Gamification of Tasks That Require Self-discipline is a Mistake

April 29th, 2012 | Technology

gamification

Gamification is a trend in technology right now where people are given micro rewards for accomplishing discrete tasks, such as completing a programming exercise, or completing an online profile, etc. It’s essentially a way to incentivize things that people don’t want to do.

And now one idea is to do it for homework. So, giving little badges to people who complete an assignment or something.

In my view this is precisely the wrong thing for people right now. We don’t need tricks to get people to do what they’re already supposed to be doing. Instead, we need to be telling people the opposite: that there are some things that suck, that you have to grind through, and that successful people are those who are able to do this consistently until a goal is reached.

If you play this incentives game with people then it will train them to give up when no such scaffolding exists, which is in most places that matter. It’s hard to go to college. It’s hard to raise kids. It’s hard to do many things, and people shouldn’t be taught that when things get difficult they should look for a kudos badge.

Self-discipline is one of the primary components of success. Let’s nurture that instead of trying to artificially engineer a way for people to be successful without it.

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  • Jack David Baucum

    I feel that websites are just starting to default to badges on everything in ways that, if the designer thought about it, do not really make sense. I think one real issue that can come up is if you make badges for everything, then people will start doing things just for the badges, even though there is no other good reason to perform that task.  e.g. +1-ing a post just to get the “+1ed a post” badge.

  • CarlM

    For students, there are already “badges”.  They are called points on assignments and grades in courses.  These badges are intended to serve multiple purposes.  They serve as credentials (so that a professor of Calculus 2 can know what to expect of his or her students by looking at the grades from Calculus 1) and also (especially in the case of grades on assignments – as opposed to end of course grades) serve to help students understand where they stand in relation to the expectations of the course.  

    This is (I think) a bit of an oversimplification, but I think it’s close to the truth:  In much of Europe, the course grade is entirely determined by the exam grade (from what we in the US would call the Final Exam).  I think that the tradition in US universities (having intermediate assignments contribute to the final course grade) serves multiple purposes.  (1) It allows us to incorporate things into the final course grade that can’t be easily measured on an exam (let alone on a SINGLE exam).  (2) It also helps to motivate students to DO those intermediate assignments.  In this, those intermediate assignments serve as mini-rewards (badges if you like) that help humans (who have a MUCH easier time with short-term goals than they do with long-term goals) stay on task so they may reap the long-term rewards.

    In any case, I would disagree that we should tell people “there are things that suck”.  We should tell people why the things are necessary.  Exercise doesn’t “suck”.  It’s good for us and it helps us reach our long-term health goals.  Doing homework assignments doesn’t “suck”.  It helps us learn the material so we can achieve our long-term goals.  Working on a university committee doesn’t “suck”.  It helps the university accomplish its goals (which, if we are part of the university community) should be one of our goals.  Going to productive meetings doesn’t “suck”.  They help an organization meet its goals.  If one is a member (or employee) of an organization, it should be a personal goal to help the organization meet its goals.

    I tend to think of “badges” (and similar things) to be a bit grade-schooly for my taste, but I see people all the time who think that homework sucks or that committee’s suck or that meetings suck.  So, it seems to me that plenty of people are lacking the self-motivation that would render external motivation unnecessary.  Many could do with a little help to keep them doing those short-term things that will lead to long-term benefits.

    • http://danielmiessler.com/ Daniel Miessler

      Great points here.

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