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alexleviton.bsky.social
Ikigai: Creativity, perception, humor. Facilitator of creative thinking for STEM and policy orgs. Author (Explore Every Day, Lonely Planet, etc). Journalist. ASL. Former Ed Dir. Art therapy board member.
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Hi, my neuroscience peeps. Looking over a past blog post, did I get the Salience Network even remotely right? I wanna talk about it at a workshop without embarrassing myself more than necessary. @tsfnc.bsky.social www.thethirdlayer.com/blog?offset=...

You know how they say to look for the helpers? I’ve known and worked with Ann Teplick for almost ten years. She is kindness personified, and what is good and right in this world. That there is a feature story on her in Seattle Met is everything right now. ❤️‍🩹💗

Welp, this is one way to make a statement. 😳 As a writer, I now love designing a board game *specifically* because it transforms ‘readers’ into interactive co-creators of the story. I see where they’re going; I hope it works. So far, outrage has only seemed to set us backwards.

Muppy joined us for our first official night of playtesting @lincolnhatesbeets.bsky.social The wonky scoring system needs to change, but 🥰❤️‍🔥🎲 #boardgames

I was so inspired by @quantamagazine.bsky.social's article on 'concept cells,' I wrote a blog post about my concept of their concept of concept cells. www.thethirdlayer.com/blog/the-con...

Developing a board game with the placeholder name Lincoln Hates Beets. Asked ChatGPT to mock up a cover. And. Um. I mean … Do I kinda have to keep the name now?

Dooood. Neuroscience rocks. 🤯 I’ve spent years — decades! — trying to crack the code on activating creativity. What’s worked best, by far? Yup. ‘Concept cells’. 👀🦻🏻👃🏽👅✋🏾🫀It’s like creative thinking’s secret handshake. This article talks mostly about sight, but all six (!) senses work best.

Storytelling predates housing and agriculture. Board games are older than the use of the wheel for transportation. Art is older than language, and was our first form of expression. There might be hope for us yet.

Creators or lovers of #boardgames? Any suggestions before I start prototyping? Handmade version (pretty rough) or go straight to prototype partner? #gamesky

A positive outcome from all of this: the Climate and Nature bill has never been so visible and so talked about. What it wants to bring, and why, has become known to many more people

A food futurist and conservation biologist make the case for @rozsavagemp.bsky.social’s Nature and Climate bill passing tomorrow. 🤞🤞🤞

“…she [100yo Holocaust survivor] insisted that abating the unconscionable cannot be done purely on the level of politics — it must begin, she said, deeper and earlier: by laying the moral foundation of the young.” Politics play out at a level 7, but the why starts at a level 2 or 3.

I was in a house fire in 2012. And: Enact an escape before you have to. Physically! Set your timer for 1 hr, 5min, then 10sec. What can you grab? Do? Save? Our street had a gas leak 6mo prior, and an accidental walkthrough created muscle memories. My brain didn't escape my bedroom, my body did.

This, but for all of creativity. 💓 'My interest in prayer is where it comes from, not where it’s going' ... Poetry [for Ó Tuama] is the language the heart speaks not when it reaches for some externalized divinity but when it seeks to understand itself. www.newyorker.com/news/on-reli...

Journalism + research + context = @theconversation.com. Each article is a forward-thinking deep-dive into nuanced layers of an issue: history, background, context, research. If you wanna boycott sensationalism, here’s a great org to support. (Plus, no paywall.)

Effective teaching is the key to unlocking the potential of future scientists and engineers. Yet, most STEM professors are hired with little to no pedagogical training. Students deserve better. #opinion

“One of the best ways to resist [authoritarians] is to actively cultivate empathy.” — George Lakoff

Are you a creativity researcher just starting in Bluesky? Check out the @tsfnc SfNC Starter Pack! go.bsky.app/S5Ce66c

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” — Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God Ho, was 2024 ever an ask-y year.

Okay. Newsletter. After one of *those* years, I’m restarting all the things. What would you want to read in a newsletter from someone who teaches improving your creative process? Creativity research? Exercises to build creative complexity skills? Knitting patterns? Bad stick figure drawings?

Holiday high tea with my writers group. 💗🫖🥰 Finding your creative tribes is everything.