I played a lot of video games growing up.

While video games prey on the mesolimbic system of the brain that enjoys rewards (not to mention today’s developers are open about their use of the same psychological tricks in video games as casinos use to keep people gambling), there’s still a saturation point where the game becomes a grind.

It’s the point where the easy parts are out of the way and the next step will require a lot more time and patience to get through. Proper game design ensures you’ve been hooked enough already before leading you to the frustration point.

Yet, a gamer will endure this grind because they know there is a reward waiting for them at the other end.

To apply this principle to daily life is excruciating because the grinding point comes much sooner. I sigh at the thought of using game theory to make things more “fun” because video games still require you to grind.

The difference is you know a reward comes in a video game and you don’t always know when the reward will come to you for grinding in life.

Apps that promise to make learning a skill easier still fall victim to the user who needs to spend time grinding out the necessary skills until they become part of their identity. All they’re really doing is creating an excitement curve by adding novelty to the creation of a new habit.

For those who workout, they see this initial excitement curve and failure to grind every year at the gym with a new batch of “committed” New Years resolutions.

In some instances, the grinding is the work and the benefits can only be seen after committing to it for many years.

In all cases, you can’t get away from the grind. You must accept it’s always going to be there.

It’s there to weed out the uncommitted and unwilling.