ncase posts
Posts: 255
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A Way-Too-Philosophical Behind-The-Scenes Post
When you're overwhelmed with over-philosophical questions about life, there's only one thing to do: make a graph.Here's a totally scientific graph of all things people make. Each dot is a thing. The x-axis is how many people it reaches. The y-axis is how valuable it is to each person it reaches:(not shown: things with negative value)Let's narrow this down from "all things", to just "educational things":(edit: A rea...
The Explorables Jam... is done! + 19 new explorables!
After three weeks of jamming, peeps made 19 new small, playful explorable explanations! Here they are:🎉The Entries for the Explorable Explanations Jam! 🎉There's a few I'd especially like to highlight, for doing something inventive with interactivity... (maybe I'll borrow their ideas for future projects!)From Cells To Systems by SpacieCatAll about 1D cellular automata! Definitely more fun to read than Wolfram's 1000+ page tom...
Scenes from The Explorables Jam!
Hi all! Sorry I didn't update in a while – I forgot to mention I was going on "vacation". I say "vacation" because I ended up working on stuff anyway... including co-organizing an in-person Explorables Jam kickoff event!On July 28th/29th, Chris Walker (creator of SineRider) and I hosted a small Explorables hackathon. There was collaboration, lightning talks, mini-presentations, and best of all: food that was NOT pizza.(pictu...
Screenshot Saturday: Learning How To Learn
This week, I made two mini-prototypes for my next explorable, on the science of learning! You can see them in the GIF above. (imgur link if you don't see it) The first one is a crappy clone of Flappy Bird/Helicopter Game, because I want to show how learning in games is similar to learning in anything. The second half is a visualization of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theory of Flow, combined with Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Developme...
The Explorables Jam! (online, July 28 to Aug 19)
Finally, here's the official announcement + website for the first-ever Explorable Explanations "game" jam!🎉 THE EXPLORABLES JAM 🎉It'll be online, running from July 28th Saturday to Aug 19th Sunday. There's no judging or ranking or anything – just 3 weeks of explaining beautiful ideas through play.If you want to join, check out the link above! It has further links to tips, tools, and tutorials on making explorables. And...
Project Update (+ Polygon & Peep Rewards!)
Just thought I'd give a quick update, if you're interested in my process!Two weeks ago, you voted for "Learn How To Learn" as my next explorable. When I start a new project, I sketch out a few "stories", (literal sketches, as you can see above) and run them by friends to find out which works best.This project's story is tricky, because I want to share both the theory and practice of learning. What's more, there are...
Poll Results + How To Design Explorables
Last week, I posted a survey for you to help me decide which explorable to make next. And, the people have spoken: you want to LEARN HOW TO LEARN!📊a short write-up of the survey results (5 min read)The results were:#1. Learn how to Learn#2. Statistics (without the scary formulas)#3. Science Writing#4. Web ProgrammingI was astonished to see how popular statistics was, and how unpopular web programming seemed to be! (I may get around to the othe...
SURVEY: Help me decide my next explorable!
This time, I want to teach not just an idea, but a SKILL. So let me ask you, dear reader, what skill do you want to learn?📋A SHORT 3-MINUTE SURVEYThe last two times I posted a help-me-decide-my-project survey like this, y'all picked The Evolution of Trust and The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds. So, I trust your exquisite taste! ;)Superthanks,~ Nicky. . .misc updates: Merci beaucoup to everyone who recommended French comics to me on my las...
I AM BECOME ANIME + other updates
Hey you know how I try to make informative, insightful, valuable things? Well this is not one of those.(🌸^ ω ^) I AM BECOME ANIMEa webcam toy that turns you into anime (use Firefox/Chrome)I made this in 10 hours for the Stupid Sh*t Nobody Needs & Terrible Ideas 2018 Hackathon. Other hackathon entries included: a passive-aggressive toilet, a cutlery set for hamsters, and a Big Mouth Billy Bass but with an actual decomposing fish. It was horrib...
A 5-Minute Mini-Explorable: “Attractors”
Why do systems – cultures, environments, economies – seem to get stuck, then change all at once? Here's a mini-interactive about one of my favorite ideas, attractor landscapes!🗻 An Interactive Introduction to Attractor Landscapes 🗻(playing time: 5 min)I actually started making this a few months ago, but put it aside to finish Wisdom/Madness of Crowds. It wasn't until a few days ago I could finally polish and publish this little ...
NEW EXPLORABLE! The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds
An interactive guide to networks and humans:😐http://ncase.me/crowds/ 😐🐦and a link for your re-tweeting pleasureThank you so much for sticking with me the past four months! Let's recap our journey, shall we? On Jan 12th, I put out a survey asking which of six ideas I should make next, and you picked Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds. On Jan 24th, about two weeks later, I published the first public prototype! Then I took three weeks off ...
haha did i say "this friday"? i meant "next friday"
Two weeks ago, I said I predicted I'd be done with The Wisdom and/or Madness of the Crowds by tomorrow, April 20th Friday. Turns out, I forgot to take into account Hofstadter's Law, which states:“Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.”Jokes aside, I'm sorry for this delay! I want to take the time and make sure this explorable explanation really shines, re...
Screenshot Sunday: Puzzles + Sandbox Mode, done!
Hi all! I'm pretty excited (and relieved) to announce that The Wisdom and/or Madness of the Crowds is very close to finished! I expect it to be out on April 20th, Friday. It's a week later than I'd initially thought, but that's coz 1) I just suck at time estimates, and 2) I decided to go the extra mile and add a "sandbox mode", seen in the GIF above! (can't see image? try this link)So, here's what's done: All n...
Screenshot Saturday: Making puzzles for "Crowds"
I think we're halfway there! The above GIF (if you can't see it, try this imgur mirror) is the rough version of a level editor for The Wisdom and/or Madness of the Crowds. With it, I've made a dozen or so puzzles about networks & complex contagions, and will be testing these puzzles with some in-person playtests soon. Once the puzzles are set, the rest of the explorable should be easy to polish up. With any luck, Crowds should be out ...
How Do We Learn? A Zine! (+ thoughtdump)
Hi all! I'm back from my trip to DynamicLand, where I spent a couple weeks in THE FUTURE or at least the research lab that's trying to do that. Next week, I'll post some videos I recorded + a short writeup about DynamicLand, in case you're interested in what a more humane vision of technology looks like / cool interactive shtuffIn the last week, I've also been thinking and re-thinking a lot about my approach to making educatio...
My first journal article: "How To Become A Centaur"
Lots of people have written about the promises and pitfalls of AI: Artificial Intelligence. This month, I wrote an article for MIT about AI's forgotten cousin, IA: Intelligence Augmentation! And how, just maybe, IA can save us from a dystopian future.HOW TO BECOME A CENTAUR (20 min read)This is the first time I've ever published in a real academic journal! Hooray, I'm a serious grown-up now.-----Other Updates: Thank you all so much fo...
New Prototype! The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds
Two weeks ago, I posted a survey so you could help me decide what explorable explanation to make next! The results are in, and today, you get to play with the prototype you voted for:THE WISDOM and/or MADNESS OF CROWDS (3 min prototype)Here's a big thing I wanted to do differently with this project... All my past explorables only gave you a "tour guide" of a system. Here, you have to actually use what you learn to solve problems. It m...
What Explorable Should I Make Next? (Survey!)
In April 2017, I sent out a survey to you peeps, to help me decide which one of three explorable explanation ideas I should make next. You picked The Evolution of Trust (by a 3% margin), and, well, that worked out really great!So, I'd like to involve you again in the Explorable-making process! Here's six pitches for six possible explorables:✨ THE SHORT 3-MINUTE SURVEY ✨Let me know what you think! I'll announce the results in about...
Auld Lang Syne
Welp, it's the end of 2017. What a year for the world news-wise, but I'm not gonna talk about that right now, juuuuust gonna talk about you and me.I'm deeply grateful – 2017 was the first year where my entire income came from kind, generous supporters like you! (In previous years, I supplemented myself with random contract work) And with your help, here's all the stuff I created this year:March 2017: LOOPY, a tool for thinking i...
It's finally out! JOY.JS: make happy little programs!
AHHHHH IT'S OUT AHHHHHHHHHHHJOY.JS – make happy little programs!Thank you all so much for your patience! I know five months between The Evolution of Trust & this isn't that long of a development cycle, but it's felt like a hella long time. (to be fair, I also gave my Long Now talk & launched Explorabl.es during that time, too)Anyway, Joy.js is finally out, with three demos: Turtle Drawing, Nonlinear Dynamics, and – one you haven&#...
Patreon listened! It's all back on track
By now, you should've gotten the good news from Patreon -- they listened, and are NOT going to go ahead with the controversial fee structure change they proposed last week!Read Jack Conte's post here: “We messed up. We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change.”Although social media freaks out if things aren't fixed within hours, all things considered, a one-week turnaround is really, really fast. Yeah, Patreon's...
An update on that Patreon thing
Hi all -- as you may have seen by now, Patreon sent out an email announcing a change they're gonna make to fee collection. And, as you may also have seen by now, a lot of artists and their supporters are very miffed at Patreon.Here's the infographic Patreon sent out:First off -- as someone who makes visualizations -- what the heck is going on in that chart? The bottom chart mixes percentages with absolute values, also I think the bottom-r...
New demo! Joy.js: make happy little programs
Whoof, sorry for the silence the last couple weeks, I've been crunching away trying to pull together a demo. What demo? THIS DEMO:JOY.JS (DEMO) – MAKE HAPPY LITTLE PROGRAMSA lot's changed since the last GIF I showed you: refactored all the code, new interface, and created a nonlinear dynamics explorer using Joy.js! I figure having a "serious" example may help people avoid the misconception that Joy.js is for "teaching progra...
Screenshot Sunday: Join Me In The Spiral
Oh hey, a Patreon update! This week, I added a powerful new feature to my upcoming "programming with plain words" tool -- variables & basic math!COME JOIN ME IN THE SPIRAL(sped-up GIF | high-rez video on twitter)Also, I'd like to clarify from last week: the point of this project is NOT to teach programming. It can be used for that (and I'm glad if it does!) but I hope it's much more than that! Think of, say, Microsoft Excel. I...
Screenshot Saturday: Programming with Plain Words!
Don't worry, I'm still working on PEEPS. But as I was working on it, I found out that making the simulation was the easy part -- it's actually letting the player "program" the simulation that was ridiculously hard. In fact, all the project ideas I want to try out (as part of my "personal game jam") require some kind of accessible but powerful "programming" tool. And as of writing, there are no good general solu...
Patreon Exclusive Prototype: PEEPS
Finally, the first of a series of prototypes I'm making this+next month! This one's a Patreon exclusive, just for y'all~...also because it's too embarrassingly unfinished for me to make it public yet. But hey, it's not a real prototype if it doesn't embarrass me just a little.PEEPS: http://ncase.me/peeps-wip/Let me know what you think! What did you like, or not like? What concerns do you have about this project? What would...
How I Make Explorable Explanations
Finally, I spill my secrets! (note: not actually secret)6 minute read: http://blog.ncase.me/how-i-make-an-explorable-explanation/Really, it's a three-step guide for teaching anything through any medium, not just teaching systems through games. Also, at the end of the blag post, I throw out a list of things I may want to try making during my "personal game jam" the next two months!Speaking of which, here's the "theme" for m...
The NEW Explorable Explanations hub!
If you liked my interactive learn-by-playing thingies, you might like my new, new Explorable Explanations site, released today!EXPLORABL.ES: a hub for learning through playIt's got 80+ examples, 16 interactive "minigames", and best of all: a list of tools & tutorials so you can make your own explorable explanation! (also, this is the first site I've made that actually looks not awful on mobile. hooray!)And unlike the old website, ...
My Long Now Talk: SEEING WHOLE SYSTEMS
Finally, the recorded video is online! Now you can watch me flail my arms around and act out the Boids algorithm with my body🎬 Seeing Whole Systems (Talk is 60 min long, Q&A is 20 min long)In this talk, not only do I give you theory, I give you tools: the tools to draw and play with complex systems, so you can understand them for yourself! Also my talk has, like, 200+ hand-drawn slides. RIP my wrist.Since my talk has lots of moments where I ac...
Hello New Patrons! (And: What's Next?)
“July 2017 summary: +255 Patrons” Wowzers McTrousers. I’m absolutely humbled by the response y’all had to The Evolution of Trust! Sure, there’s the metrics (8 million plays, 5K retweets, 35K upvotes on reddit) but here’s what really matters: helping people think in systems, giving teachers a fun thing to inspire students, spreading a message of peace WITH practical action! Again, sincerely, thank you all. :) So! What’s next? I alrea...
