№ 46 | Future Scenarios Inspired by Videogames, Strategic Doing, Social Media Issues, Backdoors & Breaches, the Tiny Awards, and A Password Game

№ 46 | Future Scenarios Inspired by Videogames, Strategic Doing, Social Media Issues, Backdoors & Breaches, the Tiny Awards, and A Password Game

Future scenarios, inspired by videogames

They took your garbage can away today.
Your recycling bin too. All that’s left is the compost bin.
Neighbors are standing at the curb watching the trucks drive off, looking a bit in shock.
It sounded impossible when the federal government first announced it last year. But now it’s really happening.
It’s the end of garbage as we know it.

Here’s a short, solid piece from Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., Director of IFTF, where she answers the question: “How can I make a future scenario feel as immersive and explorable as a videogame?”Some practical tips in here, hearkening back to CYOA books and early text adventures.

Strategic Doing

Actually, a book review by Harold Jarche of Strategic Doing, in which the author’s identify 10 skills, of which “the most successful teams consistently used eight of these skills, while the least successful used only two.” I could see turning this into a game or conversation starter of some kind…

Social media issues

I’d love to go back to school, for courses like this one on Social Media Issues.
From the discussion questions to thought provoking models such as the one below, I’m a wee bit envious of the students who took this class!

A security (card) game!

Did I mention this game in a previous FF? If not, here ya go…

Backdoors & Breaches is a “popular incident response card game” for security practitioners. And it’s back with a new expansion deck, focused on “top threats and techniques from the 2023 Threat Detection Report.”

The new Red Canary expansion deck is an amalgamation of experiences from real-world incidents, combining common incidents with some of the more unusual and thought-provoking. Of course, we couldn’t help but add in some fun hypotheticals…

Source “Unboxing our Backdoors & Breaches expansion deck”

The Tiny Awards

Here’s the shortlist for the Tiny Awards, a “celebration of the small, playful, and heartfelt web.” I’m still working my way through the 16 nominees, but I’ve already been surprised and delighted by several of these websites. Have fun. You’re welcome. 😉


Speaking of delightful things…


***BONUS: A password game?!
This insane password game is a frustrating delight. You can curse me later.

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№ 112 | Teaching One Pagers, Sliderule Simulator, Board Game Icons, “Making, Hacking and Jamming”, FLARE, Relooted, Choosing a UX Research Method, and Deep Musings on our Human Relationship with AI

№ 112 | Teaching One Pagers, Sliderule Simulator, Board Game Icons, “Making, Hacking and Jamming”, FLARE, Relooted, Choosing a UX Research Method, and Deep Musings on our Human Relationship with AI

Welcome to another edition of the Thinking Things newsletter, your regular dose of playful things to think with, and think about. 🫵A couple of things: 1/ ♥️ ♠️ ♦️ ♣️ I’m exploring a special edition of thinking things focused on… 🥁 playing cards. Specifically, any activity that uses a standard deck of playing cards

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 111 | Art in Board Games, Don't be a Pug in a Bag , Building a Thinking Infrastructure, the Augmentation Canvas, Women’s Clothing Sizes, “Hat, Haircut, or Tattoo”, Phantom Obligations, and Joy Cards (Volume 2)

№ 111 | Art in Board Games, Don't be a Pug in a Bag , Building a Thinking Infrastructure, the Augmentation Canvas, Women’s Clothing Sizes, “Hat, Haircut, or Tattoo”, Phantom Obligations, and Joy Cards (Volume 2)

Welcome to another edition of the Thinking Things newsletter, your regular roundup of ‘playful things to think with’ and think about. Art in Board Games I’m very interested in the information design of board games. This is not that. What begins as commentary on updated art for the game

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 110 | ‘Havens, Hubs & Hangouts’, “Infrastructure for Thinking”, Fractal Gridding + the Hadara Method (for Goal Setting), Bootstrapping Computing,  Catalyst Game, Four Corners Reflection, A Visual Archive of the Jan 6 Capitol Attack, and the Size of Life

№ 110 | ‘Havens, Hubs & Hangouts’, “Infrastructure for Thinking”, Fractal Gridding + the Hadara Method (for Goal Setting), Bootstrapping Computing, Catalyst Game, Four Corners Reflection, A Visual Archive of the Jan 6 Capitol Attack, and the Size of Life

Did you miss me? 🤪 Stephen P. Anderson here, back again with your regular roundup of ‘playful things to think with… and think about’ (wow, that came out sounding like a cheesy DJ announcer!) One of the great things about taking time off between issues is the bounty of amazing finds

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 109 | Algodeck, Alternatives to Arrows, Comic Lettering, Equations Explained Colorfully, Chemistry Advent Calendar, A Framework for Making Decisions, TikTok’s System Map, Learner Engagement Checklist, and Closing Prompts

№ 109 | Algodeck, Alternatives to Arrows, Comic Lettering, Equations Explained Colorfully, Chemistry Advent Calendar, A Framework for Making Decisions, TikTok’s System Map, Learner Engagement Checklist, and Closing Prompts

Let’s close out the year with an XL-sized roundup of ‘playful things to think with’ and think about. 🗓️NOTE: This will be the last newsletter until next year. I normally publish Thinking Things every two weeks. But, I do like to take a bit of time off during the

By Stephen P. Anderson