David 🍂
@gearm.bsky.social
blessed with the desire to learn (autism),
cursed with a limitless capacity for trivia (also autism)
i make games, vidya and tabletop
working on mine by night, and by day, working on yours - dev @ the best virtual table top on the world wide web
cursed with a limitless capacity for trivia (also autism)
i make games, vidya and tabletop
working on mine by night, and by day, working on yours - dev @ the best virtual table top on the world wide web
Reposted by David 🍂
how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers
For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...
www.apmreports.org
November 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
I won't say that every game needs to abandon character balance over player balance. But I can say that every game benefits from it - even D&D 5e! Great stories are built on a bit of imbalance in ability and a lot of balance in contribution.
Whether you design, GM, or play - embrace that friction.
Whether you design, GM, or play - embrace that friction.
November 13, 2025 at 2:44 AM
I won't say that every game needs to abandon character balance over player balance. But I can say that every game benefits from it - even D&D 5e! Great stories are built on a bit of imbalance in ability and a lot of balance in contribution.
Whether you design, GM, or play - embrace that friction.
Whether you design, GM, or play - embrace that friction.
Precisely! And this is not an easy problem to solve for many games! D&D 5e, for example, aims to be approachable for all sorts of tables. To this end, it aims to balance every character by the rules.
True balance, though, comes with true collaboration, and there's a beautiful thing there.
True balance, though, comes with true collaboration, and there's a beautiful thing there.
November 13, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Precisely! And this is not an easy problem to solve for many games! D&D 5e, for example, aims to be approachable for all sorts of tables. To this end, it aims to balance every character by the rules.
True balance, though, comes with true collaboration, and there's a beautiful thing there.
True balance, though, comes with true collaboration, and there's a beautiful thing there.
It is truly bananas to be reminded on the regular that evil people are almost always unbelievably stupid people. You're gonna discuss the crimes openly via email? Holy fuck you idiots, pick up a phone!!! You're gonna send the CRIMES through the permanent record method?
Just boggles the mind.
Just boggles the mind.
November 12, 2025 at 11:17 PM
It is truly bananas to be reminded on the regular that evil people are almost always unbelievably stupid people. You're gonna discuss the crimes openly via email? Holy fuck you idiots, pick up a phone!!! You're gonna send the CRIMES through the permanent record method?
Just boggles the mind.
Just boggles the mind.
That's exactly it - it is so cheap and tacky and tasteless and indicative of a deep craving for a crown. Symbolic of a governance that should be resigned to the past.
November 9, 2025 at 12:31 AM
That's exactly it - it is so cheap and tacky and tasteless and indicative of a deep craving for a crown. Symbolic of a governance that should be resigned to the past.
People need society, not talking boxes. Any scenario where the latter is making someone feel less lonely is a scenario in which they're in danger of forming a bond that replaces their loneliness with neurosis.
November 7, 2025 at 7:24 PM
People need society, not talking boxes. Any scenario where the latter is making someone feel less lonely is a scenario in which they're in danger of forming a bond that replaces their loneliness with neurosis.
I don't think that an LLM will ever be an appropriate solution for loneliness - evidence thus far shows that there is not a safe version of this, and that speaking to an LLM as if it were a person *inevitably* leads to a parasocial attachment to (the lie of) the ghost in the machine.
November 7, 2025 at 7:23 PM
I don't think that an LLM will ever be an appropriate solution for loneliness - evidence thus far shows that there is not a safe version of this, and that speaking to an LLM as if it were a person *inevitably* leads to a parasocial attachment to (the lie of) the ghost in the machine.