If you get lucky, a surge of dopamine signals a success, but – and this is where the "pleasure chemical" idea breaks down – it also signals when you only manage an uncomfortable near-miss.
She told the NYT that "I said some words to the effect of, 'Bugger off, Geoffrey.' I was walking a very delicate line where I needed to manage these uncomfortable moments but never, never offend him".
If we are always entertained, we never learn to manage unpleasant or uncomfortable emotions.
Some of their games, like Bomb the Right Place, manage to relay an uncomfortable, powerful message through game design, regardless of political persuasion.
Show Boat was radical stuff for 1927, when it first opened on Broadway, and even with the countless revisions made to suit the changing times of its almost century-long lifespan, in 2014 it still manages to raise uncomfortable questions about race, gender, class and geography.
It was a chance to players from both sides to gain a psychological advantage ahead of the Tests, but Morris looked uncomfortable, managing only five as Australia amassed 552 and enforced the follow on to win by an innings.
One of the great sleights of hand that the people in charge of the N.C.A.A. Tournament manage is to hide the uncomfortable truth that college players are not particularly good, at least compared to their better versions in the pros.
And Chris Tyler's TRL nights at This 'N That somehow manage to make me more uncomfortable every time.
