An interesting factoid from this recording of a Kathy Sierra talk: Computer game designers have long known that levels are essential to keep players motivated. Reaching the next level is the player’s reward for all his hard work. But while boys are motivated by the simple fact of having reached the next level, girls ask: “What’s the point?” They need some additional reward, some gimmick or power-up to gain motivation. Which is, of course, a much more sensible attitude.
This is interesting, but not too surprising. The impulse to see a challenge in any random obstacle, to endure hardships for the sheer satisfaction of reaching an arbitrary goal, to climb a mountain “because it’s there”, may very well be the typical male trait.
I wonder why nature made us that way. There must be some evolutionary advantage to this apparently pointless impulse. I’ve no idea what that advantage might be.