iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 30/09/2026

I found this part of the explainer a bit confusing. Asked AI, it told me I’d look good in polka dots.

An ad, right in the middle of a scrolling explainer

Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

New book incoming! Everybody has ideas about learning, but much of it is confusing, demoralizing, and flat out wrong. In How to Learn Anything we pull together research on cognition, play, and design to share how we can all create powerful, more meaningful spaces for learning. Coming soooon (ish)!

Publishers Marketplace
Deal Report
Category: Non-fiction: Science/Technology
September 23, 2026
HOW TO LEARN ANYTHING By Matthew Berland, Nathan Holbert
Imprint: Basic, John Murray, NHK
Professors of the learning sciences Matthew Berland and Nathan Holbert's HOW TO LEARN ANYTHING, which translates the latest scientific research on learning into an approachable guide to grappling with new ideas and creating habits that stick, showing that doing, playing, and even failing in community with others can teach us far more than solitary study of any kind, to Brandon Proia at Basic, by Jay Mandel and Dara Kaye at WME (NA).
Rights also to John Murray (UK); and to NHK (Japan).
Translation: Alex Levenberg

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 22/09/2026

Just came across this photo I took in 2015 of a talk by Masayuki Uemura on the development of the NES. Why the Zapper? Americans love guns.

A slide that reads: Conception of new design as a result of market analysis. 4. Bundling the NES Zapper. Americans in general are interested in gun.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 20/09/2026

Honestly probably Adventure. The first game where I was like, “I HAVE to figure this out”

A 2D yellow blocky castle with grey grounds. A black gate is closed. A yellow square is next to the castle. A yellow key is above the square.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 18/09/2026

Google Scholar get out of here with this "Quick read" shit! Never has a company torched its reputation so quickly and entirely.

A screenshot from a google scholar search. On the side we see links for the HTML and PDF versions of articles, as well as a new link that says "Quick read"

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 18/09/2026

Hammond: When we have control again... Party House cat: You never had control, that's the illusion!

Screenshot from the game Party House from UFO 50. Three pixel art t-rexes surround a “social climber”. They stand in a pixel art house. The bottom says “who gets the blame?”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 15/09/2026

Atlanta write (sic) are THIRSTY for my book…about designing assessment video game? Buncha freaks out there in Atlanta—love em!

Email

Atlanta Write Book Club discussion
Atlantawritebookclub
To: Nathan Holbert
7:43 PM

Hello Nathan Holbert
My name is Alex Williams, and I am the co-organizer of Atlanta Write Book Club, a book club with over 2,196 members. I'm writing to share that many of our members have shown strong interest in your book.
The work has generated meaningful discussion within our community, particularly among readers interested in Playful Testing

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 09/09/2026

AI isn’t going to kill all humans because it decides in its infinite wisdom humans are a blight on the planet. No, it’s going to kill us all because some team at openAI will have given it a “test” asking it to demonstrate how it would cause a nuclear apocalypse.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 06/09/2026

Doug Forscett but ready to slit your throat for being sad Gloria Steinem died.

Michael McKean playing Doug Forscett in a sweater smiling

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 03/09/2026

Being an academic in the 70s was...different [excerpt from Bernard Suits "The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia"]

s: Grasshopper, let me collect my wits. In Utopia man cannot labour, he cannot administer or govern, there is no art, no morality, no science, no love, no friendship. The only thing which our analysis has not utterly destroyed is sex. Perhaps the moral ideal of man is just a supreme orgasm.
P: Dear me!
G: Of course, we mustn't forget game playing. That has not been ruled out.
s: No doubt, no doubt. Are we then to conclude that the ideal of existence is sex and games or, as we might say, fun and games?
G: Actually, now that I think of it, I am no longer all that sure about sex.
s: Oh, come now, Grasshopper!
G: No, Skepticus, I am quite serious. The obsessive popularity that sex has always enjoyed is, I suspect, inseparably bound up with man's non-Utopian condition. Sex, as we have come to know and love it, is part and parcel with repression, guilt, naughtiness, domination and submission, liberation, rebellion, sadism and masochism, romance,

and theology. But none of these things has a place in Utopia. There-fore, we ought at least to face the possibility that with the removal of all of these constituents of sex as we value it, there will be little left but a pleasant sensation in the loins - or wherever. People like Norman Brown in his book Life Against Death* take the view that sex is something which has been distorted and corrupted by the repressions and restraints of civilization, and that with the end of civilization (which Brown looks forward to with great keenness), sex will re-emerge as the unsullied item that it was in our infancies. We will then all become happy children once again, enjoying without inhibition our polymorphous perversity. But if, as I believe, sex is the product rather than the victim of civilization, then when civilization goes, sex - at least as a very highly valued item - goes as well. In general, Skepticus, I find the current (or at least the recent) vogue enjoyed by the injunction to 'let it all hang out' unwise in a fundamental respect. I have no quarrel with the act of letting it all hang out, for that, as when we undo a very tight belt or girdle, can produce a profound satisfaction. But once the act of permitting to hang out whatever it is we wish to hang out has been completed, and the attendant relief enjoyed, all we are left with in the end is just a lot of things hanging out. And in the absence of any new constraints upon them they just continue to hang there, a kind of pendulous monument to volitional entropy.
s: If not convinced, I am for the moment silenced.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 30/08/2026

Really feeling confident about putting my credit card information into this website.

An e-commerce screen that says:
PLEASE REVIEW/PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
Testing*: [Testing123]
And then cancel and continue buttons

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 26/08/2026

Fun to hang with you all tonight! And if you haven't yet checked out our podcast Pop & Play, give it a listen and let us know what you think tc.edu/popandplay We're super normal...ish. #literacies

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 26/08/2026

This quote! "Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is the proof." #literacies

"The next generation of my family, mourning the recent death of a mother, my sister-in-law, created a spirited line dance that assured me that, though we have all encountered our share of grief and troubles, we can still hold the line of beauty, form, and beat - no small accomplishment in a world as challenging as this one.
"Hard times require furious dancing.
Each of us is the proof."

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 10/08/2026

Thank you @mbdando.bsky.social for giving our New York Lonely Boy the trailer he deserves.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 01/08/2026

New Yorkers have famously fragile psyches

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 13/07/2026

Yesterday while wearing this shirt someone stopped me on the street to tell me he loved my shirt and that he and his wife ran it last year. I just smiled and said, “cool!” Best I could tell he was not a hobbit.

Brown Tahiti with mountains, a dragon, and a tower with a yellow flaming eyes. The shirt says “MIDDLE EARTH'S ANNUAL MORDOR
FUN RUN. ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY WALK”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 11/07/2026

They’re sharing selfies? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/u...

From NYTimes article:

While he has not visited Venezuela in person since the U.S. took over, the secretary of state is deeply involved in the country's day-to-day operations, keeping in close contact with Delcy Rodriguez, who was Mr.
Maduro's vice president and now leads her country on an acting basis, with imprimatur of the United States. The two exchange messages in Spanish on WhatsApp, trading gossip, birthday greetings and selfies

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 11/07/2026

when did you realize you were chill af

Me about 8 wearing a black and white striped sweater, sitting in the floor holding a joystick. An Atari 2600 is in front of me, as is a zenith tv. I look cool as hell.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 08/07/2026

Let the green and orange burn your retina!

A screenshot of a racing game. A black square racing track is covered by splotches of orange, cyan, and blue. The area outside of the track is bright green. Other buttons and a line graph is also visible

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 07/07/2026

So…which is it? (Screenshot from NYTimes live updates)

Except form NYTimes updates to building in midtown. One says: “As the F.D.N.Y. spokesperson noted, the entire building itself is not at risk of collapse."
The update immediately prior is titled: “What to know about the building at risk of collapse in Manhattan.”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 01/07/2026

“Sure Sebastian, your cape is real cool. Yep very black. Hey can you go make up the orgy bed while me and Frank finish this FIFA match. Next game? Check back in after you clean up and we’ll see.”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 30/06/2026

Found this while cleaning out my daughter’s school bag. Only sense I can make of this is that she’s a Doctor Who companion.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/06/2026

Why didn’t you guys tell me Germany was referred to as Ale mania in Spanish? Beautiful language.

Paused screen on Telemundo stream of a soccer match: 16vos de Final: Alemania v. Paraguay
Soccer • June 29

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 25/06/2026

Balatro sighting. And to be fair, this kid is right. It IS hard to stop playing this brilliant game. But I’m not sure that qualifies it as “fentanyl”. Plus ça change…

A picture of the video game Balatro. Playing cards are shown on a screen and a kid’s hand taps the screen. The caption reads:
Jim Hausman's son plays a game resembling poker on a Chromebook.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/06/2026

Apparently I activated the Stargate setting in @zotero.org ? I have no idea what is going on here...

A screenshot of the main window in Zotero--the citation manager. All of the text is complete nonsense.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 21/06/2026

The one thing I’ll give LA over NYC is the many random little hikes in the mountains and canyons all over the city. Had a short time between hotel checkout and flight and figured, why not do a quick stroll through the mountains in Burbank.

Me shrugging wearing sunglasses and a black shirt. Brown shrub grass is in the foreground and a canyon through short green mountains is in the background.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 19/06/2026

Great week at #icls2026. High density of interesting and challenging talks, opportunities to catch up with old and new friends, and, because why not, an improvised soundscape with @awasteofredmeat.bsky.social and friends

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 16/06/2026

Beautiful view from my Irvine, CA hotel room.

A huge and empty parking lot that looks super depressing. There are a few half grown trees. A boring office building borders one side of the lot. The sky is fine.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 11/06/2026

Um we had celebrating to do last night Apple Watch get off my back

A notification that says “Very Low Sleep Score. Last night was a bad night's sleep. That's ok. If you can, try to get to bed on time
tonight.”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 11/06/2026

Plenty of villainy to go around

Two buttons meme. One reads “blaming James Dolan” and the other “blaiming the NYPD”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 10/06/2026

I may be a fungi, but I’m no mushroom. (More where that came from on this episode of Pop & Play share.transistor.fm/s/5b02845d)

Oyster mushrooms growing out of the side of a whiteish growing block. The mushrooms sit on the cut side of a stump.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 10/06/2026

This episode on gardening and outdoor play was a ton of fun. John told us radishes are a playful veggie, and he’s right—zoom in and look at these little guys peaking out of the ground!

Three patches of green leaves pop out of soil. Looking closely the top of a red radish is just above the soil line

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 20/05/2026

The future of Olympic Pickleball

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 07/05/2026

I did what I could, but the motherboard was no match for a hazy IPA

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