If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe (John Dies at the End, #4)

by Jason Pargin

I said, “It’s kind of genius. Imagine living your life where all the messy complicated stuff was stripped away and you just had this system telling you what to do. You always knew exactly where you stood. No ambiguity, no doubts. If you wake up in the morning and see you’re ten points behind the pace, you know you have to go help an old lady across the street to get back in the game. You can watch yourself level up to righteousness in real time.” Amy frowned at me. “It’s a terrible idea. The moment you put black-and-white scores on something, people lose all common sense and just start optimizing for the easiest stats. It’s like those terrible teachers that just teach around passing the standardized tests; you can see them squeezing the life out of the kids. You’re making a human think like a robot. Then again, it sounds like the future agrees with you. This religion is hugely popular, according to the book anyway. It says it exists in six countries.”