The Curious Engineer

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Nicky's Blog!

blog.ncase.me

I learn stuff, then share what I learn

GeneralScienceEssays / personal

’15’20’25
Posts
96 from 11 Apr 2013 to 15 Feb 2026
Posting
now and then (4 in the last year)
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personal blog
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https://blog.ncase.me/feed.xml

2026 4

  1. Signal Boosts for Winter 2026
  2. Vitamin D & Omega-3 may have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants
  3. a human poem on humans liking AI poems over human poems
  4. Connect your past, present & future, with lines on a graph

2025 3

  1. Signal Boosts for Autumn 2025: much ado about the Algorithm
  2. My 1st Vlog! Digital puppet, AI "Therapy", Mental health meta-meta-analysis
  3. Show & Tell July 2025: AI Therapist, AI Clone, Wargames for Peace

2024 11

  1. Signal Boosts for Nov 2024
  2. Signal Boosts for Sept & Oct 2024
  3. nutshell
  4. Research Notes-dump for Oct 2024
  5. Welp, I'm 30. (30 tips for my 13-year-old self) · A navel-gazing post for my 30th birthday
  6. The Creative Cyborg (my XOXO 2024 mini-talk) · On how we may re-design AI to enhance artists, not replace them
  7. Signal Boosts for July & August 2024 · Nasal sprays, constructed languages, and sassy sci-fi satires
  8. Signal Boosts for June 2024 · Tutor bots, data detectives, and I FOUND A FIVE-LEAF CLOVER
  9. Signal Boosts for May 2024 · Beavers, papers, and the CONE ZONE
  10. Clearing out the idea closet (47 projects on my backlog) · 47 things I didn't ship.
  11. Why don't brackets matter in multiplication? (Visual proof of associativity) · A never-before-seen visual proof of a stupidly basic fact

2022 2

  1. New project! Nutshell: make expandable explanations · A tool for writers to let readers dive into details
  2. New talk! “How To Explain Things Real Good” · A mini-talk I gave at Stanford on math/science communication

2021 2

  1. Back to the Future with RSS! · How to save the open web, & get (re)started with RSS
  2. How Do I Learn X? · Advice on learning math, writing, coding, game design, mental health, etc

2020 3

  1. New Explorable! “COVID-19 Futures, Explained With Playable Simulations”
  2. #OneStepAhead
  3. Make Plushie Patterns with Play-Doh & Paper Towels

2019 12

  1. What Did I Learn This Decade? (2010-2019) · A zillion words about being queer, going indie, and mental health (35 min read)
  2. My Most Meaningful Media of 2019 · From murder clowns to quantum computing to furry lesbian vampires (9 min read)
  3. Curse of the Chocolate-Covered Broccoli (or: Emotion in Learning) · So earlier this year, I learnt my whole career was based on a lie. As one does.
  4. Calm Down
  5. Fun Games To Play While You're Waiting To Be Born
  6. The Boy-Weapon
  7. Lone Wolf
  8. Normal Guy
  9. Lizard Person
  10. mom's secret
  11. Mr. Sacks
  12. My Experiment "Pre-Registration"

2018 14

  1. The Most Meaningful Books I Read in 2018
  2. Habits I (Tried To) Make in 2018
  3. Parable of the Hill Climber · Once upon a time, there was a hill climber.
  4. New Explorable! “How To Remember Anything Forever-ish”
  5. The Explorables Jam!
  6. The Lamps
  7. AfterLife
  8. Nicky's Next Explorable: Survey Results!
  9. Explorable Explanations: 4 More Design Patterns
  10. New Mini-Explorable! “Attractors”
  11. New Explorable! "The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds"
  12. How Do We Learn? A Zine
  13. How To Become A Centaur
  14. The Most Meaningful Books I Read in 2017

2017 8

  1. Take Your Time
  2. The Happiness Trap: Zine-ified
  3. How I Make Explorable Explanations
  4. My Long Now Talk: "Seeing Whole Systems"
  5. "The Evolution of Trust" is out!
  6. Jigsaw Puzzles
  7. ENVIRONMENT ⇆ ECONOMY
  8. The Most Meaningful Books I Read in 2016

2016 13

  1. We Become What We Behold, a Post-Mortem
  2. reflecting on :the game:
  3. The Other Side
  4. Evolution, Not Revolution
  5. It's A Loopy World
  6. Emergent Evil
  7. Nicky Reads: Feeling Good
  8. OpenVisConf: Sketchy Notes
  9. How To Simulate The Universe, In 134 Easy Steps
  10. Why Simulate?
  11. Hello, FRONTLINE!
  12. Sparrows Trapped in the Denver Airport
  13. The Building Block Hypothesis

2015 14

  1. Neurotic Neurons: Process
  2. Neurotic Neurons: Design Patterns
  3. Neurotic Neurons: Simplifications
  4. A Bittersweet End to Nothing to Hide
  5. The Science of Social Change
  6. In Which I Take Scott McCloud And Replace "Comics" With "Games"
  7. Explorable Explanations: The Plan
  8. LOGICOMIX
  9. Sound System II
  10. Windy Day + thoughts on VR filmmaking
  11. I Love Google Cardboard
  12. I Do And I Understand
  13. A Door-Key Minigame
  14. SarahTheSpaceSpy.js

2014 8

  1. Pop-Up Textbooks
  2. Explorable Explanations
  3. If Games Were Like Game Stories...
  4. Coming Out Simulator 2014
  5. Paper Jekyll wins The Public Domain Jam!
  6. Stupid, Stupid Cubecats
  7. Museum of Eternal Damnation
  8. The Public Domain Jam

2013 2

  1. Slightly Intoxicated Batman
  2. Tragedy of the Commons