#autonomy

A few years ago, it was fashionable among the youth, including my son, to refer to people as "NPCs" or "Non-Player Characters". As Wikipedia explains:

A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster, or referee, rather than by another player. In video games, this term usually means a computer-controlled character that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay.

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This, from Paul Graham in 2008, was resurfaced somewhere recent. I've read it a couple of times before and it always reminds me how much I dislike having a "boss".

I was in Africa last year and saw a lot of animals in the wild that I'd only seen in zoos before. It was remarkable how different they seemed. Particularly lions. Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive. They're like different animals. I suspect that working for oneself feels better to humans in much the same way that living in the wild must feel better to a wide-ranging predator like a lion. Life in a zoo is easier, but it isn't the life they were designed for.

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