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Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

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Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#81

Post by conistonwater »

edanm wrote: post #46
conistonwater wrote: post #29

Raymond Smullyan's books can teach a fair bit about logic, up to about Godel's theorems and the halting problem (I remember To Mock a Mockingbird fondly), through carefully written sequences of puzzles that lead up to proofs of them. If you try to go through his books encoding the puzzles and their solutions in Coq, then you'll learn quite a lot about Coq and constructive mathematics also.

An interesting idea! I've long wanted to go through more of his books, and I've also long wanted to learn Coq, so that sounds like an interesting combination. Have you found it worthwhile to learn Coq?

I learnt it mostly for the sake of learning something new, I didn't really think at the time whether it would be worthwhile. It's a very specific tool developed by people in very specific fields of CS (type theory, compiler verification, but I could be wrong about this), so I just never felt bad about not having a use for it myself.

Encoding (a subset of) the puzzles as SAT problems for something like z3 would be an alternative to Coq.

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#83

Post by t3h2mas »

JenBarb wrote: post #9

I like Duolingo for language learning: https://www.duolingo.com/ I don't think its enough to actually learn language on its own, so it's best used mixed with a more formal method of language learning. It's fun and addictive enough that I actually keep using it, so that makes it good to me.

A radio ad for the second season of the Duolingo podcast prompted me to check out the first season.

I appreciate the idea that the episodes are life stories instead of fake cafe scenes. The stories are interesting, and sometimes intense. The CEO / cofounder talks about a kidnapping in his family in the last episode of season one.

The small english summaries every few sentences helps provide context. That helps with context for the words I'm not familiar or strong with.

The language used is intermediate level. Personally I am below that level, but have gotten value from episodes.

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#84

Post by ddurdik »

Two of my favorites:

1. Monopoly, with no "house rules" - play it exactly as written in the game manual. Monopoly was created as a teaching tool about the outcomes of unregulated capitalism, and it is a very, very good teacher. At some point, one or two players will accrue enough wealth to become the clear winners, and all the other players will start a slow spiral into poverty. Over the years people have added "house rules" in an attempt to make the game more friendly and fun, which is completely missing the point. It's not intended to be friendly or fun, it's intended to educate!

2. The Parable of the Polygons: https://ncase.me/polygons/. Arguably not much of a game or a puzzle, but its use of interactive game-ish mechanics makes the story much more impactful.

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#85

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

10-6 wrote: post #39

Coding/Math: https://coderbyte.com https://hackerrank.com https://leetcode.com https://codeforces.com https://projecteuler.net (more mathy) https://www.topcoder.com/challenges https://adventofcode.com https://halite.io (machine learning + game) https://www.enki.com (coding challenges on mobile)

halite.io reminds me of screeps on steam

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#86

Post by Raph_Koster »

a-martyn wrote: post #66

Steve Reich’s Clapping Music aims to teach people how to perform a piece of contemporary music from the ground up: http://clappingmusicapp.com/ [full disclosure] I developed this. We collaborated with London Sinfonietta Orchestra to get the pedagogy right. We aimed to make a game that is both engaging and addictive, whilst also teaching real musical skill (in contrast to say Guitar Hero :o). The pedagogy and game mec…

I'm tickled that my book was helpful!

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#87

Post by JunaidBhai »

We at http://draftss.com has part of a process where we test designers through a game in which we provide a finished design. Then we change the brief's key element, Eg. premium, fun, serious, friendly, affordable, complex. This game helps us in learning and teaching the principles of visual design. It's currently used internally, but we are planning to launch it for public and making the whole thing open source.

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#88

Post by cwkoss »

pininja wrote: post #59

Factorio is a fantastic game for learning systems engineering, and thinking in abstractions. It’s a crafting game similar to Minecraft, and a building game like roller coaster tycoon (but factories instead of theme parks). It’s also very very fun! This game challenges the player to create more and more complex automated systems. If you liked Technic Mods for Minecraft, you’ll love Factorio. https://factorio.com/

Don't try this game on an evening before you need to wake up early.

Wonderful game, extremely engrossing: everything you do is a choice between long-term utility and time until implementation - Do you make something that will do what you need for the next five minutes in 1 min of building or something that will do what you what you need for days with a 20 mins of building?

Everything is a good choice, but some choices speed up your growth faster than others. I've had many nights where I've gotten sucked in and played for hours before realizing how late it is. Games with exponential growth curves that are able to still achieve balance create such an exhilarating feeling of progress.

Re: Ask HN: Any good examples of learning through games/puzzles, for adults?

#90

Post by pbhjpbhj »

durpleDrank wrote: post #52

When I would meet non English speakers they always told me they learned English by playing FINAL FANTASY on super nintendo. One day, after several attempts at learning another language it dawned on me "Why don't I play Final Fantasy in -INSERT LANGUAGE YOU WANT TO LEARN HERE". It works like a charm and you'll find the "translation barrier" will be removed very quickly.

I play too much CSGO and was hoping to leverage that to find a group of French players, but I've not really managed yet, still only learning to swear in Russian ... another suggestion is to watch a favourite program on Netflix in your target language. Most adult stuff is too fast/complex for me as yet though, so I'm looking for a kids show (Hello Duggy in French would be super).
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