jaime2000 comments on Stupid Questions December 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Do you know me?
I find a lot of evidence for it, but I am not sure I am not being selective. For example, I am the only one in my peer group that never did any extra-curricular activities at school. While everyone had something like sports or hobbies, I seemed to only study at school an waste all my other time surfing the internet and playing the same video games over and over.
The idea that playing an instrument is a hobby while playing a video game isn't is completely cultural. It says something about values but little about competence.
One important difference is that video games are optimized to be fun while musical instruments aren't. Therefore, playing an instrument can signal discipline in a way that playing a game can't.
I'm not sure that's true. There's selection pressure on musical instruments to make them fun to use. Most of the corresponding training also mostly isn't optimised for learning but for fun.
There's also selection pressure on instruments to make them pleasant to listen to. There's no corresponding constraint on video games.
In an age of eSports I'm not sure that's true. Quite a lot of games are not balanced to make them fun for the average player but balanced for high level tournament play.