Choosing not to play.

There are games that are designed to manipulate your mind... credit card rewards. airlines frequent flyer miles. starbucks card. etc.

Obviously, there are some advantages in the short run of playing these games, for instance, the free coffee that Starbucks gives when you reach a certain level.

But these games also take up our mind space and affect our decision-making. They teach us to prioritise short-term gains over long-term loss of agency.

Can we let go of these games? Can we make do without the rewards?

Where would we apply the neural bandwidth that we would gain?

We can pay attention to $10 decisions or $10,000 decisions. The more attention we give to $10 decisions, the less bandwidth we have for $10,000 decisions.

What rewards would we design for ourselves with intent?