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Nintendo .DS_Store »= OPLSS
@sliminality
Most explorables require a ton of bespoke implementation, and it would be infeasible to create effective explorables for most/many of the concepts that would be well-served by the medium
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rntz
@arntzenius
OTOH, as software, explorables have almost no marginal cost per reader, even if the upfront cost is high. And don't environments like observablehq.com suggest ways to make it easier to prototype interactive explanations? Do you think this infeasibility is inevitable?
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Will Crichton
@wcrichton
Part of the issue is there is no theory of "learning ROI" for explorables. You can spend increasingly significant effort to get marginal (or negative!) learning gains.
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rntz
@arntzenius
Whose effort do you mean, the author's or readers'? If the author's, isn't that true of writing educational material generally? If the readers', I'm not sure I follow.
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Will Crichton
@wcrichton
The author's, and yes it is true in general, but there's been a lot more research into the learning outcomes via standard mediums of education (lectures, textbooks, etc.) than explorables. There just hasn't been much work on explorables by comparison.
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Max Krieger
@maxkriegers
this is what i always link to whenever explorables come up
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Andy Matuschak
@andy_matuschak
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Here's my crux: The Cartesian plane was not invented to disseminate mathematics, or to make math more engaging. It was invented to help *do math*. The same point can be made about John Snow’s cholera map, Feynman QED diagrams, and our other most powerful representations.
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Prathyush
@prathyvsh
Re: Schooten, I can respond back once I investigate Port Royal school and other Cartesians later. I happen to be researching primary mathematicians/philosophers at this point.
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