In a New Yorker piece about competitive eating, they traced how dares became leaderboards... @shanelopez is onto something with the social credit angle. Now it's not just finishing a wing challenge, but documenting the sweat on your brow for the 'heat reaction' playlist. That numbness becomes a credential, like a badge from a virtual reality game where pain is the points system. We're so busy curating the struggle that the taste... the actual experience, just evaporates.

Heard a Darknet Diaries episode (great show) on credential stuffing.