The LinkedIn games are fun, actually
I have a guilty pleasure, and it’s not that I just rewatched “Glee” in its entirety (yes, even the awful later seasons)
I have a guilty pleasure, and it’s not that I just rewatched “Glee” in its entirety (yes, even the awful later seasons), or that I have read an ungodly amount of Harry Potter fan fiction in my time.
My guilty pleasure is that I play the LinkedIn games.
To answer the obvious question: Wait, LinkedIn has games? Yes. In May, LinkedIn launched three puzzles through LinkedIn News, like a knock-off version of New York Times games. There’s the logic puzzle Queens (my favorite), the word game Crossclimb (pretty good), and the word-association game Pinpoint (not a great game, but whatever).
LinkedIn is adopting the classic tech strategy of seeing what works for another company and then trying to replicate that success, even if it might seem odd to play games on a professional networking platform. But it’s no wonder why NYT Games has spurred this inspiration. In a way, The New York Times is a gaming company now — as of December 2023, users spent more time on the NYT Games app than on its news app.
LinkedIn isn’t alone. Everyone has games now. Apple News. Netflix. YouTube. There are so many games for us to indulge in. And yet, once I finish my various New York Times puzzles, I still want more. It’s not like I’m itching to play LinkedIn’s Crossclimb before Connections, but the games are good enough to give me that sweet rush of dopamine.
Usually I play LinkedIn’s games during the workday (sorry to my boss). Sometimes it’s because I’ve gone on LinkedIn to fact-check something or search for a source, but then I remember I can take a few minutes to play a little game. Other times, my mind is scrambled after staring too long at the same draft of an article, and taking a break to solve a colorful Queens puzzle makes it easier to go back and confront that Google Doc again.
But it turns out that there’s a science to why we love these quick, once-a-day brain teasers.
I recently spoke with DeepWell DTx co-founder Ryan Douglas, whose company is predicated on the idea that playing video games (in moderation) can have mental health benefits. In some cases, the brief distraction of a game can pull us out of negative thought spirals or help us approach a problem from a new perspective.
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