On balance, Mafia is a waste of time

Rebuttal (1) Mafia is a leisure activity that has cognitive benefits Extend this argument. Not only does mafia provide the brain a necessary respite that is important to proper brain functioning, it also improves one's EQ, lie detection skills, persuasion skills, game theory and advanced prediction skills, and other cognitive abilities. Zarroette responds to this by arguing that mafia might be *too* fatiguing and cognitively challenging to play as a leisure activity. However, her first source (Scientific American) actually says that the same mental activity results in a different level of fatigue for different people. Her source says: "Equally important to the duration of mental exertion is one's attitude toward it. . . . Some people regularly curl up with densely written novels that others might throw across the room in frustration." Essentially, if you find an activity enjoyable, it will not be mentally fatiguing even if it is cognitively challenging. The people who play mafia find it enjoyable and no mafia player I have ever talked to has said that the game is mentally exhausting. If the game felt like work, very few people would play it. Later in her round, Zarro says that mafia is not as restful as watching TV. To the extent that Zarro is advocating that people spend all their downtime watching TV, this turns her entire case. Television is by far a bigger waste of time than is mafia. While watching TV might be slightly more restful because it is an entirely passive activity, it also results in *no* cognitive benefits at all. If people need downtime, they may as well do something better than watching TV. (2) Do people regret playing mafia? Zarroette argues that people will regret playing mafia because there are better things to do and they are not working towards their dreams. However, Zarroette has argued that playing mafia only requires less than 15 minutes per day. Zarroette never proves that playing mafia is mutually exclusive with exercising, reading a book, or pursuing one's dreams. Imagine someone on his death bed who regrets not pursuing his dreams. I doubt this individual would think that he simply played so much mafia that he did not have time for anything else. Pursuing your dreams requires a commitment to achieving your wildest desires. If someone lacks that commitment, it doesn't matter if he plays mafia in his spare time, watches History Channel documentaries, or reads novels. He will feel like he wasted his life regardless. The issue is the lack of commitment to achieving one's goals, not the playing of mafia. In contrast, someone who *does* pursue his dreams is perfectly capable of doing so and also playing mafia. I have never actually spoken to a person who regrets their time playing mafia. You would think if Zarro's argument were true, at least some mafia players would -- after years of playing mafia -- regret the time they spent doing so. It doesn't take a death bed revelation to have such regrets. People often say they regret how much time they waste watching TV; I've never heard anyone say the same about mafia. Mafia is at least more cognitively challenging and rewarding than watching TV. Using Zarro's same logic, playing *any* game -- such as chess -- would be a waste of time because you could be pursuing your dreams instead. Some people's ambition is even to become a master of their game. Just as some people want to be chess masters, others want to become superb mafia players. Zarro cannot dictate to people what a "proper" dreams is (such as wanting to become a writer). Zarro's own ambition is to become a good enough debater on DDO to beat me one day. Some people would call that a silly dream and a waste of time based on their own subjective valuations. Zarro cannot call the ambition to be a great mafia player silly and wasteful because ambitions are inherently personal. No one would claim that wanting to be a chess master is a silly ambition, but chess is just another meaningless game by Zarro's standards. The only difference between chess and mafia is that chess is internationally recognized, but they are both games whose outcomes don't really matter. (3) Unnecessary stress I already answered this above by saying that mafia is not mentally taxing because people find it fun. Zarro claims that lying is always mentally taxing, but her sources are referring to *real* lies that people tell in their personal lives, where there are real stakes to being caught in the lie. If you lie on your resume and get found out, you lose your job. If you lie to your girlfriend and she finds out, you risk her breaking up with you. If you lie to your parents about your grades and they find out, you risk getting grounded. In mafia if you get caught in a lie, you merely get lynched. The stakes are too low to cause stress. Regardless, turn this argument against her. Even if mafia causes low levels of stress, stress has been proven to improve memory and learning. [1] In one study, the control group walked past another person in an ordinary environment and was later asked to describe the person's face. The experimental group walked past a person on a very rickety bridge (designed to cause stress) and later describe the person's face. The experimental group was much better at remembering the passerby's face than the control group. Stress hormones improve memory and learning. [1] Zarro concedes that it's good to learn to read people, such as by studying books on sub-communication and body language. However, learning to read sub-communication in an *applied* environment is always going to be better because: (1) low levels of stress improve learning, and (2) you can't learn by reading, you learn by doing. For example, employers have known for a long time that on-the-job experience is a better training tool than is book learning. [2] College graduates have had four years of book learning, but are often ill-equipped to do the job for which they were hired. With a book, you never apply what you are learning, so it's easy to forget what you read and hard to understand *how* to apply it. Applied learning is better. Mafia is a form of applied learning because it lets you *practice* reading people, something a book doesn't do. Zarro argues that you can't learn to read body language from playing mafia because mafia is text-based, but (1) this is answered by live mafia (via Google Hangouts), and (2) playing mafia is not mutually exclusive with reading a book on body language. (4) Social interaction Zarro claims that mafia is a poor form of social interaction because there is no physical presence. (1) I never argued that mafia is the best form of social interaction; I only have to prove that mafia is beneficial in the ways I argued. (2) This is answered by live mafia. (3) Playing mafia is not mutually exclusive with hanging out with friends to get a healthy dose of social interaction. (5) Not mutually exclusive Zarro's response still doesn't prove that playing mafia is mutually exclusive with doing any of the other things on her list. More importantly, she doesn't respond to the argument that her valuations are inherently subjective. Some people hate watching documentaries. Some people are asexual and don't want to go out on dates. Some people are too poor to make checking their finances worthwhile (bank balance: $5). Mafia is not a waste of time if the player's personal valuation is that there's nothing they'd rather be doing. (6) Infinitely regressive Zarro drops the argument that something doesn't become a waste of time merely because you could be doing something more productive. It's not possible to always maximize your productivity. Playing mafia is comparatively better than doing nothing (or watching TV), just like doing crunches at home is better than not exercising. So neither is a waste of time. (7) Happiness Zarro drops this argument, which is a huge impact in my favor. Playing mafia makes people happy, which improves productivity, health, relationships, and success-prospects in life. Happiness itself is a noble pursuit. John Lennon once said, "When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy.' They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [2] http://cogprints.org...