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    Max Kreminski

    mkremins.github.io · Personal blog · on HN since 2015

    Max Kreminski, a researcher in games and computational creativity, writes about game design, storytelling tools, Unix and creativity support.

    Visit blogHN submissions
    GamesDesign & UXProgramming
    What HN says

    HN commenters link his posts on Unix as unacceptable, and on locked doors and intellectual need, as thoughtful pieces for related discussions.

    Stats for nerds
    23HN people shared it
    19linked in comments
    903story points
    Apr 2025last shared
    2015people per year2025

    Top posts on HN

    1. 1
      Locked doors, headaches, and intellectual need
      6 people · 299 points · first shared 2015 · 26 comments on HN
    2. 2
      Unix is not an acceptable Unix
      6 people · 290 points · first shared 2015 · 174 comments on HN
    3. 3
      Epitaph – Fermi Paradox Simulator
      4 people · 236 points · first shared 2016 · 73 comments on HN
    4. 4
      Blabrecs
      2 people · 68 points · first shared 2020 · 17 comments on HN
    5. 5
      Controls as Language
      1 person · 3 points · first shared 2016 · Discussion on HN
    6. 6
      Games as storytelling partners
      1 person · 3 points · first shared 2017 · Discussion on HN
    7. 7
      Failure margins and feedback loops
      1 person · 2 points · first shared 2016 · Discussion on HN
    8. 8
      Creativity Support Tools
      1 person · 2 points · first shared 2023 · Discussion on HN
    9. 9
      Interactive
      1 person · first shared 2025

    What HN people wrote when they linked it

    • pkinskyNov 2015

      Interesting, sounds like another instance of problem solution ordering: http://mkremins.github.io/blog/doors-headaches-intellectual-need/.

      >Think of yourself as someone who sells aspirin. And realize that the best customer for your aspirin is someone who is in pain. Not a lot of pain. Not a migraine. Just a little.

      >One of the worst things you can do is force people who don’t feel pain to take your aspirin. They may oblige you if you have some particular kind of authority in their lives but that aspirin will feel pointless. It’ll undermine their respect for medicine in general.

      >Math shouldn’t feel pointless. Math isn’t pointless. It may not have a point in job [y] or [z] but math has a point in math. We invented new math to resolve the limitations of old math. My challenge to all of us here is, before you offer students the new, more powerful math, put them in a place to experience the limitations of the older, less powerful math.

    • jodooshiMar 2017

      > monads aren’t actually all that complicated. In fact, most of the experienced functional programmers I’ve met consider them downright simple. It’s just that newcomers often have a really hard time trying to figure out what exactly monads even are... A lot of intermediate-to-advanced functional programmers have taken it upon themselves to write monad tutorials... But for the most part, these tutorials never seem to work.

      Why is that? Locked doors, headaches, and intellectual need: https://mkremins.github.io/blog/doors-headaches-intellectual-need/ :-)

    • seagreenSep 2015

      I'll take this one:) http://housejeffries.com/articles/unix-delenda-est

      I criticize Unix because I think it's getting in the way of the adoption of what I really love: the CLI.

      Really a much better article is this one, but I didn't write it: https://mkremins.github.io/blog/unix-not-acceptable-unix/

    • mkreminsApr 2025

      Really cool! I also made some blackout poetry tools back in like 2019, maybe of interest… https://mkremins.github.io/blackout/interactive

    • frankusAug 2019

      This seems to address a lot of the shortcomings presented here: https://mkremins.github.io/blog/unix-not-acceptable-unix/

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