[dre54673]

> he owes playing video game to help him in critical thinking.

I often hear people attribute part of their success to things they already did, and I think it's usually just a combination of survivorship bias and other similar effects. I've heard people say similar things of nearly every substance or activity: "I am successful and doing X is part of the reason" where X can be anything from illegal substances to something mundane like coffee. Usually when X is something one likes, one tends to find it interesting.

This has been on my mind after recently debating with friends whether some substances like weed or shrooms should be legal and them basically saying they shouldn't because they know people who have taken them and turned their lives for the worse. Then I brought up how you can say similar things about video games (which IMO they are addicted to) and they quickly said it's different and you need to perform some impossibly complex studies to determine anything.

This is likely part of the reason echo chambers form everywhere. If ideas confirm our own beliefs, we hold them to much lower standards than when they don't.

[james_s_tayler]

Yup. Everything is ex-post-facto rationalization chock full of survivorship bias with no way for you to accurately calibrate for the difference in personal and temporal circumstances and accurately map what outcome you would have if you do X.

It's not worth listening to anyone's advice. Only experiment with your own life and find what works for you or die trying.

[tim333]

Not everything - sometimes you can filter useful data when things are clear cut.