashing into a person be really dangerous? Like they’re fixing workplace culture by careening rotary aircraft around the room?

Yeah, that’s why it’s so important to get out of the office by 6. They don’t want anyone to get hurt.

does that really count as improving?

another way to make sure nobody gets hurt by the robots flying randomly around the space is to not set robots flying randomly around the space

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#126

Much of the video game metaphor isn't unique to IT/Software/Remote work at all. "You have a list of tasks, and some are side quests! Sometimes you work more directly with coworkers, some are more solo!" It's almost as if video games are modeled after life and work and "quests" just naturally have a lot of structure in common. ;) (Most of the rest of the post seems worlds away from video game similarities, though...)

If only job quests' completion status was determined by a machine as in the video game case. There also aren't many video games which keep assigning the same quest because the game forgot why it's a "won't fix" quest when it hired a new QA person.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#127

I still find it hard to believe that fully-async working style is more productive in the long run. My experience with it was that the pace of synchronous collaboration and decision making is about 5X faster than async. A group of engineers or a product team standing around a whiteboard in physical space is going to win the day every time IMO. Perhaps if a company has reached series A and developed a lot of in-person…

That's an old outdated way of viewing the world. Everyone sitting around a whiteboard trying to brainstorm an idea is wasteful. Someone comes up with an idea and then everyone takes some credit and you've spent $10,000 and wasted the day but feel productive but deep down you know you didn't need most people in the room.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#129
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that’s why it’s so important to get out of the office by 6. They don’t want anyone to get hurt.

does that really count as improving? another way to make sure nobody gets hurt by the robots flying randomly around the space is to not set robots flying randomly around the space

If they aren't in physical danger why would they leave the office before 6pm?

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

does that really count as improving? another way to make sure nobody gets hurt by the robots flying randomly around the space is to not set robots flying randomly around the space

If they aren't in physical danger why would they leave the office before 6pm?

Exactly- it’s risky business.
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