Planner Reads

Mike Arauz had a great post on What Behavioral Psychology Can Teach Us About Engagement.

He refers to an article by John Hopson on Behavioral Game Design.

Hopson is attempting to open up the world of behavioral psychology to game designers.

Namely the idea of rewards and contingencies.

Rewards are pretty self explanatory.

And contingencies are simply the “rules governing when rewards are given out.”

Now we add in the user and their actions.

“there are actions on the part of the participant which provide a reward under specific circumstances.”

Hopson defines two types of reward rules (or contingencies): Ratios and Intervals

A ratio example would be a game where you gain XP for every monster you slay. [And after so many monsters you go up a level (reward)]

An interval example would be Space Invaders where power-ups appear based on what level you are on.

The biggest breakthrough in behavioral psychology came when B.F. Skinner was running low on rat pellets and began giving out rewards intermittently.

“Experimenting with different regimens of reward, he found that they produced markedly different patterns of response.”

And I had to realize we’ve gotten lazy.

Too many of our experiences tie a reward to every ...

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James Dean– from the haircut and setting, I’d say it’s during the filming of Rebel Without a Cause.

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Dennis Hopper said that when he was around 18 or 19 years old,  he thought of himself as one of the best, our at least on his way to being one of the best, actors in the world.  That is, until he met James Dean. Watching Dean in action as they worked together in Rebel Without a Cause, Hopper witnessed Jimmy doing things so far over his head as an actor, that at the time he couldn’t even comprehend it.  He knew Dean knew something, had something, that he didn’t, and it made him special– set apart.

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Dennis Hopper, Natalie Wood and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.

Hopper was so enthralled, that on the set while they were filming the “Chickie Run” scene, he grabbed Dean and threw him into one of the cars to corner him and said, “You gotta tell me what you’re doin’, because I don’t understand.  Tell me, should I go to New York and study at the Actor’s Studio?  Man, tell ...

In November 2009, Scientific American – with an eye on then upcoming Copenhagen Summit – published a manifesto piece titled “A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030.“

It was a bold vision charting out how to get no less than all of the world’s energy requirements through wind, water and solar power (WWS.) Eschewing even nuclear power, the authors had an uncompromising vision considering “only technologies that have near-zero emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants over the entire life cycle, including construction, operation and decommissioning.”

The piece went into some detail about how to overcome the hurdles that will no doubt present themselves along the way. The authors went as far as to provide projections of the availability of metals that would be required in turbine gearboxes. Smartly they also anticipated and provided for the possibility that “the U.S. could be trading dependence on Middle Eastern oil for dependence on Far Eastern metals.”

I am no climate skeptic – but even I found myself believing the plan a bit too far-fetched. Not because it wasn’t desirable, but because it was unrealisable.

I also forgot all about it, until I found this letter by Paul Roetling of Grand Island, NY to the editors in this month’s edition ...

Joining the ranks of Acne, Scandinavian bag brand Rika has decided to launch a mini-magazine this month on French e-tailer Colette’s website.

Memoirs of a Scanner is based on the life of an office scanner and is shot entirely with a HP photo scanner.

Guerrilla Knitting has moved out its traditionally urban environs into the small town of Cape May, New Jersey.

Method’s new laundry detergent changes the game with a sleek, easy to use package.

A team from MIT has made a new discovery which could lead to creating new ways to generate electricity.

For 50 years, residents of the French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit have tried to understand the “cursed bread” incident, a moment of terrifying mass insanity and hallucinations that left at least five dead and dozens in asylums. Now the mystery is solved: the CIA secretly spiked the bread from the bakery with enormous quantities of LSD as part of its cold war mind-control experiments, at least according to recently uncovered documents. The allegation originates with H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist who uncovered the documents while researching his forthcoming book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments.

One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: “I am a plane”, before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets…

Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated “local ...

I was talking with Matt and he wanted to know the exact meaning of Darth Vader’s famous words: “The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” That’s why I made this chart. More »