You can explore the Best of AI Dreams page to find introductory posts for each category on the website, along with some of the most popular posts from each category. Also, have a look at Book Recommendations: The Non-Fiction Edition for a list of books that I recommend.

Game Development & Design

• Procedural Generation: A method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, often used in games to generate complex environments, levels, or scenarios dynamically.
• Emergent Gameplay: When complex behaviours or strategies arise from simple game mechanics, often surprising even the designers.
• Ludonarrative Dissonance: A conflict between a video game’s narrative and its gameplay mechanics.
• Metagame: Strategies or techniques that go beyond the basic rules of the game, often involving community knowledge or "game-breaking" tactics.
• Crunch Time: The intense period of extended work hours near a project's deadline, often criticised in the industry for its negative impact on mental health.
• Game Jam: An event where developers come together to create games within a short time frame, typically 24-72 hours.
• Sandbox Game: A type of game where players have the freedom to explore, create, and interact with the game world without predefined goals or restrictions.

Economics & Game Theory

• Pareto Efficiency: A situation where no individual can be made better off without making someone else worse off, often discussed in economics and game theory.
• Nash Equilibrium: A concept in game theory where no player can benefit by changing their strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged.
• Prisoner’s Dilemma: A standard example of a game that shows why two completely rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so.
• Externalities: A side effect or consequence of an activity that affects other parties without being reflected in the costs of the goods or services involved.
• Public Goods: Products that are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, meaning they can be consumed by many people without being depleted.
• Opportunity Cost: The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one option is chosen.
• Utility: A measure of satisfaction or value derived from the consumption of goods and services.

Philosophy & Personal Development

• Existentialism: A philosophy that emphasises individual existence, freedom, and choice, often exploring the meaning of life.
• Stoicism: A philosophy teaching the development of self-control and fortitude as a means to overcome destructive emotions.
• Neurodiversity: The concept that differences in brain functioning, like autism and ADHD, are normal variations of human diversity and should be respected as such.
• Socratic Method: A form of cooperative argumentative dialogue to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions.
• Hedonic Treadmill: The observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.
• Cognitive Dissonance: The mental discomfort experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or ideas.
• Absurdism: The belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe, often associated with existential philosophy.

Anti-Capitalism & Anti-Consumerism

• Planned Obsolescence: A business strategy in which the obsolescence of a product is planned and built into it from its conception, often criticised in anti-consumerism.
• Late Stage Capitalism: A term used to describe absurdities and injustices in the capitalist system, often highlighted in critiques of wealth inequality and corporate behaviour.
• Neoliberalism: A political-economic philosophy advocating for free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending.
• Brand Loyalty: The tendency of consumers to continue buying the same brand's products over time, often cultivated through marketing strategies that can be criticised as manipulative.
• False Scarcity: The intentional restriction of a product's availability to increase demand and drive up prices, often seen as a manipulative business practice.
• Greenwashing: The practice of making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company practices.
• Conspicuous Consumption: The purchase of goods or services for the specific purpose of displaying wealth and status rather than for their practical value.
• Commodity Fetishism: A Marxist concept where the social relationships involved in production are obscured by the relationships between people and commodities.

Mental Health & Personal Life

• Masking: The practice of concealing one’s true self to conform to social expectations, often discussed in the context of neurodiversity.
• Burnout: A state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress, often associated with overwork and lack of support.
• Executive Dysfunction: Difficulty in managing and regulating thoughts and actions, commonly experienced by people with ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions.
• Imposter Syndrome: The persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud” despite evident success, often experienced by high-achieving individuals.
• Emotional Labor: The process of managing feelings and expressions as part of a job, often unrecognized and uncompensated, leading to stress and exhaustion.
• Hyperfocus: An intense form of concentration on a particular task, often experienced by people with ADHD.
• Anxiety: A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
• Depression: A common mental disorder characterized by persistent sadness, lack of interest, and a variety of emotional and physical problems.

Miscellaneous

• Gamification: The application of game-design elements in non-game contexts, such as education or marketing, to engage and motivate people.
• Cognitive Load: The amount of mental effort being used in the working memory, often discussed in terms of how game mechanics or user interfaces impact the player.
• Survivorship Bias: The logical error of focusing on successful entities while ignoring those that failed, often leading to overly optimistic conclusions about strategies or behaviors.
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): The anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often exacerbated by social media.
• Deus Ex Machina: A plot device where a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence, often seen as a narrative flaw.
• Cyberpunk: A subgenre of science fiction that focuses on a dystopian future with advanced technology and a breakdown of social order.
• Solarpunk: A literary and artistic movement that envisions a future where environmental sustainability and social justice are core values.
• Post-Scarcity: A hypothetical economy in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor, making them freely available to all.