Archive for March, 2013

Breaker Breaker

Posted March 31, 2013 By Dave Thomer

It’s the last day of a spring break that wasn’t nearly as productive or as restorative as I wanted it to be. I spent a big chunk of it working with my daughter on a science experiment project. It’s a good, ambitious project that unfolds over a long period of time. But it is also […]

Shifting Sagas

Posted March 30, 2013 By Dave Thomer

I’ve loved epic stories for as long as I can remember. As a first grader I would race home from school so that I could get to the TV in time for Star Blazers, an English version of a Japanese series that featured a desperate starship crew trying to find a way to rescue Earth […]

When the Board Is a Tablet

Posted March 29, 2013 By Dave Thomer

My daughter and I both enjoy playing board games, and Ticket to Ride is one of our favorites. Recently she got the iPad version, and we play that sometimes because by adding computer opponents, the game actually gets a little easier. The game has a rules tweak when you go from 2 or 3 to […]

Votes, Not Voices

Posted March 28, 2013 By Dave Thomer

Jonathan Chait had a brief post today at New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer blog, commenting on President Obama’s speech calling on Congress to vote on gun control measures. After citing the institutional roadblocks that are thwarting efforts to enact legislation that polls well, Chait says, Basically, everything is more powerful than millions of voices calling […]

Knowledge Requires Trust

Posted March 27, 2013 By Dave Thomer

Yesterday I asked the question, “What is it that makes trying to learn about and understand the world so unappealing to so many people?” While I was writing the post I thought about a lot of things. For example, I thought about what I’ve learned about human beings’ tendency to value the present over the […]

Winter of All This Content

Posted March 26, 2013 By Dave Thomer

At my school we have a couple of senior teachers whose job it is to help guide and direct us to make sure we’re all moving in the right direction. One is a math teacher, the other is an English teacher. I doubt that it is a coincidence that math and reading are the two […]

Warming Up

Posted March 25, 2013 By Dave Thomer

In high school and college I had an ambition to become a writer. I liked putting words together to create stories and share ideas. I was pretty good at it, too . . . not brilliant, and I needed a lot of practice, but I felt like I had potential. But as I went through […]