Revision: 2
Train yourself to observe, decode intent, and verify incentives in any environment (physical or digital).
Treat the space as a system with goals that may conflict with yours.
Ask: How easily can I return to my pre-engagement state?
Time: Can you recover spent hours?
❌ No → Pure loss
Money: Can you withdraw value 1:1?
❌ No (fees, minimums, conversion losses) → Extraction system
Data: Can you delete your footprint?
❌ No → Surveillance substrate
Habit: Can you stop without withdrawal effects (anxiety, compulsion, social cost)?
❌ No → Dependency system
Identity: Can you leave without feeling like you "failed"?
❌ No → Identity capture
If an environment hides costs, distorts time, and punishes exit, be on your gaurd.
- Scan (30s): Notice layout, signals, friction points.
- Decode (60s): Ask: What behavior is this designed to produce?
- Verify (60s): Check incentives, asymmetries, exit costs.
- Act (30s): Set limits, change behavior, or leave.
Meta-signal: If this loop feels hard to complete, that difficulty is itself a red flag.
Goal: Detach you from objective time to extend engagement.
- ❌ Time concealed: No clocks, timestamps hidden or minimized
- ❌ Natural cues removed: No windows, static lighting, no daylight reference
- ❌ Perpetual present: Design suggests nothing changes if you stay
- ❌ Artificial urgency/delay: Fake countdowns, manufactured scarcity, phantom queues
Quick Test: Can you state the current time without checking a device?
Goal: Make leaving costly (cognitively, physically, emotionally).
- ❌ Exits obscured: Mazes, poor signage, exits routed past temptations
- ❌ External world suppressed: No reminders of obligations, norms, or consequences
- ❌ Attention saturation: Overlapping stimuli prevent reflection
- ❌ Loss framing: Leaving presented as "giving up" or wasting prior effort
Quick Test: Try to leave right now. What resistance appears—internal or external?
Goal: Convert predictable human biases into controllable behavior.
- ❌ Variable rewards: Unpredictable payoffs (wins, likes, bonuses)
- ❌ Near-miss framing: Losses disguised as "almost wins"
- ❌ Sunk cost amplification: Reminders of time/money already invested
- ❌ Illusion of control: Cosmetic choices with no real impact on outcomes
- ❌ Anchoring: Initial reference points that distort later judgments (e.g., "was $200, now $50")
Quick Test: Would a rational agent with full information behave this way?
Goal: Decouple spending from pain signals.
- ❌ Value abstraction: Chips, gems, credits instead of real currency
- ❌ Frictionless spend: Stored cards, one-click checkout, BNPL (buy now, pay later)
- ❌ Drip pricing: Fees revealed late or fragmented across stages
- ❌ Built-in debt: Platform-issued credit or loans embedded in the system
- ❌ Opaque totals: Difficult to track cumulative spend without manual effort
Quick Test: Can you state your total spend in the last hour/day without checking logs?
Goal: Replace independent judgment with conformity.
- ❌ Synthetic belonging: "Insiders," "VIPs," exclusive jargon
- ❌ Harm normalization: Excess reframed as dedication, skill, or status
- ❌ Status anxiety hooks: Promises of respect, rank, visibility tied to continued engagement
- ❌ Peer visibility: Public displays of others' spending/engagement to trigger comparison
- ❌ Dissent suppression: Criticism made awkward, punished, or invisible
Quick Test: Is questioning the system subtly discouraged or socially penalized?
Goal: Optimize the system against you over time.
- ❌ Structural edge: House rules/algorithms favor operator long-term
- ❌ Always-on access: No enforced breaks, cool-downs, or circuit breakers
- ❌ Behavioral surveillance: Fine-grained tracking used to personalize hooks
- ❌ Opaque mechanics: Rules, odds, or algorithms kept deliberately vague
- ❌ Asymmetric information: Operator knows far more about you than you know about the system
Quick Test: Who improves with time—you, or the system's ability to extract value from you?
- Leaving triggers anxiety, guilt, or manufactured urgency
- Losses are reframed as progress or learning
- Transparency requires active effort to uncover
- The system actively resists pauses or reflection
- You notice yourself rationalizing behavior you'd criticize in others
- 0–2 Flags: Low risk. Maintain awareness.
- 3–4 Flags: Capture environment. Pre-commit limits (time/money/exposure).
- 5+ Flags: Predatory system. Strong case for disengagement or strict boundaries.
- Timebox: External timer + non-negotiable hard stop
- De-abstract: Convert all in-platform currency to real money (mentally or on paper)
- Add friction: Remove stored payment methods; require manual entry each time
- Force context: Scheduled reminders of external obligations (alarms, texts from trusted contacts)
- Exit rehearsal: Practice leaving when stakes feel low to build the muscle
- Buddy system: Share limits with someone who will check in
- Pre-commitment: Write down your limits before entering; treat violations as data, not failure