Michael's Monthly Recommendations (November 2018)
30 Nov 2018
Feburary 2018 - March 2018 - April 2018 - May 2018 - June 2018 - July 2018 - August 2018 - September 2018 - November 2018 - December 2018 - Yearly Recommendations 2018 - January 2019 - February 2019 - March 2019 - April 2019 - December 2019
I read, watch, listen to, play, and use a ton of different things every month, and I pick out a few of my favorites to recommend.
Dead Cells
(Windows/Mac/Linux/Switch/PS4/Xbone)
Motion Twin
A “RogueVania”, where the game is different each time you play it, but you also earn abilities and items that are available on future runs.
Solid action platforming with tough-but-fair combat.
Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng
Enjoyable novel about a group of suburban families and the drama in their idyllic town.
It shines an interesting spotlight on socio-economic class relations within suburbia, which isn’t a thing I normally see receive much focus.
The Purpose of Water
(Play for free in your browser)
Stephen Lavelle
Dark and mysterious puzzle game that’s worth 20 minutes of your time.
Toward Practical Telepathy
Seminars About Long-term Thinking
Super interesting talk about some technology in development that provides MRI-like imaging, but cheap and portable.
The talk explores some of the ramifications this technology could have on human-computer interaction, since cheap, real-time brain imaging would allow for near telepathic interaction with computers.
Factfulness
Hans Rosling
I basically rescind my recommendation of Enlightenment Now from March in favor of this book.
It has a very similar theme (“Humanity has progressed a ton in the last 50 years! Especially outside of the richest countries.”), but with half as many words, much less condescension, and a stronger focus on how the advances affect the daily lives of average people (e.g. living conditions, education, health care).
Hybrid Chess
Michael Fairley
I made a small game for the GitHub Game Off.
It’s chess, but you can “attack” your own pieces to merge them.
Icons by Icon Solid, Maxim Kulikov, and Goodfather.