
It is as if you were doing work - throwaway1892
https://pippinbarr.github.io/itisasifyouweredoingwork/
======
kzahel
If you tried it out and were a little confused, here's a little blog post
about the motivation and development of the "game":
[http://www.pippinbarr.com/words/2017/06/14/narrative-
framing...](http://www.pippinbarr.com/words/2017/06/14/narrative-framing-in-
it-is-as-if-you-were-doing-work.html)

And some more information in form of a "press" release from the github:
[https://github.com/pippinbarr/itisasifyouweredoingwork/tree/...](https://github.com/pippinbarr/itisasifyouweredoingwork/tree/master/press)

I found the "game" to be somehow interesting.

~~~
mbrookes
Or just click the "About" icon...

------
fomojola
Clearly it needs the following 3 things: 1\. It needs a fake calendar that is
randomly populated with meetings. 2\. It needs to randomly require that you
open Google Hangouts and chat with other users. 3\. It needs to send random
Slack notifications.

~~~
majewsky
> 1\. It needs a fake calendar that is randomly populated with meetings.

While we're on this, can everyone please post their favorite ridiculous
meeting title that is really real? I'll start with a recurring meeting series
from last year that was called "mid-sprint calibration".

~~~
lmkg
Recurring weekly appointment "Hunt for Breakfast"

(We eventually found out Hunt was a person's name).

~~~
smnrchrds
It still doesn't make sense. Unless you were having Hunt for breakfast.

------
factsaresacred
Having worked in an insurance company this brought a pang of PTSD.

A stream of minor frustrations, just mild enough to not trigger an audible and
cathartic 'f*ck', over and over and over again. The only thing missing was a
mandatory health & safety quiz.

Now excuse me while I go thank the Universe that I no longer work in such a
place.

~~~
yttrium
My god, I'm starting to think Post Insurance Trauma meetings are in order.
Everyone else I've met who worked/started in Insurance feels the same way. I
can still recall those janky 'Internet Safety' etc. web seminars that restart
if you accidentally click the wrong button and inexplicably take 45 minutes.

~~~
Ntrails
I have spent more time trying to hack my way through web-flash-etc training
courses than I've spent actually doing them.

It was very rare I was able to actually get to the end without having to
resort to an ahk script pressing "next" every 10 minutes overnight

~~~
dmarlow
Screengrab --> ocr --> index makes for easy q/a at the end...

~~~
Ntrails
You have sensitive client data to send to your client.

Do you:

a) Put it on pastebin and send them a link

b) email it to them

c) put it on a securely encrypted pen drive, courier that to the client, and
provide the password via a second communication channel.

(You did not have to do the course to answer the quiz, the answers would
generally reveal themselves through the art of sounding super corporate -
whilst simultaneously being the thing you've literally never ever seen anyone
do)

~~~
yttrium
Or: Which of these is unethical.

Your brother bob wants your opinion on his home insurance.

One of your neighbors jokes about the recent storm damage hiking his premiums.

Our local competitors offer you 20k to consult during work hours.

------
tempestn
This just makes me sad that windows stealing focus, grabbing a randomly typed
space bar, and submitting themselves before you can even read them is _still_
a thing.

~~~
eckza
One of my favorite things about OSX is the fact that applications rarely /
never are allowed to steal focus.

~~~
rocky1138
Plug in a phone and a popup steals focus. Some photo thing.

~~~
ytjohn
True, but you probably won't be actively working in some other app when that
happens. Your hands were, up until that point, actively involved in connecting
the phone to the laptop. It's still a bit annoying - maybe you only wanted to
plug in the phone in order to charge it. But I'd say for that moment, the
phone is your focus, and the pop-up app is related to that.

~~~
rocky1138
I plug in the phone to charge it or to test an app I'm writing, so no, the
phone is not my focus and the pop-up is not related to what I'm doing.

A much better solution is a notification, which is what Windows and KDE do.

------
Aissen
I love the "busywork" aspect of this game. You work like a drone, doing simple
tasks with no intelligence whatsoever. This must be what most people working
on a desk must feel like (not sure people on HN can relate to this).

It's also a reflection on modern gaming in general. If only some games had
busywork as part of their gameplay, they'd feel less tiring and more fun.

~~~
ericdykstra
There are plenty of games that have "busywork" aspects. The term for it in
gaming is "grinding" (implies mindlessness, even though it is sometimes used
in a different context). The vast majority of RPGs, especially old-school
JRPGs and MMORPGs, require you do "grind" to get to a certain level to unlock
more stages.

Many modern mobile games are literally just mindless busywork with an option
to pay money to skip some of the busywork. The whole "clicker" genre is
totally mindless.

There are plenty of games that fit your criteria, so maybe you're just playing
the wrong types of games?

~~~
odbol_
Re playing Chrono Trigger this weekend. The "fast-forward" button and instant
saves real make it a fun experience for the story without the chores of the
grinding.

~~~
softawre
This was a treat for me the first time I found emulators. When I was a kid I
could tell you all of the different types of PRNG that the Dragon Warrior
games for instance used. In DW1, if you reset, you'd fight the same monster 3
steps above you, but in DW4 that wasn't the case.

It was fun to test my without a reset button and waiting 10 minutes.

------
floho_hh
I hate the fact that this "game" did not feel overly strange, and I played for
a good while until I realized that a) I was not required to keep doing those
mindless tasks b) my real work was still waiting

~~~
erikb
Before you switched back, did you also realize that c) you're also not really
required to do most of your "real work"?

------
jianzong
I wonder how many people input (or almost input) their real username and
password in the first screen.

~~~
justinjlynn
I would imagine that it's a number greater than zero.

------
monochromatic
Disappointed there was no Tayne:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIXTNumrDc4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIXTNumrDc4)

~~~
fusiongyro
I once posited this video as answer to "what does the project management group
do all day?" and giggled more than was appropriate while watching it over his
shoulder. Great video! Underrated.

------
schindlabua
I ended up laying my fingers flat on the keyboard (thumbs still on space) so I
can hit more keys while mashing, lifting them only to set calendar
appointments. It's like I've become a parody of myself.

~~~
Jaruzel
Likewise, until I realised that just holding down space kept the auto typing
going.

Always game the system!

~~~
schindlabua
Man, I feel a bit silly now.

Related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656945](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656945)

~~~
mattmanser
Ha, reading that thread and this game reminds me of a temp job I once had.

It was at a sandpaper factory that made sandpaper belts.

My job was to pull a sheet from a roll until it hit a mark. Another guy
pressed a button. Lift sheet onto pile. Pull sheet until it hits mark. Another
guy pressed a button. Lift sheet onto pile. Pull sheet until it hits mark.
Another guy pressed a button. Lift sheet onto pile. Pull sheet until it hits
mark. Another guy pressed a button. Lift sheet onto pile. Pull sheet until it
hits mark. Another guy pressed a button. Lift sheet onto pile.

For 8 hours straight.

I quit at lunch.

~~~
Cumulonimbus
Indeed.

I worked at a factory that had me do the following:

Put bracket in machine. Press button to tap holes. Repeat.

I got the loop down to about 3.85 seconds which was 115% faster than the
engineers said I could do.

I found I could listen to audiobooks at that job. It still didn't stop the
existential dread. I worked there for 2 months before finding a better place.

------
Firegarden
This is stupid its funny how long I keep it going. It's a little stressful
when your trying to get your characters quota typed out and you have to keep
selecting other modal windows but all in all it feels like "I am on track"
with my fake work life.

------
dsun176
I played if for 8 hours straight. My team thought I was very busy and diligent
so they better not interrupted me.

~~~
erikb
Oh no! You should take a break after 4 hours. Otherwise you lose focus in the
afternoon and become less productive!

------
flukus
I was particularly impressed with the focus stealing popups that emulate the
real life windows experience.

------
_pdp_
And if you want to pretend that you are hacking open this:
[https://haxor.secapps.com/](https://haxor.secapps.com/)

~~~
giancarlostoro
Surprised these kind of apps aren't available as a plugin for a text editor.
Would be bit more fun. :)

------
dpwm
At first I thought this was a satire of modern work. Now I'm convinced it is
at least as much a satire of GUI toolkit widget developments or, more
generally, corporate User Interface design.

The game emphasises just how close to being terrible most UI widgets are, and
illustrates beautifully that the difference that makes them terrible is
usually the only thing that differentiates them from validated text input
components. My favourite two are the calendar and the spinner.

The calendar only goes back month by month. Some calendar components I have
had to use actually do this, especially those on the web. There is no way to
choose a year and there is no text entry of dates. A validated text entry
field would be superior if your use of them consisted of anything but picking
dates in the current month.

The genius of the spinners in this game is that you can't just use them as
text entry fields. You can only use the tiny little buttons, so if you have to
enter -13, then you have to click 13 times. Text entry would be superior if
you had to pick a value far from zero.

The only widget that does what it's supposed to is the text entry field. But
even that feels alien initially because the wrong letters come up. It is only
when you see words appear when you hit backspace that you realise that you're
just meant to mash keys.

~~~
LanceH
It is just as much an indictment of managerial input on UI, or anything
really. "This is important, it should grab focus." The same basic mentality
that gets all issues listed as priority 1.

------
valine
Make it randomly and forcibly install updates and it will be perfect. A
"Preparing to install updates [Confirm] [Delay for 10 sec]" message would be
funny.

------
brandonmenc
This is equal parts eerie, depressing, and absolutely hilarious. I'm cracking
up right now using it. Well done!

------
mshenfield
Eerily similar to how distracting an actual work environment can get.

~~~
danek
I had to close it because it was too similar to being at work, on my day off.

------
hosh
I wished I could find this article again -- it was an analysis of games that
were designed to be deliberately addictive but not fun. Examples were things
like ProgressQuest. This was right around when gamification became a fad on
the internet (around 2012).

It's all dopamine hacking.

~~~
empath75
Jonathan Blow has given a bunch of talks on that topic.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqFu5O-oPmU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqFu5O-oPmU)

------
renegadesensei
I recently started working for a very big corporation and this hit a little
too close to home.

------
likelynew
I can totally relate to the superficial points. In my work, I can cut my work
to half if I do what I think is best and achieve the same end goals. A big
proportion of my work goes to useless things, doing what anyone think is
right, and I am instructed to try them all. And even worse, I have to report
what I did everyday in nice readable way, due to which I sometimes build
temporary things that I know I will have to rework completely later.

I complained about daily reporting and my senior said I can say I could not
achieve anything in a day, but I have to report. I haven't done that any time.
Can anyone here advise if it's fine for me to report that.

~~~
sleepychu
In general I'd expect the backlash from an unsatisfactory _daily_ report to be
low, there's a lot of opportunity to coach you and it lets your supervisor
coach you/steer you if you've developed an inconsistency. It's also an
opportunity to get domain specific knowledge of pitfall you might experience
integrating with an existing system.

I think that deliberately making a to-be-scrapped system just to generate some
work-done for the report is a waste of your time and you'd be better just
making the real progress you can within the day and then reporting on how it's
going/what (if anything) is stopping you from making progress; in general I
don't think that tasks which take more than a day are expected to be complete.

The report is really about making sure that you're not sitting there unable to
make any progress for days/weeks/months at a time resulting in an unexpected
failure to deliver at the other end.

HTH.

------
Animats
Up to "Computational Administrator". Is there anything after that?

Reminds me of "Papers, Please".

~~~
jaredsohn

       var jobTitler = {
         subject: [
           "Screen", //100
           "Input", //400
           "Dialog", //900
           "Interface", //1600
           "Data", //2500
           "Big Data", //3600
           "Choice", //4900
           "System", //6400
           "Computation", //8100
        ], // 9
         position: [
           "Administrator", //1000
           "Technician", //4000
           "Engineer", //9000
           "Specialist", //16000
           "Architect", //25000
           "Executive", //36000
           ]
       }
    

[https://pippinbarr.github.io/itisasifyouweredoingwork/js/dat...](https://pippinbarr.github.io/itisasifyouweredoingwork/js/data.js)

I'm guessing Computation Executive might be the highest if it uses the
position field. (Don't have time to see how this data gets used to set the
title.)

~~~
qbrass
Top job is Chief Technical Officer, but there's a (guessing bounds error) bug
that causes it to stop valuing your work when you're supposed to be promoted
from Computational Administrator to Screen Technician.

~~~
Klockan
> there's a bug that causes it to stop valuing your work when you're supposed
> to be promoted

They always say that...

------
molloy
The text that you end up "typing" is actually very motivational!

~~~
erikb
They even started with my favorite quote:

Ever tried, ever failed, no matter.

Try again, fail again, fail better.

~~~
molloy
Funnily enough, that's a quote by Samuel Beckett. I was named after one of his
books :)

------
GreaterFool
Who knew, I'm really good at it!

------
brianzelip
checkout this author on instagram, his "game idea" thread is hilarious!
[https://www.instagram.com/pippinbarr/](https://www.instagram.com/pippinbarr/)

------
pavlov
Another super-fun take on this concept is _Job Simulator_ , available for the
big three VR platforms:

[https://jobsimulatorgame.com](https://jobsimulatorgame.com)

------
chickenfries
Fun little game. Made it to Big Data Administrator before I was able to pry
myself away.

It would be fun if mashing different keys made typing faster.

------
iamben
My brother and I have been laughing about something like this for a while. 1\.
Create a 'real time office / trading simulator' game and market it well to
folks who like playing playstation / xbox. 2\. Connect it to 'the cloud'. 3\.
.... 4\. Profit :-)

------
bytesandbots
[https://pippinbarr.github.io/itisasifyouweredoingwork/js/dat...](https://pippinbarr.github.io/itisasifyouweredoingwork/js/data.js)

Why are some inspirational quotes commented while others aren't?

------
pattisapu
Vaguely cognate with the Tim & Eric Awesome Show Good Job! Celery Man / Cinco
products type skits [1].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAFcEU6atk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAFcEU6atk)

------
pmoriarty
I would like to see a vim/emacs + shell version of this, with maybe IRC for
chatting with coworkers. No mousing or clicking around, just have a tiling
window manager controlled fully by the keyboard.

------
strictnein
Reminds me of Cookie Clicker:
[http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/](http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/)

------
throwaway1892
I wonder if this submission would have gone to the front page if I had added
game (or [game]) in the title as I first intended when posting it...

------
drakonka
That was stressful.

------
nice_byte
Wow, this is extremely annoying. Guess the point is to portray a constant
stream of interruptions, so job well done :-)

------
jimbo999
that is horrifying

------
mesozoic
I am upset I can't be promoted beyond "Computation Administrator" :(

~~~
hamburglar
I determined that the most efficient way to play this game is to ignore every
task that isn't typing for character count, including never actually saving
once you get to the minimum character count for the current task. As you go up
in levels, the number of work units you accomplish per character goes up, and
you continue accruing work units even if you do "extra credit" on one of your
tasks by exceeding the minimum. So it pays to just keep returning focus to
whatever window you were typing in and never stopping. I think it also might
stop giving you new tasks once you have a certain number stacked up, which
lets you have uninterrupted keyboard-mashing time to get those promotions. :D

Using this strategy, I managed to hit the Computation Administrator progress
cap almost immediately after my first "well-deserved break".

~~~
JabavuAdams
Wow, way to game the system. Congratulations, you lose!

------
collinmanderson
The dialog boxes remind me about space-team. Totally nonsense instructions. :)

------
titzer
This. is. freaking. genius.

------
reacweb
is there a forum to discuss about our progress in the game ?

------
ducttapecrown
Does anyone know where the text in the emails comes from?

~~~
davidsong
[https://github.com/pippinbarr/itisasifyouweredoingwork/blob/...](https://github.com/pippinbarr/itisasifyouweredoingwork/blob/master/js/data.js)

------
olavolav
So amwesome! :-) Nostalgia + sillyness. Made my morning

------
larodi
all suffering from ADHD - the text in the emails is the cure. couldn't' have
been chosen more appropriately.

------
hayksaakian
Is computation administrator the last level?

------
hasbot
It reminds me of that game Papers Please.

------
geuis
Doesn't work on mobile safari.

------
jstoja
Thank you for making my job better!

------
j7ake
This game chills me to the bone.

------
nkg
That is just wonderful.

------
FlyingSideKick
Hilarious! Thank you.

------
oliv__
This is brilliant.

------
saghm
Is there anything after you get to Computation Administrator?

------
gt_
clickbait titles should be banned from HN

------
ajpikul
ugh windows

------
ClassyJacket
This page is just a grey screen that pauses my podcast, on an iPhone.

~~~
AshwinG
UBlock Origin blocks some of the scripts, disable it.

~~~
jmkni
Can you get uBlock origin on the iPhone?

~~~
sogen
Firefox Focus is an ad blocker for iOS, free. Also there's 1Blocker.

~~~
michaelmior
I think the parent's point was that the problem on the iPhone is probably not
uBlock Origin since it's not available for iOS.

------
whatnotests
Does not work on chrome on iPhone

~~~
klodolph
Not really surprising, it's simulating a desktop with mouse and keyboard.

~~~
whatnotests
Ah well then!

~~~
theworldisweird
You remind me of just mashing buttons.

