I was grading papers and it occurs to me that gamification might be a good metaphor for understanding academic achievement. I mean beyond getting a gold star on your homework, but a more adult business version of gamification.
Then I think maybe we could interpret the love of money--as a subset of ordinary economic activity--as a subset of the gamification of productivity. Productivity in itself doesn't drive accumulation of wealth, but maybe it would if we viewed it under the rules of gaming.
The ends that we seek in schooling and in moneymaking are, at the base, necessities. For the things people learn, it is important (historically and in principle) to master both the process of learning (virtues and habits that support academic achievements) and the product of learning (instant recall of facts and narratives). But these necessities aren't transparently obvious to those involved in learning or moneymaking--at least, at the time when the work is onerous, and excepting when hunger drives labor. But everyone can grasp the seeming goodness of a gamified process and their metaphorical Gold Stars.
On gamification--a fairly random selection on the subject: "Do you want to run a digital business? Gamification is a must."
Because they have a nice graphic:
