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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

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Jan 11, 2020

Glad you enjoyed. I think mediums like Scrimba's are very interesting. I've discussed them as "narrated explorables" here: https://medium.com/khan-academy-early-product-development/narrated-explorables-three-mental-models-e16e0d80e4c1… I think the key thing about exec. books is "shipping the author's computational model," which isn't quite what's happening here.

medium.com

Narrated explorables: three mental models

Three mental models for “narrated explorables,” a new learning medium combining video, interactives, and game-like prompts.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Replying to

@andy_matuschak

It's fine that these courses don't ship the author's computational model! They're doing a related, very valuable thing: situating explanation in an active environment that's continuous with an expert's (e.g. an IDE). Probably these are several properties of a broader form.

3:58 PM · Jan 11, 2020·Twitter Web App

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

·

Jan 11, 2020

Replying to

@andy_matuschak

Clearly, though, the boundaries I'm drawing here aren't totally crisp. The quaternions "narrated explorable" is *kind of* shipping the author's computational model, and *kind of* an actively-situated scaffolded expert environment.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

·

Jan 11, 2020

Thinking out loud (hope you don't mind): another angle of distinction is "tools vs. use." Norvig's essay is about solving a specific problem, and he exposes his model along the way; these narrated explorables are *about* the tool they depict.

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