№ 53 | Skill Trees, The Micropedia of Microaggressions, Personas Non Grata, In Dreams (Solo RPG), and The History of The Boycott

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№ 53 | Skill Trees, The Micropedia of Microaggressions, Personas Non Grata, In Dreams (Solo RPG), and The History of The Boycott

Skill trees

In a previous Friday Finds (April 21), I posted about a Skill Tree for 3D Printing & Modeling. 

Self explanatory. I love skill trees (in board games, video games, Kahn academy, and elsewhere) as a way to think about the micro skills that build upon each other…without falling into the trap of a homogeneous, linear learning path. There's something about the quasi-sequencing for guidance, but flexibility to build your own learning path. 

Well, it turns out there's a whole bunch more of these skill trees, more on the way, and tools to make your own!

The micropedia of microaggressions

The first encyclopedia of microaggressions. This looks like it could be(come) a card deck… 🤔

Personas non grata

I've found ‘What could go wrong?’ or ‘How might this be abused?’ are great reframing questions to help us think beyond the ideal conditions we're often designing for. Along these lines, Design Under Pressure is a practical resource center to help you and your team proactively create products and services that hold up under stress cases.” Of particular note are these ten “personas non grata” — “people you probably don't want in your product or service, but who are likely to find their way in anyway.”

(Check out the ‘Talks and resources’ tab—it has a few additional goodies!)

In Dreams

In Dreams is a “journaling game that provides vivid imagery and evocative prompts to immerse you in a dreamworld you wouldn’t have otherwise imagined.”

While I wouldn't normally share a role-playing game here (in this case a solo RPG!?), what caught my interest is the way you “draw cards to create a chain of prompts that connect in interesting ways.” As a card pattern, I could see used elsewhere, in the creation of playful things to think with…

The game is now shipping to backers, and is not yet available for purchase. But, you can download a free (!) print and play version

The History of The Boycott | The Nib

I had no idea that the word boycott came from… well, here’s a bit of history, told in a graphic format.

❗AND, don’t miss out…❗

If you liked this,  all The Nib magazines are free to download!!


*** BONUS: So I was chatting with my son about Base-10 and Base-2 numeral systems, and he shared this amazing video with me: Why These Are The Best Numbers!**

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№ 119 | Scenarios From the Fable 5 Ban, Type Simulation, Player Agency, Echo Chamber Simulation, A1 Collision Density, Brains on Games, Conversational Leadership Essentials, the HIVE Deck, and a Vincent van Gogh Makeover

№ 119 | Scenarios From the Fable 5 Ban, Type Simulation, Player Agency, Echo Chamber Simulation, A1 Collision Density, Brains on Games, Conversational Leadership Essentials, the HIVE Deck, and a Vincent van Gogh Makeover

Welcome to another edition of Thinking Things, your regular roundup of ‘playful things to think with’ and things to think about! Let’s jump into it… Scenarios from the Fable 5 ban You might have heard that the US government banned Anthropic’s latest LLM model? This isn’t about

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№ 118 | Working in Space, BriteBox Idea Generation, Epos Daimon, American Dictator? The Game, Cas Holman and ‘Anji Play’, A Web Typography Learning Game, and The Stratification of Trust

№ 118 | Working in Space, BriteBox Idea Generation, Epos Daimon, American Dictator? The Game, Cas Holman and ‘Anji Play’, A Web Typography Learning Game, and The Stratification of Trust

Welcome to another edition of Thinking Things, your regular roundup of 'playful things to think with’ and things to think about! 🤦I made a mistake. In the last issue, I mentioned a three-line poem from Mary Oliver. As it turns out, this is misinformation. Despite a quick bit

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№ 117 | A Special “Two-fer” Edition: Museum Activities, Attention, Technology & Childhood Education, Writing Together, Two Critiques of Org Change, and More Great Conversation Starters

№ 117 | A Special “Two-fer” Edition: Museum Activities, Attention, Technology & Childhood Education, Writing Together, Two Critiques of Org Change, and More Great Conversation Starters

A special “two-fer” edition, featuring things to think with or think about—that happen to pair nicely with each other! Context: While collecting the various things that make it into this newsletter, I sometimes come across posts, frameworks, etc. that feel better to share together, as a pair (or

By Stephen P. Anderson
№ 116 | Mapping the Sources of Power, The Atlas of New Futures, Factitious, Mutual Aid Self Care Zine, Lecture-Zines by Darren Raven, Wild Cards Deck, and the Weight of Worry

№ 116 | Mapping the Sources of Power, The Atlas of New Futures, Factitious, Mutual Aid Self Care Zine, Lecture-Zines by Darren Raven, Wild Cards Deck, and the Weight of Worry

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Thinking Things, your mostly-regular dose of ‘Playful Things to Think With’ (and think about). Mapping the Sources of Power By way of a LinkedIn post from Scott Wolfson comes this map depicting “how experts actually make decisions.” It’s a hand drawn

By Stephen P. Anderson