While writing a formal dreidel model might make you a better theorist, it won't make you a better dreidel spinner. In fact, it might make you worse at spinning dreidels, because it embodies the disastrous "formalism above all" doctrine.

Spinners like to obsess about gimmels and shins and other high-theory stuff, yet the following skills, essential for spinning dreidels, are almost never discussed and even more rarely practiced:

- Deciding how to grip the dreidel

- Proper vertical positioning so it doesn't immediately tumble

- Waiting until the clay is dry and ready, before you play

In that spirit, I offer the following alternative challenge: Create your own dreidel out of clay. Don't bother with formal theory, others have already done that for you. "Just" make a dreidel that can actually spin, even if it only supports a subset of the game at the beginning.