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| date | title | subtitle | tags | permalink | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-07-01 | on the nature of magic | presto! got your suspension of disbelief! |
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/blog/26/ |
I used to think magic was about knowing secret stuff. Then I thought magic was about being really good at acting and sleight of hand. Now I think those are both just facets of what really makes a moment feel magical: being more prepared than anyone could reasonably anticipate.
By this "overprepared" metric, "magic" includes stage illusions and street magic, but it also includes things like when you think you've broken the rules of a video game and gotten yourself out of bounds, only to find a sign congratulating you on your cleverness. Or when you throw something at a game master that should send the game off the rails, and yet they have the next map already drawn up for you.
Every "The Dev Team Thought Of Everything" moment is a magic trick, and vice versa.
And I think, in that context, it's possible to enjoy magic even after you know the secret. The best magicians are the ones that make you say "I think I know how that works...
...but it shouldn't."