#6 How Call of Duty Solved Procrastination
I look at this game menu and I just can't, I don't feel like dealing with this right now - no one, ever
It is pretty much a common knowledge at this point that our desire to do something is highly correlated with reward we envision and it drops with the amount of hoops and chores on the way to it. This is all great, but I want this thing, it is easy to do it, still can't make myself do it. What is going on there?
There are few more elements in this puzzle. Researcher Piers Steel came with an equation that can be paraphrased into:
"how badly I want it" = ( "how big is the reward" x "how likely is it I can get to it")
/ ("how impulsive am I" x "how fast can I get it")
Notice how all these parameters are not about the objective truth, but our subjective way of seeing things. Not only that, but our way of seeing things is also driven by how well we can imagine something, feel it and hold that vision in our mind for extended period of time.
The impulsivity part is highly linked to our perceived social safety. The lower the social status and the less support we feel we get from others, the less we trust we will actually get the reward. Our body is tuned for getting everything we possibly can, right now, because future is not promised.
These are some good clues, but not even close to how good Call of Duty is at solving this equation.
Norepinephrine unboxing
Whenever we want something and we feel like we get a little bit closer to it our brain releases dopamine. Dopamine then drives the levels of norepinephrine in our body. This makes us more hyped in general. There are so many cool things related to this process. For example drinking coffee or eating chocolate will raise baseline dopamine and norepinephrine levels. Our ability to stick to doing something goes up to 150% - 250% of it's original value. Another good one is cold shower that causes a form of short term discomfort, that is later followed by dopamine release bringing it to 250%.
Now, when we ever feel like we are getting a bit closer to something, but the target moves a little, we want it more. In social context this is teasing. Someone asks you if you want chewing gum, takes it away when you are about to reach for it, so you are motivated to try again (even if you don't try again because you don't like someone messing with you). It seems that this mechanism has a stacking effect, that the more you are teased the more motivated you'll be. That's why you can sometimes see people playing Mario, writing code or solving a crime, almost getting it right but not quite, so they keep trying again for 16h, not paying attention to the fact that they just missed dinner.
Call of Duty has fast paced game modes like Shipment 24/7, small map, lots of action - almost got him, but not quite. Lots of teasing here, high frequency encounters. Lots of mini rewarding moments, almost no chore of having to run entire map again to find the enemy.
Now where this gets interesting is apparently people with ADHD figured out that picking up a task that is interesting to them early in the morning will drive their dopamine and norepinephrine up. Assuming that interest is short and you don't get obsessed about it for days, but can wrap in 10-30min, you've just elevated your baseline motivation making it easier to stick to other tasks you choose to attack.
If for example you always wanted to get in shape, but couldn't make yourself do it, next time you play COD notice something. It is 100x easier to do push-ups between COD games or rounds, than it is to do it the first moment you wake up. This is possible not only because COD drives dopamine up and it is easier to do anything, but also due to norepinephrine release you are less likely to feel pain associated with physical activity.
Quantum motivation
If you are lucky you have a mental capacity to create a vision of a long term goal and hold it for extended period of time without getting distracted with something else and dropping it forever. If not this needs to be managed, by tapping into manufactured motivated states with some guardrails around them. The "in the moment" motivation in real world will almost always come from glimpses of curiosity. This lays in "I want to see what's that" or "I want to see how this plays out" or "I want to see what will happen if". You want to see how something feels, or what reaction it will get, or if doing it this way will make you succeed this time.
If you play COD a lot you probably had moments where you run into the same guy with riot shield on the map and you keep losing, so you try different approaches each round until you finally get him. Common understanding is that this is challenge that drives you to keep going. It is not. It is curiosity for testing new approaches. If you don't have ideas for new angles of attacking this, you will not have any motivation to face the challenge.
Whether you are trying to invent a time travel machine over next few years or do the most boring homework of your life the key to surviving this is the same. It is the smallest chunk of motivation. It is the curiosity about something small that holds your attention for next few seconds or minutes and then retrying.
Mirror neurons
If you have troubles holding your vision and motivation in your mind, what if you could outsource it? Humans evolved in groups and lots of tasks and activities were driven by group momentum. Our brains have this special set of neurons that let us watch someone doing something and we get to feel how that may feel. If you are surrounded by people that are on the mission to do something, you will feel that mission as well. You don't need to remember or imagine it, you can just feel it of the group vibe. This is why watching sports on stadiums is so exciting, because you get to feel the event amplified by others being excited and emotional about it.
Call of Duty is legendary for it's toxic lobbies, but that also means they are full of high intensity emotions. The games you play are full of epic moments, pressure, drama, making it against the odds and it is all amplified by voice chats where people are highly invested in wining. These games are easily 10x more exciting and motivating us to give our best than playing quiet lobbies where half of your team is afk.