Social Score: Our Measure of Self-Improvement
What is Your Social Score?
Social Score is the measurement we use to track our self-improvement. It’s a subjective number that tells us if we’re getting better or getting worse at each of the traits or skills discussed in The Curvy Road Project. The score itself is derived from this formula:
Demonstrated Performance + Effort = Social Score
Demonstrated performance is the measure of how well we do that trait or skill right now. Effort is the measure of the force we’re exerting to improve that trait or skill. Together, they represent the Social Score for that particular trait or skill.
The score itself is an 11 point scale ranging from -5 (we’re really bad at that trait or skill and you’re not putting any effort into improving) to +5 (we’re really great at that trait or skill and you’re working really hard to keep improving.) Basically, it’s a measure of getting better or getting worse. If we’re neither improving nor regressing, we have a score of zero (neutral.) Here’s a sample sheet for the graphical representation of the Social Score for the first five traits and skills for The Project. Let’s say this is a chart for a fictional person named Delilah.
Note Delilah’s first skill: sleep. It’s at +3, which means Delilah is pretty good at sleeping and she’s putting good effort into getting even better. Clearly, Delilah has been implementing the ideas in our Sleep Post. There’s still room for improvement, but she’s definitely on the right track.
Note how the spaces between the numbers get larger the farther we go from neutral. This is because improvement (or regression) occurs as an asymptote, which means it requires more effort to become great (or terrible) at each trait or skill. A little bit of improvement is easy; a lot of improvement is tough. This helps us allocate our time and effort in a way that gives us the most benefit. I’ll discuss this issue in more detail in a later post.
Now let’s look at the next skill: diet. It’s at -4, which is pretty bad. This means Delilah eats a lot of bad food AND she’s not putting much effort into improving. When Delilah is deciding where to allocate her time and effort, she would definitely want to focus on her diet.
The third item is exercise, which is neither positive nor negative; it’s neutral. This means her exercise routine is just average and she’s neither improving nor getting worse. At the absolute minimum, we want all of the skills and traits we discuss in the project to be scored as a minimum of “neutral.”
Why?
A neutral score means that a particular trait or skill isn’t helping us socially, but it also means it isn’t hurting us socially. Generally, we want to fix all the things that are hurting us (get up to neutral) before we tackle the things we could improve (move above neutral.)
For example, before Delilah works on improving exercise (which is currently neutral - it’s not helping her or hurting her), she should work on her diet (which is pretty bad) and meditation (which is terrible.) Otherwise, her bad diet and lack of meditation would interfere with her ability to improve exercise.
Note Delilah already gets good sleep and has very good hygiene, she doesn’t have to allocate resources to those two items; she can just keep doing what she’s been doing.
What Effect Does a High and Low Social Score Have on Your Life?
So why is this Social Score important?
Humans are, fundamentally, social animals. We absolutely need connections with other people in order to function normally. There’s a reason we use solitary confinement in prisons as a form of punishment. This article explains the very basic science behind our neurobiology that drives our social needs.
Because we’re social animals, the quality of our lives is dependent on how we interact with others. The better we get socially, the happier, more fulfilled we become. Study after study has demonstrated we’re at our best when we’re actively engaged in interesting adventures with people who share a deep connection with us. The way to create as many of those experiences as possible is to improve our social abilities, which is measured with our Social Score.
Further, when we improve our social abilities, we improve our romantic relationships (which includes having more, better sex), we have deeper, more fulfilling friendships, we have better relationships with our family, coworkers, customers, neighbors, and everyone else in our community.
Conversely, when we don’t have adequate social abilities (a low Social Score), we experience depression, anxiety, loneliness, and hopelessness. We become irritable, fearful, and experience shame and guilt. We get angry at minor inconveniences, we feel resentment and helplessness. We feel inadequate and often succumb to jealousy and envy. Worst of all - we feel emptiness.
The Fifty-Two Ideas
The Curvy Road Project is designed to give us a path towards a life worth living. A life free of those negative emotions and experiences. A life filled with happiness, joy, fulfillment, and a deep sense of purpose. The key to living that life - develop good habits that develop the trails and skills we know lead to that life we crave.
The Curvy Road Project casts a wide net - our ideas come from all disciples. We have a heavy scientific bend because we believe in the power of empiricism. If an idea actually works, we should be able to demonstrate it in a reliable and valid way in a laboratory setting AND we should be able to implement it in the real world with a high degree of success.
If an idea meets that criteria, we use it. If not, we reject it.
For each of the ideas we’ll cover in the next year, we’ll give ourselves a Social Score of +5 to -5, then we’ll revisit that score at regular intervals to make sure we’re not slipping into bad habits. We’ll make a Skill Chart like Delilah’s example above, which will tell us where we are for each trait and skill, and where we need to go. It’ll tell us where we need to focus our efforts, and it will tell us where we’re having the greatest successes. We’re creating positive feedback loops to keep us motivated as we progress through the fifty-two ideas.
So that’s the idea behind the Social Score. You can download a PDF of a blank skill chart here:
Blank Curvy Road Project Skill Chart
If you have any questions about the Skill Chart and Social Score, head over to our Facebook Group and ask away!
~Jason
***