# gamification of letter opening
-# adapted from a chain of dms

part of my job is literally just opening envelopes - we have a machine to do it, but its
really slow and loud and i loathe it so i opt out of using it in favor of manually doing
it i feel like, maybe depending on the job or hobby, its really easy to imagine gamifying
it or making a game of it in the digital sense, but i dont think ive felt that way with
the other jobs ive had, nor do i feel like ive felt it in the same way i have when looking
at this specific task

its the like, specific layout of the list of obstacles and the ways they can be overcome
in more or less efficient ways

as an example: not every envelope will be in the correct orientation in a stack to be
held in the left hand and opened with the right hand - obviously im not switching hands
constantly, so the envelope has to move

i have a few options for flipping an envelope with one hand, depending on the issue:
an envelope can be flipped longways without any issue at all,
an envelope can be turned 180 degrees quickly with a bit of skill,
an envelope can be flipped shortways but its rather cumbersome and a bit slow, at least
as far as ive tried, and i cant think of a way to speed it up, to the point where i feel
it might be faster to just perform the other two flips in sequence

longways never needs two hands though it certainly can be done with two,
180 can be done with no issue at all with two hands,
and the other flip can also be accomplished with two hands, but either way that requires
me doing extra fiddling with the hand thats just meant to be holding the letter opener,
adjusting my grip on it so that my fingers are free to grip the envelope for a moment,
then switching back

these like, strategic options that are also impacted by my skill level, feel very much
like what games are often tuned to be like
and i guess in a way thats the tail wagging the dog - games are challenges designed based
on how real life is challenging in engaging ways; its just that games focus on making it
more engaging where real life isnt tuned any kind of way and when we do tune it we
typically aim for efficiency

see: the automatic letter opening machine

so i guess in a way its less like im going reddit mode Woahh this could be a video game!!
and its more like ohh its the engagement of challenges that inspires us to make games in
the first place

#envelope #job #shop talk #gamification #letters