Well in the classic Tetris community, this used to be the central aspect to pay attention to during plays: how conservative (burning often to play low) vs how aggressive (building high to maximise Tetris rate) people play. This is traditionally impacted by the score difference: you play dangerously to catch up to your opponent. This probably translates to a useful productivity metaphor.
But in recent years there's been an escalation in agressivity, mostly due to hypertappers. This probably translates to the modern wide spread of hero coders; the analogy continues with hypertappers getting their hands burned out young.
The real interesting change in classic Tetris is with rolling (distributing the load on 4 fingers), which allows people to play even higher and more dangerous but without destroying their hands. I don't really know what metaphor this brings us though.
One way the analogy breaks in an interesting way is that you _know_ when you're able to hypertap, whereas it's pretty easy to convince yourself you're a hero coder for long enough to leave those who follow a total mess.
But in recent years there's been an escalation in agressivity, mostly due to hypertappers. This probably translates to the modern wide spread of hero coders; the analogy continues with hypertappers getting their hands burned out young.
The real interesting change in classic Tetris is with rolling (distributing the load on 4 fingers), which allows people to play even higher and more dangerous but without destroying their hands. I don't really know what metaphor this brings us though.