~ educational-ish software toys often don't reflect doing the thing in a real context

There’s a lot of work on tools for thought that takes the form of toys, or “educational” environments. Tools for writing that aren’t used by actual writers. Tools for mathematics that aren’t used by actual mathematicians. And so on. Even though the creators of such tools have good intentions, it’s difficult not to be suspicious of this pattern.

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good tools for thought arise mostly as a byproduct of doing original work on serious problems.

❐ How can we develop transformative tools for thought﹖