Social Stats system in Persona 5 is like what Atomic Habit teaches.
[Skip if you Read the book]
Quick info on Atomic Habits
- Small habits that improves you by 1% everyday and compounds.
- Over 365 days you will improve 37.78% (Calculated)
- 1% improvement isn’t noticeable.
- If you get 1 percent worse each day for one year.
- Over 365 days you will lose 0.03% (Calculated)
When I read about a life changing concept. You start noticing it on mediums and other parts of life and in this case it’s very clear that Persona 5. I’m sure this was in 4 also but I don’t remember it that much other than the fact that I liked it.
The idea behind doing something every day unlocks more dialogue options in your life and the ability to talk to more people. And unlock more dialogue options while talking to the new people.
Many will see this as a game mechanic that don’t see it beyond as a game mechanic.
You can use the five social stats used in Persona 5 as a framework in your life.
Why Use Persona 5’s Social Stats as a Framework?
- The stats are very simple to understand
- You only have to think about only 5 Stats
- You only have to think about 5 levels in each Stats
For reference sake here’s a chart on Persona 5’s Social Stats system
Rank | Knowledge | Charm | Kindness | Guts | Proficiency |
1 | Oblivious | Existent | Inoffensive | Milquetoast | Bumblin |
2 | Learned | Head-turning | Considerate | Bold | Decent |
3 | Scholarly | Suave | Empathetic | Staunch | Skilled |
4 | Encyclopedic | Charismatic | Selfless | Dauntless | Masterful |
5 | Erudite | Debonair | Angelic | Lionhearted | Transcendent |
Results Appear in Steps
When you do a task that makes improvement to yourself. It’s going to happen slowly.
In real life, you don’t see the progress as a visual guide on where you are.
When you read a book that is suppose to make you more knowledgeable about the world. You learned a thing or two but it isn’t enough to make a relative big impact in your life.
It’s when you read many books, many articles, or listen to podcasts. Environments affect how many point you gain like a rainy day, in a library, a rainy day in a library.
After increasing your knowledge enough that you are able to answer certain things without much thought. That is when you know you leveled up a rank.
Persona 5 does the same thing but visually, you visually identify with musical notation in yellow that you made progress. But you don’t see how far you’re at for that category because you’re not suppose to. Like you’re not suppose to in real life.
It’s one of the cases where it’s “When you know, you know.”
When do you know you leveled up your IRL Social Stats?
One way to determine if you have leveled up your Social Stats is through observing other people. Guage whether you are able to perform the same tasks as they do.
This requires a certain degree of self-awareness by observing those around you.
Yet, it is also important to keep your ego in check. Maintain a humble attitude and avoid becoming overly self-confident, simply because you have improved in comparison to others.
See yourself that you were at that point and you have the power to help improve them or not. That’s your prerogative.
The world would be better if you did help improve others in the stats you’re higher on. But, you have your reasons to why you achieved that.
What about 1% Losses? That Is Not Part of Persona 5
James Clear stats that you become 1% worst a day for not improving a particular task.
The game’s timeline is a course of one year and from the chart being 1% worse is 0.03% as a whole the entire year.
That’s nothing, it might as well be 0% in context of the game.
If we’re to scale James Clear’s 37.78% improvement over an entire year every day as 100.0 points. Then relative to that 0.03% of 37.78% would be 0.000794 points.
In that case that’s nothing. That isn’t going to make any changes at all in the game. One musical notation point is worth less than that.
Expectations as a gamer
There are a few things to set expectations. It’s obvious at face-value but needs to be said as a reminder.
- Time Jumps in a video game. The diegetic time in the game should put into consideration.
- Minutes, Hours, Days, Months, Years can be skipped in a matter of seconds as a video game.
- Expect that one hour IRL is not a 5-second fade-in, fade out.
- It takes thinking, at times deep thinking.
- Pressing the confirm button (key press) is different than actually obtaining information and skills.
Here’s an example:
Character reads a book to gain Knowledge point (or Charm Points, Etc) in game. You just pressed a combination of the D-pad to select the option and the confirm key and went through a few lines of dialogue. You gained points.
Did you really gained points?
Or did the character you’re playing gained points?
How long did that take in real life?
How long did it take for the character?
It is a video game and it’s meant to have fun. Boring things should not exist in the game. However you can learn from the practices in the game and it’s philosophy to apply it in real life. It needs a little bit of work.
As the Book Quotes:
Use the two-minute rule. Which states when you start a new habit it should take less than two minutes to do. You'll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version.
You can go do just one-push up. Do that every day and now it is part of your habit. You’re already in that prone position anyways so why not do more?