I think I need to master this so let's dive right into Ambient's UI system. I've been advised it's React-like in some way, and Windows Forms-like in some other way. I'll be using external tutorials as necessary but mainly trying to stick to the latest Ambient 'Book'.

I suppose I forgot to actually write down quotes from it, but ~ The Nature of Order Book Two provided the first example of this idea, and it's stuck in my head forever. I'll edit this when I find that example again.

...

The idea is that even if we do not set out to produce novel structure, if we respect the structure that is there, and make its good but weak parts stronger, we will end up producing emergent novelty.

(An additional idea here is that this novelty suggests a genuine path towards producing emergent behaviour or structure, and not just a means by which to identify emergent structure, which has been much given already. The process is crucial.)

The lessons of history
-massive tomes after decades, condensed into just 100 pages of lessons

A calendar of wisdom
-Leo Tolstoy, thoughts of all interesting people in history, quotes to read daily

Philosophy as a way of life
-ancient philosophers practiced what they said, how that was lived. taking action, not thinking

Barbarian days
-fun, a page turner. paying for a surfing habit, discovered virgin surf spots. surfer book!

Living life backwards
-philosophy book - Ecclesiasticus, have death present

The art of doing science and engineering
-hamming? also a talk about t hi s!!! problem solving mindset, DSPs, deconstructs his mindsets. learned from Shannon

Principles
-ray dalio? principles in life (good), can skip the second part (principles in teamwork)

The courage to be disliked
-Adler Adlerian psychology, explains this psychology in an engaging way. the book is a conversation!!

The making of prince of Persia
- it's about the creative process, his doubts, every side

Let my people go surfing
-CEO of Patagonia! why he started the company. values & thinking behind making the company. making a company by understanding and adhering to values

I'm starting a new project this morning. At its simplest, I want this to be a game about . . . score. Multiple players share space, influenced and incentivized by the score engine. That's really the heart of a multiplayer game! For now, I think I'll start with a simple "SNAKE" control scheme.

Ah, but I really really really don't want this to have the vibe of an "io" game. So we'll see how to get away from that. The point of this game isn't actually the competition, but the social dynamic, the complex social fabric, produced...

THIS SUDDEN STRONG THOUGHT OCCURRED TO ME.

Hello momin! At some point in the future I will probably send you this forum thread. At that point, I hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts which I have not yet written at the time I'm writing this text now :)
love, droqen

Spicy Lightly Pickled Cucumbers
BY ANDY BARAGHANI

December 20, 2018

Cucumber spears on a goldrimmed white platter lightly covered in spices and herbs.

These quick pickles have just the right amount of sweet, salt, and tang going on. The brine can work with any crunchy veg, but we like them best with cucumbers. We guarantee they'll be the sleeper hit of your next party spread.

Ingredients
8 servings
2 lb. medium Persian cucumbers (about 12), cut lengthwise into spears
1/4 cup white wine vinegar or unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. kosher salt, plus more
2 Tbsp. chopped dill
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Step 1
Toss cucumbers in a large bowl with vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, and 2 tsp. salt. Chill, tossing once, at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours.

Step 2
Just before serving, add dill and lemon juice and toss to combine. Taste and season with more salt if needed.

Gathering and ranking lists. I have a bone to pick with lists. Some lists are good, and some lists are bad.

I was playing and thinking about Tears of the Kingdom (the sequel to Breath of the Wild) and it occurred to me that I wanted to do this with REDACTED so that we could discuss the nature of not the end result but so that we could seek what they tried to seek but not just seek as in strive to achieve the same thing using our own methods but seek in the way that they tried to seek.

I've been thinking about this since being exposed to the concept by Billy Dent's cohost post about open world games:

"open world games are made using certain tools, techniques and conventions, and I believe that these production-side characteristics are the main reason why they keep being made . . . [they make] open world games incredibly economical, if your goal is to create something BIG."

What are these tools, techniques, and conventions? I think that this is what every game designer on earth should be talking about: not for open world games, but for every genre, every game of note, everything that is out there.

What are the tools, techniques, and conventions that produced a game?

What were the goals for creating a game?

How did all these factors come together to produce this game, at this point in time? How is that beautiful, or how is it horrible? What can we appreciate, take away, swear off of forever, or build on top of as a foundation?

The conversations are happening, just more slowly than I'd like. People talk about crunch and say how bad it is. But beyond those spiky awful "Well that was a mistake let's never do that again" points that stick out, where are the eternal wisdoms that we learn and hold onto and never let go of, that we work with again and again for years, for generations, for millennia or at least until the last human being dies?

QuoteDo-ocracy is a decentralized, anarchist way of deciding and managing how things get changed, and is the main way that things get done at Noisebridge.

It can be summed up as follows:

    Do-ocracy: If you want something done, do it, but remember to be excellent to each other when doing so.

After reading Mer's "More questions than answers" I find myself a little grounded, which is nice. A new tangent.

Noting my thoughts here before I lose them...

- What is it that makes you feel alive? Environments, cities, languages, worlds, people

- Organic, tree, city. I still haven't read it (I'm meaning to) but Christopher Alexander wrote an essay called A City is not a Tree which... well, the name is too too similar!

Quote. . . what is a DEAD game then? // Are we talking about LIVING games in opposition to what?

^ The One-Straw Revolution quote, responding, moving toward the center. The center!

* The short stories Ezra shared with me. Their singleness. Is this haiku games? (butterfly emoji)

Quote"When you are becoming ALIVE you can feel it deeply.", Then how do you feel when you're not? Like when you get stuck at an idle game that you feel like it's sucking the life out of you?

^ I think so. If pressed I would say that when not alive I feel like I have no reason to exist, no deep reason to exist. It is not the feeling of being dead but the feeling of I might as well be dead, I guess, to be very messy and blunt about it. i feel alive when i am doing something, and there is a reason for doing it, and there is a reason for having that reason, and there is a reason for having that reason, and so on and so on and so on until my mind cannot fathom any further depth of reason and I give in to the illusion that there are reasons for my reasons stretching back as far as the beginning of the universe, the beginning of everything, and i feel whole.