The second and thirst sections were great. But is the idea of ‘terminal goal hacking’ actually controversial? Without the fancy lingo, it says that it’s okay to learn how to genuinely enjoy new activities and turn that skill to activities that don’t seem all that fun now but are useful in the long term. This seems like a common idea in discourse about motivation. I’d be surprised if most people here didn’t already agree with it.
This made the first section boring to me and I was about to conclude that it’s yet another post restating obvious things in needlessly complicated terms and walk away. Fortunately, I kept on reading and got to the fun parts, but it was close.
I’m glad you found the first section obvious—I do, too, but I’ve gotten some pushback in this very community when posting the idea in an open thread a few months back. I think there are many people for whom the idea is non-obvious. (Also, I probably presented it better this time around.)
Note that the first point applies both to “things your brain thinks are generally enjoyable” and “end-values in your utility function”, though games in which you should change the latter can get pretty contrived.
The second and thirst sections were great. But is the idea of ‘terminal goal hacking’ actually controversial? Without the fancy lingo, it says that it’s okay to learn how to genuinely enjoy new activities and turn that skill to activities that don’t seem all that fun now but are useful in the long term. This seems like a common idea in discourse about motivation. I’d be surprised if most people here didn’t already agree with it.
This made the first section boring to me and I was about to conclude that it’s yet another post restating obvious things in needlessly complicated terms and walk away. Fortunately, I kept on reading and got to the fun parts, but it was close.
I’m glad you found the first section obvious—I do, too, but I’ve gotten some pushback in this very community when posting the idea in an open thread a few months back. I think there are many people for whom the idea is non-obvious. (Also, I probably presented it better this time around.)
Note that the first point applies both to “things your brain thinks are generally enjoyable” and “end-values in your utility function”, though games in which you should change the latter can get pretty contrived.
I’m glad you stuck around for the later sections!
FWIW I found that section fairly obvious and found the disclaimers slighlty surprising.