Interesting websites that teach you something
There is a difference between a site that entertains you and one you are still thinking about the next day. These are the second kind — and none of them is a course, a newsletter or a productivity tool.
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Nicky Casencase.me
Interactive essays where you move the pieces and watch the conclusion emerge. The best argument on the internet for explanation as a medium.
Open it here → - 2
OCEARCH Shark Trackerocearch.org
Tagged sharks, live. You learn more about migration in five minutes here than from an article.
Open it here → - 3
Shepard Toneoptical.toys
An illusion that demonstrates your ear can be fooled by construction alone, no trickery required.
Open it here → - 4
Disappearing Bicyclistoptical.toys
Shows you, directly, how little your peripheral vision actually resolves.
Open it here → - 5
Schroders Stairsoptical.toys
A staircase your brain refuses to hold in one interpretation. Ambiguity you can feel happening.
Open it here → - 6
Mondrian And Memondrianandme.com
Make a Mondrian and discover why the real ones are balanced and yours is not.
Open it here → - 7
29a.ch Apps29a.ch
A collection of small web experiments, several of which are genuinely novel pieces of engineering.
Open it here → - 8
Babadumbabadum.com
Vocabulary in a dozen languages through pictures alone. Effective enough to be slightly annoying.
Open it here →
The illusions are the sleeper picks. They are usually filed under entertainment, but each one is a working demonstration of a specific limitation in human perception, and knowing the mechanism does not switch it off.
Questions
What is the most interesting website on the internet?
For sheer density of ideas, Nicky Case’s explorable explanations — interactive essays you play rather than read, on subjects from segregation to trust. They take ten minutes and change how you think about the subject.
Every site above was loaded in a real browser and verified working before this was published. See the full catalogue.