I spend a lot of time appreciating various things humans have produced: playing games, doing puzzles, reading, watching shows, listening to music, learning about past discoveries, etc. Here are some lists of my favorites. Individual lists are very roughly ordered by how much I like them.
If you have recommendations based on these lists, please let me know! Also, hope you find some new gems!
Games
I primarily play puzzle games. I also enjoy many board and card games, most notably deck-building games (check out Engine, a game my friend made) and social deduction games. As per MIT tradition, I occasionally do puzzle hunts, though I’m not that great at them. I play some DDR as well, mainly because it doubles as exercise. I also try to stay away from Super Smash Brothers (Melee and Ultimate) due to its addictive properties.
Writings
Disclaimer: I don’t read much many books/stories these days
Short stories
- Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
- Understand by Ted Chiang
- The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang
- Scott Alexander’s pill story
- The Moral Virologist by Greg Egan
- Learning to Be Me by Greg Egan
- Forward Pass by Andrej Karpathy
- Lena by qnmt
Books
- GEB by Douglas Hofstadter
- Permutation City by Greg Egan
Web serial
- Worm (warning: dark, very long)
- Pokemon: The Origin of Species (not yet finished)
Blogs/posts
- Wait but Why
- Various writing from Paul Christiano. I especially recommend:
- Chris Olah’s personal blog and Distill.pub
- Hyperbole and a Half
- Geometric rationality
Shows
- Game of Thrones (first 5 seasons)
- Watchmen
- Avatar: The Last Airbender (and The Legend of Korra)
- Arcane (especially season 1)
- Death Note
- Breaking Bad