148 sats \ 5 replies \ @ek 24 Jan \ parent \ on: Homework for Life mostly_harmless
Factorio is one of the games I don't start because I'm too afraid I would enjoy it too much and get sucked in. It's also one of those games where you kind of have to invest a decent amount of time to really start to appreciate it, I think.
@k00b mentioned something similar on the SNL episode with @Satlantis about Minecraft iirc.
@jason is a big fan of factorio. He got me to play a round or two with him at one point.
Playing a video game usually feels like programming to me, especially with world/process-building games, so I always feel silly not programming instead. But, there's a lot to learn from video games about how to structure real world challenges for yourself: incremental, escalating stakes, retry-able on failure, visible and visceral signs of progress and non-progress etc.
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I think the connection btwn programming and life is deep and subtle, and there's a reason why so many engineers are so highly effective in the real world, and have such a different take. Understanding the nature of complexity, and how to somehow create something functional within in, and the forces of entropy, and just how maddeningly hard communication and coordination is -- these are felt more concretely and acutely by programmers than anyone. It's like the purest possible training for things like civics, government, public policy, etc.
If the degree requirement for all those fields was to spend two years in a standard computer science curriculum the world would be much improved. Which isn't to say those other things don't matter, they do crucially matter. But getting your hands dirty by playing god with code is a competitive advantage that nothing else can accomplish with nearly the same efficiency. At least, that is a deeply held commitment of mine.
In summary: Factorio!
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But getting your hands dirty by playing god with code is a competitive advantage that nothing else can accomplish with nearly the same efficiency.
A woman I met (through one of my little machines), who made their own degree in Computational Biology, said something similar and I never forgot it. It's one of those things you feel is true but can't tell as a programmer if you're just tooting your own horn. Programming generically trains us to make things efficient and so much of being effective is being efficient.
Skill training does this generally I think. A friend went through law school and his wife (herself observant as a writer) says it changed the way he thinks. Not the way he thinks about the world and laws, but the way he thinks about anything and everything.
It reminds me of how LLMs in learning to predict the next string of tokens learn - as a side effect! - a model of the world.
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so I always feel silly not programming instead
lol, I think you're a pathological programmer
But, there's a lot to learn from video games about how to structure real world challenges for yourself: incremental, escalating stakes, retry-able on failure, visible and visceral signs of progress and non-progress etc.
Mhh, I think what I learned from video games is this:
- I'm quite good at clicking on pixels
- history of war is very interesting
- difference between strategy and tactics
- people can be toxic about anything