{"id":46963,"date":"2026-09-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46963"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:55:12","slug":"thinking-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/thinking-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pattern recognition competition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Set<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A simple game in a class by itself. You get a deck of cards with colored symbols. These are laid out, face up. To play the game you need to organize the symbols into sets of three \u201cun-alikes\u201d \u2014 but they can be grouped in more ways than one. Many more ways. Everyone else is trying to group them into sets faster than you. This game exercises a unique part of your brain that few other activities do. Half math, half intuition, all concentration. It\u2019s fun, loud, fast-moving, and very challenging to do well, yet easy enough for small kids to join in meaningfully (that is, do better than you). After several years of playing the game, here is what I\u2019ve observed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) It can\u2019t be explained; it has to be shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Some folks are more gifted than others at finding patterns fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) But *everyone* improves, often within the span of a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear that many schools use this game to teach sets and logic in math class, and that\u2019s great. We use it as a raucous parlor game. Like the game Go, Set possesses the kind of simplicity which keeps expanding, never growing old. And as far as games go these days, it\u2019s cheap.\u2014 KK<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Twenty-dollar AI<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

20Q<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tennis ball-size orb knows what you are thinking. Most of the time it will guess what you have in mind after asking you twenty yes\/no questions. It is eerily smart, and slightly addictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The toy is remarkable. Because it is so small, so autonomous, its intelligence is shocking to the unprepared. Most children can\u2019t stump it, and if you stick to objects it will stump smart adults about 80% of the time with 20 questions and most of the time with an additional 5 questions. I love to watch people\u2019s reactions when they think of a \u201chard\u201d thing, and after a seemingly irrational set of questions you are convinced are dumb, the sly ball tells you what you had in mind. (For instance, it can correctly guess \u201cflying squirrel\u201dwithout asking \u201cdoes it fly?\u201d) People who play chess machines won\u2019t be surprised, but just about everyone else is tickled. It feels like the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But right now, for ten bucks, you can get an amazing little artificial intelligence, about as smart as an insect \u2014 but an insect which specializes in guessing what object you are thinking of. And in that part of the brain, it\u2019s smarter than you are. \u2014 KK<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Funnest parlor game<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Werewolf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No recent game has given me as much pleasure as the parlor game known as Werewolf.* Whenever my extended family gathers for holidays, we play Werewolf over and over. I\u2019ve played the game on company retreats, at tech gatherings, on group vacations. At Foo Camp, a rendevouz for nerds, epic sessions of Werewolf will run all night long till dawn. It is that addictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Werewolf can be played with as few as 6-8 folks and as many as 30 or more. A game can last 30 minutes to an hour, and even very young kids can play. It\u2019s a game of bluff and deduction. Think of poker, but without any cards or money. Some fans call it a \u201cmind game.\u201d In brief, the game assigns roles to players at random and in secret. One emergent group \u2014 the werewolves \u2014 must kill the innocent villagers, but no one knows who is who because the deed is done \u201cat night\u201d in a secret way. On each round of the game, the innocents will lynch a supposed werewolf as voted by the group after accusations and debate but they are never sure they have the right person. Maybe it\u2019s the werewolfs leading the pitchforks!? Both the best and worst of human behavior is activated: lying, leadership, mob psychology, democracy, persuasion, deception, deduction logic, and imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the intense social dynamics, the game is eternally surprising and addictive. Werewolf is the only non-sport game I know of that is as much fun to watch as to play. Players who die early in the game will always stick around till the end, watching in fascination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Charades, you don\u2019t need any equipment, other than some index cards, or a deck of playing cards to distribute in order to assign roles in secret. But over years of playing we\u2019ve found this dedicated deck of cards by Ted Alspach makes it much easier to introduce newbies, and to remember roles. The deck contains 40 or so cards printed with Werewolf roles and instructions. It also contains about 25 additional roles that can be added to the typical 5 main roles, which is why Alspach calls it Ultimate. As you play more often or the groups get bigger, you can keep the game exciting by experimenting with these additional roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pretty good free rule set for Werewolf can be found online here. Grab a regular deck of cards, assign different picture cards to roles, and you are off. If you want a bit more help this Ultimate Werewolf deck includes a fantastic sheet of very clear rules and instructions (the best I\u2019ve seen), with great tips on how to be a good moderator. And the rules stay handy with the ready-made cards. We\u2019ve found that having the roles explained on each card is really helpful for new players. \u2014 KK<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Game of semantic predictions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Apples to Apples<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been playing this word-based card game for the last three years and it continues to be an enlightening ice breaker. There are two types of cards: nouns (red) and adjectives (green). Each player is given a small stack of nouns. The game begins when one player (the judge) draws an adjective. Each player then anonymously lays down one noun he\/she believes the judge will associate with the adjective. Players can try to sway the decision, but ultimately, the judge\u2019s power is absolute. Some people are inherently literal, sarcastic, wishy-washy, optimistic, stubborn or dryly humorous. The challenge lies in figuring out what type(s) of judges surround you and what kind of judge you want to be. Discovering who\u2019s on the same wave length is always interesting. What\u2019s more \u201cmagical\u201d \u2014 a sunset, Thomas Edison, the Pyramids, surfing the net, or Barney the dinosaur? Subjectivity rules! \u2014 Steven Leckart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Evergreen strategy video game<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

StarCraft II<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s best to think of StarCraft as more of a sport than a game. It\u2019s played professionally, with televised matches, in Korea. The goal in StarCraft is to build a base, in order to create an army, which you then send over to destroy the opponent\u2019s base. Your opponent, of course, is trying to do the same thing to you — like chess. Besides athletic reflexes you also need lots of experience to know which strategies to use immediately. For newbies the nice thing is that as you get better, the server dutifully serves up better opponents. StarCraft is probably the most popular game in the \u201creal time strategy\u201d (RTS) genre; it is far more strategic than just a shoot-em up game but it is much faster than any strategy board game. A typical game duration is like chess — most games probably last 30 to 45 minutes, with outliers that last more than an hour. It is so well-designed, and fast-paced that it is possibly the first real \u201cdigital sport.\u201d It\u2019s one of the few games I can imagine someone still playing in 5 years. Runs on Windows or Mac; requires internet connection. \u2014 Mark Hurst<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once a week we\u2019ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because\u00a0the possibilities they inspire are new.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 209<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2387],"tags":[2388],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46971,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46963\/revisions\/46971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}