Each of these short quips contain bookfulls of wisdom. — KK

• The world is a museum of other people’s passion projects. — John Collison

• If you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people. ― Daniel Gilbert

• I oscillate between thinking I am crazy, and thinking I am not crazy enough. — Joyce Carol Oates

• The cause of death is birth. — David Hockney

• When dreaming, imagine success. When preparing, imagine failure. — James Clear

• Today is the worst AI will ever be. — Alex Irpan

• We are never definitely right; we can only be sure we are definitely wrong. — Richard Feynman

• The things you do badly are as much part of your style as the things you do well. — Martin Scorsese

• Self employment is a never-ending contest between the world’s worst manager and the world’s laziest employee. — Daniel Akst

• If you want new ideas, read old books. — Shane Parrish

• I’m thinking of Leonard Nimoy’s spiritual journey from writing I Am Not Spock (1975) to writing I Am Spock (1995). This is a journey we all must make. — Tim Kreider

• This present moment was once the unimaginable future — Stewart Brand

This web tool will help you stretch your time off by identifying all the government holidays in your country and highlighting the best weeks in the year to schedule your vacation. — CD

This short wordless video features a dozen or so kitchen tips, all new to me. Most of them are practical. I've already tried the lettuce-chopping technique and I'm not going back to the way I used to do it. — MF

The Dash Rapid Egg Cooker ($19) is incredibly easy to use and allows me to make anywhere from 1 to 6 hard-boiled eggs at a time. I often crave hard-boiled eggs in the moment, when I don’t have the time to boil them on the stove and then let them sit, so I appreciate how fast and convenient it is. Plus, it's lightweight and compact, making it easy to store in my cupboard alongside other kitchen tools without taking up too much space. — CD

The strangest book I own is the Secret Museum of Mankind. It is a thick book of a thousand grainy black and white photos of tribal people taken over a hundred years ago. The fuzzy photos show costumes and dress, strange tattoos and scarifications, topless women, bizarre religious rituals, cruel punishments, and esoteric practices of cults. The book has no author, no credits, no copyrights, no page numbers, and has the appearance of being reproduced many times without permission. There’s no text in the book except for short unreliable captions that are dated and full of prejudices of that time. I keep coming back to the photos which capture worlds long gone. Despite its titillating gaze, you can see the texture of everyday life for most people with unvarnished realism in a world before electricity, coal, and manufacturing—all revealed with a directness I have not seen published elsewhere. The book is most useful to anyone interested in clothes and fashion as every bit of clothing here was handmade and custom. While used copies are not hard to find, a good digital version has been scanned by Ian Macky, with added index and image grid, and is free here. — KK

A friend shared this guide of bite-sized tips that blend Japanese cultural wisdom and practical life hacks. Examples:

• Always follow the rules: Japan loves rules. Suffocating? Yes, but it makes the machine run smoothly. “People love to follow rules here,” Tokyo-based producer Kaori Oyama says. “It can be tiring, but at the same time it means that generally you know what to expect.”

• Enjoy the silence: Tokyo might be home to nearly 14 million people, but apart from the jingles you’ll hear at the train stations and in the convenience stores, it can be surprisingly quiet. “Very few people speak on the trains,” says Mr Paul McInnes, senior editor of Tokyo Weekender magazine, who has lived in the city since 2000. “It’s a wonderful way to have some quiet space and think about your day.”

— MF

I sent this UGG oversize sherpa scarf to a friend in the Rocky Mountains, and their enthusiastic response convinced me it was the perfect gift. The dimensions (77" L x 11" W - think wearable blanket) proved ideal for high-altitude living, where temperatures swing dramatically throughout the day. What makes it special besides the size is the material—it's exceptionally plush and warm without being heavy or bulky. — MF

The series Shogun streaming on Hulu/Disney+ deserves the many awards it won for great entertainment. It’s one version of a Japanese “game of thrones” What really captivated me was the impeccable historical realism and sense of immersion into ancient Edo period Japan. For instance, the show climaxes with poetry competitions. It is loosely based on historical people and events. The cast is Japanese speaking Japanese with English subtitles. The first season has 10 episodes with two more seasons in development. Well done! — KK

I Don't Have Spotify is a simple tool that quickly converts song links from Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Deezer, or SoundCloud to another preferred streaming service. This is particularly useful for sharing music with friends who have strong preferences against certain platforms. — CD

One of the best American storytellers of all time was the radio host Jean Shepherd who appeared on a New York City AM station (WOR) for 3 decades, during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Every weekday night he did a humorist monologue of stories from his boyhood in a steel-mill town, rants about city life, and tall tales about everyday life – and nothing was pre-scripted! A tireless raconteur, Shep wrote the classic movie Christmas Story, about a kid getting a BB gun for Christmas. Many of his shows were taped over the static airways by listeners, and about 500 are now available online at The Jean Shepherd Show archive. Jerry Seinfeld claims he learned how to do his comedy about little things listening to Jean Shepherd stories. — KK

River Runner is a website that lets you track a virtual raindrop's journey from any point on Earth to its final destination in the ocean. The 3D visualization is fluid, showing your water droplet flowing through rivers and streams, based on real geographic data. I spent too much time dropping rain on mountaintops and watching it wind through valleys all the way to the ocean. It's especially spectacular when starting from places like Yellowstone National Park, where you can watch the dramatic elevation changes unfold. It’s a perfect companion to John McPhee’s Basin and Range. — MF

This collection of advice is compiled as the most powerful life hacks, and while I’ve heard a lot of it before, reading it all together is particularly impactful. It serves as a great reminder of the building blocks that make a life well lived. Here are my top five favorites from the longer list:

• If you’re about to take an emotion-induced action, wait 24 hours. Many relationships have been broken by actions taken in the heat of the moment. Don't fall into the trap.

• Never avoid hard conversations. When you avoid a hard conversation, you're taking on a debt that has to be repaid with interest at a date in the future…

• Make a rule to never think twice about investments in yourself. Books, quality food, fitness, and personal development all fit into this bucket. These investments pay dividends for a long time. Think about material purchases instead—wait 24 hours to complete an order to see if you still want it.

• When someone is going through hell, just saying “I’m with you” is the most powerful thing you can do. Advice, perspectives, or offers to help are minimally impactful. The notion that someone is with you is 10x more powerful. Be the “darkest hour friend” to those you love.

• John D. Rockefeller would take regular breaks from his notoriously demanding schedule to mill about in his garden—it was his personal escape. Find your "garden" and go there often. Practice stillness, flex the solitude muscle. Be bored for at least 15 minutes per day. It’s an unlock for creativity and mindfulness.

— CD

This article on "The Art of Calling Out Room Dynamics" is geared toward high-stakes professional environments, but I find it incredibly useful advice for defusing tension and realigning unproductive group meetings of any kind. The article outlines practical tips, as well as the psychology behind naming what is in the room. Pattern interruption helps to break negative loops, and focusing on the collective experience helps to create psychological safety and make space for honest dialogue. This is a conversational superpower that anyone can develop. — CD

It’s not easy to prop a phone up at the right angle. For video calls using the phone, or for photography I sometimes want a steady position sans arms. I use this itsy-bitsy holder from Peak Design that folds up to the size of a credit card, but thicker. Parts of the card fold out to form a tripod and the remaining is a magnetic plate which holds the phone (check to be sure your phone back does magnets). I can then stand my phone on a desk for a video call or place it outside like a small camera tripod for video or timelapse. The design is ingenious. It slips into my daypack when travelling. — KK

After one too many purses sliding off restaurant chairs onto grimy floors or taking up table space, my wife started carrying this clever folding hook in her purse. It magnetically collapses to the size of a silver dollar but unfolds to securely hang bags from any table edge. — MF

I was tired of visiting multiple museum collections one-by-one for usable images, so I built this simple web tool that creates direct search links to 11 major institutional collections on a single page. Enter a search term like "sailing ships" and get one-click access to results from places like the Smithsonian, Met Museum, Library of Congress and more. Free. — MF

Sacred Source is a treasure trove of sacred images, traditional deities, and spiritual statues. It is my go-to source for buying hand-crafted devotional artifacts for my altar. They have such a diverse range of statues, honoring both ancient cultures and modern spirituality. As a small company dedicated to supporting artisan families, every purchase feels like a meaningful choice. — CD

This is super cool: Wikenigma, an encyclopedia of known unknowns. What we know we don't know. A startlingly long list of unanswered questions, uncertainties, and blank areas in our collective knowledge. Frontiers. Good places to work. — KK

A cool way to make some unusual art is to render an image in Lego. I used a kit from BrickMe that turned a photo of my wife into 5,625 pixels, and then they supplied me with Lego tiles in 50 different colors. Using the map they also supply, I “painted” the image by applying the tiles in the manner of paint-by-numbers. I glued the final assembly onto plywood to hang in my studio. The procedure is well-designed, fun, with plenty of extra tiles. Mine was the small size at 24 x 24 inches (57 x 57 cm) for $126; they can go much bigger. – KK

One of my New Year's resolutions is to create more distance between myself and my phone. This list offers some effective tricks to make your phone less interesting, as well as tips to avoid "brain rot." According to the Oxford Dictionary, brain rot refers to the "supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging." For me, simply disabling badge and sound notifications was enough to make my phone less engaging. I also encouraged my closest friends and family to call me more often and text less. — CD