Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dcx 1444 days ago
This isn't a video game but it absolutely did the trick for me. Find a theme park with a lot of particularly scary rides, or a holiday town with a lot of "extreme" activities (bungee jumping, etc.). Precommit to doing every single one of them, ideally with a bunch of friends to hold you to your word. And then do them. Don't allow yourself any excuses, especially for the scariest ones.

These kinds of activities are designed to be scary to your monkey / lizard brain, but also to give a consistent payoff in fun and social bonding. I did this for about a week for a buck's trip, and something clicked in my brain associating fear and reward. It lasted for years afterwards; it's been over a decade and I can still feel a shadow of it now. And as you're hoping, the benefits carried over into my professional life.

It makes me think that painful, risky male bonding rituals are almost definitely a feature, not a bug. They turn up in almost all cultures afaik (bullet ant gloves, anyone?). And being able to overcome irrational primate fear is good for everyone including you.