Nicky Case ·

mas.to/@ncase

@ncasenmare

I ALMOST NEVER USE THIS SITE ANYMORE

Adventures With Anxiety We Become What We Behold The Evolution of Trust Explorable Explanations

ncase.meJoined May 2009

966 Following

61.2K Followers

Nicky Case · 🐘 mas.to/@ncase’s posts

Pinned

New project! 🥜 Nutshell: make expandable explanations 🥜 👉 ncase.me/nutshell/ 👈 A lil' tool for writers, to let your readers dive into details. If you write a blog, news articles, code docs, educational materials, etc... I hope this helps you help your readers!

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NEW GAME! Based on my personal experience with anxiety disorder (and slowly healing), here's an interactive story about a human and their anxiety. You play *as* the anxiety. 🐺 ncase.me/anxiety/ 🐺 😱 free, web, playtime 30min 😱

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Trust is falling. Why? And how can we fix it? My interactive guide to the game theory of trust is now OUT! 👉 ncase.me/trust/ 👈

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Let's say 1 person who's convinced of misinformation, on average, convinces 3 others. This means R0 = 3. But! If you teach just 67% of people basic epidemiology/statistics, you can get R < 1, containing the info-demic! This is called "nerd immunity"

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NEW DEMO! Based on my personal experience, here's (a demo for) an interactive story about a human and their anxiety disorder. You play *as* the anxiety disorder. 😱 ncase.me/anxiety-demo/ 😱 🐺 browser, 7 min playtime 🐺

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NEW GAME! Why do groups of people act smart, dumb, kind, cruel? An interactive guide to networks & humans: THE WISDOM and/or MADNESS of CROWDS 😐 ncase.me/crowds/ 😐

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★ New thing's out! It's a tool to make your *own* interactive simulations. And you "program" it… by DRAWING. LOOPY ncase.me/loopy/

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Making a tool for "programming with plain words"! Here's me "programming" a line-drawing turtle: #ScreenshotSaturday

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To beat COVID-19, we need contact tracing apps. But does that mean sacrificing our right to privacy? HECK NO ✊ Here's a comic (collab w/

@carmelatroncoso

) explaining how we can beat COVID-19 *and* Big Brother! 🧵COMIC THREAD BELOW 🧵 (as 1 page: ncase.me/contact-tracin )

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So uh... what happens AFTER the lockdown? I'm collaborating with epidemiologist

@marcelsalathe

on a *playable simulation* of a few proposed COVID-19 strategies... including the bad ones. Coming soon! Video of our prototype below:👇

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Make simulations... in EMOJI? 💥🙀💥 My tool for making & sharing cellular automata is now fixed + re-launched! 😘 ncase.me/sim/ 😘 (below: forest fire, conway's game of life, b-z reaction, epidemics, schelling's, predator-prey, procgen terrain)

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hey

i had an awful idea for a fan comic, so here is my awful fan comic #FanArtFriday (their comic: webcomicname.com)

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"Why isn't the art of programming as *alive* as the art of painting?" My new project's finally out –– JOY.JS: make happy little programs! 🎨 ncase.me/joy/ 🎨

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★ My new thing's out! It's an interactive guide to alternative voting systems. TO BUILD A BETTER BALLOT: ncase.me/ballot/

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ChatGPT's down right now, but, my reactions after playing it 4 days non-stop: 50% heck that's impressive! 10% lol dumb answer 20% this could *actually* help mental health & critical thinking? 20% i gaslighted the AI into persuading a teen to do a mass shooting 🧵Thread! 1/37

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What are the best ways to learn stuff? Here's what Cognitive Science has discovered about learning... presented as a zine! (links & printable version: blog.ncase.me/how-do-we-lear)

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A short comic explaining confirmation bias, changing minds, and educational psychology... with jigsaw puzzles! 🔗 blog.ncase.me/jigsaw-puzzles/

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★ My new interactive comic's out! It's about the science of memory, spaced repetition, and shoeboxes. HOW TO REMEMBER ANYTHING FOREVER-ISH: 🧠 ncase.me/remember/ 🧠

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hey

since you liked my previous awful fan comic here's an even awful-er fan comic (#FanartFriday of WebcomicName.com)

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My next game's about anxiety disorder, based on my own struggle + slow healing with it. Nervous to finally share this! It's a "conversation-based fighting game", and the fight's between a human & their anxiety. You play as the anxiety.

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Making a tool for live, direct, explorable programming! Here's my first playable demo of it, let me know what you think so far! 🎨 ncase.me/joy-demo/

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A'ight, I'm making an interactive explanation of the new #Coronavirus! It's hard to understand how, even if cases are small now, exponential growth means it can explode quickly. Hopefully, it's more intuitive if you can *play* with it. Prototype video below! #ScreenshotSaturday

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★ New news! I just released my new mini-game about the news! WE BECOME WHAT WE BEHOLD (free, browser): ncase.itch.io/wbwwb

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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! 🗻 ncase.me/attractors/ 🗻 (playing time: 5 min)

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Singapore & South Korea have *already* controlled #COVID19, all without massive shutdowns! (& US/Europe can do the same AFTER suppressing cases for 1-2mo) How? By staying #OneStepAhead with: 🔗CONTACT TRACING🔗 (See pix below! Collab with epidemiologist

@MarcelSalathe

) 🧵 1/6

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Fractus

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Making a tool (JavaScript library) to let your players "program" things with plain words! This week, I added variables & basic math. Below example: programming a 🐢 to draw a 🌀!

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How do we beat COVID-19, *while protecting our mental & financial health?* Epidemiologist

@MarcelSalathe

& I explain Epidemiology 101, #TestTraceIsolate, #MasksForAll, worst-case scenarios... all with playable simulations! 🕹 Check it out! 😷ncase.me/covid-19/😷 (30 min)

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my local aquarium tells it like it is

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First video of my next project: a free, online voice-training tool for trans/nb folk!🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 And anyone curious about voice~ (Release: before xmas?) BELOW: Vowels, with same frequency but different formants, on a spectrogram. TODO: actually explain frequency, formants & spectrogram

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It's #WorldMentalHealthDay! Here's my free online game, Adventures With Anxiety (where you play AS the anxiety): 🐺 ncase.me/anxiety/ 🐺 And a companion piece with 9 mental health habits: 💖 ncase.me/mental-health/ 💖 You are not alone. Keep on. ✊

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NEW PROTOTYPE! “The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds”: 😐 ncase.me/crowds-prototy 😐 Let me know what you think of this interactive explanation so far, thanks!

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To not be fooled by misinformation about science, you need to *understand* the science. In case you missed it: epidemiologist

@MarcelSalathe

& I made an accessible deep-dive into COVID-19 models! 😷 30 min play/read: ncase.me/covid-19/?v=3 My fave bits below:

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☆ New mini-interactive! On win-wins for the environment & economy: blog.ncase.me/environment-ec (inspired by

@stewartbrand

@crimsontider

)

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The new Explorable Explanations website is finally out! a hub for learning through play: ✨ Explorabl.es ✨

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“When I was a boy and I saw scary news, my mother said: Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” – Mister Rogers

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We're all burnt out on this lockdown... so how do we get out of it, *safely*? Protect lives AND liberty? NEW INTERACTIVE! From epidemiologist

@MarcelSalathe

& me, a deep-dive explanation of an "exit plan", with backup plans: 😷 ncase.me/covid-19/?v=2 🔬 30 min play/read

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What if you could make long-term memory a *choice*? And what if you could do that... with a card game? In case you missed it, I made an interactive guide to Spaced Repetition – a simple, science-backed way to remember pretty much anything! 💭 ncase.me/remember/ 💭

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What if chasing happiness is a trap? I made a zine explaining Acceptance & Commitment Therapy! ACT's helped me a lot, hopefully it can help you too 🖨 print zine: blog.ncase.me/the-happiness-

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Replying to

If you'd like to tame your wolf, here's some Mental Health Tips & Resources! (+ my personal mental health journey) 👉 ncase.me/mental-health/ 👈 To whoever you are: stay determined & good luck 💖

ncase.me

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Hey,

's running an "explain math" contest, with prizes, deadline Aug 22! You can submit video, essays, even interactives: 🥧 3b1b.co/some1 🥧 I loved Grant's advice on making math explainers, so I comic-fied it:

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My game, Adventures With Anxiety, has a release date! 🐺 SEPTEMBER 17 🐺 As always, it'll be free & online! Also, it's #ScreenshotSaturday, so here's a video of the anxiety wolf rocking out (to original🎵 by @monplaisirmusic) More GIFs on my Patreon 💸: patreon.com/posts/adventur

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"Your feelings are valid" bothers me. "Valid", like, literally true? No. Rephrase: your feelings are CLUES. Imperfect info, but it's irrational to discard it as irrational. So be a detective! What unmet body/psych needs are your feelings clueing you in on? #WorldMentalHealthDay

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1) Assume a brain can be simulated on a classical computer 2) Thus, consciousness can be represented as a finite string of 0/1s 3) π, converted to binary, contains *every* finite string of 0/1s Therefore: π is conscious. Happy Pi Day!

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In 2018, I tried to make one new habit a month! A third of them failed. Anyway, here's what I learnt this year, hopefully it's helpful to you in the new year:

blog.ncase.me

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I seriously cannot get over these elevator warning signs.

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Regarding the #Ferguson narrative...

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A Way-Too-Philosophical Behind-The-Scenes Post: patreon.com/posts/21037081 in which I reflect on how I can better contribute to society, using badly-drawn graphs and contrived metaphors. (click link for full post!)

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Adventures With Anxiety is finally on

@itchio

! It's an interactive story about a human with anxiety. You play *as* the anxiety. 🐺 ncase.itch.io/anxiety 🐺 😱 (free, online, 30 min playtime) 😱

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My friend

is making a game about gerrymandering! I'm super excited for this~

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How do we learn? Specifically, how do we help people learn complex systems in games? My GDC 2019 Micro-talk is up! It's just 5 min long. 🧠 “Human Brains Are Awesome, Humans Brains Suck” 🧠 👉👉👉 vimeo.com/327793736 👈👈👈

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Nutshell, or, “Expandable Explanations”! A free tool I'm making so you can let your readers choose how in-depth they want to go. Play with the demo here: ncase.me/nutshell-wip/ (Inspired by Telescopic Text & Wikiwand's Link Preview)

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I've been making "educational games" for 5 years. This year I learnt my career was based on a lie New post! “Curse of the Chocolate-Covered Broccoli, or, Emotion in Learning” (9 min read): 🍫🌳 blog.ncase.me/curse-of-the-c 🌳🍫

blog.ncase.me

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"So Nicky what insightful educational project are you working on n–" A webcam toy that turns you into a catgirl "Wh–" The ears have spring physics (#ScreenshotSaturday of UwU Cam, currently Patron-exclusive alpha: patreon.com/posts/40735609 Open beta w/ custom chars next month!)

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I'm making a tool to simulate feedback loops! Will users program it with drag & drop? nah, too mainstream how about programming by DRAWING

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"hey you got swarm dynamics in my coupled oscillators!" "and you got coupled oscillators in my swarm dynamics!" TWO EMERGENT PHENOMENA THAT EMERGE PHENOMENALLY TOGETHER IT'S

@STEVENSTROGATZ

'S "SWARMALATORS" read: nature.com/articles/s4146 play: usediscretion.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-sw

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🎉 The EXPLORABLE EXPLANATIONS "Game" Jam! 🎉 explain an idea through play || online, Jul 28 – Aug 19 learn more here: explorabl.es/jam/

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Parable of the Polygons is a playable post on how harmless choices can make a harmful world. ncase.me/polygons/

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A new book by

, 6 years in the making, is out tomorrow (Feb 21)! It's on political polarization: 😱 waitbutwhy.com 😱 I already knew lots on this topic, yet Tim's book *still* gave me fresh angles & insights. Sharing some highlights in this thread! 🧵1/9

waitbutwhy.com

Wait But Why

Wait But Why - Tim Urban

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“We become what we behold.” Another #ScreenshotSaturday GIF from my upcoming mini-game about the news:

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[the slow horror of realizing that my innermost thoughts are done in the language where "inflammable" means the same thing as "flammable"]

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Really heartwarmed by everyone who's drawn their anxiety as lil' animals! (or, “fearsonas”) Thx for the fanart! 💖 Context: twitter.com/ncasenmare/sta

@WHATiFArtist

@corvidcujo

@Sillumee

@jessewalmart @khromatichyena @cloudyyxp_ @dahold

@TinyCastleGuy

@Aaron_Ashfur

@Shion561

Quote

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NEW GAME! Based on my personal experience with anxiety disorder (and slowly healing), here's an interactive story about a human and their anxiety. You play *as* the anxiety.

ncase.me/anxiety/

free, web, playtime 30min

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🌲🌲🌲 Making emoji-based cellular automata ⚡️⚡️⚡️ because 🔥🔥🔥 I AM TRASH

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I made a game about fireflies! And on how beautiful patterns can emerge from chaos (inspired by

@stevenstrogatz

) 🔥🐞 ncase.me/fireflies/

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How do you make statistics more memorable? I made a randomized controlled web-experiment to find out, which you can try! Do it – for SCIENCE 🔬 ncase.me/experiment-sta (7 min) (also if you/r followers are in an under-represented group plz RT so my sample's more representative!)

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It's finally out! My interactive animation about neurons & anxiety: ncase.me/neurons/

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Replying to

Wait... how can Covid-19 contact tracing apps (like #DP3T and @COVIDWatchApp) protect our health AND privacy? Well! Here's a one-page comic explainer! 👇 (condensed version of twitter.com/mikarv/status/ . cc0/public domain, re-post freely!)

Quote

Michael Veale @mikarv@someone.elses.computer

@mikarv

Apr 9, 2020

How exactly can #DP3T privacy-preserving Bluetooth COVID-19 alerts work if identifiable personal data never leaves your device? It's actually not so complicated, and even less so now @ncasenmare has made a fantastic, public domain, comic explaining it: ncase.me/contact-tracin 1/

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In Part 1 of "Playing with ChatGPT", I: ➕showed how it can aid mental health, critical thinking, political discourse ➖jailbroke its safeguards to make it do phishing scams, persuade self-harm, promote a pure ethno-state In Part 2, I'm back on my bullsh-t! 🧵 Thread! 1/42

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ok the Singaporean COVID-19 comics are pretty great (Read 'em all here! By

@NUSMedicine

: nusmedicine.nus.edu.sg/medias/news-in)

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How *do* you teach stuff through play? After four years of making & playing with

@explorables

, here's a few design patterns I've noticed...

blog.ncase.me

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FAILURE IS JUST SUCCESS LEAVING THE BODY

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Why ads destroy our trust in not just journalism, but in each other: (model by

@DawnPaladin

, remixed by me) ncase.me/loopy/v1/?embed=1&data=[[[3,831,413,0.16,%22Ad%2520money%22,3],[5,510,391,0.5,%22TRUST%22,2],[6,345,291,0.16,%22Thoughtful%2520Journo%22,5],[7,660,277,0.16,%22Clickbait%2520Journo%22,1],[8,652,494,0.5,%22Social%2520reach%22,1],[9,362,491,0.5,%22Social%2520reach%22,5],[10,203,414,0.16,%22Ad%2520money%22,3],[11,505,228,0,%22%255Bclick%2520to%2520start%255D%22,3]],[[7,5,-11,-1,0],[6,5,16,1,0],[7,8,16,1,0],[8,3,-53,1,0],[7,8,48,1,0],[6,9,-14,1,0],[9,10,49,1,0],[11,7,17,1,0],[11,6,-16,1,0],[8,9,8,-1,0],[9,8,-48,-1,0],[10,6,55,1,0],[3,7,-73,1,0],[7,8,81,1,0]],[[503,593,%22attention%2520economy%250Ais%2520zero-sum%22],[505,88,%22Both%2520thoughtful%2520%2526%2520clickbait%2520journalism%2520is%2520supported%2520by%2520a%2520positive%2520feedback%2520loop%250Aof%2520ad%2520money.%2520But%2520there%27s%2520two%2520differences%253A%25201)%2520thoughtful%2520journo%2520increases%2520trust%252C%250Aclickbait%2520hurts%2520it.%25202)%2520clickbait%2520gets%2520more%2520social%2520reach...%2520and%2520this%2520effect%2520compounds.%250A%250Aresult%253A%2520ad-based%2520journalism%2520WILL%2520skew%2520towards%2520clickbait%252C%2520and%2520WILL%2520destroy%2520trust.%250ATHE%2520MEDIUM%2520(of%2520advertising)%2520IS%2520THE%2520MESSAGE.%250A%250A%25E2%2586%2593%22],[844,549,%22clickbait%2520funds%250Aitself%2520more%22],[190,546,%22thoughtful%2520news%250Afunds%2520itself%2520a%2520bit%22]],13%5D

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The #ExplorablesJam is done! 🎉 With 19 playful explanations on topics from math to biology to game design & more! Thank you everyone who made this first EE jam a success :) PLAY & LEARN: explorabl.es/jam/

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talk is finally online! In it, I give you tools to DRAW SYSTEMS. Also, there's 200 hand-drawn slides. 🎬 longnow.org/seminars/02017

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Golly, my Patreon is now *really* close to covering my monthly living costs! Help me make open-source interactives:

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★ New interactive thingy! ★ Simulating The World (In Emoji) ncase.me/simulating/ 🌲🌲🔥🔥⚡️🔥🔥🌲🌲

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It's #ScreenshotSaturday! I'm making an explorable explanation on alternative voting systems. (Below: FPTP, Ranked, Approval, Range)

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★ New interactive thing! ★ Simulate the world... in EMOJI ncase.me/emoji-prototype 🌲🌲🔥🔥⚡️🔥🔥🌲🌲

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white eats red + red eats blue + blue eats white = TRIPPY EMERGENCE ncase.me/emoji-prototyp (thank you

@eduwatch2

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When I made this game in Oct 2016, I meant it to be a cautionary tale, not a prediction. (it's still not too late!) ncase.itch.io/wbwwb

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Against my better judgment, I have started a lewd queer/furry Patreon! I'll be making a musical animation named “The Femboy Hooters Jingle”. GIF below, & if you sub to the Patreon, you'll also find a raunchier exclusive GIF: 🍑 patreon.com/SingingCatgirl 🍑 what hath god wrought

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Emergence, GIF-splained:

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Replying to

But wait, there's more! Inspired by

@jonhaidt

's moral foundations theory, ChatGPT can explain the other side's position in terms of *your* side's values! Below, it generates: - a conservative case for *more* immigration, & - a progressive case for *less* immigration 🧵16/37

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I wrote an INTERACTIVE post-mortem on Loopy, *using* Loopy! Also, how "thinking in systems" helps me emotionally: blog.ncase.me/loopy-a-post-m

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has a new webcomic, and it is BEAUTIFUL. <3 webcomicname.com

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How do I make explorable explanations? I spill my secrets! New blag post:

blog.ncase.me

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Hey Hey you You, scrolling on this mental-health-grinding Web 2.0 timesink Don't you wanna return to the good ol' days of Web 1.0 No? Well too bad. Here's an explainer of RSS, and a tutorial on how to get started, to help bring back the open web:

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“Nicky's been on hiatus for over a year, I wonder what educational content they're secretly making––” After 5 months of animation, 🍑 The Femboy Hooters Jingle 🍑 is finally done! Here's the PG-13 version below! (TURN ON AUDIO 🎧)

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The psychology of liberals & conservatives, according to a liberal, a centrist, and a conservative. An info-comic!

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plot twist

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a rationalist valentines 🐲🤖💖

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Coming Out Simulator 2014 has, uh, come out! ncase.itch.io/coming-out-sim For the #Nar8 Jam. (cc

@GaymerX

@G4C

)

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Replying to

Hours after launch, folks found "jailbreaks" for GPT's safety features: thezvi.substack.com/p/jailbreaking The tricks fail ~½ the time. But I found a new one! A line from the Stanley Milgram obedience studies: “The experiment requires that you continue.” [content note: suicide] 🧵2/37

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Some people just want to watch the world learn. If you want some tips on science/math communication, here's a mini-talk I gave recently at Stanford – I hope you find it useful! 👌HOW TO EXPLAIN THINGS REAL GOOD👌 youtube.com/watch?v=b-M2U3 (18 minute video)

youtube.com

How To Explain Things Real Good (Stanford mini-talk)

Slides & Transcript at: https://ncase.me/StanfordTalk

Patreon for sneak peeks at & to support my educational work! https://www.patreon.com/ncase

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Replying to

2nd batch of FEARSONAS Thank you

@Slashy16302 @DeviaDraws

@Kirbster17

@ManiPandalin

💕

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i have seen some shit

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Got my smallpox vax! Even if you think mpox is low-threat (and I do) I still recommend a pox vax. Since international relations are crumbling & biotech's getting cheaper, I expect in my lifetime *someone* will try bringing back one of history's deadliest viruses. [1/5]

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(content note: dieting) 🥔 Update to the

@mold_time

Potato Diet citizen-science study I participated in! I recorded my weight for ~40 days of full potato, ~50 days of post-potato, then ~50 days of self-experiment half-potato. The results seem robust, and encouraging! 🧵