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Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience (2021)

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Re: Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience (2021)

#51

Post by snordgren »

thealienthing wrote: post #28

Perhaps this holds true more to fields that stem from hedonic experiences themselves like the arts, sports, games etc. I felt this way about music after graduating from music school. I became bored and jaded to music and had to spend several years not consuming music at all. Eventually I regained my love of it. Conversely I don’t think this applies as much to sciences. After I pivoted away from music to become a soft…

Dabbling in gamedev as a teenager definitely numbed my enjoyment of video games as an adult.

And I'm really thankful for that, because I spent way too much time on video games growing up, before I saw behind the curtain.

Re: Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience (2021)

#52

Post by 6D794163636F756 »

rhyme-boss wrote: post #14

Just my personal experience, but I would say this does not hold with regard to observing nature. Once I know the name of a new fly, fish, or flower, I care more about it, and I enjoy seeing it, and connecting that knowledge with other ecological knowledge.

I only read the abstract but it seems like the dislike comes with a recognition of the buzzwords and an understanding that a good product isn't the goal, my money is. With nature, it's not trying to impress me. It's not trying to take my money. So there's no loss of wonder when I learn something. I don't pull back the curtain to find a cynical exec trying to get me to pay for something. There is no curtain, there is no sales pitche, nature just is.

Re: Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience (2021)

#53

Post by Kinrany »

mcpackieh wrote: post #43
Lariscus wrote: post #4

This might be one of the reasons why some competitive gaming communities seem so joyless after a while.

Often the game mechanics themselves aren't actually fun (at least after the novelty wears off) but players keep playing because they enjoy the sensation of winning. The player can't have fun unless they win because the game is not intrinsically fun. You know it's a good game when you can reflect back on a match you lost and think "yeah that was worth it, I had fun."

Treating "losing is fun" as an explicit design goal and not merely an observation about some games is something I haven't seen, but it makes a lot of sense.

Re: Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience (2021)

#54

Post by rkangel »

rhyme-boss wrote: post #14

Just my personal experience, but I would say this does not hold with regard to observing nature. Once I know the name of a new fly, fish, or flower, I care more about it, and I enjoy seeing it, and connecting that knowledge with other ecological knowledge.

That's also true in other domains - the more I learn about a sport the more interesting it is to watch because there is more to see and understand.

I can see the opportunity though for analysis to overcome emotion. You want to respond instinctively to something, but learning to be an expert in something sometime requires nurturing a dispassionate, analytical response. I can completely see how learning about wine might take away some of the joy that you might experience trying something new, because you're just cataloguing it.

Semi-related: my wife has a friend who became a "serious" coffee person over the pandemic. He firmly warns everyone that it's the worst decision he's ever made - he's become too much of a snob and now can't drink any coffee apart from that made at home. He can't even get it from a high street vendor and enjoy it.

Re: Emotionally Numb: Expertise Dulls Consumer Experience (2021)

#55

Post by yakubin »

HWR_14 wrote: post #42

This makes sense to me. Watch a movie with someone who took film, especially film production, classes and have them explain it to you afterwards.

Taking up photography as a hobby made me notice and appreciate good shots and colours in films much more. So the opposite effect.
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