Alex Leviton
@alexleviton.bsky.social
How does our creativity influence how we perceive the world? Board game designer about such things: @thirdlayergames
Books: creativity, travel, humor, Lonely Planet. Trauma-informed poetry therapy. Berkeley J School. ASL. Former Ed Dir.
Books: creativity, travel, humor, Lonely Planet. Trauma-informed poetry therapy. Berkeley J School. ASL. Former Ed Dir.
There’s going through the highs and lows of your messy, personal, gorgeous human existence to connect with other humans via the tin-can phone line of your soul's creative expression..
And then: there's AI art.
Ahem.
From @theoatmeal.bsky.social
theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
And then: there's AI art.
Ahem.
From @theoatmeal.bsky.social
theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal
This is a comic about AI art.
theoatmeal.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:38 PM
There’s going through the highs and lows of your messy, personal, gorgeous human existence to connect with other humans via the tin-can phone line of your soul's creative expression..
And then: there's AI art.
Ahem.
From @theoatmeal.bsky.social
theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
And then: there's AI art.
Ahem.
From @theoatmeal.bsky.social
theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
It’s a good life tip: When the universe gives you more color, you gotta do the color. Because, man; color is rarer than you’d expect.
Garden tip: if a crop comes in a purple or red variety, grow those. These purple flat beans and red long beans are much easier to find among the leaves and stems than the green varieties.
Also they’re pretty.
Also they’re pretty.
August 31, 2025 at 6:55 PM
It’s a good life tip: When the universe gives you more color, you gotta do the color. Because, man; color is rarer than you’d expect.
Happy Best-Month Eve! 🥳
Which is Sept obvs (school starts, the smell of tomato leaves, college football, etc).
My full ranking:
1) Sept
2) Oct
3) July
4) May
5) June
6) Aug
7) Nov
8) Dec
9) Jan
10) Feb (or Feb > Jan, open for debate)
11) April
12) March
Which is Sept obvs (school starts, the smell of tomato leaves, college football, etc).
My full ranking:
1) Sept
2) Oct
3) July
4) May
5) June
6) Aug
7) Nov
8) Dec
9) Jan
10) Feb (or Feb > Jan, open for debate)
11) April
12) March
August 31, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Happy Best-Month Eve! 🥳
Which is Sept obvs (school starts, the smell of tomato leaves, college football, etc).
My full ranking:
1) Sept
2) Oct
3) July
4) May
5) June
6) Aug
7) Nov
8) Dec
9) Jan
10) Feb (or Feb > Jan, open for debate)
11) April
12) March
Which is Sept obvs (school starts, the smell of tomato leaves, college football, etc).
My full ranking:
1) Sept
2) Oct
3) July
4) May
5) June
6) Aug
7) Nov
8) Dec
9) Jan
10) Feb (or Feb > Jan, open for debate)
11) April
12) March
This just happened to be the card section I photographed (weirdness accidental). What else would you call the intangible/emotion category (machete will move, I promise!). #psychology or #neuroscience peeps: Interoception? Internal? Personal?
Coming up with Sense cards for our board game (name *still* TBD) is the most fun thing e-var. 🤩♟️🎲
#boardgame #perception
#boardgame #perception
August 20, 2025 at 7:44 PM
This just happened to be the card section I photographed (weirdness accidental). What else would you call the intangible/emotion category (machete will move, I promise!). #psychology or #neuroscience peeps: Interoception? Internal? Personal?
Reposted by Alex Leviton
Testing some weirder ‘You As’ Perspective cards. Any ‘oh totally!’ or ‘hell no’ first impressions?
* You on your deathbed
* You + bad life choices
* You on the Death Star
* Your liver, personified
* Your evil twin
* You, vomiting
#playtesting #boardgames #creativethinking
* You on your deathbed
* You + bad life choices
* You on the Death Star
* Your liver, personified
* Your evil twin
* You, vomiting
#playtesting #boardgames #creativethinking
August 6, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Testing some weirder ‘You As’ Perspective cards. Any ‘oh totally!’ or ‘hell no’ first impressions?
* You on your deathbed
* You + bad life choices
* You on the Death Star
* Your liver, personified
* Your evil twin
* You, vomiting
#playtesting #boardgames #creativethinking
* You on your deathbed
* You + bad life choices
* You on the Death Star
* Your liver, personified
* Your evil twin
* You, vomiting
#playtesting #boardgames #creativethinking
The best example of financial tourism creativity I think I’ve ever seen, coming from one of my favorite places on Earth, Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny Just Wants to Stay Home. So Do I. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o...
Bad Bunny Just Wants to Stay Home. So Do I. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o...
Opinion | Bad Bunny Just Wants to Stay Home. So Do I.
www.nytimes.com
August 3, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The best example of financial tourism creativity I think I’ve ever seen, coming from one of my favorite places on Earth, Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny Just Wants to Stay Home. So Do I. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o...
Bad Bunny Just Wants to Stay Home. So Do I. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/o...
Funny Times once ran a story: drug dealers sold their products under an ancient oak tree right next to a school. The police spent $$$$ dealing with this intractable, societal problem. Their solution?
They cut down the tree.
Trump doesn't know how to *not* cut down the tree.
They cut down the tree.
Trump doesn't know how to *not* cut down the tree.
BREAKING: President Trump fires the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hours after weak jobs report.
Trump fires labor statistics boss hours after weak jobs report
The president implied that the BLS commissioner, long-time federal employee Erika McEntarfer, manipulated the data "for political purposes."
nbcnews.to
August 1, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Funny Times once ran a story: drug dealers sold their products under an ancient oak tree right next to a school. The police spent $$$$ dealing with this intractable, societal problem. Their solution?
They cut down the tree.
Trump doesn't know how to *not* cut down the tree.
They cut down the tree.
Trump doesn't know how to *not* cut down the tree.
Mathers, people who can math or have ever mathed: Can you help our game?
Math help! 🧮
Our game has:
100 ‘Perception’ cards with 401 categories
+
600 ‘Senses’ (300 double-sided cards)
(Each turn = draw 1 Perception and 6 Senses)
=
ChatGPT says that equals 177 trillion possible play combinations. Can that be right??
#math #boardgames #AI
Our game has:
100 ‘Perception’ cards with 401 categories
+
600 ‘Senses’ (300 double-sided cards)
(Each turn = draw 1 Perception and 6 Senses)
=
ChatGPT says that equals 177 trillion possible play combinations. Can that be right??
#math #boardgames #AI
a man with a beard is surrounded by mathematical equations on his face
Alt: Zach Galifianikis with an expression akin to the one we have now: staring at floating big numbers like, whoa.
media.tenor.com
July 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Mathers, people who can math or have ever mathed: Can you help our game?
Nature, oak trees, creativity, connecting over sharing our preferences for any of these things … antidote to our discontent? Beautiful piece by @danamilbank.bsky.social in WaPo www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | We are losing our humanity. I am searching for an antidote.
The challenge of our time is to recover what we have lost: in nature, and in our communities.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 25, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Nature, oak trees, creativity, connecting over sharing our preferences for any of these things … antidote to our discontent? Beautiful piece by @danamilbank.bsky.social in WaPo www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Joy is sharing the board game you and your partner created with your OPALs creativity group, and it creates even *more* joy and creativity in the world. 🥰 #boardgamecommunity
Gem describes our game perfectly. ☺️
If you’re near #puyallup this weekend, go check out Bundok Books’ grand opening. #indiebookstore #boardgames
If you’re near #puyallup this weekend, go check out Bundok Books’ grand opening. #indiebookstore #boardgames
July 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Joy is sharing the board game you and your partner created with your OPALs creativity group, and it creates even *more* joy and creativity in the world. 🥰 #boardgamecommunity
June 30, 2025 at 5:06 PM
“The social benefits of nostalgia are particularly well supported.”
Yep yep yep. Memory, senses, and story bring people together.
Want to connect across divides? Start with the sound of Chewbacca’s voice. Or the smell of gasoline. I’ve been using this to teach for 15 years, and it’s magic.
Yep yep yep. Memory, senses, and story bring people together.
Want to connect across divides? Start with the sound of Chewbacca’s voice. Or the smell of gasoline. I’ve been using this to teach for 15 years, and it’s magic.
Nostalgia through food and scent can actually boost your well-being and sense of connection.
buff.ly/lksexMa
#food #wellness 🧪
buff.ly/lksexMa
#food #wellness 🧪
Nostalgic foods and scents like fresh-cut grass and hamburgers grilling bring comfort, connection and well-being
Once thought to be an unhealthy experience, researchers now know that feelings of nostalgia can promote greater social connectedness and a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.
buff.ly
June 25, 2025 at 12:52 PM
“The social benefits of nostalgia are particularly well supported.”
Yep yep yep. Memory, senses, and story bring people together.
Want to connect across divides? Start with the sound of Chewbacca’s voice. Or the smell of gasoline. I’ve been using this to teach for 15 years, and it’s magic.
Yep yep yep. Memory, senses, and story bring people together.
Want to connect across divides? Start with the sound of Chewbacca’s voice. Or the smell of gasoline. I’ve been using this to teach for 15 years, and it’s magic.
Reposted by Alex Leviton
We share ~98.5% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Which would be nuttier if we didn't also share 98% with pigs, 70% with sea urchins and 60% with bananas.
(What happens when you're researching names for a board game.)
(What happens when you're researching names for a board game.)
June 20, 2025 at 10:27 PM
We share ~98.5% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Which would be nuttier if we didn't also share 98% with pigs, 70% with sea urchins and 60% with bananas.
(What happens when you're researching names for a board game.)
(What happens when you're researching names for a board game.)
I made a board game. ☺️ It’s about slugs, true, but also the smell of fresh-baked bread, the sight of pirate flags, the sound of a match striking, and the feel of dressing up in costumes.
Any advice on the name? Current leaders: Pet the Bear, Lemon Over Love, Saysano, Slugs vs Slalom. #boardgames
Any advice on the name? Current leaders: Pet the Bear, Lemon Over Love, Saysano, Slugs vs Slalom. #boardgames
Stinky cheese. The smell of gasoline. The first Martian colony. Cruises. Beets. Petting a bear. Getting your teeth cleaned. Banana slugs.
You know that thing you love (or hate) that everyone feels the opposite about? Here’s your chance to make your case. Coming Nov 2025. Name TBD.
#boardgames
You know that thing you love (or hate) that everyone feels the opposite about? Here’s your chance to make your case. Coming Nov 2025. Name TBD.
#boardgames
June 12, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I made a board game. ☺️ It’s about slugs, true, but also the smell of fresh-baked bread, the sight of pirate flags, the sound of a match striking, and the feel of dressing up in costumes.
Any advice on the name? Current leaders: Pet the Bear, Lemon Over Love, Saysano, Slugs vs Slalom. #boardgames
Any advice on the name? Current leaders: Pet the Bear, Lemon Over Love, Saysano, Slugs vs Slalom. #boardgames
Some important research happening in the PNW. Beer, oysters, banana slugs: pretty much our sigil.
June 8, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Some important research happening in the PNW. Beer, oysters, banana slugs: pretty much our sigil.
Reposted by Alex Leviton
"Crisis... is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and constitutes an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis."
This is deeply assuring: www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/13/a...
This is deeply assuring: www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/13/a...
Alain de Botton on the Importance of Breakdowns and Crisis as a Clarifying Force for Authenticity
“Crisis… is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and constitutes an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis.”
www.themarginalian.org
May 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
"Crisis... is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and constitutes an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis."
This is deeply assuring: www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/13/a...
This is deeply assuring: www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/13/a...
The problem with ‘When they go low, we go high’ is that the world is now being run from the basement.
May 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
The problem with ‘When they go low, we go high’ is that the world is now being run from the basement.
‘Once a network is taught a pattern this way, it can reach the pattern again simply by navigating downhill through the network’s energy landscape; it will naturally reach the pattern when it settles into an equilibrium state.’
Learning how AI works is like describing creativity.
Learning how AI works is like describing creativity.
You may take associative memory for granted, but it’s what allows you to remember a moment from a specific scent, or a full melody from a few lines of lyrics. Physics helped bring a form of this memory to computers.
The Strange Physics That Gave Birth to AI | Quanta Magazine
Modern thinking machines owe their existence to insights from the physics of complex materials.
www.quantamagazine.org
May 2, 2025 at 4:06 PM
‘Once a network is taught a pattern this way, it can reach the pattern again simply by navigating downhill through the network’s energy landscape; it will naturally reach the pattern when it settles into an equilibrium state.’
Learning how AI works is like describing creativity.
Learning how AI works is like describing creativity.
“Perhaps even more surprisingly, just learning what creativity is and how it works can help our own creativity.”
Reading the intro on Libby and I’ve highlighted a dozen passages already.
Reading the intro on Libby and I’ve highlighted a dozen passages already.
The Creativity Choice is coming out May 6. It applies the science of creativity to discuss not only how we come up with ideas, but how to do we make them happen. Never expected to be here when I started my career as a researcher.
#creativity #innovation #books
Thread...
#creativity #innovation #books
Thread...
April 30, 2025 at 4:07 PM
“Perhaps even more surprisingly, just learning what creativity is and how it works can help our own creativity.”
Reading the intro on Libby and I’ve highlighted a dozen passages already.
Reading the intro on Libby and I’ve highlighted a dozen passages already.
I didn't know I needed this: Twelve minutes of great sounds -- along with their accompanying spectrogram, representing the various sound frequencies.
Mesmerizing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlAp...
Mesmerizing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlAp...
12 Minutes Of Great Sounds!
YouTube video by Nat and Friends
www.youtube.com
April 28, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I didn't know I needed this: Twelve minutes of great sounds -- along with their accompanying spectrogram, representing the various sound frequencies.
Mesmerizing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlAp...
Mesmerizing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlAp...
Nature = creativity. Expectations = frustration. I.e: Pounding harder on the front door just leads to bloody knuckles.
Go take a hike. Look at trees. Smell the air. Then, at some point, glance back.
Holy crap; was that back door cracked open this whole time??
Go take a hike. Look at trees. Smell the air. Then, at some point, glance back.
Holy crap; was that back door cracked open this whole time??
Nature and creativity – the science of "soft fascination" and how time outdoors resets the brain www.themarginalian.org/2022/07/01/d...
Nature and Creativity: The Science of “Soft Fascination” and How the Natural World Resets the Brain
“Our everyday experience does not prepare us to assimilate the gaping hugeness of the Grand Canyon or the crashing grandeur of Niagara Falls. We have no response at the ready; our usual frame…
www.themarginalian.org
April 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Nature = creativity. Expectations = frustration. I.e: Pounding harder on the front door just leads to bloody knuckles.
Go take a hike. Look at trees. Smell the air. Then, at some point, glance back.
Holy crap; was that back door cracked open this whole time??
Go take a hike. Look at trees. Smell the air. Then, at some point, glance back.
Holy crap; was that back door cracked open this whole time??
If Muppy and Bun Bun can get along, there might be hope for us yet. #dogsofbluesky
March 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
If Muppy and Bun Bun can get along, there might be hope for us yet. #dogsofbluesky
One of the delights of having a Finnish partner is the Finglish idioms that grace my life. Like just now: ‘Never eat your chickens before they hatch.’
March 26, 2025 at 9:55 PM
One of the delights of having a Finnish partner is the Finglish idioms that grace my life. Like just now: ‘Never eat your chickens before they hatch.’
Reposted by Alex Leviton
“How do you push back against a tidal wave?” wrote political communication expert Dannagal Young. Overloading people with news is a propaganda tactic used by authoritarians like Putin to distort reality. A communication professor explains: buff.ly/Ork4y6p Jennifer Mercieca @tamu.bsky.social #media
Donald Trump’s nonstop news-making can be exhausting, making it harder for people to scrutinize his presidential actions
Overwhelming people with a deluge of announcements makes it difficult to easily track and understand what is happening in the White House.
buff.ly
March 23, 2025 at 6:48 PM
“How do you push back against a tidal wave?” wrote political communication expert Dannagal Young. Overloading people with news is a propaganda tactic used by authoritarians like Putin to distort reality. A communication professor explains: buff.ly/Ork4y6p Jennifer Mercieca @tamu.bsky.social #media