
Media for Thinking the Unthinkable (2013) - mhb
http://worrydream.com/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/
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chrisco255
I think interactive models are fantastic for learning about systems and how
they work. The thing is, it's difficult to design and create these types of
models, even today (2018). I don't know that we have created tools that
empower non-programmers to build such complex models.

Even knowing and understanding programming, you'll have to spend a
considerable amount of time to create such interactive media. This might be
worth it if you have an online learning company and you're selling educational
content for mass audiences. For the one off technical paper or write-up, the
dozens to hundreds of hours it might take to produce interactive media
(assuming you already have those hard-earned skills) describing your topic is
too much for most.

~~~
dc443
Agreed. His demos are always impressive, but my biggest worry for him is that
he's stuck in demo-land. What's sorely missing is guidance (or code) that can
help empower more people to create things like this.

But the reality is probably simpler in the sense that complex things are just
that: complex, and modeling them is at least as complex, so it will always be
hard, and it's only the meta-ideas that can have lasting applicable value. And
he's pretty great at disseminating his meta-ideas.

As a non-academic and a web developer, if I were to publish some work of mine,
I have always known that I would do it in the form of a webpage. That way, I
can make it as dynamic as I need it to be.

~~~
_pius
_What’s sorely missing is guidance (or code) that can help empower more people
to create things like this._

[http://worrydream.com/Tangle/](http://worrydream.com/Tangle/)

~~~
chrisco255
Yeah but if you look at the code that drives those more complex examples, that
is non-trivial for a non-developer.

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tw1010
I have a controversial opinion about this.

I was exposed to this in the beginning of my university period and at the time
found it mindblowing. But now, many years later, do I actually regret it and
wish I hadn't taken this as seriously as I did. Wishing everything I was
learning was visualized, and ignoring means of teaching that weren't styled to
"my type of learning" (i.e. visual) – primed by posts like this – actually
prevented me from taking the effort to learn how to learn via more traditional
methods, like through books. It's only now that I've realized that learning
purely from visualizations (rather than being just a small aid at the end of
personal sweat and effort) _deprives_ you from reaching an end-state of utter
subconscious comfort with the thing you're trying to learn. Reading and
forcing yourself to parse and make sense of a book brings about a much richer,
personal, and flexible understanding which is more interconnected with other
things you already grok (and this is not a skill anyone is born with; though
different people might have different starting positions).

Visualizations are great for shared intuition, but it should only be used at
the end of a long personal struggle which should involve hours upon hours of
undistracted effort, preferably involving something tactile like a pen and
pencil.

Another problem with visualizations is that they essentially act as a
_certificate_ for "final understanding". People play with a visualization and
think they understand the thing (like eigenvalues) because _someone said this
is what you need grok in order to understand the thing_. But as any pure
mathematician knows, that isn't where true learning ends. Only if you're
personally convinced by a proof, without any need for external authority,
should you stop making it any clearer. It can take multiple iterations of a
linear algebra course to reach full enlightenment of what eigenvalues are.
True understanding only comes after you've seen it from many perspectives.

~~~
scroot
> Visualizations are great for shared intuition, but it should only be used at
> the end of a long personal struggle which should involve hours upon hours of
> undistracted effort, preferably involving something tactile like a pen and
> pencil.

There is a classic Alan Kay talk that touches on this very issue, called
"Doing With Images Makes Symbols." It discusses what the true power of HCI
really is: that complex ideas (or even "unthinkable" ones) can be expressed
via HCI using some combination of visual, kinesthetic, and symbolic reasoning.

The whole talk is well worth watching, but here is the part I feel is most
relevant for Victor's point:
[https://youtu.be/p2LZLYcu_JY?t=1h7m10s](https://youtu.be/p2LZLYcu_JY?t=1h7m10s)

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sp332
This reminds me of research into embodied cognition, but that's more physical
than visual. [http://elevr.com/vr-data-and-embodied-
cognition/](http://elevr.com/vr-data-and-embodied-cognition/) Here's a few
experiments in how making new tools to feel things out physically can help
people learn new ideas. [http://voicesofvr.com/515-embodied-cognition-
experiments-wit...](http://voicesofvr.com/515-embodied-cognition-experiments-
with-elevrs-math-museums-hyperbolic-space/)

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kerkeslager
Itheburgs.

