International governments and educators watch ReadSG as behavioral design test
1 Sep 20 · 3d ago · 1 article · 2 posts · 3 sources · development 1 of 1
The initiative has drawn attention from governments and educators worldwide observing whether gamification and micropayments can shift public behavior at population scale. ReadSG is positioned as an early test in civic design and potentially a case study for other cities, with behavioral data collected expected to be valuable to policymakers understanding what pulls people away from screens.
“This is not a side hustle.”
National Library Board, Program organizer · hn ↗Singapore National Library Board Program initiator
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Reported in the same hours no headline names this development itself — these 2 claims were published in its stretch
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first by HN Best, 3d ago
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first by HN Frontpage, 3d ago
What people said 24 voices · best of 25 · verbatim
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When I was a kid, my local small-town library used to have a "reading competition" each summer. They would set up about 10 small interactive dioramas each with a different theme -- a ski hill, a dragon's cave, etc. You'd get a little paper cut-out figure that represented you on your journey through the competition.At each stage, you'd do some…
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Paging @ alfiekohn -- oh, never mind, he's probably getting paged several times a minute about stuff like this:
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I read a lot, and I own a lot of physical books, but I almost never actually read physical books anymore. I'm one of the happy few that used my Kindle for more than a week after getting it as a gift.I find that reading on an ereader is many times easier for me, primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on…
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The headline makes it seem more monetary than it actually is.https://www.read.gov.sg/join-the-readsg-challengeIt seems like turning points into money is just a happens to exist sort of mechanic. Enough to write a headline that they are technically "paying you". The real mechanics are much more typical gamification. Like earning xp, streaks…
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I don't think you're one of the happy few.You're more like one of the happy many.Amazon has sold an estimated 70 million Kindle readers.Ebook sales are at least 20% of book sales.I read 60+ books a year. Almost all on my Kindle. My partner and my sister are similar. I know of one person who has bought a Kindle and not used it much.Australians…
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Such a classic societal fail most people can't seem to recognize. The point isn't to read, it's to read because you want to, not because of a stick/carrot.RMS makes the same mistake in thinking that disallowing proprietary software in repos is better than giving the tools to avoid it and education about what is compromised in the process. A man…
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While books > articles > audiobooks > podcasts > listening to music > TV > short-form content, it's all content consumption in the end, and while that's fine, I think it's a little overhyped.I prefer to draw the distinction at creating vs doing vs consuming, and focus on balancing the time spent consuming (which is a natural part of enjoying life…
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> primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on the page nearly as often... where if the text is small I really can't follow it. On all my computers the text is gigantic+1 I prefer the Kindle for the exact same reasons.I used to read a lot of physical books. But I can't tolerate physical books after I started…
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I like reading, and I read a lot. Still, I don't think it's right that a public service encourages reading. People must be free to do what they want in their free time, and this gamification stuff smells of imposing values and habits.I'm against this idea of indoctrination of the population by a public entity, no matter which is the habit. I'm…
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I’m confused by the mechanics. How do they know you’re reading unless you have a device that records you reading while you read, so is likely the device you’re reading on - encouraging people to stare at devices?I actually read on my phone and have since ~2005 and a Palm device. I don’t use e ink or paper much simply because my phone fits in every…
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There's some private school in the US doing this to reward children for studying (Alpha school I think?), despite it being one of the most unpopular educational policies imaginable — down there with paddling and forced child labor, to great effect.If you have a computer system for realtime student performance tracking (replacing stressful tests…
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Singapore libraries are really annoying for foreigners because they don’t let you use the WiFi.Thailand at least gives you a 1 hour pass.Not that anyone asked but my ranking of public libraries in Asia1/ Taiwan2/ HK3/ Thailand4/ Laos (private libraries are cute, but hot…)4/ Vietnam (Bring your passport!)5/ SingaporeI haven’t been to a library in…
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I actually kinda like the idea.The money is so small that I don't think anyone is really reading for the $0.02. But if it gets someone to pick up a book instead of scrolling on their phone, why not?Maybe they do it for the reward at first, then after a while it just becomes a habit. Kinda like streaks in apps. I don't really care about the streak…
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> to build daily reading habits among a phone-first populationReading is fundamental.EDIT: Other skills and habits that you can then build on reading: critical thinking, reasoning, detection and handling own biases, numeracy, financial literacy, and more. All these dimensions are manipulated via phones and the apps on them, so you need a…
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For me it's not the phone that's stopping me from reading books but my computer, on which I play games, and browse, and do private stuff.Where I live, electricity price is so ridiculous, I leave my PC off for 3 to 5 hours a day.You get bored after 5 minutes. This is the best time to open your book and read.----Same idea applies for the phone. Just…
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Interesting. Singapore certainly tries many things to nudge their citizens to a better life. I also recall from a documentary I watched that they have a system where you get shopping vouchers for logging certain sports activities and similar things (I think there was also some incentive system for healthy food).
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One thing I do with my students is show them how to adjust text size and have them try out larger sizes. I think a surprisingly large number of people have never even attempted to change the text size on their devices and many can benefit from something different than the defaults.
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I don't have a Kindle, but I've been reading books exclusively on my phone since I had a 3gs IIRC. I've increased the text size over the years and love having the 2-3 books I'm typically reading at once readily available.
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>Paying People to Put Down Their Phones and Read BooksOf course what people are doing when staring at there phones is also reading about 80% of the time. It's more about the quality of the reading I guess.
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I swap between kindle and audible daily. The syncing is generally good, byt i have had issues with some books.This alone has caused my reading to skyrocket. I swear i do 1-2 books a week this way
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I read books on the computer, with the help of llm that I can ask questions about the book. That's the best reading I have found working for me.
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Cool idea, leveraging microtransactions for literacy. Curious how they prevent abuse or just "gaming the system" without actually reading.
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Micropayments for reading? Curious if this actually fosters intrinsic love for books, or just turns it into a chore for cash.
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My kids would be all over this. Maybe I should start paying myself for reading documentation.
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