Gaming
Gaming through the fear of failure
It’s not your imagination: games really have gotten easier over the years. The reason has everything to do with my generation’s fear of failure, and our need to get payoffs we can’t get in real life.
Gaming
The heartbreak of nerfing in games
Excessive nerfing can lead to an erosion of trust in the playerbase. It hits at the heart of our sense of fairness. And perhaps more than anything else, gamers want games to be fair—or at least skewed in their favor.
Gaming
Does not game well with others: The art of the kick
In gaming as in real life, teamwork skills matter. When one player didn’t get the memo, the game master makes the kick.
Analyzing Christianity
Bass-ackwards: We are not hardwired for belief
Many Christians seem to love the idea of humans being hardwired for belief. By this phrase, they mean that their god placed in each human’s heart a desire to worship something supernatural. Unfortunately, their god didn’t finish the job.
Analyzing Christianity
The Flocks Still Hate Evangelism: Reset Button Edition
Something has to give, when it comes to panicking businesses in decline. They must pick something to cherish and do it right. Sometimes that’ll mean forging ahead with a new customer base they can actually please and which can actually support them as a business. Other times, it’ll mean taking extra-good care of their existing customers. And evangelicals haven’t yet figured out where to land there.
History and Science
The ‘Help-Rejecting Complainer’ (LSP #213)
Lord Snow Presides over the unique way that knowing how to describe something can help us frame problems—and solve them.
History and Science
Confirmation Bias: A Mindset That Prevents Growth
Hi and welcome back! The other day, I showed you an odd little essay by Amy Laura Hall, a Duke University ethics professor. In it, she twice displayed a cognitive bias called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, if allowed to rule people unchecked, can prevent their ability to learn and grow. Today, Read more
From Patreon
The Anger of Evangelical Women
If a woman’s anger gets too close to a man’s comfort in that culture, men label her as hysterical or — that evangelical favorite — bitter. Once they lay down this judgment, they can ignore anything else she has to say.
History and Science
Weaponized pet names: Recognize this control-Grab
Recently, I spotted this story from Cheat Sheet about a TV show called 90-Day Fiance. In it, an unpopular star repeatedly calls his ex-girlfriend ‘sweetheart’ in one of this show’s ‘tell-alls.’ And the show’s fans exploded in outrage. They were right to take offense at his use of this pet name. If a target’s Read more
Analyzing Christianity
Why the flocks don’t WANNA evangelize
Evangelicals don’t want to evangelize. Their reasons—and they have many—play a hand in the ultimate fate of their religion.