The Gamification of Our World with C. Thi Nguyen

The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, a leading expert on the philosophy of games and data, explores how scoring systems in games, corporations, and bureaucracies shape our desires and values. These metrics encourage outsourcing our values to external authorities, prioritizing simple, countable things over what truly matters, at the cost of our independence. The book challenges us to question if this is the game we really want to play.

In 'The Anxious Generation', Jonathan Haidt examines the sudden decline in the mental health of adolescents starting in the early 2010s. He attributes this decline to the shift from a 'play-based childhood' to a 'phone-based childhood', highlighting mechanisms such as sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, and perfectionism that interfere with children’s social and neurological development. Haidt proposes four simple rules to address this issue: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, phone-free schools, and more opportunities for independence, free play, and responsibility. The book offers a clear call to action for parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments to restore a more humane childhood and end the epidemic of mental illness among youth.