Jammin’

There’s an interesting article on Aeon about gamification and the encroachment of metrics into more and more places: More nothing now

The gamification of leisure has turned into work everything that used to exist as its counterpoint.

I couldn’t agree more. I don’t need or want to be reminded of how many days in a row I’ve read a book, or watched a show, or made an entry in a journal, or opened an app, or anydamnthing. You give me a metric to track, and sooner or later it becomes homework.

When you’re doing Duolingo to maintain your streak, or when your place on the running app’s leaderboard replaces the reason you started running, that’s value capture. The metric ate the meaning.

I don’t need the stress. Or, in the immortal words of the great philosopher Petty:

Quit jammin’ me