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Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

arstechnica.com

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Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#151

Post by latexr »

jstimpfle wrote: post #146
latexr wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there are on average differences between the sexes in terms of behaviour and interests. And to throw extremely strong accusations like "fascist" for a totally reasonable assumption or observation like that That’s not why they’re calling him fascist, but because of things like being a Trump supporter. You’re conflating arguments.

I quote: > Blow is a full-bore fascist sympathizer who also doesn't seem to think that women have any role to play in his profession. The latter part being argued with a post where he merely opines that the sexes have different interests.

“who also” means “in addition to”, it doesn’t mean the points follow from each other.

The quote does not support your point.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#152

Post by jstimpfle »

latexr wrote: post #151
jstimpfle wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quote: > Blow is a full-bore fascist sympathizer who also doesn't seem to think that women have any role to play in his profession. The latter part being argued with a post where he merely opines that the sexes have different interests.

“who also” means “in addition to”, it doesn’t mean the points follow from each other. The quote does not support your point.

Don't be silly, it's brought up as a support clause that is also lacking any factual evidence.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#153

Post by magicalist »

uragur27754 wrote: post #133
jabbywocker wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t follow him much but do you got any links discussing Blow being sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic?

This provides a good summary of the drama that he cultivates: https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/s/aB0aOJ5cas

Clicking on a random link:

> It doesn't help that all males currently under the age of 40 were raised to be supercucks

https://x.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1854708962462982465

Dear lord, yeah, this is why I completely tuned him out years ago. Somewhat ironically it's the Blow fans in this thread that are cherry picking his comments. He's way too online so says things like this all the time, and it's the fans that are in here demanding a smoking gun comment that somehow proves he's awful rather than telling him "sometimes it's ok to stfu" to comments like this that enable and echo chamber him.

And I say this as a fan of Braid and The Witness (at least of the first couple of layers of puzzles...as you go deeper, just like with Braid, you find more and more self-indulgent windbaggery that should have been on the cutting room floor).

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#154

Post by mariusor »

jstimpfle wrote: post #150
mariusor wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to summarise what I understand from the two ideologies. Would you share in what way that's biased?

It's _obviously_ reductionist and biased, not losing any more words on that.

I'm trying to offer a good faith argumentation. Why aren't you giving me the same courtesy?

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#155

Post by _aavaa_ »

mariusor wrote: post #148
__alexs wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old tweet screenshots are the best I can do: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRT4vNEUIAEJgP3.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRT4vNAVAAAT8JP.jpg

Can you share why these statements are controversial? They might be misguided or misinformed, but the underlying fact is that women are not as well represented in stem. Just because the reason it's more likely to be misogyny rather than any biological inclination, doesn't make it an outrageous statement in my opinion.

Because as a statement is functions to excuse the representation in the field.

It completely neglects the actual history of the field of computing, even just the 20th century, where the field was filled with women.

It’s only once it became a prestigious field that women suddenly developed a “biological” inclination against it.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#156

Post by __alexs »

mariusor wrote: post #148
__alexs wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old tweet screenshots are the best I can do: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRT4vNEUIAEJgP3.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRT4vNAVAAAT8JP.jpg

Can you share why these statements are controversial? They might be misguided or misinformed, but the underlying fact is that women are not as well represented in stem. Just because the reason it's more likely to be misogyny rather than any biological inclination, doesn't make it an outrageous statement in my opinion.

The difference in participation within STEM between men and women is not well explained by biological differences. Blow has repeatedly claimed that it is actually the primary factor and seems actively disinterested in other explanations.

This is "controversial" in that it's a position that is not well supported by evidence and he has repeatedly used his platform in the past to make unsupported claims to the contrary.

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#157

Post by jan_Inkepa »

ImprobableTruth wrote: post #27
sxzygz wrote: post #2

In case you assume novelty, a comment [1] from ArsTechnica reader Jensen404 explains otherwise by linking to [2] a post on Bluesky. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/12/jonathan-blow-has-spe... [2] https://bsky.app/profile/draknek.bsky.social/post/3m7qybidq7...

> These games are the starting point, but the bulk of the game is new puzzles combining mechanics from different games together Seems like the puzzles are novel, but the mechanics are not?

interactions between the various mechanics in the games likely yield countless surprises, and let you build something considerably more elaborate than thesum of its parts..

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#158

Post by mariusor »

__alexs wrote: post #156
mariusor wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share why these statements are controversial? They might be misguided or misinformed, but the underlying fact is that women are not as well represented in stem. Just because the reason it's more likely to be misogyny rather than any biological inclination, doesn't make it an outrageous statement in my opinion.

The difference in participation within STEM between men and women is not well explained by biological differences. Blow has repeatedly claimed that it is actually the primary factor and seems actively disinterested in other explanations. This is "controversial" in that it's a position that is not well supported by evidence and he has repeatedly used his platform in the past to make unsupported claims to the contrary.

OK, he's wrong. But is that enough to state that he "doesn't seem to think that women have any role to play in his profession"?

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#159

Post by [deleted] »

simonask wrote: post #102
torginus wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political? The most political I've seen him get was when he spoke out against the idea of accepting technical compromises for the sake of not hurting people's feelings and being PC. As in, you get to be cranky as long as you're arguing for the highest quality solution

I just wonder how readily people would defend this viewpoint if they belonged to any of those groups whose "feelings" are typically being "hurt". I don't know about you, but there does not exist any amount of technical achievement that will make me brush off sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or anything else. If you are going to be disrespectful to me or people I care about, we cannot work together, period. By…

[deleted]

Re: Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles

#160

Post by magicalist »

incrudible wrote: post #140
latexr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these are not fringe opinions Neither was slavery. Was that OK too? And to clarify (though it’s worrying this point needs to be made), I mean morally. > throwing around certain bad words like fascist Fascism has a very clear definition. It describes a particular set of behaviours and actions, all of which you can compare to reality and determine if it’s happening or not. It’s an objective word. If anyone is trying…

> Neither was slavery. Was that OK too? And to clarify (though it’s worrying this point needs to be made), I mean morally. From the perspective of a pre-abolitionist society, it evidently was, but that's not a political issue you're gonna have to deal with in 2025. Consider yourself lucky. > Fascism has a very clear definition. First of all, that isn't true. Secondly, even if it was true, it wouldn't matter. You are…

> From the perspective of a pre-abolitionist society, it evidently was, but that's not a political issue you're gonna have to deal with in 2025. Consider yourself lucky.

...do you not also consider yourself lucky about this? Weird phrasing.

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