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we're not kids anymore.
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Today's Document

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@sharksmirk
She got the idea for the study while walking with her advisor at Stanford to discuss her thesis topic, and the paper she eventually published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 2014 is sharp enough that it should have ended the seated meeting on the day it came out.
She ran 4 experiments on 176 people. Same person tested twice. Once sitting, once walking. The creativity tasks were the standard ones psychologists have used for decades to measure how good a brain is at generating novel useful ideas.
81% of participants in the first experiment produced more creative ideas while walking than while sitting. In the second experiment, 88%. In the third, 100%. Every single person walked into a more creative version of themselves. On average, people generated 60% more novel useful ideas the moment their legs started moving.
The skeptical question is the obvious one. Maybe it was the fresh air. Maybe it was the scenery passing by. Maybe it was the change of environment doing the work, not the walking itself.
Oppezzo killed every one of those explanations with one experimental decision. She put people on a treadmill facing a blank wall. No scenery. No fresh air. No environmental change. Just legs moving in place while staring at white drywall. The 60% boost held.
Then she ran the experiment that closed the case completely. She took participants outside in two conditions. Half of them walked through a Stanford courtyard. The other half were pushed through the exact same courtyard in a wheelchair. Same outdoor stimulation. Same scenery passing at the same speed. The only difference was whether the legs were moving.
The walkers produced dramatically more novel high-quality ideas than the wheelchair group. The outdoors did almost nothing on its own. The walking did everything.
She also tested the opposite kind of thinking. Convergent thinking. The kind where there is one right answer and you have to narrow down to it. Word puzzles where 3 words share a hidden fourth word that connects them. The seated participants did slightly better on these. Walkers got slightly worse.
Walking is not a general intelligence enhancer. It does one specific thing. It opens up the divergent search inside your brain. The part that generates options. The part that produces unexpected connections. The part that takes a problem and finds five ways into it instead of one.
When you need to converge on the single right answer, sit down. When you need to find the answer in the first place, get up.
The mechanism is now well understood. Walking selectively activates what neuroscientists call the default mode network, the system inside your brain that runs when you are not consciously focused on anything. The DMN is where mind-wandering happens. Where memories cross-reference each other. Where ideas that have been sitting in separate folders inside your head finally bump into each other.
When you sit at a desk and force yourself to concentrate, you suppress the DMN. When you walk at a natural pace, the executive part of your brain gets just busy enough handling the walking that the DMN comes online and starts doing the work that focus was blocking.
The most useful finding in the entire paper is the one almost nobody quotes. The boost did not turn off the moment people stopped walking. Participants who walked first and then sat back down stayed elevated. Their next round of seated creativity work was still significantly better than people who had been sitting the whole time. The rest lingered for at least several minutes after the legs stopped moving.
You do not need to do creative work while walking. You need to walk before the creative work. The brain holds the state.
Edited down a long tweet. (x)
In my little heart of hearts I always knew this to be true 👍
I don't hate what I've seen about Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, but I don't love it either.
Far from me to ruin some hypes out there, but that mention of Kurtis Trent in the magazine's cover is nothing but an Easter egg. Fortunately, because lore wise it makes zero sense. Kurtis was always a man of low profile, being anonymous is key to his survival. Appearing in a cover magazine would mean his impending death.
The mention of other characters belonging to different timelines strongly reinforces the idea of this being just a detail to catch classic audiences thirsting again for some crumbs.
I don't want crumbs. I want the whole bread. And we're not getting it anytime soon (it doesn't matter when you read this. 2006? 2016? 2026? You name it.)
But overall I have a heavy heart seeing people pre-ordering those brutally expensive collector/special-ish editions before even having seen the thing. As cool as it looks, whatever we saw was just a cinematic trailer. We haven't seen actual gameplay, and people is already buying and preordering like there's no tomorrow.
They're literally preordering a wrapping gift paper and the bow that comes with it (the statue) without having seen what the gift actually contains. Capitalism at its finest.
And don't get me wrong, I respect everyone's personal choices. You do with your money what you want to do. It's just I don't know at which point people started accepting that a merge of three absolutely incompatible timelines would be a great idea.
The price you pay is the erasing of lots of lore belonging to each era, sacrificed in the altar of unification. They already did that to Lara. Now even if not being present, to Kurtis, who would not allow his name being public at any point.
And don't get me started with the erased dubbings and the AI generator disclaimer. I'm too tired now.
As for me, I will stalk and watch from afar the unfolding of events. Shame I lost the passion and hype for this saga 20 years ago. The remasters were a surprise, though.
I respect this response, and I completely understand your viewpoint.
For me, I’ve accepted that new Tomb Raider games are never going to feel or be exactly like the Tomb Raider I grew up with, and I’m choosing to enjoy what we do get. Gaming has changed and evolved, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
I’m not usually one to pre-order things, but I do like what I’ve seen from Legacy of Atlantis so far. Honestly, I really wanted to add that statue to my collection because the art looks cool. TR items are really the only things I collect, so I’m happy to add something new to it.
While the newer games may be an amalgamation of different Tomb Raider generations, I’m still happy that we’re getting Tomb Raider games and content after 30 years. Not many franchises can say they’ve been rebooted, remade, and reimagined multiple times and still have people this passionate about them.
As for the AI side of things, I get why people are concerned. I’m an Art Director and Graphic Designer, so I’m not blind to the issues around AI. But I also see AI as a tool, not an automatic dealbreaker. If something is 100% AI-generated and replacing actual creative work, then yes, I have a problem with that. But if it’s being used to speed up concepting, brainstorming, or tedious production tasks, I don’t personally see that as wrong.
To me, it’s kind of like tracing when you’re learning how to draw. It shouldn’t be the final result, but it can be a tool that helps you understand, improve, or move faster. AI is not going anywhere, and I don’t want to let that alone ruin something I might otherwise enjoy.
I’m going to keep enjoying the TR things that are being shared and try to take this new era for what it is. If something comes out about the game that I really dislike, I would consider canceling my pre-order. But for the time being, I’m going to take it as it comes.
For me, I've accepted the classic games are unlikely to come back anytime soon (if ever). Gaming has changed too much, and it's impossible to expect the money needed to for an AAA game to be spent on something that doesn't have broad appeal. It just is what it is. Most franchises are now just products to be optimized for what the IP holders think will bring maximum profit.
That said, LoA is the first time Lara has looked like something recognizable in a while after the whole Survivor mess. And while I might not be getting a chocolate cake, I can still enjoy a blubbery muffin. Classic lore is still there for those who want it, and after reading Sacred Artifacts I'm interested in seeing what they do with this new unified Lara. There is a book coming out explaining the new timeline so we'll see what that looks like. I mean, this is basically a regular soft reboot playing pick and choose with the previous lore, it's just called "unified" to pander to all fans. Which I can sort of appreciate, since so far every new era ment shitting on the previous ones. I'm guessing a new owner finally knocked some sense into CD.
As for Kurtis, while the magazine is probably just an Easter egg, it does look like a new version of him might appear in Catalyst. Again, OG Kurtis still exists, and people don't have to engage with this new one if they don't want. I have never bought a single Survivor game because I hated the timeline. If franchises are just products now, then I will vote with my wallet.
I will most likely buy LoA as long as it's not a completely unplayable flop, though whether on launch or sale depends on how the game comes out. They've lost too much of my good will for me to cash out for a preorder (except the remasters, of course 😂).
And while I don't like AI, I also know enough people in creative industries to know you can't avoid it in big studios. The fact they don't use it in the end product is already a step above (assuming they're being honest). The only thing that curbs the use of AI is a rise in pricing. But I will not excuse the lack of dubbing, that was a shit decision.
he just wasn't allowed top billing on that magazine
Oh my gooooood AHAHAHHAHAHA 🤣🤣🤣
"At least they got your good side." "Didn't know I have a bad one."
DMC Netflix Season 2
TL;DR: despite the show's flaws and it not being my preferred version of the story/setting, NDMC is saved by the great work it does writing the characters* and some absolutely gorgeous animation.
Now let's dive in, shall we...
MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
So I have a lot of remarks about Netflix's DMC S2 (some good, some mixed), but until I find time to write something more coherent I will say that Vergil's last words to Dante have me like
Life had been busy so I did a little redraw of the London and Nevada challenge mode outfits. The London one now has long jeans to be more like what the Damned wear, and the Nevada one is now a proper flight suit.
No spoilers for now but:
Lara is fun and cheeky again
story is fine/villain is great
the humour is a lil' corny but charming
Lara talks more like an actual British woman
After a weak start with the Netflix show I really hope we get more of THIS unified Lara 🫶
...also what if?? 👀
I'm sorry but we gotta start treating shipping like a cringy secret hobby again, hundreds of people crying online under their full government name because Leon Kennedy has a wedding ring can't be healthy for us as a society.
I know we all love complaining, but to be positive for a sec I'm genuinely enjoying Tomb Raider Sacred Artifacts. It's nothing groundbreaking but if this is the personality Lara will have in the unified timeline I'm on board. I'll give a review once the other 2 issues are out (cuz you never know 😂)
Lara Croft really said "constantly referring to the Croft family legacy of my dead parents is exhausting" and it felt like god and all his angels came down from heaven and kissed me right on the forehead *mwah* 😙
It's still not classic Lara, but at this point I've learned to adjust my expectations. Her being charming and confident instead of a perpetual kicked puppy is a massive improvement 🤭
✌️
When I say "dead parents storylines are meant for children" I'm not even being derogatory, I literally mean "little kids don't have the life experience to understand complex trauma so the worst thing they can think of is mommy and daddy being gone".
Incredibly violent take of mine but I actually don’t think you need to relate to a story in any way to enjoy it. You can enjoy a story even if you can’t point at a character and insert some aspect of your personality or identity into them. In fact I would argue the need for a character like that to be present in every single story you experience is a sign of stunted growth.
Decided to give Legend of Lara Croft s2 a chance and the story kicks off with Lara questioning whether she should return the artifacts her dad found and I'm like ok, that's new to the franchise let's see how they explore it and then... nothing. It's resolved in the first episode and never mentioned again 😐 We got sooo close to giving Lara an interesting arc but no, enjoy seeing how she got her f-ing braid, chumps.
I loved the whole story about the Orisha Masks! Sadly there wasn't much narrative reason for Lara to be in it. The way they touched on slavery was well done at first, but then Sam gets mad at a website calling enslaved people "immigrants" so idk maybe she needs to find better sources than asking Grok.
I think there is nothing that exemplifies the lack of direction this show suffers from than these two ladies who look like they just fell out of Cyberpunk 2077. They're not even bad designs, but how do they mash AT ALL with anything Tomb Raider related?? What are we even doing!? 😩
Anyway, LoLC is not the worst thing out there, but it does feel like everybody kind of gave up midway through and just decided to work on whatever they personally found interesting (which mostly seems to be Yoruba mythology, cyberpunk designs, and tragically bad haircuts). The biggest problem of LoLC is that it just feels tired, like something we need to get over with before the franchise gets a soft reboot. Even without the review bombing this show didn't seem to generate much enthusiasm, so will not be surprised if it gets swept under the carpet...
Apparently Von Croy has a PhD in musicology and I insist his thesis was about Austrian folk music.
Haven't seen anybody upload this here, so here you go:
Trailer for Netflix Devil May Cry season 2