31 Laws of Fun – LessWrong lesswrong.com

So this is Utopia, is it? Well
I beg your pardon, I thought it was Hell.
— Sir Max Beerholm, verse entitled
In a Copy of More's (or Shaw's or Wells's or Plato's or Anybody's) Utopia

This is a shorter summary of the Fun Theory Sequence with all the background
theory left out – just the compressed advice to the would-be author or futurist
who wishes to imagine a world where people might actually want to live:

1. Think of a typical day in the life of someone who's been adapting to Utopia
for a while.Don't anchor on the first moment of "hearing the good news".
Heaven's "You'll never have to work again, and the streets are paved with
gold!" sounds like good news to a tired and poverty-stricken peasant, but
two months later it might not be so much fun. (Prolegomena to a Theory of
Fun.)
2. Beware of packing your Utopia with things you think people should do that
aren't actually fun. Again, consider Christian Heaven: singing hymns doesn't
sound like loads of endless fun, but you're supposed to enjoy praying, so no
one can point this out. (Prolegomena to a Theory of Fun.)
3. Making a video game easier doesn't always improve it. The same holds true of
a life. Think in terms of clearing out low-quality drudgery to make way for
high-quality challenge, rather than eliminating work. (High Challenge.)
4. Life should contain novelty – experiences you haven't encountered before,
preferably teaching you something you didn't already know. If there isn't a
sufficient supply of novelty (relative to the speed at which you
generalize), you'll get bored. (Complex Novelty.)

1. People should get smarter at a rate sufficient to integrate their old
experiences, but not so much smarter so fast that they can't integrate their
new intelligence. Being smarter means you get bored faster, but you can also
tackle new challenges you couldn't understand before. (Complex Novelty.)
2. People should live in a world that fully engag